Rush Home Road (14 page)

Addy found her voice just as Riley walked back into the room and passed her a delicate china plate with two fat cake slices and what looked like a fork for a baby. “My name's Adelaide Shadd, Sir.”

The boy's good eye found her. He asked, “You a friend of Verilynn's, Adelaide?”

Addy shook her head and Lenny's cousin looked surprised. “You must have known Rosalie then? You knew my wife?”

Addy shook her head again. The fork began to clatter on the cake plate. Her chin quivered and tears squeezed out her eyes. She knew it had to be told, but was sorry as she was telling it that the ears that heard had deep troubles of their own. Once she began though, she could not stop the rush of words. By the end, after she'd explained about Lenny taking the Pastor's money roll and how
Morris rowed her across the river and pointed the way, she felt like she'd lived it all over again and she could scarcely breathe. Wallace and Laisa, Chester Monk and L'il Leam, and especially Zach Heron, had filled up the room and stolen all the air.

The faces of the man and the young man had said many things as they listened to her story, but she could not tell if the anger she saw was toward her or Zach Heron or Wallace or who. Finally, after a long moment filled by the distant sound of children and barking dogs, Lenny's cousin rose and said, “Adelaide Shadd, I do not believe you.”

Riley looked up from his teacup, his face drained. “I believe her, Poppa. Who could make up such a story as that?”

But the older man just shook his head and said, “No Sir, I do not believe it was cousin Lenny who sent you to us.”

Addy waited and didn't know what to think when he bent down and took her hand in his. “I believe it was the Lord, Miss Shadd. For who else could know your trouble and ours and bring us together in this right way?”

Riley smiled and liked his father for what he said. His Poppa'd been a preacher years ago and still had a preacher way about him even though he questioned the Bible and said it could not all be right. The old man had decided there was only one thing in that whole big book he could fully believe and that was
love one another.
Simply, love one another.

Riley nodded. “That's right, Adelaide. What with Mama passing and Verilynn gone off to her school, we been
saying how we're gonna need a woman in the house. We're both lonely and sick and you look like medicine to us, isn't that right, Poppa?”

Addy was puzzled and sure they hadn't heard her correctly. “But I got a baby coming, Sir, and I ain't married. I'm ruined and that's the only truth.”

The man shook his head slowly and said, “This is what I believe, Young Adelaide, I believe that you are a good child and a grievous wrong has been done unto you. I believe that the Lord sent you to us like a gift, and I would be honoured if you lived in my home and allowed me to know the power of the Holy Spirit through you.”

Addy thought there must be rum in the house but couldn't smell any on this rare man's breath. She let him collect her tears in his soft white handkerchief and said, “Sir. I be most grateful if you and your son here take me into this house. I won't never let myself be seen with you or shame you in any way. I am a fine baker and a good sewer and I could do for you and earn my keep.”

“Call me Poppa, Adelaide, like my other children do. And I'll be a Poppa to you, and not like your own Daddy, who needs not our hatred but our forgiveness. And I'll be a Poppa to your child too, for the only thing left to do is love.”

Addy felt the sting of rising tears again, but her eye caught the apple cake still untouched on her lap. Poppa saw the way she looked at it and said, “Riley, let's get Adelaide fed proper with good meat and some of the other victuals our friends have brought to us.”

Riley nodded and went back down the hall. When he returned, Addy thought she might be dreaming, for he brought a pretty china plate so full of good food it was like the best church supper. She ate that plateful and more, until Poppa said she might get sick and best to lay down in Verilynn's room now.

When Addy woke the next morning, Riley was sitting on a chair near the bed, his eyes watching the rise and fall of her growing stomach. He smiled shyly and said, “I thought you might sleep all day, Adelaide.” She smiled just as shyly at Riley and wondered why she hadn't seen before that this young man was so much like L'il Leam in nature and stature he might have been her own dear brother himself. She said, “Thank you for me being here.”

Riley shrugged and said, “Well, Poppa knows the Lord like no man living and if he thinks it's the best thing, I think it is too. Verilynn won't agree. Very's not the agreeable type. Poppa made some tea and I thought you might like an apple turnover for your breakfast.”

Addy nodded and smiled and didn't tell Riley that whoever made the turnovers had worked the dough too long. She watched him leave the room, feeling Heaven's grace just as Poppa had said.

Glancing around, Addy saw there was a writing desk in the corner, a shelf filled with books, and a certificate of merit on the wall on which she could read “Verilynn Rippey.”
Rippey
, she thought, and how strange it was she was only now learning Poppa and Riley's last name.

Verilynn's bedroom was unlike the rest of the house. There was a dark blue curtain without trim or ribbon, and the quilt was not like the delicate patchwork one she saw when she looked into Poppa's room. Her bed had a thick brown blanket that was warm enough, but not pretty. Addy wondered about Verilynn, remembering what Poppa told her last night about his daughter being away at school learning how to be a nurse. She'd been envious and impressed and wondered if the woman would be wearing a starchy white apron and nurse cap when she came home. She also wondered what all Riley meant about Very not being agreeable.

When Riley returned with the sweet milky tea and two heavy turnovers, Addy could see that he was changed. He'd become distant and sullen and hardly responded when she inquired about the neighbourhood. “Black Bottom,” was all he said, and she had no idea what it meant. She reckoned he was tired and still sad at losing his Mama. She understood. She was still sad at losing her own.

 

Red Licorice

ADDY WAS LOATH TO
do it because she did not like to beg favours, but she knocked on the screen door to Bonita Berry's trailer all the same. Bonita came to the door wearing just a T-shirt and her underpants, coughing and swallowing her snot. “Thought you was one of the kids.”

Addy wondered how that explained her answering the door in just her underwear. “Could I trouble you to keep an eye out for Sharla? I'll just be gone ten minutes or so. She's over there building a twig tower with your Nedda.”

Sharla and Nedda Berry had become friends of sorts. Sharla said they were
best
friends and was devoted to the older child. But Addy thought Nedda was bossy and mean and knew the child liked to go through her cupboards and sneak things. Just moments ago she'd overheard Sharla say to Nedda, “Put them back. Don't.”

“She won't know! There's a whole package here!”

“That's stealing though. Same as if you put something in your pocket and don't pay for it.”

“You're a suck, Sharla.”

Addy stepped out from the hall and caught Nedda with
her fingers in the cookie tin, a coconut log already stuffed in her chocolate-smeared mouth. Addy narrowed her eyes at Nedda and said, “How many of my cookies you eat already, Young Miss?”

Nedda closed the tin and stepped down from the chair, chewing, stalling. Finally she swallowed. “None.”

“Sharla knows how I feel about thieving and I'll tell you right now, if you ask me for something, chances are I'll give it to you. But if you think you are gonna sneak from me, then lie about it, you won't be welcome here.”

Nedda didn't like to be scolded and got sassy right away. “You ain't my mother. You can't hit me. Only my mother can hit me.”

Suddenly understanding why Nedda was Nedda, Addy sat down in a hard-back chair and said, “Come here, Nedda Berry.” Nedda shook her head. Addy reached out, taking Nedda's hand, and pulled her firmly till the child stood in front of her. Addy asked softly, “Now, would you two girls like a coconut log?”

Sharla clapped her hands. Nedda nodded, confused. Addy gave each of the girls a cookie and sent them outside lest they get their sticky chocolate fingers all over her clean walls. She called after them, “Do not go near them cows!”

Bonita Berry squinted and scanned the field behind the trailers until she could see the children. Addy knew this woman was not a reliable guardian but reckoned she'd only be gone a short time and felt sure that Sharla'd be all right
until she returned. “Just ten minutes. Just going up to Warren's office.”

“I'm not feeding her lunch,” Bonita warned, and Addy felt cross at that because she often fed Nedda lunch. In fact, Sharla begged her to make peanut butter and banana sandwiches just because they were Nedda's favourite.

“Won't have to. I'll be back long before.”

“Good, 'cause I got nothing in my fridge.”

“You remember it's Sharla's birthday party tomorrow?”

“Shit.”

“Beg pardon?”

“I forgot about her birthday.”

Addy tried to sound calm. “That little girl be heart-broken if Nedda can't come.”

“Well, I don't have a present and I don't have the money to buy one now.”

“That's all right. That's all right. Just wrap up any old thing and say it's a present. Just please let her come. Around eleven. We'll feed her lunch and have her home by three.”

Bonita yawned and plodded back into her trailer.

Addy sighed and started off down the road, hoping Sharla wouldn't see her leave. The air was heavy and dusty, and there was no hint of cool like sometimes happened in mid-August. Addy's garden had been miserable without rain. The children were suffering and the mangy dogs and cats too. Originally Addy thought to make a party for Sharla at the lake and take her and Lionel and Nedda and a picnic
basket full of goodies out there in a taxicab. But she knew it would be too hard for her and too much responsibility to look after three children who she knew couldn't swim.

In the end, she decided on hot dogs and ice cream, a few games, and a run under the big waving sprinkler that she was going to borrow from Warren and Peggy Souchuck's office now.

Addy imagined Sharla's face when she opened her presents. There were three presents in all: a beautiful fairytale book with a three-dimensional mermaid picture on the cover that Sharla'd been eyeing at the Kmart, a fancy cartoon lunch box for school, and—Addy smiled thinking of it—Chick's doll.

Chick's doll, her sixth birthday present, had been slumbering in a shoebox, saved along with the white cotton dress and hidden in Addy's closet all through the years. She was a baby doll with porcelain arms and feet and a porcelain face. Her watery blue eyes looked out from beneath a head of delicate blonde curls, and her white cotton dress was carefully sewn. It didn't hurt Addy to look at the doll again as much as she thought it would. In fact it pleased her to think of giving it to Sharla. She wouldn't tell Sharla it was a doll to be looked at and not played with the way she'd done with Chick. If the doll was played with and ruined, so be it, Addy thought.

By the time Addy reached Warren and Peggy's office her hip was aching and she was well out of breath. Warren's big German shepherd greeted her at the door with a wag
and a bark. She patted his head but said, “Go on, Chipper. I don't trust you one bit.”

Addy sat for a moment in the musty chair by Warren's desk and was glad when he offered a cigarette. Then she remembered the promise to Leam and shook her head. Warren didn't mind loaning the sprinkler but wondered if her hose was long enough to reach the field. She said it was, and he remembered, “I got a call from Frank Kuiper yesterday. That's his cow pasture out back.”

“Mmm-hmm?”

“He says trailer kids been climbing the fence again and someone's gonna get hurt. You think a cow's a gentle animal, eh, but that ain't always the case.”

“I'll talk to Sharla again and make sure she won't go climbing. I think she's got more sense but she does get led astray.”

“Don't we all.” Warren laughed.

Addy took the heavy sprinkler and rose to go. Warren checked to make sure his wife hadn't entered through the back office door and stopped Addy, asking quietly, “You heard from Collette?”

The question took Addy by surprise. She shook her head.

“Let me know if you do, will you, Mizz Shadd?”

“Mmm-hmm. Course I will. Course I will, Warren.” She knew she was being nosy but couldn't help it. “You got business with Collette?”

“She owes me a few hundred, but Christ, don't say nothing to Peg, eh?”

Addy nodded.

Warren looked serious. “You thought about calling the police?”

“Police?” Addy's heart thumped.

“Well, yeah, I mean, Collette just up and left the kid. Never said where she was going or when she'd be back or
if
she'd be back. I mean, yeah, I'd think about calling the police.”

“If I called the police they'd take that child to foster care.”

“Likely. Peg and I were saying that might be the best thing though.”

Addy couldn't tell any more if Warren was friend or foe. Did he mean to have Sharla taken away? She cleared her throat and asked quietly, “You think it's so bad the child's living with me, Warren?”

“No. I just—Christ, Mizz Shadd, you don't
want
her, do you? I mean, you're getting up there, no offence. Peg and I looked after the kid for Collette a couple of times. Not an easy child to like.”

“I like her fine.”

“I just figure you don't need some brat eating up your pension.”

“Well, Warren, truth is, Sharla ain't no brat. She's a sweet thing, really, and gives me comfort. But I am getting old, like you say, and seeing it don't look like Collette's coming back, I did have a mind to find her a more permanent place to live. I called Collette's father.”

Warren whistled and shook his head. “He's quite the bastard, eh? 'Scuse my French, but…”

“You know him?”

Warren nodded. “We were neighbours. I've known Collette since, oh, way before her mother died. When I got my job here I helped her out, you know, like you do. Guess we were going steady for a while. But Collette isn't exactly a one-man woman.” He checked the back door again and gestured with a hand to his throat. “Peggy's the jealous type though, so.”

“Why you think so lowly of Reggie Depuis? What'd he do to her?”

“You know Collette's Mum died of cancer?”

“Mmm-hmm. Arla. I knew them a little, way back when.”

“Then you know Reggie married that Delia woman right away.”

“Yes. Yes. I knew about that.”

“Well, Delia moves into the house and first thing she does is get rid of the family dog. Said she was allergic but no one believed her. He was an old dog, sure, but…Collette never did get over that.”

“I imagine she didn't.”

“Reggie and Delia were always going out for dinners and card parties and whatever. Pretty much left Collette to fend for herself, so.”

“You know Sharla's Daddy, Warren?”

Warren shrugged. “Saw him once or twice at roller-
skating. Collette told me his name was Cody. I don't know. He's a coloured fella. Sorry, Mizz Shadd. I should say
black
, eh?”

Addy laughed. “I'm too old to know the right word, Warren. I think you say what you say with your intention and that's good enough for me.”

“Well, anyway, Cody was a big fella, kinda fat. Not exactly good-looking. Not exactly somebody you'd expect Collette to go for.”

Addy nodded. “Don't know nothing about where he lived?”

“Far as I know she only went out with him the one time. My Mom wouldn't let my little sister go roller-skating on account of what happened to Collette. She's pretty racial, eh, so.”

Addy nodded, knowing what Warren meant and how his mother thought. Coloured boys went roller-skating and coloured boys made white girls pregnant.

“Well, I best be getting on, Warren. I can get the sprinkler back by tomorrow.”

“Sure, leave it with Peggy, and don't say nothing about Collette, eh, or my ass is grass.”

“I understand, Son.”

Addy left the office with a queasy feeling and it wasn't the heat. Leam was walking beside her now and offered his arm for support when she stumbled.

“You think Warren's gonna call the police about Sharla, Leam?”

“No. You heard him. He's a good fella.”

“I don't feel well.”

“I know, Addy. Been a long hot summer already. You feel better when the north wind blows again.”

“What if I die before then, Leam? What's gonna happen to that little girl?”

“Nothing good, Addy.”

“If I could just find her Daddy. If I could just find her Daddy.”

“Who you talking to?” The voice Addy heard was not Leam's but a squeaky little girl's voice and for a second Addy's heart stopped, thinking it might be Chick. She looked up ahead of her on the road and saw a familiar child swinging her arms and staring. Addy looked at the white-haired child, searching for her name and the context of their knowing each other.

“Hello, Child.”

Fawn Trochaud smalled her eyes and asked again, “Who were you talking to?”

Addy shrugged. “Oh, just my own self. Old ladies do that, you know.”

Fawn fell into step beside her. “Aunt Krystal buried Trixie out back the trailer.”

“Trixie?”

“It stunk like poo, too.”

“Trixie?”

“She said you should have stayed to help. She was mad.”

Addy remembered. “Oh! You're Sharla's little friend. Dear. Dear? That your name? Dear?”

“Try Fawn,” she sassed.

“Fawn. Well, what a lucky thing to see you, Fawn. Let's go on over to your Aunt's place a minute. Which one is it again?”

Fawn pointed to a shabby trailer a few yards away where Krystal Trochaud lay stretched out on a cat hair blanket, stuffed into a too-small bikini, letting the sun at her greasy pink flesh.

Addy called out, “Hello there!”

Krystal glanced up and closed her eyes again, calling, “Whatever you come to ask the answer's no.”

Addy reached the edge of the blanket. “Beg pardon?”

“Whatever you're asking me to do, I can't do it. I can't take Sharla. I won't take Sharla. Not for a day. Not for an hour.”

“Well, actually, I came to ask if Fawn here wants to come to Sharla's birthday party tomorrow.”

“Oh.” Krystal sat up, imagining a day all to herself.

Fawn shook her head. “I don't want to go.”

Addy laughed, thinking the little girl was just being sassy again. “Course you do. Sharla's your friend. And it's gonna be fun. We'll have hot dogs and whatnot. Games and all, and I'm running this big sprinkler here so bring your swimsuit too.”