Lightning Song (16 page)

T
he afternoon lengthened toward evening. The grown-ups sat and talked about many things. The children stayed put, they were allowed to stay near so long as they were quiet. Molly wandered in and out. For a while Elsie kept saying, “Do you need to sit on the potty, honey? Let mama know, okay? Don't forget.” Then she finally gave up and let Molly wander around without pestering her. She kept on sipping at her wine. Swami Don could not take his eyes off Elsie as she drank the wine. Leroy realized they were talking about the lightning that had started to strike the house this summer. No one could really explain the lightning, Leroy's mama was saying. The New Guy said, “I imagined I saw what looked like a fire snake sliding down the roof and into the window.” Elsie said, “You should be inside the house when that happens.” He said, “I'm waiting for my engraved invitation!” Everyone laughed a little at this. It was a party. It was better than grog rations. It was too bad Uncle Harris was out tonight.

Elsie had two glasses of wine, or was it three? Leroy watched his daddy watch her. “Do you hear a buzzing sound?” Elsie asked. Everyone listened. Well, maybe, they agreed, they weren't sure. There might be a buzzing sound. Leroy listened and heard nothing. He was certain his daddy heard nothing. Elsie touched her lips over and over. “Are your lips numb?” she said.

The New Guy produced a second bottle of wine from somewhere. Everyone seemed pleased at this. The New Lady went to work with her corkscrew.

Everyone was surprised when Laurie spoke up. She had been so quiet.

She said, “May I have a glass of wine, please?”

No one was more surprised than Leroy. He looked at her. Laurie had asked for wine as if it were the most natural request on earth. He realized there was a great deal he would never understand about Laurie. The New Guy said, “In Argentina parents use water to dilute the wine for their children.” Argentina sounded to Leroy like a subject his daddy might be interested in talking about, but Leroy was wrong about that. Swami Don didn't even hear the word
Argentina
. The New Guy had scarcely got the words out of his mouth when Swami Don said, “
No
.” His tone was very sharp. Leroy's insides jumped a little. He had never heard his daddy speak quite like this. Swami Don said, “You get out of here, Laurie. Right now.” The New Guy said, “I'm sorry, old man, I didn't mean to—” Swami Don looked at him fiercely and caused him to stop whatever he was about to say. He said, “Our children don't drink.”

Laurie slipped immediately from her chair and spun around and left the room. Leroy heard her say, “God.” Everyone heard her. It infuriated Swami Don. The house seemed to explode. The noise of his daddy's voice filled every small space. Suddenly Swami Don was almost screaming. It was the most unexpected thing Leroy could have imagined. Swami Don shouted, “You come right back here this minute, young lady.” Laurie kept walking away, right off the porch. Elsie said,
“Donald, please.” Leroy could tell that his mama was shocked, too, though she managed to seem calm enough. Anyone would have seemed calm next to Leroy's daddy. He leapt up out of his chair. He said, “Laurie! I mean it!” He chased after her, he ran from the porch and into the house. He said, “You get yourself right back here!” His withered arm was going in circles he was so excited, it looked like a pinwheel. Elsie said, “Donald, calm down, please, you're acting like a maniac.” She looked at the New People as if in appeal. Swami Don had caught up with Laurie at the back of the house.

From one of the farther rooms, then, everyone heard the sound of a smack. It sounded like a gunshot. No one could believe what they were hearing, least of all Leroy. Swami Don was spanking Laurie on her bare legs. Leroy's daddy had never spanked anyone in his life. They heard another smack. Laurie was screaming. Angry words reached the porch. Swami Don was saying, “Don't you
ever
—” And then another smack, and more screaming.

The New Guy said, “Elsie, I feel terrible.” His wife said, “Maybe we'd better go. We know about family fights, believe me.”

Molly came into the room. She said, “Why is Daddy hitting Laurie?” She looked ready to cry. She had wet her pants again.

When Elsie rose from her chair she tottered a little. Leroy watched her steady herself with one hand against the wall. She stood for a few seconds as if her legs had gone numb. She recovered her balance. Leroy watched as she lifted her glass
and drained what was left down her throat. Then she picked up another glass, the full glass Swami Don had set down, and drank it as well. She said, “Don't leave.” She was speaking to the New People. They stayed put. They weren't going anywhere. Leroy followed his mama off the porch and into the house. He followed her through the living room and down the hall.

Laurie was in her bedroom, huddled up at the head of her bed as far as she could wedge herself, against the pillows. Leroy watched his mama pick Laurie up from the bed, whimpering and sucking her thumb. Leroy stood outside the door, insinuated there. Swami Don was standing in the little bedroom too, holding his withered hand in his good hand. He was rubbing the back of it with his huge thumb. His face seemed very pale. He looked as though he had seen something that scared him. He said to Elsie, “I'm sorry— I told Laurie I was sorry—” Leroy heard his mama say, “Shut your fucking mouth.” Her voice was a deadly whisper. He heard her say, “Every time you look at that hand, yes, that one, the only real hand you've got, I want you to remember that it's the hand that beat this child.” She turned with Laurie in her arms. Leroy scooted out of the doorway to keep out of her way. Swami Don was bouncing the tiny hand in the big one. He said, “Elsie, please—” She was not listening. She went back out onto the porch, carrying Laurie with her, red-eyed and quivery-lipped. Leroy tagged along behind. He wanted to say
something—to Laurie, to his mama, his daddy, he didn't know who, and couldn't think of anything to say anyway.

The company on the porch was very quiet for a while. Leroy took Molly into the living room and pulled off her wet underpants and wiped off her bottom with a damp cloth, the way he'd seen his mama do. He poked through a little pine dresser in the girls' room and took out a dry pair and helped Molly put them on. He went back out on the porch then and sat on the glider. Molly sat beside him and sucked her thumb. For a while nothing at all was said. The grown-ups just sat and drank wine for a while. Swami Don didn't come back outside. When the glasses were empty, the New Guy poured another glass of wine for everyone. The bottle clinking against the rims of the glasses seemed loud now. The gurgle of wine from the bottle sounded like a river. Leroy watched his mama pick up her glass. They all picked up glasses, but there were no more toasts. At last Elsie put the glass to her mouth and drank. They all drank, all of them, slowly. They sat and drank without speaking. Laurie stayed on Elsie's lap. Molly moved to Leroy's lap. No one seemed to care where Swami Don was. At last Elsie held the wine to Laurie's lips. She said, “Just a taste.” She allowed her to sip from the rim. Laurie drank a little of the wine and made a face. Elsie said, “Do you like it?” Laurie said, “No.” Elsie said, “Want a little more?” Laurie said, “Okay.” Fireflies lit up the yard. The redness in the west deepened to purple, then darkness. The New People said they'd like to
make love in Elsie's attic someday during a lightning storm. Elsie cried a little and said she and Donald had never even thought of doing that in a lightning storm. The New Lady said, “There, there.” The New People told Elsie they'd had a son murdered. “He was fourteen,” the New Lady said. Then they cried a little. They told Elsie the night they got the call about the murder—the boy was spending the night with a friend—they were watching a pornographic video.

“This is the happiest day of my life,” Elsie said. It was a special night, all right, Leroy just knew it was.

T
wirling camp was to be held each morning on the high school football field in the village, weather permitting, Leroy's mama said, reading from the church bulletin. Leroy sat on the sofa in the living room and watched her read. She looked up from the page to see that he and his sisters were listening. Her voice was very enthusiastic. Baton twirling was one of several suggested wholesome summer activities for children of the parish, she told them. “It sounds to me like the most fun of all. ‘Fun and fellowship for all,'” Elsie read. Leroy squinted his eyes. What was going on here? “Now doesn't that sound interesting?” his mama said. “Wouldn't you say that sounds like fun, everybody?”

Leroy was suspicious. His mama and daddy were scarcely speaking after the night with the New People. Something in the tone of his mama's voice told him—well, he wasn't sure
what it told him. Why was she suddenly in such a good mood, why was she figuring out wholesome activities?

“Twirling lessons for girls ages three through ten,” she read.

She looked up again. “Well, what do you think?” she said.

“Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Don't you agree that this sounds like an excellent summer activity? It sure sounds like fun to me, baton twirling.”

Uncle Harris was there as well. He was equally enthusiastic about twirling. He was nodding his head, he was agreeing with everything. In fact, he chimed right in. He said he had met the young woman who would be in charge of the camp. He said she was great, a really super gal. “An excellent twirler in her own right,” he said. The twirling teacher, he told everyone, was a high school girl named Ruby Rae. “A very high-quality baton twirler,” Uncle Harris went on. “Professional, actually. They don't come any better than Ruby Rae. You'll see. You'll like her,” he promised. “Scout's honor. Give you my word.” He gave Leroy a special wink. “She's pretty!” he said.

Okay, so Leroy was right, this was a setup. He said, “Twirling is for girls.”

Elsie said, “Now don't be a sourpuss, Leroy. Keep an open mind, will you please? I just hope you will please try and keep an open mind about this summer activity with fun and fellowship for all. Will you do at least that much for me? It's good exercise, too, it says so right here.”

He said, “Twirling is for girls.”

She said, “Not necessarily.”

Harris said, “There are plenty of boy twirlers. Sure. The Ole Miss marching band had a couple of boy twirlers, if I remember correctly. Nothing wrong with boy baton twirlers.”

Leroy said, “It's for girls. It says so right there, three through ten. I'm a boy. I'm twelve. I'm not doing it.”

“We'll just ask if boys might be included as well,” Elsie said.

“Special dispensation, you know? It can't hurt to ask. Will it hurt anything to ask, Harris?”

“Not a thing. I give you my word.”

“See, Leroy? Uncle Harris knows all about these things. Asking never hurt anybody, now did it?”

This deal had already been done. There was no use arguing, really. Something told Leroy that special permission had already been granted, he was already signed up. All his mama had to do was convince him to go along with it. What a gyp. Wholesome summer activities had already been set in motion.

What a total gyp.

He said, “I'm not twirling.”

Elsie became irritated with him now. She said, “Well, believe you me, no one is going to beg you to enjoy summer fun and fellowship, Leroy. This is a privilege, not a chore, young man. Maybe if you would look at the nice things I try to do for you as a privilege for a change, and not such of a chore, you might not be quite so negative about every single solitary thing I suggest. Back me up here, Harris, if you don't mind.”

Uncle Harris was wearing one of his Hawaiian shirts, with
a ukulele print. “Absolutely,” he said. “Your mama is absolutely right. It's not a chore, not a bit, it's more of a golden opportunity.”

“In fact,” his mama went on, “the instructor might not even let you twirl anyway. Even if you did want to. So just don't go and get your cart before the horse, young man. So okay, that's it, then, no twirling for Leroy. Leroy's not going to be cooperative, count Leroy out. That's fine, Leroy, your sisters can have all the fun and fellowship themselves, I guess you'll just have to miss out on everything.”

Leroy said, “I'm not twirling.”

Elsie said, “Go get in Uncle Harris's car. Leroy, you'll have to come along with us for now, whether you twirl or not.”

“I'm not twirling.”

“Would you please stop repeating that one single expression about one million times until I'm ready to pull my hair out, Leroy, if you don't mind, would you do that for me please?”

Uncle Harris burned rubber when they hit the pavement.

He gunned it. The car skidded briefly out of control and then straightened itself on the road. They went tearing down the highway. Harris held up his hand and shouted above the engine noise, “Twirl, twirl, twirl!”

Leroy looked at his mama. She looked very pretty in the seat next to Uncle Harris with the warm wind in her hair. He hated to admit it, but she did.

Leroy looked around the backseat, what passed for a backseat, the little space behind the real seats where they were
crammed in. His sisters were holding silver batons with rubber tips, but there was no baton for Leroy.

He said, “There's only two batons.”

You had to shout to be heard with the top down. Elsie and Harris gave each other a look.

Elsie turned a little in her seat and said, “You're not twirling, remember?”

They drove on. Elsie looked forward and ignored Leroy.

Molly had a junior-sized baton, silvery with rubber bulbs at either end. Hers was a smaller version of the model Laurie held. They were nice-looking instruments, Leroy had to admit that. Molly was content. She was almost always contented.