Little Blackbird (15 page)

Betsy gasped again and clasped her hands together at her chest. “Oh my.”

Charlotte stepped backward and blinked at Kate as though seeing her for the first time. Then she grinned and giggled. She grabbed Kate’s arm and tugged her toward Martha’s bed. They sat down on the edge of the mattress, and she reached for both of Kate’s hands.

“Tell me everything,” Charlotte said, her blue eyes sparkling with delight, “and don’t leave out any details.”

“Well, they obviously enjoy kissing
in public
–” Martha blurted.

“Hush, Martha,” Charlotte said, snapping her head toward Martha, “this is Kate’s story. Now, Kate, tell us
every
thing.”

Betsy plopped down on the bed beside Kate, causing Kate to rise up higher on the fluffy duvet. Martha huffed and dragged over the stool from the dressing table. She sat in front of Kate and folded her hands in her lap.

“Go
on
, Kate,” Martha said before pursing her lips. “Let’s hear how you’ve won over Geoffrey’s heart.” Her voice sounded as rigid as her back looked.

Kate scoffed. “I haven’t
won over
anyone’s heart.”

“Looking like this, you could win over the Pope’s heart,” Betsy said.

Charlotte laughed. “Betsy, that’s blasphemous, but you’re right.” She turned her blue eyes back toward Kate. “Spill it.”

Kate looked at Betsy’s and Charlotte’s eager faces before meeting Martha’s curious gaze. She thought of Geoffrey, and her cheeks warmed. Charlotte squeezed her hands, and Kate refocused on her. They wanted to know more about
her
, and Kate’s shoulders relaxed. She smiled and stared at her lap.

“We’ve seen each other a few times,” Kate said with a shrug.

“Like in the hardware store,” Betsy said and giggled.

Kate blushed so hard that her palms began to sweat, and she let go of Charlotte’s hands. “That doesn’t usually happen. That was
all
Geoffrey. I wouldn’t–you know, I wouldn’t do that normally.”

Charlotte sighed loudly. “But who can resist a Hamilton?”

“Exactly,” Kate said.

Martha made a motion for Kate continue. “What else? We know about the store and the picnic. Where else do you see each other? Obviously you two are closer than we thought.”

“I’ve been to his house.”

Martha’s nostrils widened. “He took you home?” Kate nodded. “To his room?”

Kate shook her head, and curls tumbled around her face. “Of course not. That would be inappropriate.”

Martha snorted. “More inappropriate than the hardware store?”

“Enough about the store,” Charlotte said. “We’ve all been overcome with the urge to kiss a handsome boy, haven’t we?” Charlotte narrowed her gaze at Martha. “Don’t act like you didn’t kiss Roddy Temple senseless behind the bleachers
during
that football game last fall.”

Martha’s body tensed. “Who told you that?”

Charlotte chuckled. “Everyone and their grandma could have seen you. Just so happens I did.”

“My grandma did too,” Betsy chimed in.

Martha tugged on her earring. “He was going back to college the next day, and he begged me for a kiss. I’d
never
kiss anyone in public like that.” Her eyes met Kate’s. “He
begged
me.”

“Oh, cool it, Martha,” Charlotte teased. “We don’t care a lick about it.” She looked at Kate. “We’ve all been there. So…how was it?”

Kate blinked. “How was what?”

“The kiss,” Betsy and Charlotte chorused.

Kate couldn’t stop the warm tingle that started in her chest and spread all the way down to her toes. She smiled. “Oh, well, that…it was wonderful. All of them are.” An embarrassed giggle bubbled up Kate’s throat, and Charlotte and Betsy joined her.

“Other than the hardware store,” Charlotte said, still giggling, “where else have you been kissing Mr. Hamilton?”

Kate smiled into her lap as she thought of the imaginary list she and Geoffrey had been keeping of all the locations where he’d kissed her. “Way up in a tree.”

They giggled more, and Betsy turned toward Kate on the bed. Betsy slipped one leg beneath her and sat on it. “That makes me think of kissing on the Ferris wheel at the carnival. Wouldn’t that be romantic? You know the carnival will be here in two days. We should all go together.”

Charlotte nodded. “That’s a great idea.”

“And we can invite some guys to join us,” Betsy added.

Martha lifted one shoulder. “Why not? We’ll just have to keep Betsy away from the fried dough. Remember you ate so much last year that your dresses were too tight?”

Kate felt Betsy stiffen on the bed. Martha’s smirk caused a knot to twist in Kate’s stomach. Kate looked at Betsy.

“I’ve never had fried dough,” Kate said. “I’d love to try it with you.”

Betsy’s face relaxed, and then she smiled at Kate. “You’ll
love
it.”

Excitement rocketed through Kate, filling her with an emotion she’d never felt before. She had
friends
. Not friends in books or in flowers or in her mama and daddy.
Real
ones. She would go to the carnival with girls and see Geoffrey and maybe kiss him on the Ferris wheel. Kate couldn’t stop smiling. The sun stole behind the clouds, darkening the bedroom before stretching shadows across Martha’s face.

K
ATE PUSHED OPEN the front door of her house still laughing at Charlotte’s joke. She and Martha waved at Kate through the windshield as they drove off. The living room and kitchen were empty, but dinner sat warming on the stove.

“Mama?” Kate called. She heard voices in the backyard. She opened the backdoor and stood in the doorway. “Mama? Daddy?”

Her parents’ arms were linked at the elbows, and her mama leaned into her daddy and laughed. Kate wondered if her face lit up like her mama’s when she looked at Geoffrey. Kate skipped into the yard. She wanted to tell her mama how fun her day had been, how she had friends now, how they were all going to the carnival in two days.

Kate stepped up behind them. “Hey y’all.”

They turned in unison with the setting sun haloing their silhouettes in a blushing light. Kate couldn’t stop smiling.

“I had the best time,” she gushed.

Her daddy lifted his hand slowly and pointed at her head. “What have you done to your hair?”

“What have you done to your face?” her mama asked, stepping away from her daddy, her skirt swishing about her bare feet.

Kate had nearly forgotten about her hair and makeup. She pulled her fingers through her shortened hair, feeling the roll of the waves. “You don’t like it?”

“It’s just–you look…” he stuttered.

“Look what?”

His frown deepened. “You don’t look like my baby girl. Where did you get that dress?”

“It’s Martha’s,” Kate said. “And I don’t want to look like a baby.”

“You certainly don’t now,” her daddy said with furrowed brow. “You look about twenty.”

Kate smiled. “Really?”

“That’s not a good thing,” he said.

A shock of cold tingled in her toes before creeping up her legs, into her stomach, and reaching for her chest.

Kate’s mama touched Kate’s upper arm. “Go inside and wash your face.”

“Why?” The chill clawed up Kate’s throat, choking her. “I like it. I think it looks pretty.”

Her mama squeezed her arm. “Do as I say.”

Kate looked at her daddy. His eyes were clouded and stormy gray. His jaw was as rigid as a handsaw.

“But I don’t want to,” Kate said. “Doesn’t it matter if I like it or not?”

“Next thing you know you’ll be telling me you have a boyfriend,” her mama said, trying to lighten the seriousness that fell from the trees and pressed against them.

“I might,” Kate blurted. Her mama’s dark eyes widened as she inhaled sharply.

Her daddy stepped forward, and the grass darkened beneath his shoes. “Do as your mom says. Go inside.” His command shoved Kate backward with its angry force. Kate’s bottom lip trembled. Her daddy rarely ever rose his voice and never at her.

The bitter chill detonated inside her, and she stumbled toward the house. Darkness pressed in at the edges of her vision, and her knees slammed into a stepping stone. Kate crumpled onto her side.

L
IPS PRESSED AGAINST hers, angry and bruising. A hand fisted in her hair and pulled back her neck. Her breathing hitched, and her scalp burned. She dropped flat on her back against the seat, nearly suffocating beneath his weight. He grabbed at the gaudy plastic necklace she wore and yanked. Small beads launched into the air like red plastic fireworks, raining down on her face, and his laughter exploded, echoed off the windows, and tears streaked the sides of her face.

“Please don’t,” she begged with her nose running and throat pinched tight in fear and desperation. “Please…”

“Kate, please, baby,” someone cooed. “Wake up. Come back to me.”

Kate’s eyes opened, and she sucked air into her lungs. Darkness had fallen around her, and tiny blades of grass poked into her calves. She focused on a face leaning over hers.

“Mama?” Her voice croaked like a frog on the riverbank.

Her mama exhaled and looked over her shoulder. “Don’t call Dr. Hamilton. She’s okay, Sean.” Her mama’s face leaned over hers. “Don’t you dare scare me like that again.” She lowered her voice. “You’ve never been out for so long before. Have you been drinking your tea?”

Kate nodded.
Every day, more than once.
Her daddy knelt beside her.

“You okay, Little Blackbird?” He looked across Kate at her mama. “You think it’s just the blood sugar? Did you eat, baby?”

Kate tried to remember. Martha had mentioned she’d already eaten before she met Kate in the hardware store, but Kate and her daddy hadn’t eaten lunch yet. At Martha’s they’d drunk lemonade, but they’d had nothing else. “No, sir.”

“Let’s get you inside. Your mom made your favorite–”

Her mama cleared her throat, and her daddy chuckled as he slid his hands beneath Kate’s back and lifted her as though she was a baby doll.

“Okay, so it’s my favorite,” he said, “but I know you like it too.” He helped Kate to her feet.

She wobbled and rubbed the front of her neck, feeling where the necklace had been. She felt the beads pelting her in the face as the man in the darkness of her mind laughed. Once they were inside the house, her mama told her to go get cleaned up and then she’d have tea and dinner ready.

Kate stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Mascara leaked down the sides of her face. Dark berry lipstick smeared below her lip. She looked like a bleeding watercolor left behind in a rainstorm. She scrubbed her face until it shone pink and raw, and she couldn’t stop thinking about the girl trapped in a car with a boy whose intentions were vile. She met her reflection’s gaze, pressed her trembling hands against the sink, and whispered, “Who are you? You know I can’t help you.”

K
ATE HAD TO beg her parents to drop her off at Martha’s house before the carnival. Her mama complained that they’d always gone to the carnival as a family, but Kate’s daddy convinced her mama to let Kate go with her friends.
Friends
, Kate thought. Even now in her mind the word sounded sacred, and she buried it in her chest just to feel its warmth.