Swan Place (16 page)

Poor Crystal!

When Roy-Ellis got home from work, he hugged Crystal and whirled her around and laughed. And she sure did look pretty, wearing a fresh blue blouse and with her hair fixed and her lipstick on. Then Roy-Ellis patted my head before he went into the bathroom and took a shower. He came out of the bedroom a little later wearing clean clothes and smelling of soap and aftershave.

“You all going out?” I asked, when I saw how cleaned-up Roy-Ellis was.

“Nope. Don’t think so,” he answered. “I just want to keep my little bride happy.” Crystal smiled and blushed.

“Come on to supper, honey,” she said.

But when Roy-Ellis saw what was on the table, he said, “Tomato soup and grilled cheese? Shucks, Crystal—Dove here can cook
that
.”

Crystal put her hand on her hip and looked Roy-Ellis straight in the eye. “Dove here
did
cook that.”

Roy-Ellis turned red and mumbled something we couldn’t figure out, and he sat down at the table and ate his supper, without another word of complaint. And that evening, while Roy-Ellis and Crystal sat on the couch, holding hands and watching television, I sat at the table and wrote out a schedule for Crystal. And then I wrote in my notebook and for the first time, I didn’t write about Mama. I wrote about Crystal and the first day she took care of children.

The next morning,
I was surprised to find Savannah sitting on our back steps. And once again, I was struck by how little and quiet she seemed to be, sitting there with her chin resting in her hands.

“Hi, Savannah,” I said, and when she turned her face toward me, I could tell that something was terribly wrong.

“What is it?” I whispered.

She heaved a deep sigh and said, “I’m going away this morning.”

“Going away? Going away to
where
?”

“To my Aunt Vera’s. In Atlanta. I’m gonna live with her for a while.”

I sat down on the steps beside Savannah and pulled her head onto my shoulder. .

“I will miss you!” I whispered.

“Maybe we could write letters to each other,” she whispered back.

“It won’t be the same as seeing you every day,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady and already trying not to think about how much I would miss her. Miss everything about her.

“But at least it would be
something,
” she said. I felt myself beginning to cave in, somewhere near my stomach, and I knew that if I started crying, it would break Savannah’s heart—and mine, as well.

“We’ll write!” I said the words enthusiastically, as if that was the most wonderful suggestion anyone had ever made to me. “That’s perfect!” Savannah seemed to brighten a little, and once again, I was comforted by my own words in some strange way. I hugged her tight, and I thought my heart would surely break, but I managed to smile. I
had
to smile. For her. And for me.

Savannah!

“I thought maybe we could try some new things,” he said to Crystal. “You aren’t frying more chicken for tonight, are you?”

“No,” Crystal answered. “But if that’s what you want, I can fix it for you.”

Roy-Ellis swallowed and peered into the pot I was stirring. “Macaroni and cheese is good!” He was obviously relieved and began unloading groceries onto the counter. Hot dogs, a big package—”Family Size”—of ground beef, a package of eight pork chops, a big bag of rice, a bag of potatoes, another bag of frozen green beans, and two six-packs of beer.

“Beer’s mine,” he said. “Rest of it’s for cooking.” Crystal looked at everything he had brought, and then she picked up the package of pork chops and frowned at it.

“I don’t know what to do with this,” she mumbled, looking at me.

“Me neither,” I admitted. We both looked at Roy-Ellis.

“Ask Bett,” he said simply.

As if Aunt Bett could hear what Roy-Ellis said, the phone rang right at that instant. Roy-Ellis answered it.

“Sure, Bett. That’ll be nice. Looking forward to it. Okay. Bye.” He hung up the phone.

“Bett?” Crystal asked.

“Yeah. She’s bringing us some cornbread Saturday morning.”

“Oh,” Crystal breathed, and she glanced around at the piled-high trash can and the dishes in the sink, and the sticky fingerprints Molly had left on the cabinet door. But I just looked at Crystal and smiled and nodded.

When the dishes were done, Crystal and I said not a word, but I took the kitchen trash can and emptied it into the big can on the back porch, while Crystal started scrubbing the fingerprints off the cabinet.

“Dove?” Roy-Ellis called from the living room. “Would you bring me a beer, sweetie?” I took him his beer, and then I pushed the other bottles in the refrigerator all the way to the back and piled the packages of pork chops and hot dogs in front of them. Crystal scrubbed down the sink, and I wiped off the table.

“Crystal?” Roy-Ellis called. “You gonna come keep me company? I’m getting awful lonesome in here all by myself.”

“In a minute, honey,” Crystal sang back to him.

“You go on,” I urged. “I’ll finish up.” I was glad to be able to help Crystal, because I certainly knew what it felt like to have Aunt Bett glancing around our house, this way and that, and—without saying a single word—maybe letting us know that we weren’t doing our housekeeping right. Crystal sat with Roy-Ellis on the couch, with her head on his shoulder. And the reflected light from the television swept back and forth across their contented faces. The last thing I did in the kitchen was to put two clean, folded dish towels on the towel holder over the sink. And that little kitchen sure did look pretty and shiny when I turned out the light and went into the dining room to write in my notebook.

“Homework during the summer, Dove?” Roy-Ellis called to me, like maybe he’d forgotten asking that before.

“Nosir, just something I like doing,” I called back.

“Well, don’t forget what I said about having you a little fun, honey.”

“Yessir.”

The next morning, Crystal
came out of the bedroom with pink curlers in her hair, and as soon as we’d all finished our cereal, I settled Molly and Little Ellis in the living room with their coloring books and crayons, and Crystal and I did the dishes, dried and put them away, wiped down the table and the sink, and nodded at each other. Why, that kitchen was absolutely spotless! And for drying the dishes, I had used another towel and hung it on the back porch, so as to leave the two pretty ones still clean and dry.

It was one of Roy-Ellis’s rare days off, and he went outside to work on the clutch on his truck, Crystal combed out her pretty hair and put it into a neat ponytail, and I sat down at the dining table to write in my notebook. Crystal paced around a little, wiping invisible dust off the coffee table and straightening the slipcovers, even though they weren’t messed up one bit. She sauntered back into the dining room.

“
More
work, Dove?” she asked, trying not to look toward the porch, where—any minute!—Aunt Bett could arrive.

“No, not really,” I answered, putting down my pen. Because I was mostly too nervous to write anyway—what with wondering if Aunt Bett would think we were doing a good job of housekeeping.

“Not really?” Crystal asked.

“I’m writing a story,” I said.

“You are? Why that’s wonderful!” Crystal was truly happy about that. And I knew what was coming next and dreaded it.

“What’s it about?”

I hesitated.

“Mostly, it’s about my mama,” I said. But I quickly added, “I’ve already written one story about you, too. And one about Savannah.”

“Oh?” She turned bright red. “You’ve written a story about
me
?” But before we could say another word, there she was—Aunt Bett—knocking lightly on the screen door, peering in as if she were already looking the place over, and with that kind of a plastic smile she could sometimes get on her face.

“Oh, Lord have mercy on us!” Crystal whimpered.

“Come on in, Aunt Bett,” I hollered, nodding at Crystal.
It’ll be okay.
.

Aunt Bett opened the squeaky screen door and came in hesitantly, carrying a big aluminum pan all wrapped in foil—the cornbread. Her sweet, well-meaning ticket into our house. When I saw her, all I could think about was mean old Michelle making fun of her, and so I ran to her and gave her a big hug.

“Dove?” she said, struggling a little against my hearty hug. I loosened up on her and stood back. Aunt Bett blushed and waved the back of her hand at me. Crystal was still standing in the dining room, as stiff as a statue. I grabbed Aunt Bett’s hand and pulled her into the dining room, but it was like dragging a wagon full of rocks.

“Look who’s here!” I chirped to Crystal, as if we hadn’t been expecting Aunt Bett at all, and we hadn’t been scrubbing things half to death.

“Hi, Aunt Bett!” Crystal’s voice was way too bright. And the next thing Crystal said was, “Roy-Ellis brought home some nice pork chops, and me and Dove
 . . .
” She shot a strange glance at me. “Why, we just don’t know how to fix them. How to cook them.” Aunt Bett brightened on the spot. She thrust the pan of cornbread at me and almost sprinted toward the kitchen, with me and Crystal right behind her, smiling to each other and making okay! signs with our fingers.

“Show me those pork chops,” she ordered. “And start some water to boiling. And do you have rice? And some fresh tomatoes? And onions? Get me a Dutch oven.”

Why I never saw anything like that in my whole life. Aunt Bett came alive, right in front of my eyes. Lost all her timid ways and her plastic smile and got to be a real person again. Crystal got the pork chops out of the refrigerator, I dug around in the cabinets and found the Dutch oven, and I got that big bag of rice Roy-Ellis had brought home.

“Tomatoes!” Aunt Bett demanded.

“Onions!” she ordered. Then, right out of the blue, she said to Crystal, “I hope you don’t dry clothes on the high setting.” Crystal was taken completely by surprise.