A Forever Thing (18 page)

“Don’t condemn it until you try it. You’ll be pleasantly surprised. I promise.”

I just bet I will, she thought. Her saliva glands dried up just
thinking about eating a beautiful deer. At least he had mentioned
a chicken for Thanksgiving dinner, thank goodness.

Tina awoke in exactly thirty minutes. She didn’t move anything
but her eyes for several seconds as she remembered where she
was. Then she looked at Fancy and gave her a brilliant smile.

“Good nap. Outside now?” She peeped over the back of the sofa
at Theron in the kitchen.

“It’s really cold,” Fancy said.

“Coat and boots,” she said.

“Daddy, help me,” Fancy said.

“Coat and boots and only for a few minutes. You’ll freeze your
little fingers off if you stay out very long.”

“What’s cooking?” Tina went to the second tote bag and brought
out a pink sweat suit and a faded red jacket.

“Spaghetti for supper,” Theron said.

She dropped the clothing and clapped her hands. “Busgetti. I
love it.”

“That’s good. Let me help you out of your pajamas and into those
warm britches,” Fancy said. “Need to go to the bathroom first?”

Tina nodded.

Fancy dumped the tote bag out on the sofa-two sweat suits,
one pair of jeans and a T-shirt, a faded coat, a pair of well-worn
tennis shoes, and a pair of red boots. She found two sets of underpants and socks in the outer pocket.

“We’ll be going shopping on the way home,” she said.

Theron looked at the meager pile. “Is that all of it?”

“That and the pair of pajamas she has on”

Tina made a dash to the bathroom. “Got to go “

Fancy hurried to follow her, getting her onto the potty just in
time. She’d have to wear the one pair of pajamas every night, because if Fancy washed the heavy flannel by hand, they’d never be
dry before she’d need them again.

When she and Tina came out of the bathroom, the child wore only her underpants, and Theron saw just how tiny she was. She
didn’t look malnourished or fragile. Her skin was pink, and she
appeared to be healthy; she was just small, like him. Pride welled
up in his chest along with the fear that he would never know how
to raise a little girl properly.

Fancy set about putting socks and a sweat suit on her, along
with the coat and boots, which turned out to be on the verge of
being too small. She silently added a pair of boots to her mental
list of what Tina would need. Theron could get her a few things at
the Wal-Mart store on the way back to Albany, and later he could
take her to the right stores and buy her clothing for church and for
day care.

Fancy’s heart stopped.

Day care! That baby didn’t need to be shuffled into yet another
day-care center. She needed stability. But Theron couldn’t quit his
job and stay home with her. Fancy couldn’t keep her. She had a
beauty shop to run, and the house would sell soon, and she’d only
promised Sophie a year at the most. After that Tina would have to
be sent to day care anyway, so why start something that would
simply break Fancy’s heart when she had to walk away from it?
“Are we ready, ladies?” Theron asked from the door.

Fancy hurried into her own jacket.

Tina ran ahead and slipped and fell on her hind end the first
time she stepped out the door. She scooted across the porch and
down the steps without getting up, giggling the whole way. That
gave Theron an idea, and he went back inside and came out with a
big round dishpan edged with a red rim. It had a hole in one side to
hang it on the wall. He brought twine with him and attached it
through the hole, picked up Tina, and set her down in it. Her feet
and legs dangled over the edge, but she squealed with delight
when he pulled her across the ice.

Her brown eyes lit up as she wiped her long dark hair out of her
face. Her little hands were pink in no time. Fancy went back inside
and brought out a pair of her socks and put them on Tina’s hands
like gloves.

“More. More. Again,” she begged.

Theron had trouble keeping his own footing, and the dishpan that should have been trailing behind him kept bumping into his
legs. Fancy sat on the porch and laughed until she got the hiccups.
Theron motioned toward her. “Okay, smarty-pants, it’s your turn”

“Oh, no, you’re not putting me in that. Besides, Tina would be
upset if you took her out.”

“I’m not ending her turn. You’re going to sit in it, and she’s going to sit in your lap,” Theron said.

Fancy shook her head.

Theron laid the rope down, whispered into Tina’s ear, took two
running steps, and then skated all the way to the porch, where he
scooped Fancy up in his arms and carried her to the dishpan. Tina
hopped out, and Theron set Fancy down inside the big round pan.
He didn’t have to put Tina in Fancy’s lap. She was there before
Fancy could try to get up.

“You are wicked,” she laughed.

Tina laughed with her. “No, he’s new daddy.”

“See that tree down over the rise?” Theron pointed.

“Don’t you dare,” Fancy said.

“Yes, I do dare. Lean to the left, or you’ll hit it” He gave them a
push instead of tugging them around the yard.

The dishpan sailed like a sled on the slick ice. The slight slope
let it build up speed. Tina giggled with excitement, and Fancy
barely remembered to lean to the left in time to miss the tree. Tina
was screaming for more. The only thing that saved Theron from at
least a good tongue-lashing about the dangers of what could have
happened if they’d hit that frozen mesquite tree was the fact that
he fell flat on his rear end when he started down the rise. He slid
all the way to the bottom on his back, only stopping when he hit
the edge of the dishpan with his foot.

Tina clapped her sock-covered hands together. “Do it again,
new Daddy.”

“Yeah, do it again,” Fancy agreed.

“What a ride.” Theron grinned.

“And who’s going to get us back up that hill?” Fancy asked.

“No one. We’re going to pull Tina around it and to the house the
back way. Should take about fifteen minutes, and by then she’ll
have been out plenty long enough,” he said.

“Me too. That dishpan is cold through my jeans.”

“Then it’s probably really cold through her little sweatpants.
Don’t get up. You can let her sit on your lap so she’ll be warmer.”

Fancy nodded.

Theron was going to make a wonderful father. Too bad he
would never make a wonderful husband.

The table was laden with whipped sweet potatoes, made from a
can rather than fresh; chicken and dressing, made from boxed corn
bread and onion powder, celery salt, and sage; giblet gravy from
one tiny chicken liver and broth; green beans with a little bacon to
season them, and canned cranberries. The yeast roll recipe substituting mayonnaise for eggs worked well. Fancy could barely detect
the faint taste of mayonnaise in the hot rolls and couldn’t taste it at
all in the pumpkin pie or the chocolate cake.

Theron gave thanks.

Since it was a holiday, Fancy put only what Tina wanted on her
plate. When Fancy was growing up, her momma said that she
didn’t even have to eat vegetables on holidays. Granny Hattie always said Gwen was doing the wrong thing, but Fancy had always
been glad for the rule.

“In our family we all tell one thing we are thankful for at
Thanksgiving dinner. Tina, what are you thankful for today?”
Theron asked.

“I like mean beans today.” Tina jabbed her fork into three and
popped them into her mouth.

“Is that all?” Theron asked.

Tina’s brow furrowed as she thought. “I like ice too”

Fancy pondered that. How could a three-year-old like ice? The
frosty weather meant she was confined to a one-room cabin and
two people she didn’t even know.

“Why do you like ice?” she asked Tina.

“It’s pretty, and you play with me. More mean beans, please?”

Fancy put another tablespoon of beans onto her plate. Amazing.
A tyke who actually liked her vegetables!

Anything else you like today?” Theron asked.

“New Daddy and Fanny. I like them.” Tina went back to eating
as if she’d just said that she liked her doll.

“We’ve made a lot of progress, haven’t we?” Theron looked at
Fancy.

Fancy’s heart ached. It wasn’t fair that when the sun finally
came out and melted the ice that Theron would take Tina home
with him, and she would be out of the picture.

“So what are you thankful for?” Fancy asked Theron.

“I’m grateful for a daughter I didn’t know I had but who will be
a big part of my life from now on. And I’m especially thankful for
YOU.”

Fancy pushed a strand of hair back behind her ear. “Me?”

“You dropped everything when I called. You’ve made this …
transition much easier for Tina and me, even though you would
much rather be with your family today than stuck in a one-room
cabin with us. So today that’s what I’m thankful for,” he said.

“You’re welcome,” she murmured, somewhat stunned at his
graciousness.

“You?” Theron asked.

Fancy looked up, expecting to see a platter of whipped sweet
potatoes coming toward her. Instead, Theron was looking at her
with a question in his mossy green eyes.

“What?”

“Do you have anything you’re thankful for today?”

“A jar of unopened mayonnaise that wasn’t outdated,” she said,
oddly uncomfortable with the question and needing to keep things
light.

“Mustard. Not ‘naise. It’s yucky,” Tina said.

Fancy giggled. “Mayonnaise, because without it we wouldn’t
have this meal. It was my egg substitute. And I’m thankful for condensed milk in a can, because without it we wouldn’t have chocolate cake or whipped potatoes.”

“Then so be it. Mayonnaise is your hero today,” Theron said. He would never understand the way a woman’s mind worked. They
were a different species altogether.

“We’re from Venus, you know,” Fancy said as if she’d read his
mind.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“You can’t hide much. Whatever you’re thinking is written all
over your face.” She pointed at him. “Les is the same way. You
were disappointed that I didn’t get all mushy because it’s a holiday.
Momma didn’t raise me to be mushy. I speak my mind. I wouldn’t
have come to Texas if Granny hadn’t broken her hip. I wouldn’t be
staying in Texas if Sophie’s Aunt Maud wasn’t dying with cancer
and Sophie didn’t need me to help her through it. I don’t like Texas.
It’s nothing but mesquite trees, mosquitoes, and bad memories.
And now I can add ice storms to that list. So I’m thankful for mayonnaise,” she said.

“Whew! You do speak your mind, and the new commandment
of the cabin is to always have a spare jar of mayonnaise and an extra can of milk. Shall I carve it in the ice on the porch?” he asked.

“It would just melt, and you’d forget. Besides, the next woman
you bring up here might not even know how to make substitutions.”

“I like orange potatoes” Tina joined the conversation.

“Do you like broccoli?” Fancy asked.

Tina wrinkled her nose. “Yucky. Little Foot likes tree stars.”

Theron looked at Fancy.

“Leaves?” she guessed.

“What do you want to do after dinner?” Theron asked Tina.

“Nap,” she said.

“Is that good?” he quietly asked Fancy.

“Very, but most kids fight it. She’s obviously been trained since
birth, so it’s all she knows.”

“Then we’ll have a nap after dinner, and then what?”

Tina blew out her breath as if to say that sometimes big people
didn’t know much. “Make a snowman.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but it didn’t snow. We just have ice, so
we can’t make a snowman,” Theron explained.

She tried the second best thing. “Feed the birds?”

“That we can do. I bet they’d love some dressing.”

“So my dressing isn’t good enough to put up for leftovers?”
Fancy raised an eyebrow.

“It’s wonderful.” Theron grinned. “Isn’t that written across my
forehead in flashing neon letters?”

“Yes, but it’s spelled L-I-A-R”

“You believe every neon sign you read?”

“What’s neon?” Tina asked.

“It’s …” Fancy started to tell her that it was a gas inside tubes
that made lighted signs. “You tell her. You’re her daddy.”

“It’s the stuff they make pretty signs out of. Like McDonald’s
signs.”

“Burger with no un-uns and Coke and a toy,” she said.

“That’s right,” Theron said. “So did you eat at McDonald’s a
lot?”

She shook her head. “But I like it”

“Where did you eat burgers most of the time?” Theron asked.

She nodded. “SONIC. `No macky cheese, Tina. Chicken or
burger. Make up your mind,”’ she said in a stern voice.

“Did your momma say that?” Fancy asked.

“Kay-Kay. Chocolate cake now?” Tina asked.

“Yes, yes, yes,” Fancy said.

Tina giggled. “You are Sarah, not Fanny.”

Fancy touched her shoulder. “You were Kay-Kay, not Tina.”

Tina drew her eyes down. “Pick up toys, Tina.”