A Life for a Life - Lynda McDaniel (whitelam books TXT) 📗

it was funny the way she tried not to use swear words round me—like I didn’t hear all that stuff, especially if I were sitting at the store when she’d locked up early and some motorcycle guy rode up for his Pabst and Slim Jims. But I liked it when she changed them, ‘cause I knew she was trying to do right by me. Daddy or Mama acted all high and mighty and got all fussy about me hearing a bad word, but that just made me want to use swear words.

We rode along, me riding shotgun, Jake in the middle, Della driving. I started thinking that I could really help out someday if she’d teach me to drive. Daddy wouldn’t teach me—said I weren’t smart enough. But the way I saw it, if Willie Westfield and Eustace Smith could drive (with a half-empty twelve-pack on the front seat and not a lick of sense between ‘em), I knew I could learn to drive, too. I asked my Cousin Ned to get ahold of one of them driving rule books for me, and I hoped he’d bring it on Sunday when he came for dinner.

Della and I talked mostly about the store and the supplies we needed. I was dying to ask about Lucy and what Brower’d said, but I could tell she was trying to leave that behind, for one day, anyways. I wanted to ask her about Alex, too, but I reckoned that was none of my business. Maybe I didn’t have book smarts, but I knew a thing or two.

After I loaded up the supplies, I wudn’t looking forward to just turning round and heading home, but I knew Della had the store to worry about.

“How about an ice cream, Mister?”

Well, that was the best idea she’d had in a while. We stopped at the drugstore where they’d added an ice cream counter to make a little money offa tourists. Over the years, I’d heard folks talking bad about tourists and newcomers, but if they brought mint chocolate chip ice cream with them, they was fine by me. Della had a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate. Jake got to lick the bottom of both our cones and eat the crunchy bits. We sat out front of the shop and took our time. So much for the thirty-minute trip! 

Seems Della wasn’t dying to get back to the store either, ‘cause as we headed home, she said, “We’re out of honey. Let’s stop at Elbert Totherow’s on the way.” I’d’ve agreed to stopping by Sheriff Brower’s just to stay out. And I liked Elbert’s daughter Annie, who might have been home from school at this hour. She was always pretty nice to me, not stuck up like some of the girls. And he had a little black feist that I figured Jake would like to play with.

We’d just pulled into his driveway when Elbert popped out the door and waved at us. He looked huge standing on his porch, at least three or four inches taller than me. And that porch! It went all the way round his house, and there weren’t one square foot that didn’t have something piled on it.

“Come on in,” Elbert said with a voice that could compete against a bullhorn. “I know it looks like we’re moving, but we’re not. We’re here to stay.”

Della was chuckling when she looked at me and said, “He says that every time.”

As we came up his front steps and walked past stacks of stuff, I noticed a lantern and an old metal canister Daddy’d taken to the dump just that week. I was surprised anything was left in the dump after folks combed through it, regular-like.

Ends up, Annie wudn’t home from school—she’d stayed late for band practice, Elbert said—but Jake played with Muppet, the feist, and Della got a couple of cases of honey, which I loaded into the back of the truck. I hoped we wouldn’t stay long—it was so damned hot inside their house. Elbert’s mama, who had to be close to a hundred, sat right next to the woodstove, which was belching out heat like it were December! I know old folks get cold a lot easier, but I was sweating like a pig. Elbert asked us to stay awhile, and Della, being the nice person she was, said yes.

We made small talk what felt like forever. Before I thought I’d explode from the heat, I excused myself to use the bathroom, just to get away from the stove. As I walked down the hallway, I passed Annie’s room, pink and girlie, in a nice way. I smelled something like her perfume or shampoo, and thought about how much I’d’ve liked to see her again.

When I got back, thank heavens Della had stood up. She told them she hated to leave, but we had to get back to the store. It still took a while, because they started gathering up jars of put-up blackberries and dilly beans and such.

Back in the truck, I rolled the windows all the way down and turned the fan as high as it would go. I wanted to hang out the window like Jake did sometimes, but I had on a new shirt, so I sat tight. Whew! That shirt was going to need a good washing.

As we were driving back to the store, I shouted: “Turn right here!” Della jumped and the truck kind of swerved, but she got it under control and did what I asked. We headed down Cane Creek Road a ways, and then Della pulled over across from the schoolyard. “How’d you know?” I asked. She just smiled and cut the engine.

I could see into the school, where the little kids had their classes, with bright pictures of dogs and suns and such on the walls. I looked hard for Annie practicing with the band. I’d hoped they were marching round the field, but I couldn’t see nothin’ other than the kids playing softball. I remembered some good times. Of course, some not-so-good ones, too, like mean old Bobby McKeever. And another really bad one. “When I went here, one day lightning struck the school,” I said, my voice breaking a little.

“Were you hurt?” Della asked.

“I wudn’t. Lilly Cunningham was. She sat next to me, and she got a funny look on her face. I leaned over to check on her, and when I held her wrist I ...” Dammit. I started to blubber. That happened five year ago, but it never got any easier to tell.

“What happened, Abit?” Della patted my back and looked so sad I really started bawling. When I got it out of my system, I told her.

“I reached over to touch her arm, and my fingers and thumb touched each other. Through her wrist. Weren’t nothin’ there keeping my fingers apart, just a little skin and guts.” I blew my nose on the tissues Della pulled from her purse.

“Oh, honey. What a terrible thing for anyone to experience, but especially a kid.”

“I was almost eleven,” I said.

She gave me a hug. We sat there together for a while, then she asked, “You ready?” I nodded, though I could’ve sat there all day.

When I was out of the truck, Della handed me a five-dollar bill and said more was comin’. I still couldn’t believe I had my own money! I used to overhear Daddy say I’d never get a job, but I’d showed him.

A few year ago, I was trying to think how to make some money, and I asked Daddy if we could sell some of them old signs he’d stashed back of the house. He had a lot of junk back there, and some good stuff mixed in. I knew I could set them out front during tourist season and sell ‘em fast. I told him we could put the money in a kitty for the family, and we could all do something fun with it.

“And what kind of fun would that be?” he grunted behind his newspaper.

“I dunno. Go to a show at the Hen Theater or out to dinner oncet in a while. I’ve never been to that place overlooking the falls.”

“You can see the falls anytime you want for free.”

“I just thought we could do something together, like a real family.”

Daddy lowered the paper and looked at me funny. “We’ll think about it.”

We never did sell them signs, but oncet I had my job helping Della, I didn’t think so much about them. I’d growed tall and strong, and Della needed my help and was happy to pay for it, which helped me out. That’s what I meant about acting like a family.