Playing by the Rules: A Novel (16 page)

Seeing that she’d piqued Ruby Rose’s interest, Nana asked, “Would you like to sew a dogwood flower onto a block?”

Ruby Rose’s eyes lit up and she began to let down her guard.

“I don’t know how to do it.”

“I’ll show you.”

“Do you think I really can?”

“Sure you can.” Nana was relieved to find an activity that would divert the child’s attention away from whatever was causing her attitude, but she wanted to know what was on the girl’s mind anyway.

“What’s troubling you, chile?” Nana finally asked.

“That woman.” Ruby Rose didn’t move her head; she just raised her eyes up to Nana. She crinkled her forehead so much that she felt her eyebrows touch.

“What woman?”

Ruby Rose pointed her finger toward the house across the street.

“Why are you upset with Louise?”

“She didn’t invite me to her party.”

“They ain’t having no party. She’s just having dinner with your brother,” Nana said, hoping that was all they were doing.

“I still don’t like it.”

“Well, there’s no harm in grown folks eating.” Nana patted Ruby Rose on her shoulder.

Ruby Rose didn’t like Nana’s reaction, didn’t like her defending Louise one bit. It was as if Nana didn’t care about her at all. She might be too young to do anything about how adults were treating her right now, but when she got older or got up the nerve, whichever came first, she would some day.

Nana pulled out the fabric from another drawer and cut a large square block. She pinned the dogwood appliqué onto the block and gave Ruby Rose a thimble and set her up with a needle and thread at the dining-room table. Nana showed Ruby Rose how to stitch by demonstrating how to run the needle in and out of the fabric, and the girl picked it up pretty fast. Ruby Rose tried to keep the stitches small, but she grew frustrated. All she could think about was her brother across the street, which made her angry all over again, and her stitches got big and her needle jabbed through the fabric. She thought she might prick herself, so she threw the block down.

“I don’t want to do this anymore,” declared Ruby Rose.

“That’s alright, baby.” Nana put her arm around Ruby Rose’s shoulder. “We can do this another time…maybe you’d like to
get together with Sadie, Theola, Vernelle, and me one day and do some quilting.”

Ruby Rose shrugged her shoulders and sulked. Nana felt sorry for her and was upset with Louise for the way she was treating Ruby Rose, and especially for the way she was treating Medford. Her granddaughter was being irresponsible, inconsiderate, and reckless, and behavior like that usually had no reward.

“Oh, baby, look what time it is,” Nana said, pointing at her watch, excited that it was almost eight o’clock. She looked at Ruby Rose, who rolled her eyes. “It’s almost time for
Good Times
.”

Ruby Rose didn’t feel like having a good time and she certainly didn’t want to see a show called
Good Times
either, but she felt she didn’t have a choice. What else was she going to do? She decided to cooperate just to make Nana Dunlap happy and plopped down on the sofa in the living room as was expected. She saw the cat on the floor and called it to her lap, and was surprised when it responded to her as if it were a dog.

As it turned out, the man they called J.J. with the big mouth and the weird hat who kept yelling “Dy-no-mite” made her laugh, because he was silly and funny-looking. But when she remembered she wasn’t supposed to be enjoying herself, she stopped laughing and put on her bored face again. Ruby Rose wanted Nana to know she was miserable and that it was her granddaughter who made her that way. Then she had an idea and hoped that after the show Nana would do her a favor.

“Nana.”

“Yes, baby.”

“Was that man who was here on Christmas Day Louise’s boyfriend?”

Nana hesitated. “Why do you want to know?”

“I want to call him up and tell him his girlfriend is cheating on him.”

“Around here, we stay out of folks’ business, young lady.”

“Please can I call him? Please can you give me his phone number? I’ll call him from here. You can hear every word I say, and if I say something wrong you can push down the receiver and hang up. I won’t talk long. I promise. I just think it’s something he needs to know—that my brother is with his girlfriend, and he’s the one who needs to be with his girlfriend. Don’t you think so Nana? Don’t you think I’m right?”

“It don’t matter what I think. I ain’t the one in the situation.”

“Nana, you don’t even have to tell me his number. You can just write it down. After I call him, I’ll rip up the paper and throw it away. I swear. I promise. Please. Pretty please.”

Nana thought about it long and hard. She didn’t want Ruby Rose’s brother to be with Louise either and she wanted to tell Medford about the intrusion that had sideswiped his relationship with Louise too, but she couldn’t because of Rule Number Nine: MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY. If Ruby Rose was bold enough to send a message on both their behalves, she reckoned she could turn her back and cover her ears. “His name is Medford,” she said, and she wrote down his home phone number on a piece of paper.

Ruby Rose dashed into the kitchen with Nana trailing behind. She picked up the phone and dialed the number.

“Medford?”

“Yes. Who’s this?”

“This is Ruby Rose Wilkes. I came to Nana’s house with my brother Jeremiah on Christmas Day?”

“Oh, hello, Ruby Rose. How are you?”

“I’m fine. I’m just calling to say that my brother is at your girlfriend’s house right now and you should do something about it.”

“Louise?” He paused, contemplating an answer. “Louise makes her own decisions.”

“You ain’t mad?” Ruby Rose waited for a response. When she didn’t get one she shouted, “If I were you I’d be madder ‘an a firefly trapped inside a jar, madder than a waterbug when the light came on.”

“Ruby Rose,” Medford said calmly. “You’re the one who sounds angry.”

“I ain’t mad.” She slammed down the phone. “There, Nana,” Ruby Rose added, “I hung up for you.”

Based on the one side of the conversation Nana had heard, she was surprised at Medford’s response. She couldn’t believe he didn’t show any signs of jealousy or rage, and that he’d allow Louise to do whatever she wanted to do. At least now Medford knew there was someone else in the picture, and Nana felt better about him knowing the truth—even if he refused to accept it, or didn’t want to see it, or plain ignored it.

Ruby Rose was beside herself. She put on her coat and wrapped it around her, not even taking the time to use the zipper. She said good-bye to Nana and stormed out the door, down the dark, moonlit road with bare sycamores on either side, looking like giant claws.

The word “dy-no-mite” was stuck in her head from that stupid TV show, and before she knew it she was saying it out loud so the words would keep her company and she wouldn’t be too scared. “
Dy-no-mite…Dy-no-mite…Pick a fight…Pick a fight
.” The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to do something mean to get back at Louise. Then she became angry at Nana too, simply because they were related. Grown-ups were supposed to protect children, and she expected Nana to know that.

When Ruby Rose got to the cottage, she dragged a kitchen chair across the floor and positioned it right in front of the door. Still in her coat, she sat in the chair with her arms folded tight and the lights turned off. Ruby Rose waited. It was shortly after midnight
when the door opened, and the cold air woke her up. The lights came on, and she and Jeremiah screamed at the sight of each other.

“What are you doing up so late, young lady?” Jeremiah asked. The way his sister had wrapped rigid arms around herself, he realized she had probably been upset all evening.

“Waiting for you.”

“Well, put on your pajamas and go to bed. You need to get your rest. You’re not going to be pretty with bags under your eyes in the morning. Come here. Give me a big bear hug and a kiss.”

Ruby Rose moved toward Jeremiah, but when he hugged her, she was as stiff as a two-by-four plank of wood.

“What’s the matter?” Jeremiah looked at Ruby Rose, trying to understand.

“I don’t like that woman.” Ruby Rose turned her bottom lip so low it looked like it was trying to reach the floor.

“Louise?”

“I don’t like her.” Ruby Rose put her hands on her hips.

“She’s a nice lady. We’re just friends. It’s okay to spend time with friends, isn’t it?”

“Not that much time.” Ruby Rose stormed off to her room. “You wait until I get me some friends.” She slammed the door.

Across town, Medford was also having trouble getting to sleep. He couldn’t get the vision of his woman in the arms of another man out of his head. He had thought about going over to Louise’s house and strangling the Outsider, but he knew it was her choice to be with him; she’d invited him in. Independence is what drove Louise and it never crossed his mind to take away her license to freedom. Since he also knew she was the kind of woman he couldn’t confront with his anger, he couldn’t risk turning her off; she might withdraw from him completely. He had no choice but
to let her do her thing. If she was interested in someone else, he wasn’t going to share what was in his heart about finding his mother. At this point in time, she didn’t need to know. He leaned over to grab the first thing he laid his hand on and threw it. One of his work boots slammed against the wall and came crashing down on his dresser, breaking glass, shattering the picture frame with him and Louise.

Medford didn’t care what broke. He grabbed the covers, yanking them over his head, and rolled over. Maybe Louise was having one last fling before they got married, he thought to make himself feel better, as if there were such a thing. If that was true, it was best she get it out of her system now. With that in mind, he remembered there was one thing that had always troubled him about Rule Number Five, CHEATING MAKES YOU LOWER THAN A DOG SCRATCHING UP A WORM IN THE DIRT. He was never quite sure if it applied to relationships or exclusively to marriage, or to both.

Flipping over onto his back, Medford reminded himself he had his own issues to occupy his time. Even though it was hard to watch what was going down with Louise without losing his temper, he had to stay focused and keep his cool. Besides, he wasn’t going to act a fool for any woman. If Louise didn’t know what was best for her, it wasn’t his place to do the convincing. She had to make her own decision and if it led her down someone else’s path, then they would just go their separate ways.

Medford got up, went into the kitchen, and slugged down a shot of Johnny Walker Red. Then he warmed up some milk. After drinking it, he climbed back into bed and tossed and turned some more. Then he threw off the blankets for the last time, got into his clothes and work boots, and went outside in the cold. He grabbed his axe and started chopping wood. With every swing of his arms, he felt some relief from his tension. He kept chopping until he
worked up a sweat and became concerned that the water forming on his face might freeze.

Meanwhile, Clement, who was asleep on the other side of the house, was dreaming there was a mighty powerful red-bellied woodpecker in his backyard announcing the coming of spring.

The next day, when Ruby Rose woke up she looked out her window and saw that the local deer had brought along a friend to share the search for any evergreen rhododendron leaves caught protruding from the snow-covered ground. Watching the two deer, it dawned on her that although she had thrown away the piece of paper with Medford’s phone number, she had memorized it, so she dialed him.

“Hello? How are you today?” Ruby Rose said nervously, rattling off her words rapidly as if they were one.

“Ruby Rose, is that you?” asked Medford, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

“Yes, it’s me.” She paused. “I’m not mad anymore.” She thought that she and Medford should be friends since they were both in the same boat, abandoned by the ones they loved.

“That’s good. What’s happenin’?”

“I want to come by and talk, or do something. I’m bored.” She began to feel more relaxed.

“Where’s your brother today?”

“He’s planning a date with your girlfriend,” Ruby Rose said flatly.

“Don’t say it like that.”

“It’s true. They’re going in town to go bowling.”

“They’re just friends.”

“Believe what you want to believe. I may have been born at night, but not last night.”

Medford smirked. “Listen, I’m about to go to the church office before it closes. I’ve got to look through some old files. If you want to, you can come along with me while I do some research.”

“What are you looking for?”

“I’m trying to locate someone.” Medford wasn’t sure how much he should reveal to her. “So I want to know what things were like around town in the late 1920s.”

“Whew, boy. That’s ancient history.”

Medford smiled. “You know where the church is?”

“Who are you looking for?” Ruby Rose demanded.

“My mother.” He decided it wouldn’t hurt to tell the girl, and he could use an ally right about now. “I never knew her, and I’m trying to find out who she was.” He didn’t like the sound of the past tense in his sentence and changed his mind. “I’m trying to find out where she is.”