Breath of Scandal(8)
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feet. That's what I want to do. What if you lose patience with me before I'm able to?"
"Listen to me, Gary Parker. I don't give a flip about social status. I don't pine after a life of luxury. I have ambitions of my own, which would be in place whether or not I loved you. Getting a scholarship is only the first step of many. Just like you, I've got my own family disgrace to live down. The only world I want at my feet is the one that I create for myself." She softened her tone and looped her arms around his neck. "The one that we create together. "
"You're something, you know that?" He squeezed his eyes shut and whispered fervently, "God, I'm glad you chose me."
The house Jade shared with her mother had been built shortly after World War 11 to accommodate the influx of military personnel based around the shipping channels. In the thirty years since, the neighborhood of white frame tract houses had declined. Their pastel trims no longer looked cheerful and chic but tacky and cheap.
Unlike the others on the street, the Sperry house was kept neat. The house was small, having only two bedrooms and one bath. The living room was rectangular, with narrow windows that were heavily draped. It was the only room in the house that was carpeted. The furniture was inexpensive, but everything was kept spotlessly clean because Velta Sperry passionately hated any form of dirt. She wouldn't even allow plants in her house because they grew in open pots of soil. The only amenity in the living room was a color television set, which Velta had bought on credit from Sears.
She was. sitting in an easy chair watching TV when Jade came in. Velta eyed her daughter critically, looking for telltale signs that she'd been misbehaving with that Parker boy. She couldn't detect anything amiss, but then, Jade was clever enough to cover the evidence.
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By way of greeting, she said, "You barely made it by your curfew."
"But I did. It's just now ten." "Church has been out for hours."
"We went to the Dairy Barn. Everybody was there." "He probably speeded here to get you home in time." Velta disliked Jade's steady boyfriend and never referred to him by name if she could avoid it.
"He didn't speed. Gary's a very careful driver. You know that, Mama. "
"Stop arguing with me," Velta said, raising her voice. "Then stop criticizing Gary."
Velta resented Gary because, she claimed, Jade spent too much time with him-time that she and Jade could spend together. Actually, her dislike was based on Gary's origins. He was a soybean farmer's son. The Parkers had too many children already and continued, disgustingly, to turn out another baby every ten months or so.
Otis Parker was always in hock to the company credit union. Velta knew this because she worked in the credit office as a typist and file clerk. Velta didn't have much regard for anybody who didn't have money.
It would be just like that Parker boy to get Jade pregnant. She hoped Jade was too smart to let that happen, but, unfortunately, like her stunning good looks, the girt had inherited a romantic, passionate streak from her father.
Velta's eyes moved to the framed photograph on the end table, Ronald Sperry's laughing blue eyes-so like Jade's -stared back at her. The soldier's cap sat at a jaunty angle atop his dark curls. His Congressional Medal of Honor was suspended around his neck. Other medals were pinned to the breast pocket of his military uniform, attesting to his valor and courage during the Korean conflict.
Velta was sixteen when Palmetto's dashing war hero had returned home. The low-country town had never had such a grand distinction. The entire population had turned out to welcome his train as it chugged into the depot. The red carpet had been rolled out for the town's favorite son, who
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was coming straight from Washington, D.C., where he had been wined and dined. He'd even shaken hands with the president.
Velta was introduced to him at a citywide dance held in his honor at the VFW hall. That very night, while they danced to tunes by Patti Page and Frank Sinatra, she made up her mind to man-y Ronald Sperry.
For the next two years she pursued him shamelessly, not giving up until he popped the question. Lest something jinx it, Velta saw to it that they were married within a week of his proposal.
Unfortunately, there were no North Korean Communists in Palmetto. Years after his triumphant return home, Ronald was still at a loss as to what to do with the rest of his life. He had no grandiose ambitions. Though he was dashingly handsome, he had no desire to capitalize on the Medal of Honor the way Audie Murphy had. He didn't aspire to movie stardom.
Orphaned and penniless, he had joined the arrny only so he would have a place to sleep and food to eat. He had been an ideal soldier because there was always somebody telling him what to do and when to do it. His officers had ordered him to shoot straight and kill the gook commies and, because he was an excellent marksman, that's what he had done. On the afternoon that he wiped out twenty-two Koreans, it never occurred to him that his actions would merit a medal.
He was popular with people. He had a charisma and magnetism that folks just naturally gravitated to. Everybody liked Ron Sperry. However, hanging out with the guys and telling amusing stories in the pool hall didn't produce revenue. He drifted from one meaningless, futureless job to another.