Close to Famous (2 page)

“How's your eye, Mama?” It sure looks swollen.

“A muffin will help.” She takes a big bite. “
Mmmmmmmm!
I needed this.”

IT'S A LONG trip to somewhere. I went to the bathroom in Nashville and Lexington. Mama isn't talking much, and there doesn't seem to be anything left for me to think about except what happened back in Memphis.

I was in my room when I heard the noise. I thought it might be Mr. Purvis coming in the back door of our apartment building, but it wasn't him. It was Huck, who had recently become Mama's ex-boyfriend. Huck wasn't happy about that, so he broke our window.

I jumped out of bed at the sound of breaking glass and heard Mama shouting. I ran into the living room, where she slept on the couch. Huck was shaking her by the shoulders.

“Nobody leaves the King—you understand that?”

“Stop it!” I screamed. “Stop it!”

“
Who's gonna sing backup for me now? Huh? ”
he was shouting. “
You think you can just walk away
?”

That's when he hauled off and punched her in the eye. I did a flying leap toward him; he pushed me away.

“You keep quiet,” Huck warned. But Mama always told me if anyone's trying to hurt you and they tell you to keep quiet, scream with everything you've got. I let loose the biggest scream my skinny body had. It was loud enough to wake the neighbors, who turned on their lights and started shouting.

“We're not done yet,” Huck snarled. “
We're never gonna be done!
” He jumped out the window, ran to his yellow Cadillac, and sped off.

“We're out of here,” Mama said, and right then that was fine by me. We packed up fast—threw toothbrushes, wet towels, clothes, food, everything we could grab into plastic bags, and loaded up our Chevy. It was like being on a reality show.
How much can you pack before the bad Elvis comes back to get you?

Mama drove us away from Memphis.

I've been in this car ever since. I feel a tightness on my chest. I feel sweaty. When Huck was onstage sweating like Elvis, Mama would hand him scarves to put around his neck. He'd throw them out to the audience. I couldn't imagine why anyone would be interested in Huck's neck sweat, but he got his share of screaming women reaching for those things.

I roll down the car window.

“You okay, Foster?”

I'm not sure how to answer that. I just want to go someplace where there aren't any Elvises.

Mama pulls into another gas station. “You need to go?”

I head inside the snack shop. Nobody is paying attention to me, a skinny girl with long, crazy hair pulled back in a ponytail. A man is getting a slushie, a woman is buying Tootsie Rolls, a guy behind the counter shakes a key at me. “Need this?”

I head over and get the bathroom key.

“How's the weather?” he asks.

Mister, I feel like I've been hit by a tornado
. “Weather's fine,” I tell him.

I walk to the bathroom, hearing the
slap slap
of my flowered flip-flops on the floor. Sonny Kroll, my favorite Food Network cook, who can make a meal out of anything that's lying around, always says, “Go with what you've got.” Well, I have Mama and she has me. I hope Huck has four flat tires and is left in a ditch.

I unlock the door. I wish my daddy was here. I wish that every day of my life. He was in the army. He told me soldiers were always focusing on two big moves—fighting, or leaving a place without too many casualties. I'm glad to be leaving my school in Memphis, because I felt like I was in a war in that place.

If Daddy hadn't died in the army, there would have been no Huck, Mama would probably be a big singer by now, and I'd be on my way to being the first kid cook on the Food Network, touching hearts one baked good at a time.

I look at myself in the smudged, scratched mirror. Mama says I'm distinctive looking. I've got long, thick, curly, crazy hair and a hugely wide smile. My green eyes sparkle when I cook, and I'm told I've got a memorable personality, which is what they want on TV.

I've got a dream as big as they come.

But it's hard to dream big in a dirty bathroom.

Mama is humming a song she wrote, “Go to Sleep, Little Girl.” She'd sing that to me when I was little. Sometimes a song can get into your heart like nothing else. Mama's been stuck as a backup singer most of her life, but with all her talent she's really a headliner. She learned how to sing quieter than was her nature, learned how to go “Shoo wop, shoo wop” behind the headline singer. Mama knows all the moves.

Mr. Mackey, my fifth-grade teacher, had Mama come in and teach my class how to sing backup. I was so proud. Even Johnny Joe Badger got out of my face when Mama showed up. It was my second-best moment in education. The best was when Mr. Mackey asked each of us kids if we knew if any of our family had ever lived in other countries or had unusual lives. I raised my hand and said that my grandpa McFee came from Ireland, and Mama's family had roots in Africa, Russia, Sweden, Germany, and the Dominican Republic. Mr. Mackey put pushpins in a big world map for all my countries and said, “No wonder you get along with so many kinds of people, Foster. Look at all this heritage that's part of you. That's something to be proud of.”

Mama drove and I fell asleep. I woke up when morning broke out around us. Now we are on a road heading toward green hills. Thick fog hangs down.

Mama peers through the window. “What's that sign say, Foster?” Then she shakes her head. “I'm sorry, Baby. I didn't mean . . .”

I bite my lip as we get closer to the sign.

Mama smiles. “I can see it now. Welcome to West Virginia.”

I look out the window at the green hills. The road climbs higher. Mama takes some turns and drives higher still, round and round. Then the fog rolls in and covers the car like marshmallow cream.

“Dear God,” Mama says. “Help me see.”

Dear God
, I pray.
Help her
.

“I've got to pull over.”

That doesn't seem like a good idea, but neither does driving. She stops the Chevy and stretches out her neck. “I'm so tired.”

I try to wipe the windshield, but that doesn't help. The fog is too thick to see through. I can see Mama's sweet face and her eyes closing.

“Mama!”

“I'm fine.” Her eyes shut again.

I don't know where we are. I don't know where we're going. I don't know if we could be hit by another car that can't see us.

I feel the tightness come on my chest again, but I sit up straight and say out loud, “We're right where we're supposed to be.”

Mama taught me to say that when I get scared. Sometimes it helps. It would be better if I could see out the window.

“We're right where we're supposed to be,” I say again.

I hope that God can see us through the fog. Because if he can't, we're in big trouble.

I HEARD A rumble and a roar and sat up fast. Had I been sleeping?

“What in the world . . .” Mama said.

The sun beamed through the windows of the Chevy. A wide-faced woman smiled and waved at us.

“You are two lucky ladies. Another inch and you'da been, well . . .” She shook her head and pointed down.

I looked out my side of the car. The Chevy had stopped as close to the side of a cliff as a car could without tumbling off.

Mama grabbed my hand. “We're not going to panic!”

The wide-faced woman said, “Don't worry. You're in the hands of Gotcha Towing.” She was standing by a tow truck, wearing a red shirt with white lettering that I couldn't make out. “We're going to nudge up to your car a little bit and yank you out of there. Put her in neutral nice and easy.” She slapped the side of the tow truck. “All right, Lester, do your magic.”

I held my breath.

The tow truck backed up slowly. The woman attached a big chain to the front of the Chevy.

“Gotcha!” she shouted at us. “Hold on tight now.”

Mama held my hand so tight I thought it might break.

And the strength of that truck moved us out of danger.

“Okay, girls, you're clear!”

Mama's hands were shaking as she pulled me across the driver's seat and out of the car.

“Somebody was watching over you,” the woman said. “These mountain roads get nasty.”

“Thank you kindly for what you did.” Mama touched her swollen eye.

“That's what we're here for. I'm Kitty. That handsome thing in the truck is my Lester.” Kitty was looking at Mama's bad eye. “That's a decent bruise you've got there.”

“I'm all right.”

“Where you folks headed?”

“Obviously a little too close to the edge.”

Kitty laughed. “We all do that from time to time.”

“Where's the closest town?” Mama asked.

“That's Culpepper. Twenty minutes due north. Lester and I live there.”

I asked the big question. “You got any Elvis impersonators?”

She laughed. “Not a one.”

I elbowed Mama.

“We'll head up to Culpepper,” Mama said. “But first, I need to pay you.”

Kitty shook her head. “No charge.”

“Oh no, you saved us.”

“If you need towing or you know someone who does, you call us.” She gave her a card.

Mama asked her if she knew of a cheap place to stay.

“There's a motel down from the prison.”

Prison?
I elbowed Mama again.