Eventide (Plainsong #2)(63)

I need a place to stay, the girl said. That’s why I come here.

You still ain’t said what happened, honey.

It’s that woman, the girl said. She’s just a total bitch. It’s all she is. She wouldn’t let me do nothing. I had to go to church with them all the time and then she tried to stop me from seeing Raydell.

Who’s he?

This boy I know.

What’s wrong with him?

There ain’t nothing wrong with him. She’s just prejudiced. He’s half black and half white. She didn’t appreciate his black half.

Where’s he at now? Is he here?

Here? What would he be doing here? He’s back in Phillips. He lives there.

Then how’d you get over here, honey?

I got a ride from this man in a truck. I was out there on the highway waiting for a ride, freezing my ass off.

I don’t think you should be out this time of night. Something could happen to you.

What’s going to happen?

Something.

Oh, he never tried nothing. I wouldn’t even let him get started.

It’s still dangerous like that to be out in the cold this time of night.

What else was I going to do? I thought you’d let me stay for a while.

Oh honey, course you can stay. It’s just so good to see you. Are you hungry? You want me to make you a bite to eat?

I want to smoke one of my cigarettes.

You smoke?

Sure.

Betty looked around. But we don’t usually let nobody smoke in here, she said. On account of Joy Rae and Richie.

Who’re they?

You don’t even know, do you. Your own half sister and half brother.

I never even heard their names before.

Well, that’s who they are. You got family you didn’t even know about.

That’s right, Luther said. You got all kinds of family here. He grinned. But you two going to want to stay up and talk. Me, I’m going back to bed.

When he left the room Betty took the girl’s hand and led her to the kitchen table. Why don’t you sit down here a minute. At least let me make you something hot to drink. I know you got to be thirsty.

The girl looked around the kitchen. This is a mess, she said.

I know that, honey. But you’ll hurt my feelings if you talk like that. I been sick.

Well, it is.

I’m going to clean it up. Betty removed a few dirty dishes to the counter and stacked some in the sink, then she set a jar lid in front of the girl.

What’s that for?

You go ahead and smoke if you only going to smoke a little. It’s your first night, honey. I’m just so glad you come home.



SHE MOVED IN AND SLEPT THAT FIRST NIGHT ON THE couch in the front room. In the morning they introduced her to Joy Rae and Richie. The two children looked at her with suspicion and said nothing to her. After they left for school, she went back to sleep until noon, and then took a shower while Betty made lunch.

The girl soon grew bored in the trailer and went out and walked downtown in the bright cold windy afternoon in her black raincoat and wandered into the stores. She loitered in Weiger’s Drug and at Schulte’s Department Store she looked at clothes hanging from the metal pipe racks. She tried on a long pink evening gown with a low-cut bodice while a nervous clerk watched her. The dress suited her tall body and made her look older and more sophisticated. For a long time she studied herself in the mirrors, turning to see how the dress looked from the side and the back, holding her hands as she had seen women do in magazines, then she took off the dress and put it back on the hanger and handed it to the woman. I changed my mind, she said. I wouldn’t care for it. She went outside again and crossed Second Street and walked up to the middle of the block to Duckwall’s.

In Duckwall’s she wandered back into the aisles and picked up various items and examined them, and after about fifteen minutes, while the salesclerk at the cash register was ringing up a sale, she pocketed a tube of lipstick and a small tin container of mascara and eye shadow, then drifted slowly away to look at hand mirrors and purses and came up to the front of the store to the stands of greeting cards, and stood there for a while reading the messages, and finally walked out of the store onto the broad sidewalk.

The children had come home on the bus by the time she returned to the trailer, and Betty then told Joy Rae to let her big sister move into her bedroom. Both of you can sleep in the same bed. You have to get to know one another sometime.

Joy Rae was upset and frightened but the girl said: I got something to show you.

What is it?

The girl turned to her mother. We’ll be all right, she said.

Because you’re sisters, Betty said.

They went down the hall to Joy Rae’s orderly bedroom. Sit down, the girl said, and shut the door.

What are you going to do?

I ain’t going to hurt you. Sit down. I want to show you something. Joy Rae sat on the bed as the girl took the lipstick and the mascara from Duckwall’s out of her purse. I’m going to show you how to make up your face, she said. How old are you?

Eleven.

Well, shit. I was already kissing boys and wearing Make a Promise lip dew by then. You’re way behind. You’re awful young-looking, aren’t you. Kind of skinny.

Joy Rae looked away. I can’t help it. It’s just the way I am.

Well, don’t worry about it. We’ll fix you up. The boys in this little shit-ass town are going to go nuts over you. They’re going to want to eat you up. She smiled. Or wish they could.