Venom and the River (26 page)

“Shit,” she said. She pressed a palm against her face. “Got me in the eye. That hurt.”

“Let me see,” Leigh said.

“It’s okay. Never mind. I was just startled.”

Leigh knelt in front of her daughter, who had her eyes closed tightly, the right one protected further by a hand. She peeled the hand away. A triangular mark was reddening under the eyebrow. “I am so sorry about today,” she said as she inspected Emily’s face. “So sorry about everything.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

She blew softly and Emily’s eyelids fluttered open.

Narrow ice-blue irises were barely visible around widely dilated pupils. Leigh pulled on the baggy sleeve of the Pepin High sweatshirt and pulled it up to her nose. She sniffed and let go.

Emily said, “I just want to go to bed, okay?”

Leigh sat cross-legged on her own bed. She glanced at the clock. One-thirty. “Smoking that stuff always used to make me sleepy. I never understood the charm. I gather you and Joe had a nice time after Roberta’s talk.”

“Busted!” Emily said in a faux-deep voice, then laughed. She held out her wrists. “Cuff me, officer.”

“I don’t want to play cop and I don’t want to get in an argument and wake Roberta, so let’s just drop it and go to bed. Please don’t tell your father or grandmother I didn’t punish you for smoking dope. And if you have any more I want you to hand it over. I don’t want you getting busted for real in Pepin. Not on my watch.”

Emily giggled again.

Leigh sighed. She remembered the laughing fits too, and hoped her daughter’s wouldn’t last long.

“Dope?” Emily said. “No one calls it that. And Marti already busted us and confiscated what Joe had left, so you two can have a good time tomorrow after I’m gone.” She giggled again and fell back on the airbed, clutching a pillow and bouncing her head.

“What do you mean, gone?”

Emily bounced her feet, left right, left right.

“Emily?”

“I rebooked my flight for tomorrow night.”

“Since when?”

Emily’s head rolled and she looked at the clock radio on the dresser. “Since about ten this morning; oops, yesterday morning. I did it before our little drama, okay? So don’t feel guilty. I had to go to Marti’s office to photocopy handouts for one of the workshop speakers. I used her computer. You don’t have to take me to the airport. Joe will take me. He’s tempted to go with me. Once his mother finds out…” She slapped a hand over her mouth.

Leigh slid down and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Emily, look at me. You can’t leave.”

Emily wiggled free and sat up. She leaned back against the bed.

“Did you take the naughty Seville?”

Emily nodded. “Joe wanted to see it.” She started giggling again, then stopped. “Oh, no I left it… Oh, damn.”

“Where is it?”

“I’ll get it, don’t worry. It’s safe. It’s in Marti’s office, okay? In her copier. You know how sometimes you’re in such a hurry you leave the original? I did that.”

“Her copier?”

Emily yawned. “Joe’s idea, I swear.”

“You broke into Marti’s office, after stealing the picture?”

“No and no. She let us in and your silly drawing is safe. She…”

Oh god, she’d throttle her daughter if she didn’t stop laughing.

“It was so funny,” Emily said. “You should have seen Marti and Ellen climbing up on the box—”

“They were involved? And what box are you talking about?”

Emily burped. “Hank and Chet helped too, but they wouldn’t climb up. They’re really cute. Marti didn’t want to call them at first but Ellen said we should because they had staple guns, and when they saw the pictures they joined us too. The big plywood box covering the statue that’s being unveiled tomorrow. At the museum? Under the balcony? Joe thought it needed some decorating. Don’t look at me like that; you’re the one who wanted to splash the picture where the world would see it. Now we have.”

Leigh sat down on the bed. Naughty pictures and a naughty prank. “Why didn’t you come get me?”

“Believe it or not, Mom, I did say we should get you but Marti said, ‘No, you were probably asleep or visiting with Roberta, and besides’, she said, ‘you have too much of a conscience.’ Which is pretty funny she thinks that, all things considered.” She took a deep breath and stood, and managed a couple uncertain steps toward the door. “Sorry for the surprise, but I really need to go home. A couple of friends are going through some shit and I want to be there. And I need to face Grandma and then there’s this thing at the beach coming up with Alexa’s family.” Emily put a hand on the door. “I’m going to be a good little girl and brush my teeth. I know,” she put a finger to her lips and made a shushing noise, “don’t wake Roberta, not that there’s much chance of doing that. I bet she’ll sleep for days. She was whipped after the speech. And about what I said earlier? This afternoon? Don’t think I meant it. Things are fine at home. It’s all good.”

It’s been a difficult spring.
“We’ll talk about it when you’re…feeling better.”

“I mean it, Mom. That’s not why I came to Pepin. I just needed a place to hide for a while. Sort of like you. But now I’m tired of hiding and I want to go home even though it won’t be pleasant. At least I can go home. I guess that makes me the lucky one, doesn’t it? You really should think about staying in Pepin, you know. I wouldn’t mind visiting here. Joe’s sweet. Ellen says she’ll knit me a sweater if I visit and that would be nice. And then there’s Marti. She’s like a crazy aunt. Crazy Aunt Marti. I’d come just to visit her.”

Emily leaned against the door, eyes closed and her head rocking back and forth. Leigh guided her daughter to the bed. “Brush your teeth in the morning.”

Emily said, “Don’t tell Grandma I didn’t brush my teeth.”

Leigh said, “Don’t tell her I didn’t get mad.” She peeled off Emily’s socks and tugged off her sweatshirt and jeans. She pulled the sheet up to Emily’s shoulder blades, then started massaging her shoulders. “You can’t go tomorrow.”

“Now you can work and I won’t be in the way. You can write your book.”

“There probably will never be a book. Why don’t you cancel the plane ticket? I’ll drive you home.”

Emily opened an eye. “In the Beamer?”

“The Toyota.”

Emily closed her eye again and shook her head. “What do you mean, no book?”

Leigh pressed a thumb against a knot under a shoulder blade. “Terry’s daughter said there’s no publisher who’s really interested. His agent is an old family friend, and he’s only been encouraging Terry just to be nice.”

“But that isn’t nice. Lower, please. You’d just walk out on him to drive me home? Wouldn’t you have to tell him why there’s no rush on the writing? Wouldn’t that disappointment kill him?”

Leigh rolled her knuckles across the new spot. “I think it might.”

“Better not take a road trip then, Mom. And it doesn’t matter because I don’t want to spend all that time in the car because I have to get home. A friend’s having an abortion next week. She can’t get one in Columbia, of course. I said I’d drive her to Atlanta. Her parents don’t know and neither does the idiot guy.”

Leigh drew back. “Emily!”

“She’s really stressed. I’m the only one who knows and being with her is more important than patching things up with my mother, as if that was going to happen anyway. I’ve never done it, you should know.”

“Had an abortion? I’m so glad.”

“Never have had sex. Your daughter is probably the last virgin in Columbia, South Carolina.” She tugged the sheet up and pushed Leigh’s hand away. “I’m sorry I’m such a shit. But I’m not with my friends, you should know that. That’s why Kayla wants me with her. I’m very trustworthy around my friends. I wish I hadn’t told you her name. Not that you’ll ever meet her.”

“I’ll come for a long visit soon. I want to meet all of your friends.”

“Mom, I’m crashing and I’m tired. Can I just go to sleep? It won’t work anyway.”

Leigh turned off the lamp. “What won’t work?”

“Making things better. I don’t know why I thought we could.”

Leigh leaned and kissed Emily’s brow, then slid down to the air bed on the floor.

Emily said, “Marti yelled at me tonight again about saying mean things about you and even Joe has said I’m kind of bitter and he hasn’t even met you. But they shouldn’t say that to me. It’s not wrong I feel pissed.”

Leigh said, “It’s not wrong.”

“Funny how you’re the only other person who thinks that. But I suppose that’s because the only one who’s madder at you than me is you. Since we’re having this mother-daughter Oprah moment, do you want to know something else?”

Leigh closed her eyes. In the last ten minutes her daughter had confessed to smoking marijuana, told her about a friend’s abortion, admitted to being a virgin, refused once again to forgive her mother, and salted the wound of Leigh’s self-loathing. She didn’t think she could handle any more, but she said, “Sure.”

“This was a whole lot better than Mexico.”

12.

The first people to see the pictures were the Little Girls who’d arrived at the museum for sunrise Tai Chi. Dee, bicycling from the houseboat to the café to open for the day, noticed several women milling around the large box that covered the statue that was to be unveiled at the convention’s noontime closing program.

Every inch of plywood was covered with copies of a picture that looked like it had been drawn by Dara Seville. Dee yanked one off. Morning dew had softened the paper and it drooped in her hand. “I knew it!” she shouted. She turned to a woman next to her. “I’ve had my suspicions all along, you know. The three girls were just such close friends.”

The woman she’d addressed took a deep breath and hurried away.

The Tai Chi crowd got on cellphones. Dee called Kate and woke her up. “Get down here,” she said. “You need to see this before someone alerts Peach and she arrives and takes it all down. Besides, I’ll need your help at the café before you go to work. I think we’re going to have a lot of business for breakfast.”

*

The plywood box had been cleared and removed by the time Leigh, Emily, and Roberta met Marti at the museum for the closing event of the gala celebration. A bright blue tarp now covered the statue. Several stern women stood guard in a circle, shooing away children who tried to peek under. A long rope connected a ring on the crest of the tarp to the front railing of the balcony on the museum’s second floor.

“I wish you’d woken me,” Roberta said after Emily whispered the story. “I can’t believe I missed that.”

Women turned and stared. Marti smiled.

“I saw the pictures,” one woman said, “Not Seville, I’m sure of that.”

Marti said, “Oh, Seville drew it, all right. Didn’t you read the message she wrote? If you aren’t already a member of the Ida May Turnbull Society it’s time you join. Our next newsletter will have the whole story. The illustrated story.”

As women reached into purses and backpacks for checkbooks, Marti whispered to Leigh, “I’ve been here twenty minutes and already doubled the membership.”

Ellen Blaney wiggled through people. She hugged Emily and said, “Oh the things I’ve been hearing!” She tapped Roberta’s arm. “Come along, honey. We’re needed for the big moment. Peach wants us all on the balcony. We’d better get inside.” She winked at Emily.

After they left Emily said, “Another big moment? It’s good I’m leaving. I’m not sure I can handle many more Little Girl moments. Do you think Peach will say anything about the pictures?”

Marti said, “Peach won’t say a word publicly, ever. She’ll carry on as if nothing happened because things like that don’t happen in her perfect Little Girl world.”

Just as the carillon from the nearby church quieted, a choir began singing. As the final chorus faded away, a horse and buggy came into view around the Dairy Queen.

Joe—costumed in old fashioned livery—was at the reins. Peach and Petra sat behind the driver. The women waved to the cheering crowd. Joe spotted Emily and doffed his top hat.

Leigh smiled. The boy certainly had a sense of humor about his mother’s obsession.

The crowd parted for the buggy, which then circled the blue tarp twice before stopping at the door of the museum. The passengers alighted. Peach signaled the choir to begin another song and then followed Petra into the museum. Joe and the buggy trotted away.

As the choir finished, the French doors behind the second floor wrought-iron balcony opened. Peach, Petra, Ellen, and Roberta stepped out. The Little Girls cheered wildly.

Emily said, “I must still be stoned.”

Leigh hushed her.

Peach waved her arms and the crowd quieted. “Dear Little Girls, what fun this has been! I know in my heart that Ida May is watching from the Big River in the Sky.”

Leigh drew a sharp breath and then laughed. Emily hushed her.

“And I know she’s so happy we could be joined by two special friends, who keep the Little Girl spirit alive through their work.” She turned to Petra and Roberta in turn, and the crowd erupted again.

“It is with great joy I share some wonderful news with you all: Last week Petra and Donnie signed a contract to begin filming twelve new television episodes of
Little Girl, Big River.
A whole new generation will discover our beloved books!”