Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes (19 page)

On this breezy Saturday afternoon in October while they waited for the soccer match to begin, the Reverend Bob sat in the bleachers with Tammy Purvis and talked about the Lord. Tammy had been a cheerleader up at UVA and had smoked pot and slept with a boy named Mule before she got the call from the Lord. Now she was married to Chester Purvis, had three children, attended Bible study four times a week, and spent her spare time purging the school library of books she found inappropriate, and passing out leaflets to school-children on the evils of Halloween. Tammy Purvis believed donning a Halloween costume was the closest thing possible to opening up your heart and inviting Satan to enter. She had been denying her own children the sinful joys of trick or treating for years, and now she felt compelled to deny other people’s children. Tammy figured it was her Christian duty.

Nita tried not to listen to their conversation, which was hard because Reverend Bob always talked as if he was standing in a pulpit. His voice carried up the stands and across the field and probably across two counties as well. He and Tammy were talking now about Chester’s new car.

Chester Purvis was a steady, God-fearing man. He sold insurance out of his basement and attended huge prayer meetings in Atlanta where Christian men go to learn how to take back control of their families. “It’s an eighty-four Mercedes,” Tammy said, flipping her bleached blond hair over one shoulder. “I prayed about it and prayed about it and the Lord told me we should buy it.”

“Praise the Lord,” Reverend Bob said.

Over in the parking lot, Reverend Bob’s team stood methodically kicking a soccer ball into the side of his truck. Reverend Bob had a Ford truck with a bumper sticker that read
I am a Christian and I have a Gun.
Seeing the boys, Reverend Bob stood up and shouted in a thundering voice, “Nathan, get those boys out on the practice field and ya’ll start warming up.”

Nathan Hog stood apart from the other boys, watching in dignified silence. He was a tall thin boy who looked out at the world with an abiding sense of one who is preordained to failure. He was a minister’s boy and his last name was Hog. It didn’t get much worse than that.

Reverend Bob sighed and sat down heavily. Across the field, Nita saw Logan take a shot on goal and miss. He put his head down and loped back to the sidelines. She wanted to go out and put her arms around him and tell him everything was going to be all right. She wanted to tell him that life could be better than succeeding at soccer and trying to live up to impossible standards, and that he mustn’t give up hope. But then, who was she to talk?

Reverend Bob wiped his sweating face with a handkerchief and nodded his head while Tammy droned on about the Mercedes. She had told Chester no, he couldn’t have it, it was too expensive, and then they prayed about it and the Lord sent an answer in the form of a 1978 Honda Civic driven by a crowd of unruly teenagers. The teenagers plowed into the passenger’s side of the Mercedes and the lady who owned it, shaken and unharmed but realizing she was ninety-four years old and too old to drive, had called Chester and told him the car was his.

“I just know the Lord meant for Chester to have that Mercedes,” Tammy said, bobbing her head like one of those little dashboard dolls. “He gave me a sign, plain as day.”

Eadie, who had somehow managed to keep quiet throughout this entire conversation, leaned over and said loudly, “I hope you don’t seriously think the Lord would cause an accident between a little old lady and a carload of children just so Chester could get himself a fucking Mercedes.” Several people looked over their shoulders. Nita kicked Eadie with her foot, but Eadie ignored her.

Tammy swung around, her eyes narrowing when she saw Eadie. Reverend Bob glanced at Eadie and then away, ducking his head between his shoulders. Eadie Boone was one of the biggest contributors to the Baptist Boy’s home. She served Christmas dinner to the homeless down at the Interfaith Outreach Program and helped pay for the new ten-bed building addition. Reverend Bob didn’t want any trouble with Eadie Boone.

“This is a private conversation!” Tammy said, her little beaked nose turning bright red. She had a shrill voice when she was calm, but when she got excited it sounded like seagulls fighting over a dead fish. “We weren’t talking to you, were we, Reverend?” she shrieked.

“Excuse me, ladies,” Reverend Bob said, rising. “I see our game is about to begin.” He nodded without looking at any of them and hurried out of the stands.

Tammy stood up, quickly gathering her belongings. She made little short jerking movements and her hair stood up around her face like ruffled feathers. “You’re just jealous,” she hissed at Eadie over her shoulder. “You’ve been jealous of me since the day I made pom-pom squad, and you didn’t.”

Eadie smiled sweetly. “Of course, you’re right, Tammy, I never stood a chance competing with you.”

Tammy tossed her hair over one shoulder, her little dark eyes glittering with pride and vindication.

“After all, you were sleeping with the whole football squad.” Eadie smiled, showing her teeth. “What chance did I have?”

Tammy made a squawking sound deep in her throat, and turning, she sailed down the long row of bleachers, stepping over people who got in her way, and dragging her purse behind her like a broken tether.

“Bye, Tammy,” Eadie called.

“Well, that was pleasant,” Nita said.

“Yes, wasn’t it?”

Nita watched Tammy stomp down the bleacher steps. “And I guess this doesn’t have anything to do with the pom-pom squad?” she said to Eadie.

Eadie took a small mirror out of her purse and carefully applied her lipstick. “She
was
sleeping with the football team.” She closed the mirror, slid the lipstick into its sheath, and put both into her purse. “I always got blamed for things like that. Sleeping with the football team, I mean. No one ever believed I was a virgin the day I graduated, and it was girls like Tammy spreading the rumors.” She smiled at Nita and smoothed her hair. “I’m just setting the record straight, is all.”

Logan’s team was lining up on the field opposite Reverend Bob’s team. Logan sat on the bench, waiting. He usually got sent in for a few minutes at the end of the second half, but only if they were ahead by three goals, or losing so badly it didn’t matter.

The referee came out onto the field to start the game. There was something familiar about him, something familiar about the way he moved. He raised his arm and blew the whistle and in that instant, Nita recognized him. Blood flooded her face, pulsing delicately beneath her skin. Watching his lanky figure run up and down the sidelines it seemed foolish that she had ever thought she could forget him.

“Hey.” Eadie nudged her with her shoulder. “Isn’t that your good-looking carpenter? Billy Ray? Johnny Bob?”

“Jimmy Lee,” Nita said quietly.

A
T HALF TIME
Eadie went to the concession booth to buy another Coke. Nita sat in the stands, trying not to feel self-conscious. If Jimmy Lee had seen her, he gave no sign of it. He stood over on the sideline drinking water from a bottle. She tried to send him a telepathic message, willing him to look at her. A cool breeze fluttered his hair. Nita wondered if he had forgotten her in the two weeks since she saw him last. She wondered if she had imagined their little flirtation that day in the garden. The insistent voice in her head reminded her she was often naive and easily duped. She had, after all, been faithful to a man who cheated on her for fifteen years, and she never had a clue. Maybe Jimmy Lee was just another way she had of fooling herself.

A tall blond girl wearing faded blue jeans strolled across the field. He saw her coming and grinned, wiping his face on a towel. The girl put her hand on his shoulder and they stood talking for a few minutes while the players from both teams slowly resumed their positions on the field.

“What’s the matter with you?” Eadie said. She sat down beside Nita, holding out another sack of boiled peanuts. Steam rose from the sack and curled, thick and wet, around Nita’s face.

“Nothing,” Nita said.

“Do you want some peanuts?”

“No thanks.”

High-flying clouds scuttled across the sun. The day, which had seemed so bright and promising just a short time before, grew gray and dismal. Nita tried not to let it all weigh her down. She tried not to think about all the things she had to worry about, but they fell into place anyway, lining up in her mind like missiles in a silo. She was married to a man she could no longer love or respect. Her children would need therapy. She had no skills or training that would enable her to find a job that could support both her and the children. She had fallen for a boy who probably couldn’t even remember her name.

Nita longed suddenly for the escape of her porno romance novels. She longed for the days when she had been able to immerse herself in thrilling tales of love and adventure on the high seas, in castle boudoirs, in lonely teepees, when all around her the world had seemed safe and knowable and miraculously uncomplicated, and the only problem she had had to worry about was whether to make chicken or fish for dinner.

A
N HOUR AND
fifteen minutes later, the game was over, a perfect rout by Reverend Bob’s Raiders. The two teams lined up on the field to shake hands. Logan’s team filed by the stands like prisoners on their way to execution. One of the boys was crying. Logan came up the rear, whistling. He saw his mother and waved. In a strange twist of reasoning known only to bored housewives, death-row felons, and lonely adolescents, other people’s misery made Logan happy. He passed the crying boy.

“Good game, Randy,” Logan said.

“Shut up asshole,” Randy sobbed.

Nita could see Jimmy Lee across the field, packing his bag. The blond girl went across the field to meet him. Nita moved slightly behind Eadie, shielding herself from Jimmy Lee and his girlfriend. A stream of slow-moving people clogged the stands. Nita motioned for Logan to go on. “We’ll meet you at the concession stand,” she shouted. She wanted to get out of there before Jimmy Lee saw her.

They followed the crowd out of the stands, nodding at people they knew. Logan was waiting for them at the concession stand looking relaxed and happier than Nita had seen him in a long time. “You meant what you said, right?” he said to Nita. “About me dropping out of soccer?”

She put her arm around him. “Of course I meant it.”

Eadie put her arm around him, too, and the three of them strolled through the crowd. Nita wanted to run, wanted to push them to hurry, but she couldn’t drag them along without having to answer a lot of questions she didn’t want to answer. “Hey, Mom,” Logan said. “Did you see who the referee was?”

“Look,” Nita said, pointing. “There’s Jake Hendricks.”

Eadie grinned at her over Logan’s head but Nita ignored her. Nita thought,
Maybe I can brush up on my secretarial skills and get a job out at the college. Maybe I can get a job clerking at one of the department stores out at the mall.

“Nita!” His voice boomed out over the throng of people. For a moment she pretended she hadn’t heard him, but Eadie and Logan stopped immediately and swung around. They let go of each other, standing in the road while curious people streamed by on both sides. Eadie touched her on the shoulder. “We’ll wait for you at the car,” she said.

“No, don’t go,” Nita said.

Jimmy Lee trotted through the crowd with a slow easy gait, dodging people like a running back. About ten feet from them he slowed to a walk. He put his hand up. “Hey,” he said, looking at Nita.

Logan put his hand out and Jimmy Lee took it. “Good game,” he said.

“Thanks for not calling that handball,” Logan said.

“What handball?” Jimmy Lee said.

Eadie wasn’t used to being ignored, especially by good-looking young men. “Hi, I’m Eadie,” she said, giving him her hand. “I may have some work I need you to do around my house. It’s an old house and there’s a lot of repair work that hasn’t been done in a long, long time.” She gave him the full impact of her eyes and smile, shooting out pheromones in all directions.

“Great. I’ll give you my card,” he said, taking out his wallet.

“It’s a lot of work,” she said. “It’s probably at least three or four weeks worth of work.” She stood there in the middle of the road, smiling, while all around her people got caught up in that wash of pheromones and slowed to gawk.

“That’s okay.” He grinned, handing her his card. “My schedule should clear up in the next couple of weeks.”

“Why don’t you wait for me at the car?” Nita said to Eadie.

Eadie grinned and stuck his business card in her purse. “Good idea,” she said. She put her arm around Logan’s shoulders and turned, pulling him along with her. “Come on, kiddo. It’s just you and me.”

Nita stood in the middle of the road, smiling and nodding at people she knew, feeling like the whole town had caught her in some flagrant act of misconduct, feeling like they were all watching and whispering behind their hands. Her face burned. Her knees trembled. Goose bumps rose on her arms.

“How have you been?” Jimmy Lee said. His hair was loose about his shoulders. He had grown a mustache and one of those little goatees the young wear nowadays, the kind that closely covers the chin. Nita didn’t know what it was called, but it looked good on him.

“I’ve been okay,” she said. She could see Eadie and Logan up ahead, their heads bobbing in the crowd. Jimmy Lee stood with his sports bag resting against one hip, the strap wrapping his chest like a bandolier.

“Really? Just okay?” They stood in the middle of the road looking at each other. She turned and began to walk slowly along the road and he followed, slowing his steps to match hers. “How’s the pool house holding up?”

“It collapsed at the party and killed two people,” she said.

“You’re funny,” he said. He grinned and slung his sports bag to the opposite hip.

Sunlight fell through the arching branches of the trees. Fish jumped in the creek. Nita was happy again.

“Hey, I was going to ask you, is there anything else you need done around the house—a bathroom remodeled, a kitchen updated, a basement finished?” He pushed his hair behind his ears, smiling at her. “My workload is slowing down over the next few weeks and I can probably fit you in.”