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Overview
In a captivating voice that wafts around you like a rose's rich fragrance, Patricia ]ones peels back the petals of emotion that blanket a woman's soul and, in this poignant and wise novel, tells a powerful story of love and redemption.
Lila Giles Calloway has come a long way since she stepped out from under her stepmother's controlling thumb. Happily married to cardiac surgeon Jack Calloway and living in her beloved hometown of Baltimore, Lila splits her time among visiting with Jack's elderly patients, directing her own on-line reading program for children, and contemplating the possibility of motherhood. But all this comes to a screeching halt when, one typical Saturday afternoon, Lila is confronted with a situation that challenges the very core of her moral fiber. In a split second, the idyllic life lack and Lila have built together is threatened, and suddenly she must reconcile the truth that there's a bit of evil in all of us with her love for her husband and her faith in her life's purpose.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780061916717 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Publication date: | 05/05/2009 |
| Sold by: | HARPERCOLLINS |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 352 |
| File size: | 14 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Patricia Jones was a native of Baltimore but lived inNew York City with her daughter. Throughout her writing life, her work appeared in Ms., Essence, Family Circle, Woman's Day, and the New York Times. The Color of Family is her third novel.
Read an Excerpt
Chapter One
It was the kind of infernal heat that could addle any mind and cause a gentle soul to turn against its very nature and kill, either physically or metaphorically, but equally as tragic. And it covered all of Baltimore for nearly a week with an unrelenting anger that revealed no end to its passion. One thing for sure, this was no kind of heat for old people, and Lila knew as much as she watched her husband, Jack, move his stethoscope over Mrs. Chalm's back while the wilting old woman inhaled and exhaled, inhaled and exhaled.
And it was this kind of heat that could always get her thinking about what she wanted to think about the least. But heat begets nothing but heat, she supposed, and right now, it was the heat of her mother bearing down on her. Or rather, her stepmother, as she'd more precisely, in her current incarnation, found herself thinking of Eulelie, though to avoid conflict, she continued to call her Momma, as she always had. But, despite Eulelie's wishes to the contrary, Lila could no longer deny the existence of the woman who gave her life. There was only one mother, only one Momma, and she was Gloria Giles. But she is dead. God keep her soul, Lila prayed whenever the thought of her mother crossed her mind. Usually, when Lila thought of her stepmother, it was in patches of memories that would flash, quick as lightning, then leave, as if it had another mind to get to and possess. But now, Eulelie's image, though distracting to her, did not envelop her in its heat. Instead, Jack's smile penetrated her haze and triggered the memory of the first time she realized that she had fallen inlove with him.
Jack's smile was magical for Lila in the way it could sometimes transport her whenever she saw it, and she simply had to let it take her. And now, she watched his smile start with the slide of the right corner of his mouth out and up toward heaven, followed by the left corner, until his lips were framing his teeth into the kind of perfection that could stand alone as art. As he smiled with the pleasure of hearing Mrs. Chalm's healthy heart, and looking, at least to Lila, as manly as a man could be, she realized that she had been indulged with something that came from some centered place inside him. And this time she let his smile lift her right out of Mrs. Chalm's living room, where too much silence melded with the heat into a stew of unintelligible nothingness. She followed it across town, and back to her own home, and her kitchen, where her stepmother's presence, generous and all-consuming, filled every corner, even after the passing of two years.
Lila remembered how she thought, in those moments when she was being as adamant and stubborn as can be, that it would actually be a good idea for her stepmother to stay with them for the week before she would leave Baltimore forever for Florida. Then, Lila remembered the exact moment, after one night and one day, she knew it was the worst thought her mind had ever conjured. Eulelie got on Lila's back, and Lila thought the woman would just go right ahead and ride it out of town.
Still, everything her stepmother said while straddling her back, Lila remembered, was always said in that decidedly wily way of hers that made it difficult for anyone to know, much less speak on behalf of, their umbrage. And to make things all the more ridiculous, it all started when Lila handed Jack a bowl to wash out.
She said it kindly. It wasn't an order, or a demand, or a command at all. Lila handed Jack the bowl with a hand she couldn't spare for too long. "Jack, honey, would you wash this out for the salad, please?"
Her stepmother snapped her head to attention, her intense stare at Lila making the disbelief clear. Then she pressed her lips together in disapproval and said, "Well, I guess you young wives do things differently. In my home, when I needed help in the kitchen, your father and I just hired somebody."
"Momma, I'm certainly not going to hire somebody to wash out a bowl."
"Well, Lila, I'm not suggesting you do that. I'm just saying that in my day, women didn't ask, or even expect, their husbands to help out. I'm just trying to figure out when things changed."
Lila looked at Jack while he washed out the bowl, rinsing it over and over, as if to keep himself as far away as possible from Lila and Eulelie and the torrent of their tension. He was absolutely refusing to meet Lila's eyes. And Lila could see that his bearing was that of a man who did not want to be present. So, knowing that she was alone with Eulelie, Lila said, "A long time ago, Momma. Things changed a long time ago. Catch up."
"Well, maybe that's why the divorce rate is so high." Eulelie took a nibble of cheese into her mouth, chewed it, and then said, with her eyebrows raised in judgment, "I don't know, dear. Maybe you should be careful."
As if she didn't hear Eulelie, Lila said to Jack, "You know what, Jack? I think I'll go down into the wine cellar and see if I can find something that will go with dinner." She tore off a paper towel and dried her hands. Without tarrying or looking back, she walked to the cellar door and said, "Of course I could be a while, since I really don't know as much about wine as you." It was the cue she hoped Jack would take to follow her, although it was obtuse.
But his...
Red on a Rose. Copyright © by Patricia Jones. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.