Alma Mater (7 page)

"I was thinking, despite fate we still have individual responsibility."

"That's where honor comes in." Jinx had a vision not of honor but
of chocolate cake. "How you meet your fate. See? You can either have
courage or not. You can face it or run away. Just because you might not be responsible for what happened to you doesn't mean you can't
act with honor."

"Ah, you see into things more deeply than I do."

"Maybe." Jinx inhaled deeply. "Chocolate cake."

"Who said anything about chocolate cake?" Vic was slightly
bewildered.

"Let's raid the kitchen. I have got to get a piece of that chocolate layer cake."

"All right." Vic wasn't hungry, but she was a good sport. She
slipped out of bed and threw on an extra-large T-shirt.

"Fate." Jinx put on her robe. "It's my fate to eat chocolate cake."

_y

ou already have enough holes in your head," Vic yelled at
Mignon, glued to the backseat of the Impala.
They had dropped off Jinx, not too happy about it, at her

mother's house and were on their way to McKenna Dodge. They'd
pick up Jinx in two hours. She declared that was as long as she could
abide her blood family.

Chris closed her eyes, tilting her head back toward the sun.

"Your ears are pierced." Mignon leaped up, her lips close to Vic's ear.
"Mignon, we are not having this discussion. If you're getting your

ears pierced, Mom's taking you, not me."

Mignon now leaned toward Chris. "She is so selfish and hateful. I
bet if you had a little sister you'd take her to get her ears pierced."

"Bet I wouldn't." Chris kept her eyes closed.

"What about someone else's little sister?" Mignon was nothing if
not persistent.

Vic pulled into the dealership, parking right in front of the plate-
glass window. She grabbed a large manila envelope from the top of the
dashboard, it was full of sales figures that Aunt Bunny had inadvertently
left at the house yesterday, and got out of the car. "Mignon can cruise
the new cars."

Mignon clambered out of the car and made a beeline for the recep
tion desk.

"Guess she's going inside to place her order." Chris laughed. "She's
very bright, you know. She sent me notes all last night and some of
them were very funny."

"Did that little worm keep you awake?"

"After the Wallace drama, how could I have slept?"

"Speak of the devil," Vic murmured.

Out traipsed Sissy Wallace on the arm of Don McKenna.
Don's
glossy curls reflected the sunlight.

"Vic!"

"Hey, Uncle Don. I was just going to drop this off for you. Chris Carter, meet my uncle, Don McKenna." She handed Don the manila
envelope, which he took with his left hand.

With his right, he shook Chris's hand warmly. "Have you met the
lovely Miss Wallace?"

"Last night," Chris replied.

"Girls." Sissy beamed. She turned to Don. "Just find out, please do."
"All right, Sissy. I will, and you stay out of trouble, hear?" He

smiled one of those ear-to-ear grins that women found attractive.

"If I'm away from you, I'll be out of trouble." She gave a half skip to

her Plymouth.

As she drove off, the three waved to her.

"Incorrigible," Don uttered through his smile as he watched her fi
nally make it out onto the highway.

"She trying to seduce you, Uncle Don?"

"Always. Always." He let out a belly laugh. "You know what she
wants? She wants me to get her a Cadillac at cost. I'm not a General Motors dealer, but she just knows I can talk the Cadillac dealer in Williamsburg or Virginia Beach or Norfolk into a brand-new Cadillac at cost."

"Where's she going to get the money?"

He hooked his thumb in his belt. "Says sooner or later the old man has to let go of some of his money. God knows he's got enough of it."

He walked the two young women into the showroom. Don, now
forty-one, exuded a warmth that was irresistible. He genuinely liked
people, especially women. And not just for sex—he really liked women.

"Where's Hojo?" he asked one of the salesmen.

"In the bathroom, I think. Said she'd be right back."

"Hot out there. You two like a Coke?"

"No, thanks."

"Me neither," Chris replied. "This is an impressive place, Mr.
McKenna. You must be proud of it."

"Don, please. Mr. McKenna is my father." He smiled. "Thank you.

We're very proud of the place. My wife helped me every step of the way."
Hojo, poured into a pair of bright orange pants, returned to her post.

Saturdays, a big day at the dealership, meant all hands were on deck. "Have you seen Mignon?" Vic walked over to command central.
"She's in the bathroom adjusting herself." Hojo smiled.

Vic noticed that Hojo's plum-colored nails now had sparkles on
the metallic polish.

Mignon emerged from the bathroom, flashed her uncle a smile,
and walked quickly to the car.

"Such manners. She could have come over here and talked." Vic
put her hands on her hips.

"She sees enough of me, I suppose." Don waved at one of his sales
men who was heading toward his office. "I'll be with you in a minute." He returned his attention to Vic after checking the clock on the wall. "Game starts in six hours. You going to make it?"

"No, I'm here for the weekend."

"Want to bet on the score?"

"No, but I'll bet on the touchdowns." Vic smoothed her hands over her Bermuda shorts. "Charly Harrison, two touchdowns."

"Never take a bet I know I'll lose." He clapped her on the back.
"You kids come on by any time."

Vic got behind the wheel. "Jeez, these seats are hot."

Chris gingerly put her butt on the cracked leather. "Head for the
shade."

As they drove along, Mignon was conspicuously silent.

"When do I get to meet Charly? I feel as if I know him already, sort
of," Chris said.

"Next time he comes over, I'll call you. He's a great guy. You'll love him."

Mignon leaned forward. Teasing Vic about Charly was too good
to pass up. "She sleeps with him. She won't admit it, but I know they're
bumping uglies."

"You don't know anything, Mignon."

"Sexual revolution. Birth control. The sixties," *she sang
out, her
youthful voice loud.

"It's
1980."
Chris laughed.

"Yeah, the sexual revolution started in the sixties and it gets better
and better. I know about these things."

"Oh, and what are you doing?"

"I'll tell you if you'll tell me."

"Number one, I, value my privacy. Number two, remember what
Grandma Catlett says, 'Men don't buy a cow if they can get the milk
for free.' "

"Gross."

Just then Vic glanced in her rearview mirror. "Mignon!"

Mignon pressed her lips together, raising her eyebrows.
"You wouldn't take me!"

Vic pulled the car over.

Chris twisted around. "Oh, boy."

"Well, everyone in school has their ears pierced. I mean, like, I am
the only weirdo, chickenshit. Even Buzz Schonfeld has one ear pierced
like the baseball player, what's-his-name."

"Your name is shit." Vic's face flushed crimson. "Goddammit,
Mignon, Mom will never believe I didn't have a hand in this."

In Mignon's ears were two waxed strings, a tiny knot tied in each
of the equally tiny loops.

Chris reached for them. "Is this fish wire?"

"I don't know what she put in there. She told me to keep moving it
around. See?" Mignon tugged on the wax string, wincing as she did.

"How much money do you have in that ratty purse?" Vic reached
around to grab Mignon's purse, but Mignon quickly clamped her
hands on it.

"Thief." Then Mignon screamed at the top of her lungs as cars
passed by, "My sister is a thief!"

"Shut up! I don't want your money, but how much have you got?"
"Why?"

"Because, you butthole, you need to buy gold posts. Otherwise your ears are going to get really infected. Wait until I get my hands on Hojo."

"She'd like that. She goes to bed with everybody, and she has the
hots for you." A devilish light danced in Mignon's hazel eyes.

"Jesus, Mignon, are you having a hormonal surge or something? All
you think about is sex."

"Doesn't everyone?" Chris laughed.

"Not me," Vic stubbornly replied.

"You need a wake-up call." Chris laughed even harder now.

"Yeah, I'll pass on the gold posts and buy you an alarm clock, with

my, uh, twenty dollars and eighty-two cents. Wait, eighty-three."
Finally Vic had to laugh, too. "Okay, we are going to Chowder's. I

know they'll have gold posts."

They drove to the new shopping center and parked in front of
Chowder's, a nice jewelry store that had moved off Main Street.

Zelda Chartreuse knew the Savedges. She quickly sized up the
situation.

"Not too big. I don't want to look trashy," said Mignon.

"Don't make me laugh." Vic propped one elbow on the counter
while Zelda placed a tray of earrings and posts on top of it.

"What about these?" Mignon, displaying a sure touch, reached for
the simple gold balls, small but very attractive.

"These will run you one hundred and nine dollars. Fourteen-carat
gold."

Mignon's face fell. "Zelda,
I
only have twenty dollars and eighty-
three cents."

"I hate you." Vic jammed her hand in her left pocket, pulling out
neatly folded-over bills. She counted them out. "Okay, Mignon. Here's
fifty. I need the rest for gas and lunch this week."

"All right, seventy dollars and eighty-three cents. Now these are
sixty-two dollars." Zelda pointed out a pair of posts so tiny as to
be
pinheads.

"No." Mignon fingered the gold ball earrings.

"Honey, these silver ones are the same size. I think you're right
about size. You have good taste, Mignon. You always know what
looks good on you and everyone else, for that matter."

"Zelda, if she wears the silver, her ears will get infected."

Zelda noticed that whoever pierced Mignon's ears had put the
holes in exactly the right places.

"I've got some money," Chris announced, reaching in her shorts
pocket.

"No way." Vic grabbed her wrist. "You're the guest, and my little sister's escapade shouldn't cost you any money."

"I could give her credit. She could pay it off," suggested Zelda. 1
know she will. Mignon's responsible."

"Lisa Baptista's got credit all over town," Mignon said to Vic.
"Not here, she doesn't," Zelda clarified.

"Mignon, don't buy on credit. If we can't pay in full, you're going
to have to wear smaller earrings."

"Those are fly-sized." Mignon had her heart set on the ideally
sized gold balls for her ears.

"Please, take my money. I owe it to Mignon for the entertainment."

Chris put her money in Vic's hand, and held it there with her other hand.
A flash of fire shot through Vic. She stared at Chris, speechless.
Mignon, observing her sister's reaction, said, "Chris, we can't take

your money. It's not right."

"I insist." Chris squeezed Vic's hand and then let go.

Vic dropped the money. She'd never felt anything like that in her
life
_;
white hot married to blue cold. She knew it was sexual. She knew
she'd never felt that with Charly. She didn't know what to do about it and she didn't know if Chris felt that energy, too.

Mignon picked up the money, fifteen dollars.

Zelda liked the Savedges. Most everyone did. "Mignon, let's put these
in your ears before it's too late and it hurts." She bent down and pulled out
a bottle of alcohol from under the counter. "Chris, you keep your money. I don't want you girls telling anyone about this discount. It's our secret."

"Zelda . . . ," Vic's voice trailed off.

"Your father's been good to me. Now, let's do this." Zelda carefully
wiped the back of the earring. She pulled a pair of tiny scissors from a