How High the Moon (30 page)

“Teaspoon?” Ma said when I got quiet and stood still, staring at her. “Why you looking at me like that?”

“Ma?” I said slowly. “Did you find your dream?”

“Huh?” she asked.

“The dream you went to find. Of becoming a star on the silver screen. Did you find it?” I almost felt like I was going to get Brenda’s pukes in those few seconds it took Ma to take a suck on her cigarette and blow the smoke out so she could answer me.

“Well,” she said, the word trailing a smoke ring. “Come sit down and I’ll tell you the whole story of how I became the star of
Attack of the Atomic Lake Lizard
, my first film. And the sequel,
Revenge of the Atomic Lake Lizard
.”

I let out a whoop. “I knew it! I just knew you’d do it, Ma!” I jumped into the air and came down on my butt, right beside my movie-star mama!

“It took a while,” Ma said. “I didn’t have enough money to get all the way out to California. Story of my life, a day late and a dollar short. So I was held over in Denver for a few months, playing a piano bar and stashing every dime I made. And I needed it,
too, because a month after I got there, that damn wreck of Teddy’s broke down and I needed another car.”

Ma grabbed Teddy’s cup and put out her half-finished cigarette, then tucked one leg up under her other. “I worked my ass off, doing some bartending during the day, working the piano bar nights, but damn it, I did it. I got myself out to Hollywood, and after a lot of trying, I auditioned for the lead role in this movie. And you know what got me the role?” she asked.

“Your acting ability and star quality?” I asked.

“Well, besides those things,” Ma said, smiling. “This!” And she stood up, faced me, put her hands out like she was going to sashay, and then she screamed. Screamed so high and so loud that if my hair wasn’t already curly, it would have been by the time she got done.

Ma laughed and fell onto the couch. “The director said I was the best screamer he ever worked with. I told him that’s because I’ve had a lot of things to scream over in my life.”

She giggled herself silly, then moaned a happy sigh. “I got the movie poster in that mess of a car of mine, somewhere.”

“Let’s go get it!” I said.

Ma sank back against the cushion, her hair opening like a fan. “Not now, Teaspoon. Your ma is bushed. I drove over five hundred miles today. I need a nap.” She yawned, then turned her head lazily toward me. “God, it’s good to see you again,” she said.

“It’s good to have you home, Ma,” I said, as I fought back tears because she wanted to see me happy.

Ma reached her arm around my head, the warmth of her skin soaking right through my curls. She closed her eyes. “Teaspoon?” she said, her voice going sleepy. “Did Teddy find somebody else?”

“Somebody else? What do you mean?”

“Does he have another girl in his life?”

“Oh. You mean besides me?”

“A girlfriend,” Ma said.

“Course not, Ma.
You’re
his girlfriend. He’s got a new lady
friend, Miss Tuckle, but she’s only his Sunday school friend. Like Charlie is my friend. Mrs. Fry, it turned out, was a Benedict Arnold and tried to make Miss Tuckle and Teddy be more than friends. Miss Tuckle swore on a stack of Bibles that they weren’t, though, so it didn’t work.”

“Sunday school friend,” Ma said, her voice sounding far away, like she was already halfway to dreamland.

Ma didn’t let go of me after she dozed off, so I snuggled my head against the dip between her shoulder and the top of her balloon, and wrapped my arm around her waist, and listened to her breath rise and fall.

I never was the kind who could sit in a hug for long before my feet wanted to get moving again, but I stayed right there, pressed up against Ma, sitting still so I wouldn’t wake her. Twice or three times, I lifted the bottom half of my legs so I could look at my new patent leathers, but other than that, I didn’t squirm.

Outside a rain had begun. Not a storm. Just one of those kind of rains that feel like lazy. The window behind the couch was open, so I could hear the drops and feel the cool they brought. I closed my eyes, thinking about how I hoped Ma would let me take that movie poster to the Starlight so I could show it to Brenda and the Taxi Stand Ladies along the way. And how I was going to stand on my sidewalk and hold it up so the Jackson kids could see it while I stuck my tongue out at them.

Only when I felt a small swish of air push against my skin as a thin blanket came down over us did I realize that I’d dozed off just like Ma. I looked up and there was Teddy, standing by the couch, looking down on us, his face sad, though I didn’t know why.

I untangled myself from Ma, slowly so I wouldn’t wake her, then got up and followed Teddy into the kitchen.

“Did Ma tell you, Teddy?” I asked, probably with too much projection, because Ma stirred and groaned a little.

“Tell me what?” Teddy asked, as he filled a kettle with cold water.

I backed my butt to the counter, and used my hands to hoist me up so Teddy could hear me when I made my voice get Brenda-singing-soft. “That she found her dream.”

“Your mother and I didn’t really have time to talk, Teaspoon. She was only here about ten minutes before you got home.”

“Oh,” I said, almost glad, because that meant I could tell Teddy the good news myself. “Well, she did it, Teddy. She went looking for her dream, and she found it. She’s a movie star now, just like I always knew she’d be. A lead role, and a sequel. We always knew she’d do it, Teddy, didn’t we?”

Teddy got his paring knife out and got busy peeling dusty potato skins into long loops. He didn’t look up. Probably because he had a sharp knife in his hands. I watched for a bit, then said, “Boy, Teddy. I would have thought you’d be happier, having Ma back. But you look more worrywartish than ever.”

“There’s a lot of things we don’t know yet, Teaspoon. Things only time will tell.”

I didn’t know what things Teddy was talking about, and I didn’t want to know. I slid off the counter instead of jumping, so my new shoes wouldn’t click and wake Ma, and I told Teddy that I was going down to the corner so I could get my scooter.

Teddy looked down at me. “Charlie and I already brought it home. It’s in the front.”

“Then I’m going to go get Charlie. Him and me made a show for Ma. Soon as she’s up and we’ve had supper, we’ll perform it for her to celebrate her homecoming. Tell her that if she wakes up before I get back.”

It was still raining some when I got outside so I ran fast so I wouldn’t get wet. Not that I cared, but I knew Mrs. Fry would!

Mrs. Fry was cooking, too, and Charlie was sitting on the couch
staring at a turned-off television set, doing nothing. I was going to get braggy about my ma being home, but when I looked at Charlie I decided that would be mean, since his ma couldn’t come back. I figured it was okay to talk about her movie, though, because as far as I knew Charlie was never waiting for his ma to become a movie star. “Guess what, Charlie? My ma was in a movie. Two of them. The leading lady.”

“A real movie?” Charlie said.

“Well, what other kind is there?” I asked.

Charlie shrugged. “Does it have monsters in it?”

“Yep,” I said.

Charlie went back to staring at the black TV screen.

“How come you don’t have it turned on, Charlie?” I asked.

“Cause Grandma G says it has to stay unplugged when it’s storming.”

I glanced through the worn-thin curtains. “It’s not storming. Just raining.” Charlie shrugged, and I shook my head. “I suppose because it’s
storming
you can’t go outside now, either.”

“You got that right,” Charlie said.

“Well, I’m going to hurry down to the corner and see the Taxi Stand Ladies. I won’t see Brenda tonight, so I might scooter down to the Starlight, too. I wish you could come, Charlie.”

“Me, too,” he said.

I headed to the door. “Hey, Charlie. Where’d you and Teddy go on your walk?”

“To get ice cream,” Charlie said, his eyes still staring at the TV.

“At the drugstore?”

“Yeah.”

“Was Miss Tuckle there?”

“No.”

“Good,” I said, because even if her and Teddy were only friends, something about it wouldn’t have seemed right if they’d gotten together to be friends on the very day Teddy’s girlfriend came back.

“We had our ice cream first, then we went upstairs to where she lives.”

I raced back to the couch so fast that my patent leathers worked like ice skates on the bare floor.

“Geez, Charlie,” I said as I fell down beside him. “You’re supposed to be my spy. Why didn’t you head right over and tell me as soon as you guys got back?”

“Because Teddy said we had to give you and your ma time to visit. Plus, it was already raining by then.”

I shook my head. “Well, what happened? Did Teddy say anything about my ma?”

“Just that she was here.”

“How’d he say it?”

Charlie shrugged. “Just regular-like, I guess. Why you asking, Teaspoon? Miss Tuckle already sweared on a stack of Bibles that she wasn’t Teddy’s girlfriend.”

“Yeah, I know. And although I don’t think she’d lie to God, He’s the only one who’d know for sure. Plus, that isn’t the only reason I’m asking. I’m asking so I can find out if Teddy is happy Ma’s home, because he isn’t exactly acting like it. Did he sound happy when he said it?”

“No.” Charlie’s eyeballs hurried to the upper corner, like their conversation was hanging up there. Forever later, he said, “I think he just sounded worried.”

“Did Miss Tuckle say anything to him?”

“No. She just put her hand on Teddy’s arm, then she showed me how to work her phonograph so I could listen to music. Then she asked Teddy if he wanted coffee.”

“Let me guess… they went into the kitchen, and you couldn’t hear them with the record player on.”

“Yeah.”

“Boy. If you weren’t my friend, I’d fire you as my spy.” I shook my head and sighed. “See you later, Charlie. Come over after supper so we can put on our production for Ma.”

“Okay. If it’s done raining by then.”

I pulled open the door and looked back at Charlie. “Did Miss Tuckle or Teddy say anything as you guys were leaving?”

“Just
thank you
and
you’re welcome
.”

I was just about to close the door behind me because I thought that was it, but then Slow-Moe Charlie said, “Oh… then Miss Tuckle said to Teddy, ‘My offer still stands. Just know that.’”

I shoved the door back open and drilled Charlie like a dentist, but turned out, they were only talking about our leaning porch and her offer to give Teddy a loan. And didn’t that just figure.

When I got to the corner, only The Kenosha Kid was there. “Teaspoon!” she shouted as I got close. “Was it your ma?”

“It sure was!” I told her about Ma’s movie, how pretty she was, how glad she was to see me, and how we fell asleep on the couch together. “I wish Walking Doll was here so I could tell her, too, but you can fill her in, okay? I want to tell Brenda that Ma’s home, and get back before she wakes up. Tell Walking Doll I’ll bring the movie poster as soon as I get my hands on it.”

“You can tell her yourself. That’s her coming now.”

“Where?” I asked, checking out the sidewalk, both coming and going.

“In that green car right there,” she said.

Sure enough, there was a car at the corner, and Walking Doll was sitting behind the steering wheel. “What’s she doing in that car?” I asked, waving.

“She got it from Miller’s car lot. Just now.”

Walking Doll made a left turn and disappeared behind The Pop Shop.

“How’d she do that? She doesn’t even have a job!”

The Kenosha Kid didn’t say anything. She was too busy watching Walking Doll hop-run across the street toward us, shaking her new car keys like jingle bells.

“Hey, where’d you get money to buy a car? Even Teddy doesn’t have enough money for that, and he’s got a job.”

Walking Doll laughed. “Let’s just say that it was compensation collected on behalf of my ma.”

“Well, ain’t that something. All Teddy’s ma left him with was bills and a leaky, leaning house.”

“Well, Teaspoon!
Was
that your Ma?” Walking Doll asked as she hopped up on the curb.

“It sure was,” I told her. “The Kenosha Kid can catch you up. I’ve got to get over to the Starlight to tell Brenda that my ma’s home, too, but I got to hurry. Teddy’s making supper, and afterward me and Charlie are going to put on a live performance for Ma. Nice car, Walking Doll!”

“Have fun, kid!” they called, and off I went.

When I got to the Starlight, I zipped down the alley. The parking lot was empty, except for Brenda’s Thunderbird and the Perkins Charlie-thumping truck, which I decided meant Johnny brought over the moons. They had to be done, because him and Brenda hadn’t gone to work on them at night for days now.

I propped my scooter and slipped inside. Even though the day was gray and hazy, the raindrops so small they looked like fuzz, it still took a bit for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the theater.

I heard Johnny before I saw him. “That’s bullshit, Brenda, and you know it!” Wow, was his voice booming with projection, even though he was up by the concession stand, instead of under one of the domes where a person could get some good amplification. “You were going to kiss him off three weeks ago.”

Johnny was mad at Brenda for
not
kissing that creep Leonard? Had he gone berserk?

“You don’t understand, Johnny.” Brenda was crying. “I just can’t create that kind of upheaval right now. After the gala, Johnny. I told you. Give me until then,” Brenda said, loud enough that I heard every word.

I couldn’t see Brenda, but I had seen her cry enough times to know that she probably had one arm wrapped around her waist while the other dabbed under her eyes.

I didn’t know what to do, or what to think. Turning and going back outside would have been the respectable thing, I guess, but I wanted to know what was going on, because this wasn’t exactly making sense. So I just stood at the door, my hand on the knob.

“You’re not going to, either, are you?” Johnny shouted. “Despite everything, you’re going to marry that fucker anyway.” Johnny grunted, then said in a voice more sad than mad, “I was a fool to think you’d do anything else. Now I don’t know who to feel saddest for. You, I think.”