Providence (12 page)

Rosie can say some of the kindest things my ears ever heard, but she also can turn my face redder than anyone else. It took all my strength to keep from running out of the kitchen and hiding out until John left. John got up, pulled a chair out for me, and nodded.

I sank into the chair, and played with Baby Girl’s ringlets until I could catch my breath. When Rosie served the muffins, I stopped thinking about Rosie’s comments and started worrying about how the muffins would taste. I was feeling a little less sure of those new ingredients the closer the muffins came to being eaten. Rosie took the first bite. “Mmm mmm,” she said. “This time you’re going to have to give me the recipe.”

I didn’t want to admit in front of John, but I couldn’t even remember what I put in the batter. When we finished, Rosie asked, “Why don’t we bring some of these up to Lily? They sure will sweeten her day.”

Before I could even nod, she said, “I know you’re nervous about meeting Lily, but I think once you get to know her, you’ll love her as much as I do. I’m sending John over to the store to get a baby car seat from the back room. We aren’t taking any chances with this little one.”

When John returned, he and Rosie had another chat. When they were both nodding their heads, Rosie said, “John is going to bring me up first, then he will come back for you and Georgia.”

She didn’t say it like a question, so there was nothing to say. I just nodded and followed them out onto the front porch. Baby Girl and I sat out there watching the birds hop from branch to branch on the tree by the road. “Today will be your very first ride in a truck,” I said. “It will be a real adventure for you.”

My words got me to thinking again about my own adventures list. I closed my eyes and tried real hard to picture the words in my notebook. It had been some time since I had pulled it out and read the list. Back when I first found Baby Girl, I spent time picturing how it would go with Baby Girl as a traveling companion. But it didn’t take long for me to know I wasn’t prepared for all sorts of things that could go wrong with a baby on the road. I was starting to realize I might never have any of those adventures. I tried to stay far from those thoughts, so I kept the notebook buried in the bottom of a drawer.

The truck’s horn pulled me out of my little pity party. John hopped out and hurried up the walkway. He scooped up the car seat with one hand and said, “This should only take a minute.”

I didn’t need to worry about what to say to John during our ride. Neither one of us could have heard a spoken word over Baby Girl. She did not take to this new mode of transportation as well as I’d hoped. My brothers and sisters had always fallen asleep as soon as the truck hit the gravel. No such luck with Baby Girl. She started howling the minute John turned the key. I sat rocking and wiggling the seat trying to get her to calm down. She cried herself asleep about two minutes before we reached our destination. I had been so busy trying to quiet Baby Girl, I hadn’t had a chance to look around yet. John pointed to the house half-hidden by a stone wall and iron gates. Two giant poplars stood guard at the entrance, their arms, heavy with leaves, reaching out to warn strangers away.

John hopped out of the truck and swung the gates open. A bad feeling washed over me when I looked past the gates. I half wanted to grab Baby Girl and run, but I couldn’t coax my body into movement. John smiled when he climbed back into the truck. “It isn’t half as scary as it looks the first time you see it,” he said.

The truck rolled to a stop in front of a pair of doors. They were practically the size of the doors on Daddy’s old barn, but a whole lot fancier. John walked us up to the door and rang the bell. A woman opened the door. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun at the back of her head. She had a look on her face that fell halfway between sad and angry. She wasn’t what I was expecting from Rosie’s description. I took a deep breath and said, “Good afternoon, Miss Lil …”

John put his hand on my shoulder and interrupted. “Mrs. Harper, this is Becky and Georgia. They’re here for a visit with Miss Lily.”

I hadn’t even stepped into the house and I was already embarrassing myself. I followed Mrs. Harper into the front parlor. The drapes on the windows were pulled tight, blocking every sliver of the daylight that filled the outdoors. A single dim lamp was lit. It cast a soft shadow across the room. Rosie sprang from her chair when I walked in. She put her arm around the small of my back and guided me toward the woman sitting by the empty fireplace. At first glance, I wouldn’t have guessed there was any kind of problem. She was neatly dressed with matching jewelry and there wasn’t a hair out of place on her head. On closer inspection, though, I noticed her pale skin, thin frame, and lifeless blue eyes. Her face had an expression that made me feel like her body was here but her mind was far away. Even though she was seated, she kept one hand draped over a cane that looked like an old-fashioned walking stick.

“Becky, this is Lily,” Rosie said, nodding her head in the direction of the chair. “Lily, this is Becky. She’s the girl who baked those wonderful muffins and does all the work at the store I told you about. You saw the beautiful window displays she did for Fourth of July. You have to come back into town soon to have a peek for yourself at all of the changes she’s made. My words don’t do them justice. And this little one in her arms is Georgia. There is more sweetness in this baby than in a whole field of sugar cane. Why don’t you hold the baby for a bit?”

Lily’s hand had been sweeping back and forth as if to keep us away as Rosie spoke. She shook her head and whispered to me, “Hello.”

The hours dragged on like the times I had to stand in front of Daddy while he thought about what punishment was harsh enough to fit my latest crime. Rosie progressed from talking about the weather to church to all the happenings in town. It was as if she feared something awful might happen if she left room for a moment of quiet. Lily looked like she was trying to swallow a sigh. I suspect she was taught not to show her lack of interest in someone else’s words. As for me, I sat, spine straight, hoping Lily couldn’t hear my stomach growling over Rosie’s nonstop chatter. The muffin I’d had for breakfast hadn’t filled me up, and my insides were letting that be known. Lily didn’t seem to notice, though, as she sat there staring at Baby Girl. When the doorbell rang again and I heard John’s voice, I felt like I had been saved.

It was agreed that Georgia and I would go first, but Lily found her voice. “There is no sense in you taking two trips into town, John. Take my car, and they can all leave together.”

While John fetched her car from the garage and moved Baby Girl’s seat, Rosie ignored the “here’s your hat, what’s your hurry” we’d just gotten, and filled in the quiet. “Next week, why don’t you come down by us for a visit?”

A half smile pushed its way across Lily’s face. “Thank you, but I don’t think so.”

“You give it some thought,” Rosie said.

In the car on the way home, Rosie turned toward the back seat and said to me, “Lily was always a song in the wind. She just needs a little time to get back to herself. A little time and a whole lot of us, and she will fill up with life again.”

I thought about the sadness I had seen in Lily’s eyes. I had never known Rosie to be wrong about a person yet, but I was having a hard time believing she was right about Lily only needing a little time.

CHAPTER 16

July slipped away and August showed no mercy with its heat. People were taking pride in their places on Main Street again, and the once empty sidewalks now hosted a steady stream of shoppers. The thick air was causing everyone to move a little slower than usual; everyone but Georgia. The more she grew the less she slept, leaving me with fewer minutes for creating merchandise for Rosie’s customers.

Rosie was spending most of her days sitting behind the counter and most of her nights sitting in front of the television. I attributed Rosie’s dwindling pep to the sweltering summer air. I swear some days the temperature got so high even a stone would sweat.

The Second Hand Rose was benefiting from the extra Main Street traffic. And the more sales we had, the more money Rosie put in my pay envelope each week. I sent half of my money back to Mama and Daddy every month, along with some suckers for the little ones. The rest mostly got eaten up by Baby Girl’s neverending need for diapers and bigger clothes. But I did manage to save a little, and so on one of the hottest days of the season, I took my savings down to the hardware store and bought two of the strongest electric fans they sold. I set one up by the register to keep Rosie and Georgia cool at work, and I put the other one by Rosie’s bedroom door.

One afternoon, I heard a thud coming from the front of the store. I hurried up the aisle and discovered Rosie had thrown a small ball at the door. She was sitting in her chair, cradling Baby Girl, and waving someone in. As I got closer, I saw Sarah coming up the steps. She opened the door, bent over to scoop up the ball, and said, “Hi! You’ve got a great aim, ma’am.”

Rosie laughed.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have your book here,” I said. “I left it at home, but I can get it to you.”

“Just bring it to my pool party tomorrow night.”

I looked down at the floor. “I appreciate the invitation, but I can’t go.”

Rosie said, “Of course, you can make it. What time would you like her there?”

Sarah looked from Rosie to me and back several times. “Any time after five,” she said.

“Perfect,” said Rosie. “We will be closing up at four tomorrow, so that gives her plenty of time to get ready.”

“Great! Hey, I’m going down to the market to grab a Coke, do you want to walk down with me?”

Rosie reached over to the drawer and pulled out a few dollars. “That’s an excellent idea. Becky, why don’t you buy a couple for us, too? Georgia and I will entertain each other while you’re gone.”

Since the last minutes were spent talking about me instead of to me, I shoved the money in my pocket and followed Sarah out without a word.

When we got back, Georgia was in the carriage sleeping and Rosie was in the chair, on her way to dozing off. “That didn’t take long,” Sarah whispered.

I placed the drink within Rosie’s reach and pointed toward the door. We sat on the front steps and sipped the cold, bubbly liquid. “How was your trip?” I asked.

“Fun!” Sarah said. “There’s nothing like sleep-away camp to make a girl miss her ordinarily annoying little brother. I actually was glad to see him and spend time with him.” She pulled out her phone and showed me pictures of her with her family. They were smiling and laughing and acting silly in the pictures. I tried to picture Mama, Daddy, and my brothers and sisters and me acting like that. I couldn’t do it.

“Are you okay?” Sarah asked.

I coughed. “I’m fine, thanks for showing me your pictures.”

Sarah stood up and slid the phone into her pocket. “I can’t believe school starts in another week,” she said. “At least it’s always preceded by days of school shopping. New clothes are the best part about going back to school, don’t you think?”

I stood up, too, and smiled. I didn’t want to tell her stocking up on new clothes was never a part of my back to school routine. I was hoping she wasn’t going to ask about me going to school at all this year.

“Gotta run!” Sarah said. “I promised my mother I would go to the store with her to pick up supplies for the party. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

True to her word, Rosie insisted on closing the store at four the next day. As we made our way out the door, Dottie came out of the Tick Tock and yelled, “I’ll be at your house before five.”

“It’s always good to have an extra pair of hands around with a baby,” Rosie said, “but I hope she doesn’t think she is going to hog Georgia all night.”

The look on Rosie’s face reminded me of my brother Thomas. He always wore that face when he was determined to beat one of the bigger boys at a game. I wondered how he was doing without me there to nudge the older ones into giving him a chance at victory.

When we got home, I gave Georgia a bath and fed her. Then I showered and slipped into my bathing suit. As I walked down the hall toward my bedroom to grab a pair of shorts, I heard Georgia fussing. I passed my door and called out, “Is everything okay?”

Dottie was reaching down to the baby seat to pick up Georgia when I got to the living room. She stood back up with her in her arms and started the swaying and patting dance. “Do you want me to take her?” I asked.

Dottie waved me away, but Rosie called out. “Come on in here and let me see you in that new bathing suit. You didn’t try on any of those clothes before we bought them. Does it fit?”

I inched my way into the room. “I think it fits well enough,” I said while tugging the seat down a bit.

Rosie looked me up and down. “I’d say better than that. You’ll have to bat the boys away.”

My arms crossed my middle. I could feel myself going red all over. “Now I’m just teasing you, Becky. I know you’re a good girl.”

I forced a little smile on my face and glanced at Dottie. She didn’t look like she agreed with Rosie. “I’m going to put some shorts on. I’ll be back in a minute.”