Making Waves (22 page)

Mama and Daddy were good, good as gold, but they didn't know anything about the world out there. They had always lived by the Bible and what they heard every Sunday in that stifling little church where we'd gone all our lives, that church where no one sings or laughs or wears any makeup on their faces. Then a thought hit me that scared me to death because it was so shocking. Where had all of that stuff my church preached every Sunday ever gotten anyone? Just look at Mama and Daddy and everyone else in our church—poor and ignorant and content to stay that way. Where had their religion gotten them? I mean, look what happened to Jesus. He was good, and He was religious, and look where He ended up! I saw clearly then what Donnette had been saying to me when I thought about Jesus. Goals, that's what He lacked. The man never had any goals.

So I set my goals and Donnette set about seeing that I got them. She called me one day the very next week, all excited, and I hurried out to her trailer. She'd come up with the perfect plan, the answer. My life was about to take a new course.

Oh, at first it was so difficult for me. I couldn't take in the thought of what Donnette proposed to me—that I set my cap for Sonny Clark the same way Miss Opal went after Harris Jr.! I was willing to settle for much less. I tried to get Donnette to just help me get a job working for Mr. Harris, maybe at the bank, and I'd be satisfied. But her plan—there was no way I could go along with Donnette's crazy idea.

I had no experience with men at all, none whatsoever—except that one time, and I'd never tell Donnette or anyone about that. Plus I knew Sonny Clark's reputation with women. I admit, it both scared and thrilled me to death to think about him. I had always thought he was cute as could be, but him being younger than me, I'd never thought anything about going with him.

But Donnette would not hear of me lowering my goals; she'd get real mad at me and tell me to go back to the sticks if I was too scared to do this. At times, I was, then I'd go back to her, and we'd talk some more. The more we talked, the more convinced I became that I had a chance.

Donnette herself was convinced that this could work because she and Sonny Clark had always been real close friends. She claimed that Sonny tried his best to get her to marry him just a couple of years ago, before she married Tim. She swore that he was ready for marriage, that Mr. Harris was putting all sorts of pressure on him to settle down. My timing couldn't be better. Sonny had to marry and settle down soon, or Mr. Harris was going to boot him out of the house. There was no way our plan could fail.

Well, I would have remained totally unconvinced if I hadn't let Donnette make me over into a glamorous, sophisticated woman. She cut my hair real short and frosted it almost white-blonde. Then she pierced my ears, and put makeup on my face. My body was fine; I was strong and healthy from living on a farm all my life. At first Donnette wanted me to diet to trim off a few pounds, but she took a look at Miss Opal and changed her mind.

Donnette's theory is that men marry women who remind them of their mothers. She swears that there is a picture of Tim's mother that looks exactly like her.

Once I saw myself in the mirror at Donnette's trailer, I knew that I had a chance. Then me and her went shopping for clothes. I didn't have much money, so we went to Discount World in Columbus, which has much nicer clothes than Kmart at about the same price. Class, that's what I had to have, Donnette insisted. She picked out colorful sundresses and shorts sets for me, still using Miss Opal as our model.

I then got me some contacts and put away my glasses forever. I tell you, when I walked into my classes that next Monday, people didn't know who I was. It is amazing what a new image can do for a woman. Right away, I enrolled in a self-improvement course at the community college, as well as a remedial English and vocabulary class. If I was going for this, I was going all the way.

As a matter of fact, Donnette's strategy was just the opposite on that particular point. My face blushed a dark red when she first told me how I was going to get Hamilton Clark.

“Fixing you up with Sonny will be no problem,” she assured me. “I've fixed him up before, and he'll go with
anybody
. No offense, Ellis. But the rest is up to you. Sonny has never been able to resist anything he can't have. Under no circumstances can you go all the way with him, you hear me? Under
no
circumstances. But you've got to make him want to so bad he can't see straight.”

At first I didn't know what she was talking about. “Go all the way? What do you mean?”

“Oh, my God, Ellis. Don't tell me you're a—This may be harder than I thought! Okay. Let me think on this awhile. First you got to take a room in town. Better yet, in Columbus.”

Well, I balked and resisted her most of the way, and some of the things she proposed embarrassed me so much that I couldn't face Sonny Clark without blushing when we first started going together. But Donnette was right, about everything. Every single thing worked out according to her plan.

And I don't give the Lord one bit of credit for it like I would have at one time, before I understood who really makes miracles happen. Now that my eyes have been opened to the truth, I finally understand that every person is in charge of his or her own life, and that all the praying and carrying on done every Sunday is not going to help near as much as having a friend like Donnette.

I pulled up in the driveway of Donnette's house, but I didn't get out like I planned. I could see into the shop window, and I saw that someone was in there with her. It looked like Elton Davis's wife from here. I sure couldn't talk to Donnette now about what I'd seen at the river, because Florece Davis is one of the biggest gossips in a town where she has plenty of competition. Not that I cared a bit if everyone in town knew what Taylor was up to, but I wasn't sure yet what to make of what I saw. I decided I'd wait and call Donnette later and ask to see her when no one else was around. I needed to find out from someone in the family when Taylor was going back, too. I could talk to Miss Opal first, before I talked to Donnette. Then I'd have two bits of information to share with her. So I turned the car around and went back home.

On the way I passed Mr. Hiram Clark's house, where crazy old Della Dean lives. Miss Opal was right; it could be turned into a beautiful house for me and Hamilton and our children. I expected to be getting pregnant any time now. I was disappointed that I wasn't already, since that was a major part of me and Donnette's plan. But I would be soon, and we'd need a house of our own. Miss Opal and I had some great plans for the complete remodeling of the old Hiram Clark house. It was going to be so pretty decorated in shades of pale yellow and sky blue. If only Miss Della would hurry up and either kick the bucket or go on to the nursing home, we could get started on it. It was in Mr. Hiram's will that the house go to Mr. Harris if he outlives Miss Della, so Taylor might as well give up and go on back to Louisiana with the other Cajuns. No way he can outsmart me anyway!

I ended up telling Hamilton about Taylor and that Sarah woman at the river. I didn't really intend to, but I couldn't get Donnette on the phone, and I was dying to tell someone.

That night after supper, me and Hamilton sat around with the family for a while like we usually did, then excused ourselves to go upstairs and watch TV in our room. I admit, it was pretty boring sitting around downstairs with the family.

They have a TV down there, but they never watch anything but the Tuscaloosa news because Daddy Clark thinks there's too much cussing and fornicating on TV nowadays. Instead, Daddy Clark studies his Sunday School lesson. He teaches the Men's Bible Class every Sunday, and he puts a lot of work into it, looking up stuff all the time in his complete set of Barclay's Bible Commentary.

Miss Frances Martha either looks through her cookbooks, or dozes in her rocking chair. Miss Opal usually looks through women's magazines,
Redbook
and
Ladies' Home Journal
, but she always sighs and carries on like she's so bored she could scream. She keeps going back and forth to her bathroom, too. When we first married, I felt sorry for her, thinking she had a kidney problem like Granny Rountree does. But Hamilton says she keeps her booze in there, hidden away from Daddy Clark.

At first this information shocked and disillusioned me, but my outlook on society has broadened lately. I realized that a cocktail could be a very soothing thing. Hamilton doesn't drink hard liquor or beer anymore, but we, too, keep a bottle of wine or sherry in our bedroom. We share a glass of wine or two just about every night.

When we finally went up to our room, Hamilton jumped up in the bed immediately and started flicking the channels around, looking for a wrestling match. But I turned the TV off. I just couldn't wait to tell somebody what I'd seen. I tried to get Donnette on the phone again a few minutes ago, but they'd gone somewhere, I reckon.

“Hamilton, listen to me. You won't believe what I saw today.” I hadn't even told him yet about Glenda and Dink. I knew that Hamilton liked Dink a lot and used to hang around with him some, so I wasn't sure if he'd be sympathetic with me being so upset about them.

“Come here first, Mama.” He held out his arms to me, and I went and laid down beside him on the bed. He's so loving. He just can't seem to get enough. He says that we have to do it all the time if we want to have a baby. But I wanted to tell him about his cousin Taylor first, so I propped up next to him on the pillows and pushed his hands off me gently.

“Hamilton, listen to me. I rode out by the river this morning. I was just looking around some, you know. I sure didn't expect to see what I saw!”

He lit a cigarette and pulled me close to him again. “No telling what you'll see at the river, hon. You better not go out there again without me.”

“Hamilton, I saw your cousin Taylor Dupree out there, all lovey-dovey with a someone on a beach towel.”

Hamilton laughed and ruffled my hair affectionately. “Was he queering off with someone now that he has that faggy long hair? I knew his true colors would finally come through.”

Hamilton can't stand Taylor, but he's always been able to put him down effectively and not let him get under his skin. And I've given him a few pointers myself lately, sarcasm being my specialty.

“Hamilton, Taylor was with a woman old enough to be his mother!” I told him.

“That doesn't surprise me either. He's bound to have some kind of hang-up, having Charlotte for a mother. Maybe he's looking for a mother figure to screw.”

Hamilton really laughed at that. He could be so vulgar sometimes. I just don't know where he gets that; surely not from anyone in the Clark family.

“She sure has screwed him all his life, hand it to her,” he added, laughing like everything.

“Stop talking ugly and listen to me. He was with that niece of Miss Maudie Ferguson's!”

This time Hamilton paid attention to me. He sat straight up and looked right at me. “Are you kidding me?”

“No. I saw them plain as day.”

“No shit!”

“Hamilton, I've asked you nice as can be not to use words like that around me. I tell you, I saw them carrying on with each other, right there at the river.”

Hamilton was as shocked as I was, I could tell. “No shit!” he kept saying, until I poked him in the ribs. Then he took a deep drag of his cigarette and sat back on the pillows. A satisfied smile came over his face.

“Well, well, well. I'll just be damned. Aunt Charlotte's old buddy Miss Sarah, huh?” He continued to smoke and smiled to himself like the cat that swallowed the canary. Then he turned back to me. “Now, Mama, are you sure they were scr—doing it? You mean you actually caught them in the act?”

“Well, of course I didn't actually witness it, but they were sure fixing to!”

“Have you told anybody this?” Hamilton asked me.

“Not yet. I've been trying to get Donnette all day, but I can't.”

“Donnette—why on earth would you tell her?” He looked at me as though I'd lost my mind.

I swear, he could be so slow sometimes. “Think about it, honey. Donnette is worried sick about Taylor being back in town. She just got Tim to where he's okay after that accident where Taylor almost killed him. Imagine how upset she is.”

“Donnette ought not to worry about that. I guarantee you Tim Sullivan won't have nothing else to do with Taylor. He sure won't get in a car with him!”

“That's what I've told her, too. But she can't help but worry. You know how devious Taylor is. You know better than anyone what he is. What kind of person would go off and leave someone in the shape Tim was in, not caring if he lived or died? And now that he's all better, come looking for him again? I tell you, Taylor is a low-down human being in my estimation, and I intend to help Donnette out all I can.”

“I'm proud of you for that, hon, but tell you what. Don't tell anyone about Taylor and that woman yet, okay? Wait and let me think on it awhile. It might be real useful information for us.”

“For us? But how?”

“Well, now, just think about it. Reckon Taylor wants his Aunt Della to find out about this? Or Daddy Clark—heh, heh, that would be something!” Hamilton literally rubbed his hands in glee. “So old Taylor is sticking it to Miss Sarah, huh? That may be the best news I've heard in a long time!”