At Last (The Idle Point, Maine Stories)(11)
Laquita stood near the top step and rested her hand on the splintered wood. Noah and Gracie stood close together a few feet away. They all turned slightly when they heard Mrs. Chase's voice, then Daddy's. Gracie's and Noah's eyes grew wide. Laquita felt the knot of fear in her tummy begin to untie just a little bit when her Daddy pushed open the front door and stepped outside. He scooped her up in his arms and said, "We're sorry, 'Quita, but your mom went into labor around lunchtime and we've been pretty busy. We knew our grown-up little girl would find her way home somehow"
He told Gracie and Noah that Laquita had a new baby sister and invited them all inside to meet Cheyenne Marie. Mrs. Chase said she needed a cigarette and would wait for Noah and Gracie on the porch. Laquita noticed that Mrs. Chase's hands were shaking and her mouth was set in an angry line.
Gracie's and Noah's eyes met and Laquita almost burst into tears. Cheyenne! Why did her parents like such stupid names? Why couldn't she be Annie or Mary or Sue like the other girls in class? Why couldn't she have brothers named Jack and Bob instead of Sage and Morocco?
Her parents never did anything normal or so it seemed to Laquita. She loved them but they always made her feel like she wanted to hide in the back of the station wagon and pretend she wasn't with them. Nobody else's parents painted hearts and flowers on their car. She hated the long black ponytail that swung between her father's shoulder blades and the way her mother would nurse one of the babies any time she felt like it, sometimes right in the middle of the candy aisle at the food store. Noah's mommy would never do something like that and she had seen the way Gracie's Gramma Del looked at her parents like they were the bad guys on a TV show. Why couldn't they just be like everybody else?
When she grew up, she would have her own house and she would live in it all by herself. Her house would have white walls and white carpets and a white cat with blue eyes and it would smell like the beach roses that grew by the fence. Her parents and her brothers and sisters could come for visits but they would have to sleep at the motel over near Eb's Stop & Pump because there would be only one bedroom in her house and that bedroom would belong to her.
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Gracie wanted to hate everything about Laquita's family but she couldn't. She loved the noise and the baby smells and the way everyone seemed to really love each other. Laquita's mommy had let Gracie snuggle right in the bed with her then placed the brand-new baby girl in her arms. Gracie had thought her heart would burst with excitement. The baby was so tiny, so perfect, and when she reached up and wrapped her tiny fist around Gracie's finger she felt like she did on Christmas morning only better. Imagine living like this all the time!
She looked at Laquita and wished they could change places. Laquita got to hold the babies and feed them and play with them every single day of the week. There was always somebody to hug or to talk with and a mommy and daddy who really seemed to like each other and their growing family. Laquita's mommy was full and soft like a pillow and her daddy liked to make everyone laugh. The house was small, almost as small as Gramma Del's cottage, too small for the shadows and secrets that filled the house where Gracie lived. It seemed to Gracie that there was just room enough in Laquita's house for love.
"'Quita," said the father after awhile, "why don't you take Graciela and Noah out back and show them Moses and the kittens."
Laquita didn't say anything. She just made a face and motioned for Gracie and Noah to follow her. Gracie didn't want to leave Mrs. Adams and the new baby but the thought of kittens was more than she could resist. The only thing better than kittens was a basket of puppies.
She climbed off the bed and hurried to catch up with Laquita and Noah. They walked through a hallway plastered with drawings Laquita had done in kindergarten, stepped over two sleeping toddlers, stopped to pat a big dog with red and white and black fur that was sprawled across the entrance to the kitchen. One day Gracie would have a dog just like that one, maybe even three of them! She'd have cats and kittens a parrot named Walter and maybe one named Groucho too. She would keep hamsters and gerbils and there would be a tank of goldfish in every room.
Gramma Del wouldn't let her have a dog or a cat until she was old enough to take care of them. Gracie thought she was old enough now but Gramma wouldn't budge. "I have enough work, thank you very much," Gramma said the last time Gracie asked, "and I don't need any more." Noah didn't have pets either, not even one measly goldfish in a round bowl from Kmart. They said his father was allergic but Gracie didn't believe it. Mr. Chase probably just didn't want to be bothered.