Angel Sister (24 page)

Her heart started beating a little faster. She wasn’t exactly scared. She didn’t think rats were going to start crawling out of the corners toward her. Spiders maybe, but not rats. She peered up toward the spiderwebs above her head and wished she hadn’t thought about the spiders. She felt all crawly as she brushed through her hair with her hands and shook her arms and legs. She didn’t see a spider anywhere, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. The light was dim in the outhouse and some spiders were really small.

She squeezed her eyes shut and breathed in and out slowly to keep from screaming. The spiders would stay in their webs. They wouldn’t hurt her. But who knew what might happen if Mrs. Baxter caught her there? She’d tell Grandfather Merritt and he’d say she couldn’t come see Lorena ever. It had to be just a matter of time until Mrs. Baxter needed to use the toilet and then Kate would be caught for sure.

You could ask Jesus to help you
. Lorena’s words echoed in Kate’s head, but the Lord hadn’t helped her the day before. Even if she said the words,
Please, Jesus, help me
, out loud there wasn’t anybody to hear them. Nobody. But the words seemed to rise inside her in spite of herself. It was as if she couldn’t stop the prayer even though she knew nobody was listening.

All of a sudden the button on the outside of the door turned. Kate hadn’t heard anybody come up the path. She hadn’t heard anything at all. Her heart jumped up in her throat as her eyes flew open. She peeked out of the cracks between the planks on the door. No one was there. Gingerly she pushed open the door and peered out. No sign of anybody there. Not Mrs. Baxter. No one.

Kate stepped out of the outhouse, pushed the door shut, and locked it. She looked toward the house before she slipped around behind the outhouse where she could walk away without being seen.

And there was her rescuer, already climbing the fence behind the house to head toward the trees in the distance. Kate called out to her, but Fern didn’t look back. She just kept walking.

______

You can’t go bothering people before breakfast, Kate,” her mother said while Kate poured water out of the teakettle into the dishpan. She was trying to sound stern, but Kate thought she really wanted to skip the lecture and just ask about Lorena.

They were alone in the kitchen. Tori had tagged along with Kate’s father to the shop, and Evie had gone to the store to get some salt.

“Mrs. Baxter didn’t see me.” Kate set the teakettle back on the stove.

“Yes, but you still should have waited.” Mama paused a moment before she asked, “Was Lorena all right?”

“I guess, but she’d been crying.” Kate didn’t look at her mother as she concentrated on washing her father’s coffee cup just so. A couple of tears slid out of the corners of her eyes when she thought about leaving Lorena there with Mrs. Baxter, but her mother didn’t notice. The tears rolled down to join the beads of sweat on Kate’s face. The kitchen was hot.

“Well, that might be expected. Poor child’s had some upheavals.” Her mother dropped a handful of the lima beans she was shelling into a pan.

“She said Mrs. Baxter wanted to change her name to Polly, and when Lorena said she wouldn’t, she hit her with a flyswatter.”

“Polly.” Mama mashed her mouth together and shook her head. “I don’t know what Ella’s thinking.” She sounded almost like she was talking to herself, before she blew out a breath and looked up at Kate. “But I suppose there’s nothing wrong with the name Polly.”

“I’m not calling her Polly,” Kate said as she attacked the dried egg and ketchup on Tori’s plate.

“No. Not unless Lorena decides she likes the name.”

“She won’t.” Kate propped the clean plate in the draining pan and started scrubbing on the skillet.

Her mother sighed and picked up a new bean to shell. “You’re no doubt right about that. Her name is important to her. It’s her last connection with her mother.”

“Do you think her parents will ever come back to get her?”

“I don’t know. Who knows what might have happened to them after they drove away from Rosey Corner? It’s awful to be so poor.”

Kate wiped the skillet dry with a tea towel and looked around for any dishes she might have missed as she said, “But we’re poor too, aren’t we? We don’t have money.”

“We may not have a lot of money, but we get by. We don’t go hungry.” Mama’s voice sounded stiff.

Kate wrung out the dishrag and draped it over the edge of the cabinet. “But what if Grandfather Merritt quits letting us run a tab at his store?”

“He won’t.”

Kate carried the dishpan out the back door and threw the water out in the yard. Some hens came running to frantically peck at the bits of food in the dishwater. Kate went back in the kitchen and sat down at the table beside her mother. She picked up a handful of the lima beans and began hulling them. “Is that why Grandfather Merritt can tell people what to do in Rosey Corner? Because people owe him money for the stuff they buy?”

Mama was quiet for so long that Kate didn’t think she was going to answer her, but at last she said, “No, I don’t think that’s it. I think it has more to do with your grandfather’s strength of character and how he feels about Rosey Corner. While he may seem harsh at times, I believe he really does want what’s best for the community. The same as Father always wanted what was best for the church.”

“He doesn’t want what’s best for Lorena.” Kate stared at the beans in her hand. “Neither did Grandfather Reece. He wanted Mrs. Baxter to have her.”

“Not now. With all that happened, I forgot to tell you what Father said yesterday. He told me to tell you he was wrong and you were right.” Mama put her hand on Kate’s arm and looked straight into her face. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say he was wrong before.”

Kate stared at her. “Can’t we just go get Lorena back? She wants to come, and we want her to be here. Mrs. Baxter doesn’t even act like she likes her.”

Kate’s mother reached across the beans in her lap to give Kate a hug. “I wish I could make all this better, but I can’t. All I can do is pray that an answer will come. An answer that will be best for Lorena. And for you.”

Kate shifted uneasily in her chair. She couldn’t tell her mother she didn’t believe in prayer anymore. Mama thought prayer could solve everything, but Kate knew that wasn’t true. So what if Fern had let her out of the outhouse right after a prayer had sort of sprung up inside of Kate’s head all on its own. That didn’t mean a thing.

Evie came in the back door and set the salt down on the table. She looked at Kate. “Grandfather Merritt told me to tell you not to go see Lorena. He didn’t know you’d already been over there and I didn’t tell him, but he said you had to stay away from Lorena so she could get used to being with the Baxters.”

“But I promised Lorena I’d come back after breakfast. I can go, can’t I?” Kate begged her mother. “I have to. I promised.”

Mama studied the lima bean in her hand for a long moment before she finally looked up and said, “You can go, but you have to be respectful of Mrs. Baxter.”

“But she’s been hitting Lorena with a flyswatter.”

“I’ve waved a flyswatter your way a few times myself when you needed it.”

“That’s different,” Kate said.

“How so?” Mama looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“You love us. Mrs. Baxter doesn’t love Lorena.”

“Now, Kate, you can’t be sure of that.”

“Mama, she can’t love her. Not and try to change her name to Polly. She just wouldn’t do that if she loved her.”

Before Kate could go back to see Lorena, she had to help finish up the lima beans and then carry some food and a raisin pie to Grandfather Reece’s house. When she got there, Grandfather Reece had his Bible marked at Luke 11 for her to read to him. That was the chapter with the Lord’s Prayer in it.

Grandfather Reece had to know those verses by heart, but he shut his eyes and seemed to absorb the words as Kate read them. Then when she got to the ninth and tenth verses about asking and receiving, seeking and finding, knocking and it opening up, he reached over and poked the Bible with his finger, then poked her. She knew he was preaching at her even though she was the one reading the Scripture and he wasn’t saying a word. What she didn’t know was how he knew she felt all prayed out and empty.

So it was already the middle of the afternoon before Kate finally walked up to the Baxters’ front door and knocked on the screen door. She wanted to just yell for Lorena, but she’d promised her mother to be respectful of Mrs. Baxter. Kate peered through the screen door in hopes of seeing Lorena running to the door. The living room looked like something out of a magazine, with a cream-colored couch and books perfectly arranged on a coffee table in front of it.

The room was not a thing like her sister’s house. The only time Miss Carla’s house got any kind of cleaning was when Kate’s mother took pity on Grandfather Reece and straightened up the mess. Mama said cleaning wasn’t Miss Carla’s talent. Kate didn’t think cleaning took talent, but if it did, then from the looks of Mrs. Baxter’s living room, she had loads of that talent.

And it was quiet. Too quiet. Like nobody was home. Kate knocked again. She was about to turn away and go see if Lorena was out in the backyard when Mrs. Baxter came out of a side room into the living room. From the way she fluffed her hair as she came toward the door, Kate guessed she must have been lying down.

“Kate.” Mrs. Baxter made no move to open the screen door. She looked surprised and not at all happy to see Kate. “Didn’t your grandfather talk to you?”

“I haven’t seen him today.” It wasn’t a lie. Kate hadn’t seen him. “I came to see Lorena. Can she come outside?”

“No Lorena here.” Mrs. Baxter had a smug look on her face.

“Not here? Then where is she?” Kate asked.

“Oh, you must mean Polly.” Mrs. Baxter emphasized the name Polly.

“Polly? No, I mean Lorena. Lorena Birdsong.”

Mrs. Baxter got a pained look on her face and covered her ears with her fingertips. “Please. That name is not to be spoken in this house.”

“Why not? That’s Lorena’s name.”

“Not anymore. She’s my responsibility now and she’ll be called what I say and not some gypsy Indian–sounding name. Polly Baxter is a good, respectable name.” Mrs. Baxter put her hands on her hips and glared at Kate through the screen. “Now it’s time for you to go home.”

“But I have to see Lo—” Kate stopped when she saw the frown on Mrs. Baxter’s face deepen. She had to get past this woman to see Lorena. Kate licked her lips and said, “I mean Polly.”

“That’s more like it.” Mrs. Baxter smiled as if she’d beaten Kate in some kind of contest. Then her smile was gone as she narrowed her eyes on Kate. “But I’m afraid Polly can’t have visitors right now. She needs to spend some time alone while she readjusts her attitude. And I’m sure it will be much better for her if you stay away from her. You’re not a good influence, Kate Merritt. And you can tell your mother I said so. Goodbye.” She stepped back and shut the wooden door in Kate’s face.

Right before the door slammed shut, Kate called out, “Lorena!”

From somewhere back in the house, Kate heard a muffled cry and then her name yelled over and over. “Kate! Kate!”

Kate pulled on the screen door, but it was locked. She yanked on it, but it wouldn’t open. She stood there and stared at the closed door and didn’t know what to do.

From inside she heard Mrs. Baxter’s voice. “Stop all that caterwauling or you’ll have to stay in there an hour longer.”

Lorena quit yelling, and things got very quiet again.

Kate’s heart was pounding up in her throat, but she couldn’t tear down the door no matter how much she wanted to. She turned around and went down the porch steps and out of the yard. Maybe her mother would know what to do.

Kate nearly jumped out of her skin when somebody put a hand on her shoulder. She whirled around to come face-to-face with Fern. “You scared me,” Kate said when she caught her breath.

“Sorry.” Fern’s lips turned up a bare bit. She had on a faded red flowered dress and rubber boots. She had to be walking in puddles of sweat inside those boots. Her gray hair was tied down with a rolled-up kerchief around her head like an Indian headdress. Her face was clean. She didn’t have the hatchet, and her eyes looked almost sane. Her mouth straightened out as all hint of a smile vanished from her face. “You help her. That woman put her in a closet. Little girl’s scared.”

“How do you know?”

“I looked through the window.”

“But what can I do? Mrs. Baxter won’t let me in.”

Fern’s eyes bored into Kate. “The back door’s open.” She grabbed Kate’s shoulder and gave it a shake. “You help her.”

Kate turned back toward the Baxters’ house. Fern was right. She couldn’t just walk away when Lorena needed her. Her parents would understand. Grandfather Merritt wouldn’t, but her parents surely would. But even if they didn’t, she had to do it. She looked around behind her, but Fern was gone. Kate took a deep breath and began creeping toward Mrs. Baxter’s back door.

The back screen door was unlocked just the way Fern said. Kate slowly pulled it open, hoping against hope that it wouldn’t squeak on its hinges. She hesitated just inside the door and looked around. The kitchen was empty. Kate’s heart was beating so loud inside her chest that she was sure Mrs. Baxter would be able to hear it from wherever she was in the house. She should have asked Fern which closet in which room.

She held her breath and listened. When she heard steps in the next room, she looked around frantically for someplace to hide if the steps started toward the kitchen. But they didn’t. The front door opened and Mrs. Baxter went out on the porch. Kate pulled in a shaky breath. From behind a closed door on the other side of the kitchen, she heard a sniffle.

Kate moved silently across the floor on her bare feet and opened the door. Lorena was huddled back in the corner of the pantry with her feet pulled up under her and her hands over her toes. Her eyes flew wide open when she saw Kate, and she scrambled up toward her. Kate shushed her by putting a finger against her lips and pulled the door of the pantry shut behind her just as the front door opened and closed again.

“You better not be trying to open that door, missy,” Mrs. Baxter called back toward the kitchen. “Not if you don’t want to stay in there till bedtime.”

Kate hugged Lorena close to her as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. The pantry was big enough to walk between two rows of shelves filled with canned food, cracker boxes, and sacks of flour and sugar. Kate had never seen so many groceries in one place except at her grandfather’s store. The shelves stopped a couple of feet from the door where brooms and mops leaned against the wall behind a lard can on one side. On the other side, aprons and old flour sacks hung from hooks on the end of the shelves.

From somewhere in the house, music started playing and then a voice was talking. A radio. While the electric lines weren’t to Kate’s house yet, parts of Rosey Corner had gotten on the line last fall. Kate breathed easier. Perhaps Mrs. Baxter would be so tuned in to her program, she wouldn’t be listening for any noises coming from the pantry.

Kate sat down on the floor beside Lorena and used her skirt tail to rub the tears off her cheeks. She whispered into Lorena’s ear, “We have to be real quiet.”

“I knew Jesus would tell you to come. I prayed.” She threw her arms around Kate’s neck and kissed her cheek a half dozen times.

“Then he must have told Fern.”

“Fern?” Lorena leaned back to look at Kate. Her forehead wrinkled as she asked, “The woman who tried to chop off your nose?”

“She was just trying to scare me. She wouldn’t really chop off my nose.”

“Did she scare you?”

“A little,” Kate admitted.

“Oh.” Lorena grabbed Kate around the neck again and hugged tight. Her whisper was muffled against Kate’s shoulder. “I was scared. Before you got here. The rats were coming to chew off my toes. I heard them sneaking up under the shelves.”

“Shh, sweetie. It’s all right. I won’t let the rats get anywhere close to your toes. I promise.” Kate rubbed her hand up and down Lorena’s back.

“I know.” Lorena sniffed a little and raised up her head to look at Kate. “Can you sprinkle your special rat-proof angel powder in here? Like you did around the toilet this morning?”