The Earth Painter (23 page)

“How is it? Can you tell any difference from sugar sweetened?” She pulled off her smock and hung it on a rack by the door next to her rubber boots she had already removed.

“No, it’s good.”

Mrs. Strickland motioned for me to follow her and I did to the adjoining room that was obviously an office. “Have a seat here with me and let’s get to know each other a bit. So tell me why you guys moved here from Charleston? That’s got to be hard…spending your senior year in a different school.”

I was over the answer that pleased Mom—the one I couldn’t repeat and look someone in the eye. “My dad lost his job. He was a sales rep for a medical supply company. Their competitor came up with a piece of surgical equipment every hospital wanted. Suddenly, my dad had no market.” I thought about all the people around here who were out of work. Chesnee was pretty desolate since the plants shut down. “Shut downs and layoffs seem to be happening all over these days.”

Mrs. Strickland sighed. “Yes, but at least your family had a house here to come to. Not everyone is so blessed.”

I thought about Grandma’s old two bedroom mill house. I wasn’t sure Mom had ever seen moving into it as a blessing. “Yes, I guess it was. At least we didn’t end up homeless.”

Mrs. Strickland shook her head. “Some people here will be if some things don’t change. I’m thinking about running for city council too. Someone needs to bring jobs into Chesnee. We used to have three mills. They built many of the homes back in the day. Thus, the little mill villages. I know three of the local churches are starting food closets, but that’s just a Band-Aid. We need a cure—jobs are what we need.”

She opened her file drawer and pulled out a file. “This is what I want you to work on today.”

I opened the manila folder and saw a photograph of the white Victorian house that sat on the main street. “This is the place by the gas station. My mom loves that house.”

She smiled. “So do
I
. It’s been vacant forever, and there’s rumor it might be torn down. It’s one of the original structures in Chesnee. I’m going before the City Council to seek to have it declared an historical landmark to the city. I plan to apply for grants to restore it and maybe make it a museum. I want the restoration done by the people of Chesnee, too. It could create a few jobs if only for a few weeks. That’s something to somebody with kids and Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner.”

“And you want me to look up and find reasons to keep the house?”

“Yes. I have a laptop over at that small desk and a box of old photos and documents I borrowed from a local historian. I’ve got a case I’m working on for a lady
who’s
boss was harassing her sexually. He thought he could get away with it because she could never afford an attorney. But I work for free on cases like this.”

I looked at Mrs. Strickland in her flannel shirt and scarf covered head as I stood. She was so different from my mom. The only time my mom ever got involved with a charity was to socialize or to look good. “May I ask something?”

Mrs. Strickland smiled at me.
“Certainly.”

“Why would an attorney want to goat farm?”

She laughed. “If you had told me fifteen years ago that I would be a full time mom and farmer and a part time attorney, I would have laughed in your face. As far as I was concerned, I was at the top of the food chain. I’d graduated at the top of my class had a baby alone without ever going on the system and was a tiger in the courtroom. This little black girl from Chesnee could walk into any courtroom and shake hands with any big, fat, white man across the aisle from me and know I was just as good if not better than him.

“Then one day I met
Tameeka
. She was part of a class action against a store that had locked its employees in at night to clean up and it caught on fire. A couple of people died before they could unlock the doors to get them out. After the fire,
Tameeka
worked at a slaughter house and couldn’t get off to come into the office so I was sent to her on her lunch break.

“I walked into that place and my nose automatically wrinkled. I didn’t want to touch a thing.
Tameeka
walked into the break room and extended her hand to shake mine. I waved her off and asked her to have a seat, but she just stood there and said, ‘What?
You too good to shake my hand?’

“I remember looking at her all wide-eyed and shocked. Most people were intimidated by me. She went on to ask me if I was a vegetarian. I told her no, but that I was more accustomed to buying my meat at the store where all the bone and skin to remind me what animal it was had been removed.

“She put her hands on her hip, still refusing to sit with me and said, ‘Somebody’s hands did that for you. It didn’t just get that way. I’m proud of the work I do here. I got two kids to feed and dress.’

“She put her hand to me again. ‘I wear gloves when I work, and I wash my hands. They are just as good as your hands. If you think you’re better than me, you can just go on.’

“What she said bothered me. I could shake hands with any big, fat, white man lawyer and know I’m his equal. But, somehow, thought I was better than the trash man or the janitor. Now, after spending all day milking goats, I can also shake hands with anybody else who needs my help and know they are my equal too. That’s an even better feeling. My hands are no better than anyone’s.”

I sat there thinking about that. My mom was always trying to look better than everyone else, but Mrs. Strickland wanted to see everyone as being just as good as her.

Working on the information for the house made me think of historic Charleston. Then something else hit me.

“Mrs. Strickland?”

“Please call me Martha.”

I smiled. “Martha…the well under the school, did you know it was the first well dug in Chesnee?

Back in Charleston, there are pumps in the parks that pull up water from artesian wells. They are free for the public to use. Do you think we could maybe find a way to do that in Chesnee once they take down the old high school?”

Her face lit up. “That’s a great idea.”

We worked on the details and looked for grants. I truly liked my new job. I also emailed Dad with my idea. He questioned the fairness, but we both knew it would be the only way to make Mom happy. Dad would take my settlement from The Bantam Chef and buy Mom a newer car and let me take her current car. Handle Mom, that’s what we did in our house.

It was such a splendid day. When it was time for Anthony to take me home, I had him take me to the school first. He was more inquisitive since he knew there were no rehearsals.

“I’m meeting a friend. He’ll see me home.”

I broke into the auditorium like usual and climbed the ladder to the catwalk. I busted in the door shouting, “I’ve found a way to save the well!” I stopped. Theo, Bio and Geo were sitting around the card table each holding a hand full of cards.

“Sorry. I didn’t know you were having a game.”

Theo stood and came to me. “You’re fine. I’m not winning any tweaks back tonight anyway.” He pulled me over to the settee and sat with me.

“Mrs. Strickland and I were working on something to get some grant money to save an old house in Chesnee. Then I remembered the artesian wells in Charleston. She’s going to propose it to be preserved too since it was the first in Chesnee. If it all goes well, the old shaft will be sealed off, and a pipe with a pump will be inserted. The well will be accessible to anyone who wants pure drinking water. People brought their jugs to be filled all the time in Charleston.”

Theo’s gray-blue eyes lit up and gazed into mine. He grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “You did it. You did it.”

“And I doubt Fritz will know until it’s too late. They will knock the school down, seal off the old opening before they drill the new pipe. It won’t be brought up again at the school board meetings and all we are doing now will be paper work.”

Theo pulled me into his arms and held me. “You did it. You beat Fritz.”

“Will you be in drama, tomorrow?” I asked. “We’re practicing the kiss…finally.” I rolled my eyes.

“I should be.”

“I’ve got to get home.” Then I remembered. “I think my mom painted my room today.” I let out a sigh.

“No, she didn’t, and I don’t think she will.”

I felt my forehead wrinkle.
“Why not?”
I looked deep into his eyes. The way they looked at me…there were no words to explain it.

“Because when she tried, I was there. I whispered to her, ‘Go ahead, but only if you can do better.’ She tried again and again to paint over my mural, but each time she went to touch the brush to the wall, I said it. She finally packed it all up and put it in the basement.”

“Thank you.”

“I gave you the room. I’m going to defend it. It’s yours to change. Not hers.”

I looked at the time on my phone. “I’d better get home.”

“I’ll see you in drama, tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I’ll be the girl kissing Wayne
Mossburg
.”

C
hapter 23

Wayne had worked it out to skip his fourth-period class to come practice with us. Afternoon practices were to start that Friday, but Ms. Jones wanted to see our chemistry again.

Wayne was one loud boisterous and extremely skinny knight. And if that wasn’t enough, the play was ridiculous. Theo was there with Bio in the back. I’d spoken to them just before practice started. They were right beside Ms. Jones but she was oblivious to their presence.

Ms. Jones held up her megaphone.
“Places people.
Let’s start just as our hero answers the witch’s riddle and takes Lady
Oliandra
in his arms for the true love kiss. Places! Cut the lights.”

Regardless of the fact that I hated the play, I did my best to portray the damsel in distress. I was moving from one tape mark on the stage to another, glancing at Theo and then over at Wayne. I was about to have my first kiss, and it was with the wrong guy.

Apparently, I got distracted and was told to walk again with more prance, flapping my imaginary skirt as I go. So I did it again, grateful that it put off the kiss if only by a few seconds.

I glanced up at Theo again, noticing what looked like Bio lecturing him. But Theo was looking at me and ignoring him.

I pranced and flounced from my mark behind Nikki, the girl playing the other witch, up to my mark next to Wayne. I bowed to the ground in a deep curtsy and looked at him and said, “I am forever in your debt for removing my binding to the witch. But my lord, there is still one more binding keeping me here in this tower till my death unless it too is broken.” I batted my eyes as directed—and held back the vomit.

Wayne grabbed me in his arms, only he lost balance, and we hit the floor in a loud thud. Wow the—chemistry.

We stood and brushed off the dust bunnies and got in position again.

This time he grabbed me a little more gently, and I moved into position, careful not to lose balance again. I looked into his mossy eyes. They were the wrong eyes staring at me.
The wrong lips coming towards me.
But, this was acting. Not real. I was not myself, but the grateful lady
Oliandra
and Wayne was my knight. I closed my eyes tight. Not the way a woman might close her eyes when kissed so that she can feel every bit of it without distraction. I closed my eyes to think of another face.
To shut this one out.

I braced myself when I felt Wayne lean in and whispered a quick prayer that his braces didn’t shred my lips to bits.

“CUT!”

I opened my eyes. Wayne was looking out at Ms. Jones now. I leaned up, and we both looked at her in confusion.

“I’ve had a brilliant idea. It just came to me out of nowhere. Let’s save the kiss for opening night. That way all the passion is as hot then as it is now.”

Wayne frowned. “But how do we practice the scene without kissing?”

Ms. Jones was now on stage with us and had pulled Wayne aside to talk with him. That’s when I looked out into the dark auditorium and saw Theo and Bio arguing. They were too far away for me to hear what they were saying. But it was obviously heated. Arms were flailing, and fingers were pointing. Bio’s hand brushed his jacket back to place his balled fist on his hips, then turned away, paced and came back with a finger jab at Theo.

We walked through the scene a couple more times before the bell rang. By then, Theo and Bio were no longer in the auditorium. I really wanted to talk to Theo and certainly didn’t want to sit with Wayne and discuss Ms. Jones’ decision to put off the kiss.

I ran up to Anthony on his way to his locker.

“Hey Anthony, What did your mom pack you for lunch?”

“Almond butter mixed with agave, fresh fruit, celery and a water bottle.”

“Will you sell it to me today?” I reached into my bag. “I’ll give you a five for it.”

Anthony grabbed the money from my hands.
“Deal.”

He gave me his bag, and I ran back to the auditorium, almost bumping into Wayne as he was coming out after changing.

“Did you forget something? I’ll wait on you and we can walk to lunch together.”