Roseflower Creek (7 page)

    "Lexie's havin' her baby! She is! Right there on the kitchen floor!" I yelled. "Doc said it ain't time yet," I said, "but he musta forgot to tell that baby!"

    "Settle down. Settle down," Mz. Hawkins said, and she grabbed her phone to ring up the doctor. Lexie and Melvin didn't have enough money for a phone yet.

    Mz. Hawkins took care of everything. I don't know why Lexie didn't like her none. She run real fast for a fat woman and never even fell over—and her with those skinny little bird legs toting her whole body. She still had her nightdress on and her bosoms was heaving theirselves ever which way. I thought they was gonna knock her down for sure, but they didn't. She was already tending to Lexie when I caught up with her.

    "Lori Jean, get some bedsheets off the bed and bring 'em here," Maybelle said. I done like she said and Maybelle scooted them under Lexie.

    She had Lexie blowing air out of her mouth like she was blowin' up a balloon, or trying to. Mostly Lexie couldn't do it and was squawking real bad. Mz. Hawkins started yelling at her.

    "Pant, Lexie! Pant!" she said. Then she changed her mind, I guess, 'cause she told her to do something else.

    "Okay, push!" she said. "Push!" But Lexie just screamed.

    "Aaaaaaahhhhhh! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" But she must of pushed, too, cause Mz. Hawkins said, "That's it! That's it!" Then she said, "Stop! Don't push no more! Don't push!" It was mighty confusing, it was, but Lexie was just following along as best she could. She was back to blowing air out her mouth again. Maybelle looked up and saw me stuck to the floor like a stickpin.

    "Lori Jean, go on now. Make yourself scarce. This here's woman's work," she said. She shooed me towards the bedroom.

    "Go on," she said. "Go watch out the window for Doc Crawley." Maybelle waved me off with the back of her hand. I stepped backwards towards the bedroom and inched my way to the doorway. When the frame smacked me in the back of the head I stopped and watched, even though she told me not to.

    "Okay, Lexie," Maybelle said. "Now, push again. Hard! Again!" And Lexie did. She pushed so hard her face didn't look like hers no more.

    "That's it! That's it!" Maybelle yelled.

    Lexie looked like somebody just pulled her from the creek. Her hair was plastered flat down to her head. It was still red, but if 'n you didn't know it, sure would of been hard to tell. It looked almost black and her face was so pale white she matched the chalk we cleaned off the board for Mz. Pence, if we was the lucky one got asked to.

    Maybelle brushed her arm across her forehead. Her chest heaved in and out like she was the one doing the pushing.

    "Look! Look here, Lexie!" she said. "You got a baby boy!"

    I come full out of the bedroom doorway then and run over to Lexie. Maybelle had a baby by the feet. It was all blue. Sort of grayish black and blue, it was. It wan't moving or crying or nothing. Maybelle turned it over and rubbed its back real good, but that baby just stayed limp. I was getting real scared for it, I was.

    Lexie wasn't doing too good, neither. She hadn't stop yelling. There was blood everywhere. That kitchen floor looked worse than the spot where MeeMaw used to chop up the chickens. Goodness gracious! All that blood from having one little old baby. That's when the floor disappeared right out from under me. And when that floor come back, it weren't a floor no more. It was a sofa. I was laid out with a sheet tucked all around me. Melvin was there.

    "Baby girl, you had yourself quite a day," he said.

    "Oh, Uncle Melvin," I said. "We had ourselves a baby and there was no one round to help us none."

    "I know, sweet pea," he said. "You just rest now. Doc says you're gonna be just fine, goose egg and all."

    "I wanta see the baby," I said.

    "Well, you just rest for now, baby girl, okay?" Melvin said. That wan't hard since I hadn't slept none the night before. I was wanting to make sure that baby was okay, but a'fore I knew it, I was falling asleep.

    "Is the baby okay, Uncle Melvin?" I whispered as I nodded off. "Is he?"

    "Ssshhhhh," he said. "Go to sleep. Everything's gonna be okay."

    My eyes were real heavy, but I remember thinking
the baby's not
crying
. Matter of factly, the house was quiet as church.

I don't know for sure why Ray lost his job over there at the cotton mill. He coulda come in with liquor in him. Wouldn't be hard to smell it on his breath. Sometimes he drunk all night long.

    Ray was a hard one to figure out. Sometimes he was so nice to my mama and me, it was like a new man moved into his body and just took over. Like that summer when Lexie was having her baby. She recovered fine from the birthing. And her and Melvin had themselves a set of them twins where you get two babies at once! They was almost identical, they was, 'cept one was a boy and the one that come out when the floor left my feet was a girl. Even so, I couldn't tell them apart, 'lessen their diapers was off. Lexie could.

    Doc Crawley got both of them howling just fine when he got there and had my mama come over to help. Mama got Lexie to nurse them right off and they drifted on to sleep. Ray come, too. He was real jolly. Later when they woke up, he held those babies hisself.

    "It's yore uncle Ray, little fella," he said to the one they named Irl. They named the little girl one Katherine Alice after Lexie's mama. Irl wan't named after no one. Lexie just liked the name real good. Melvin didn't much mind what she called them. He said he liked the babies just fine and he trusted Lexie to give 'em a good name to take 'em through life. I think he was worried how they was gonna afford two of them at once. The mill was cutting back when no one figured on it, so Melvin was getting less hours every week.

    Come Labor Day the mill had their regular year-end picnic for all the workers and their families. Noble Brewster, the boss man, said we could come since Ray worked most of that year 'fore they fired him. That was real nice of him, too, 'cause he didn't have to. They was having a dance for the big folks and everything. It was real special for sure.

    They had lots of good food; watermelon for dessert, all you want even, and they had games and prizes for us kids. The gunnysack race that year was the one to win. They was giving away a new bicycle to whoever finished first. It was one of them two-legged races. You had to register who the contestant was and then your partner just helped you out. They didn't have to know who that was. Carolee and I was practicing a lot together. I didn't have me a bike, so I was the contestant. Carolee had herself a bike her daddy fixed up for her. She wanted me to win that bike so we could go riding all over together without me riding on the back of her bike like we always done. That was a real good idea, too, plus I wanted it bad. I never had me a bike before.

    We practiced day after day, we did. With a gunnysack race, 'lessen you git good, mostly you just fall on your nose when you go fast. But we was getting better at it and the skin on our noses was healing up pretty good.

    The day of the race we was surprised to see Darla Faye in line 'cause she had herself a fine bicycle already. But there she was, registered as a contestant and her cousin John Thomas was her partner.

    We all lined up in a row. Darla Faye and John Thomas managed to settle themselves right next to me and Carolee. They was grinning ear to ear. Now me and Carolee, we was taking this race real serious like. We wasn't grinning at nobody, but we wasn't trying to be unfriendly or nothing. We was just concentrating real hard on winning 'cause a lot depended on it. We was real tired of riding double on Carolee's bike. We was sorely determined to get me one of my own, and this was about the only chance. Ray still hadn't found any regular work, just odd jobs and stuff.

    The fella in charge of the race blew his whistle and we took off. Carolee and me darted away from that starting line so fast we was three feet ahead of everybody. We'd practiced for days on end pretending our ankles was locked together in a gunnysack, and we got real good at it, too. Now one a' her legs and one a' my legs was acting like they was just one leg. We kept barreling ahead faster and faster. I sneaked a peek sideways and saw John Thomas and Darla Faye inching up next to us. They was almost neck to neck, so we plugged along faster. We was still a touch ahead of them and that's all it took to win. There was only a few feet left to go and we'd be at the finish line! I was so excited my heart was pounding out of my body and my spirits was floating somewhere up on a cloud. I was getting me that beautiful new bike! I knew it. I was inches away. Next thing you know, John Thomas took a flying leap trying to catch us and Darla Faye got plumb knocked off her feet in the process.

    She went falling sideways right into our path. Carolee's leg stumbled over her in a heap and I come to a flying halt and landed next to her on my butt. Darla Faye jumped up and brushed herself off.

    "Oh that's such a shame, Lori Jean," she said. "I think you mighta won if John Thomas woulda watched where he was goin'."

    My eyes was blurring over and I was real close to crying. It wasn't 'cause my butt was hurting, either, even though it was. It was for the hurt in my chest. Right then I thought of my mama. I'd done what she told me not to: counted on something 'fore its time.

    "Lori Jean, honey," she said that morning, "don't go countin' on something 'til it's a fact. Okay?"

    "Okay," I answered, but mostly it was just to be polite.

    "I want you to win that race and get that bike more than I can tell you," Mama said, "but sometimes life is mighty cruel and won't give you what you want, even when you deserve it most." Yep, that's what she said that very morning. Now I remembered it good.

    I looked up and saw Mama standing next to Ray. They waited for the man with the whistle to call out the winner. Then they motioned for me to come over to where they was. I got up and brushed myself off and hung my head down trying to hide my tears.

    "I'm sorry, Lori Jean," Carolee called out. "It's all my fault," she said, and she started crying. Her tears got all mixed in with the sweat that done broke out on her face. I might not of noticed her tears so good at first, but they run smack into the dirt covering her face. We was both kinda grubby from running through the dust we kicked up.

    "It's all my fault! It is! I shoulda known Darla Faye would try somethin' like that and stayed clear a' her," Carolee said. She was sobbing now. Like to broke my heart.

    "She didn't want that bike, nohow. She just didn't want you to have it, is all," Carolee said. She didn't seem to care she was crying in front of everyone there.

    "It ain't your fault, Carolee," I said. "Don't blame yourself none. How was we supposed to know?" Carolee was still on the ground. I sat right down next to her and put my arm around her.

    "Besides, it might coulda been an accident," I said. "She might not of meant it none."

    "She did!" Carolee said. "I know she did!"

    "Well then, let's not let her see it bothers us none, okay?" I said. It was bad enough losing. I didn't want Darla Faye gloating over Carolee's tears. I helped her up, then rubbed at my knees. They was all skinned up. Carolee's was, too.

    "Look! We got us some good battle scars 'least," I said.

    "You gals sure enough do, now!" It was Ray. He and Mama was at my side. "We're right proud a' you both. Done real good, ya' did," he said. They hugged me tight. And Ray, he ruffled Carolee's hair. See what I mean 'bout him being so nice? Like a regular daddy.

    "Shame you didn't win that bike, Lori Jean," he said, "but don't you worry none; we're gonna get you a bike, now, hear?" I wasn't real sure about that, but I nodded my head like I was.

    "Shoot—you ain't never asked for nothin'," he said. "You deserved that bike and I'm gonna get you one! That's final."

    It was like a new man moved in and took over for Ray. Ain't that something? He didn't drink no liquor or nothing when he was like that. He was going to these meetings where everyone said their name and how many days it was since their last drink. He was up to fifty-eight days. Me and Mama liked him real fine.

    Mama and Ray danced and had themselves a good time at the picnic. Then we all rode home in the back of Melvin's truck, singing songs and being a family. There was stars out and a moon even.

    "It's almost time for the harvest moon. It's almost full," Ray said.

    "See, girls?" He pointed up at it.

    "By the time that harvest moon shines down, I'm gonna have me a new job," he said.

    "Then we gonna get you a bike, Lori Jean. And we gonna take your mama shoppin', too. Some new clothes, real pretty ones," he said. "Things is gonna be lookin' up for us 'fore long."

    It was so peaceful looking up at them stars that night. I smiled my way to sleep. Ray must of carried me in the house when we got home 'cause that was the last thing I remember, Ray being so happy—full of plans—and that almost harvest moon just shining down on us. It didn't matter none that I didn't win that bike.

    Finally we was gonna be a family. Have ourselves some happy times to look back on. Git ourselves one a' them futures—just like regular folks.

That year the town folks and some of the church folks, too, give Ray a bunch of odd jobs to do. Morgan Thompson, that's Carolee's daddy, give Ray fifty dollars to work on his tractor to get it in shape so he could get his field ready for spring planting. And he give him ten dollars extra to get new parts. Ray, he give that fifty dollars, all of it, to my mama! We had ourselves some fine groceries, we did. Bought us a ham roast and some bacon from old man Hawkins. Cost two dollars and fifty cents. Mr. Hawkins took thick slices of bacon, a nice pork shoulder roast and three pounds of pork chops right out of his smokehouse. It was all salted down good from when he butchered one a' his hogs that winter. Mr. Hawkins had a lot of big fat hogs to butcher and they growed fatter every year. Somes he sold and somes he kept. My favorite was Colonel Corn. He pushed all the others outa his way to get the corn. He was a real hog, that one. Right fine pig, he was. I liked him best ever since he won a prize at the fair the year before and Mr. Hawkins let me stand a'side him for the pictures.