Once in a Lifetime. Gwynne Forster

a lick and a promise, but—”

      “Bennie, you’ve been promising this house a cleaning ever since I’ve been here. Beginning today, I want you to make good on it.”

      “Lord, child, you would talk like this today when my knees ’bout to give way and my back feel like it wanna go out.” She looked toward the ceiling. “Well, if I pass out in here, at least somebody’ll take me to the hospital. Where’s Henry?”

      “It’s ten o’clock. Henry’s over at his cottage this time a day.”

      “I was hoping for some coffee and a little bite to eat.”

      She was doggoned if she’d let Bennie get the better of her. She would come to work two hours late, spend an hour in the kitchen with Henry, work a couple of hours and leave the house more or less as she’d found it.