Jump into the Sky (17 page)

Peaches pointed at Oregon. “All the way up there, Cal? That’s where the army is sending you?” The words came out as a quivery whisper. Like a tiny crack opening in a floodwall, you could tell it wouldn’t be long before everything busted to pieces and a terrible torrent came pouring out. “How could they send you
all the way up there
?”

Cal tried joking. “Well, it ain’t Japan at least.”

“It’s close enough.” Peaches stabbed a finger toward the map. “Look there. The Pacific Ocean is right next to Oregon. From there, the only place you’d go to is Japan. Cal,
they’re sending you to the Pacific to fight, I know it. Cal, you can’t go and leave me. You can’t—”

And then the whole floodwall came crashing down. Peaches and Victory began wailing like a funeral chorus, and the postmaster—who was a nervous-looking fellow—came scurrying from the back, where he’d been eating his lunch, I guess. Sandwich still in his hand and crumbs all over his shirt, he shooed us straight out into the street. “What’s the matter with you folks? Take your arguing outside.” His sandwich-free hand propelled Peaches out the door.

By the time we got home, Peaches’s pretty face was a crying mess and the white collar of her dress was damp with her tears and Victory’s drool. “How can you go so far away from me?” she wailed. The whole neighborhood was taking note of the noise, I’m sure, and wondering what was up.

Trying to soothe Peaches’s nerves, Cal said he’d do some checking around Camp Mackall to see what he could find out about the mission. “Maybe a couple of the fellows have sent back some news by now. I’ll see what the scuttlebutt is around camp.”

Scuttlebutt being gossip. You can see I was getting a good education from the army, even if I was missing school.

Cal was gone the rest of the afternoon, but he didn’t find out much. I wouldn’t be surprised if he just motored around the army post real slowly to get away from Peaches and Victory for a while. When he got back, he told us nobody
at Mackall had heard a word from the paratroopers since they’d left, or knew much about Pendleton Air Base and what the army would be doing there.

Not wanting to be one more problem sitting at Peaches and Cal’s table, I stayed outta sight once Cal got home. I stretched out on the porch and read some old
Sky Aces
magazines from Cal’s collection. Aunt Odella never woulda approved of all the smash-ups and death in those stories, but after reading a bunch of them cover to cover, I decided I could become a big fan.

Inside the house, Cal and Peaches talked for what seemed like hours. Through the kitchen door, I could see the two of them facing each other across the table with Cal’s strong hands reaching across the middle and holding tight to one of Peaches’s hands, as if he was the lifeboat and she was the capsizing ship. The peacock sculpture drooped forlornly on top of the icebox. Victory slept in her crib, being quiet for once.

I caught bits and pieces of the conversation, although I swear I was trying hard not to. Couldn’t help it if some of the words floated out to me, right? Heard my name mentioned a few times. And there were a lot of waterworks, of course—plenty of boo-hooing and
don’t leave me
. Peaches and Cal talked so long, it got dark and the crickets came out.

When they finally asked me to come inside, I figured the news wasn’t gonna be good. I’d already got myself prepared
to head back to Chicago and Aunt Odella again. Slouching into the kitchen, I made sure my face was set in the expression of no emotion it wore most of the time. Nothing they could say would shake me at all.

“Sit down,” Cal said, nodding toward one of the empty chairs.

Peaches pressed her fingers against her temples like she had a bad headache. “I haven’t made us a thing to eat today. It’s way past suppertime and we haven’t had a good meal all day. What’s wrong with me, Cal? I’m just falling to bits and pieces, aren’t I?”

Cal shook his head like he’d had enough of being a lifeboat. Leaning back in his chair, he slowly unwrapped the foil wrapper from a roll of Charms candies. Passed one to Peaches, then me. Tucked the rest back in his pocket and turned to face me. “All right, Legs—”

“Levi,” Peaches insisted in one of her extra-righteous tones.

Now, I’ll admit I kinda liked the name Legs. It had grown on me. But I wasn’t gonna jump in and correct anything between the two of them right then. Just kept myself as tough as a tree and tried to ignore how my heart was starting to slam against my ribs, knowing what words were coming next.

“All right,
Levi
,” Cal said. “Me and Peaches have done a lot of talking tonight, looking at things from all directions.
Thinking about all the possibilities. And what we’ve decided is that we don’t have no choice in these circumstances but to do a blackout jump. You know what that is?”

“No sir.” My heart was knocking even harder. A blackout jump? I pictured them teetering on the edge of a cliff, hand in hand, like two star-crossed lovers in a movie picture. Good grief almighty, they wouldn’t do something dumb like that, would they?

Peaches gave an exasperated sigh. “Just tell it to him straight, Cal. Stop dragging on like you do. Good Lord.”

Cal wasn’t gonna be moved from his storytelling, though. “See, a blackout jump is when a trooper closes his eyes as he jumps outta the airplane. Of course, nobody’s
supposed
to jump that way, but sometimes, when you’re first training, you can’t help it. You close your eyes outta plain instinct because you’re too darned afraid to look at where your backside is gonna end up. And that’s what they call doing a blackout jump.”

I could absolutely understand that reaction. Not only would I squeeze my eyes shut, I’d stay inside the plane too.

“Anyhow,” Cal continued, “me and Peaches have decided to try something like a blackout jump. Instead of Peaches wandering around Southern Pines by herself after I leave, or going back to live with her folks in Georgia, we’ve decided it’s better to stick together. So we’re gonna close our eyes, jump on a train together, and head out to Oregon.
Never been there before, so who knows what we’ll find—but we’ve made up our minds to load up baby Victory and all our belongings and see what happens.”

His next sentence turned my strong tree self into a wobbly stick.

“And we’d like to ask you to come along with us.”

I’m telling you, his words caught me by surprise and almost made me start bawling like a baby. Big tears began burning up my eyes, and my throat felt like I’d got something stuck in it. I started coughing and wiping my eyes, and Cal leaped up, thinking I was choking on the Charms candy, of course. He thumped me on the back while Peaches spilled water all over the checkered tablecloth, hurrying to give a glass to me.

Wherever she was, I hoped Queen Bee Walker was watching and taking careful notes. See, even with all their troubles, Peaches and Cal weren’t taking off and leaving me with a goodbye note. They were inviting me to go along with them. All the way to Oregon.

Cal kept talking while I gulped water. “Now, if you don’t want to come to Oregon, that’s all right with us. We’re leaving it up to you. We can get you squared away and sent back to Chicago if you want. Your choice,” he said. “Shoot, we may get all the way out there to Oregon and have to turn around and come right back if the Japs surrender quick.” Cal gave Peaches a reassuring grin. “But seeing how long it’s been since you’ve spent time with Boots, and how many
bad twists and turns this war’s taken, we thought you oughta have the chance to at least see your daddy in person if he’s out there. Maybe he can come up with a good place for you.”

Cal reached for Peaches’s hand across the table. “And me and Peaches want you to know you been a real big help to us ever since you got here. You’re a good kid, Legs, even if some people in your family act like fools. We’d be real grateful to have you along for the trip, especially if I have to ship out once we get to Oregon.”

His last words threatened to start Peaches crying all over again, so Cal finished quickly, before she could get any worse. “So what do you think, Legs? You want to come along with us?”

I nodded, not taking the chance of saying anything dumb.

“Good.” Cal smacked his hands together and jumped up. Tying one of Peaches’s ruffly aprons around his army fatigues, he stood next to the range. “Now how about if we have ourselves some delicious franks and baked beans for supper? After all this talking, I am starved.”

You could tell Cal was already taking off with the whole idea of the trip. As he opened a can of beans and dumped them in a saucepan, he made it sound as if crossing the entire United States would be as simple as making supper from a can. We’d pack a couple of suitcases and some food, and take the train to St. Louis and then another one west. It might take three or four days, he thought.

Mostly I was gung-ho too. Although I’ll admit to worrying about the fact I was leaving the South in the same speedy way I’d left Chicago—without knowing enough about what I was doing or what dangers might lie ahead. Most of what I knew about the West came from the movies—and that knowledge pretty much boiled down to cowboys, Indians, and the movie star John Wayne. Now, I wasn’t dumb enough to think we’d run into John Wayne in Oregon. Or Indians either. Of course, the scorpion of death had come from the West too. Who knows if we’d find any of them scurrying around the state, but I decided this possibility wasn’t something to bring up with Peaches sitting there.

Of course, she perked up once she started making lists of what she’d pack and what outfits she’d take with her. You know how women are about clothes. They start thinking about what they’re gonna wear someplace and their tears dry up faster than a rainstorm in the desert.

W
e had two days to get ready to leave, and those two days were a whirlwind. The U.S. Army wasn’t big on waiting around, I guess—kinda like Aunt Odella—so they didn’t give Cal much time. Mostly it was just me and Peaches doing the packing up in the house, since Cal had his own gear to get squared away at Camp Mackall. To add to our troubles, the weather in North Carolina had suddenly taken a turn for the worse. Clouds had moved in and a steady rain fell from the gloomy skies, making it feel more like April than the beginning of June.

Maybe the rain was reminding me of Chicago, because Aunt Odella crossed my mind a lot as I packed for the trip. Kept remembering how she’d packed the same suitcase the month before—how she’d folded all the pants and rolled all the socks and how neat and precise her work had been.

Mine was a suitcase casserole.

Wondered what she’d think about me taking off for
Oregon. Peaches and Cal couldn’t make up their minds about whether or not I should write to her about what we were doing. Cal thought if she’d sent me all the way to North Carolina to find my father, she probably wouldn’t care if I went to Oregon to keep looking for him. On the other hand, Peaches said if something happened to us on the trip, nobody would know where I was. “Think how his family would feel if Levi up and disappeared.”

I didn’t say,
Well, it has happened in the Battle family before
.

Finally, I ended up sending a short letter to my aunt that probably wouldn’t arrive in her apartment mailbox until we’d reached Oregon anyhow. Hoped the news wouldn’t upset her too much when she got it. She didn’t seem like the kind of person who’d ever go and topple over, but people can surprise you. All they need is one loose brick somewhere. Tried to add a little humor at the end by telling my aunt I’d let her know if I happened to meet John Wayne. She liked Westerns a lot.

Before we left North Carolina, I splashed through the downpour to say goodbye to MawMaw Sands, like I’d promised. Despite the rain, she was sitting in her usual chair, wrapped in a ratty blue blanket against the chill. With only her eyes showing mostly, she coulda been a war refugee in a newspaper picture.

“You feeling all right, ma’am?” My feet hesitated halfway up the steps.

“I’d be feeling better if you remembered your manners and took off your hat when talking to me, seeing as how I’m old enough to be your great-great-granny,” she snapped.

Ducking under the porch roof, I swiped off the cap I was wearing against the rain. Still casting an irritated glance in my direction, she tugged the blanket tighter around her shoulders. “So, you must be here because you’re leaving town.”

“Yes ma’am. Tomorrow.” I nodded uncomfortably, fiddling with the hat in my hand. The whole porch felt different. No fat bumblebees buzzing. Or cats lazying around. Just drippy vines and baskets hanging heavily from the roof. Felt as if the whole scene might tumble down into ruins at any moment.

“Get me that basket from over there.” One skinny arm poked out of the blankets and gestured sharply at the Keeper of Secrets basket. “I want you to have that one,” the woman said, pointing at the same basket she’d shown me before.

Heck, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to take one of the old lady’s nice baskets as a gift. Not when I knew how much they cost and how much hard work they took to make. Plus, what would I do with a basket in Oregon? Tried to tell MawMaw Sands to keep it.

“Now, who else am I gonna give it to?” she retorted. “You take that basket like I says, Levi Battle. Don’t give me none of that sass.”

You can see I didn’t have much choice. So, I picked up
the basket from the porch corner and tucked it under my elbow. Mumbled a polite thank-you.

“You remember what it’s called?”

“Yes ma’am.” I nodded. “Keeper of Secrets.”

“You gonna take good care of it, right?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Whenever you meet up with your daddy, don’t you forget what I’ve told you about how hard it is to be the keeper of secrets, especially when everybody else around you has their doubts. It ain’t easy being the basket, no sir, it ain’t.”

Good grief, the old lady was talking in circles. I wasn’t following much of anything she was saying.

“And you remember how every basket in this world is made of sweetness and pain. You can’t have one without the other. They all get woven together, light and dark, smooth and sharp, bad things and good.” MawMaw Sands paused and gave me a hard stare. “You listenin’ to me, boy?”