Suncatchers (64 page)

40

The New Year

The night Perry returned to Derby, a week later, the moon was a shallow bowl of cream above the treetops. When he pulled into the driveway and got out, he saw that the lights were still on inside Jewel's house. The stark yellow porch light was beaming also. Eldeen had evidently been looking for him, for she flung open their front door and slowly descended the steps, talking the whole time.

“Oh, Perry, Perry! We been looking for you all day! We been praying for you and your family ever since you left, and we just
knew
our prayers was being answered when you stayed gone so long. Did you patch it all up with your wife?” She squinted toward the car. “I was hoping you might bring her and your little boy back here with you.”

Perry met Eldeen on the sidewalk and put both arms around her as she hugged him. She wore a thick scratchy red sweater over a dark, loose dress that hung nearly to her ankles. As she released him, Perry looked down at her feet. She was wearing her black rubber boots.

“I had to get these out again,” Eldeen said, noting his glance. “It got down to the twenties last week. But let's don't be talking about me. Tell me about
you
—how did things turn out for you and your family?”

“We had a good week together,” Perry said. “A really good week. Troy starts back to school on Monday, so we decided I'd better come back by myself. I'll finish up things here and then go back home for good in another week or so.”

Eldeen clasped her hands under her chin. “
Home for good
—now that's just got to sound like music to your ears!” She bowed her head briefly, then looked back up. “Speaking of music, you'll never guess. Libby Vanderhoff called me and said Earl got that glass ball off and back on. Used a X-acto knife and just kept going round and round the seal real gentle and heated it up a little, too. He was scared the glass would break, but praise the Lord it didn't! Got the little feller anchored down nice and tight, too, and now he's got it all propped up on a high shelf upside down to let the base set so the water can't seep out. Libby's so proud of it but said to tell you it's yours in a jiffy if you want it back.”

Perry shook his head, but before he could speak, Eldeen continued. “
Home for good
—that just warms my whole insides up! 'Course, it's going to be a mixed blessing for
us
—losing you as our neighbor and not knowing if we'll ever see you again. I sure have been enjoying that jelly cabinet. We got all Jewel's jars lined up inside so pretty. And that new suncatcher's just a sight to behold! Wait till you see it in the daytime. Every morning when I pull open the drapes, I stand there and admire it all over again. It catches the light and shines like it's just drinking in the sun!” She pointed back toward their front window. “I still can't get over it—a little lighthouse slinging out its beams in the daytime!”

Joe Leonard came out to help Perry carry his things inside, and Eldeen stood at the front door of Perry's house, informing him loudly as he went back and forth of everything that had happened in his absence.

“And poor old Mayfield Spalding, his nephew found him laying on the bathroom floor in his pajamas,” she said. “The doctor doesn't give him much hope. Says he probably won't live through the night. They said it probably happened early this morning sometime, because one of his neighbors saw him letting his cat in late last night. It'd be a real shame if he died during the holiday season—now what
am
I saying? I take that back. It's
never
a shame when a Christian dies and goes to heaven! Christmastime would be a wonderful time to meet Jesus.” She broke off to cluck her tongue sadly. “Maybe God will give him a peppier disposition in heaven, bless his heart. Mayfield's had a lot of hardships in his life, poor old thing, and I think folks has judged him unfair sometimes, although
they
sure didn't mean no harm—how could they know everything he's been through?” She shook her head. “No, sir, we never know somebody else's heart, do we? Never, never, never.

“Oh, and you'll never
guess
who came to church last week! Remember Mr. Beatty, Joe Leonard's band teacher? He normally goes to a little Presbyterian church out on the highway toward Walhalla, but he came to our church last week and brought his wife, too, who I found out works at the Russell Stover candy shop in the mall. That reminds me, she was talking about the awfulest thing that happened over in Berea two days ago—it was in the paper. A woman shot her husband with a deer rifle because she found him eating her last piece of candy from a Russell Stover box that she had hid away in a special hiding place. Can you
imagine?
I told Mrs. Beatty, though, that there had to of been a
lot
more to that story. That woman wouldn't of just flew off like that over a piece of candy. It had to of been just the last straw in the haystack. Anyway, Mrs. Beatty knew that woman—said she used to come in the store all the time while she was working.”

Having been away from Eldeen for a whole week, Perry had almost forgotten just how much stamina she had when it came to talking. He had tried to describe her to Dinah, realizing at the time that he wasn't even coming close. Now he was reminded of just how far short he had fallen. No imitation of Eldeen could capture the reality. On she went with hardly a pause.

“Oh, and you know what? When Jewel took me out to the mall last week, just
guess
who we saw in Sears. Remember that man at the Purple Calliope who waited on us? Stanley? Well, there he was buying vacuum cleaner bags—still had on his waiter's suit, even the little purple jacket. I had a real nice talk with him, and we asked him if he'd come eat supper with us sometime when he wasn't working—and he said he would, and so we set up a date right then. Next Thursday's his day off, so he's coming then. I been praying and praying for that man, and I just feel like God's going to answer my prayers someday if I just keep on. You just never know—sometimes He answers 'em real quick, and sometimes He . . .” Eldeen stopped talking suddenly, and Perry could feel her looking at him. He avoided her eyes, pretending to rub a smudge off the handle of his suitcase.

Joe Leonard came in carrying a small box of books. “Did you want these brought in, too?” he asked.

“Oh, sure,” Perry said, coming forward to take them. “I plan to do a little reading this week.” He wondered if Joe Leonard had noticed the Bible among the other books.

“Mama wants me to invite you over for our New Year's Eve dessert at midnight tonight,” Joe Leonard said.

“Oh,
do!
” Eldeen begged. “We'll have us the nicest time! And you can tell all of us about your trip home and how your little boy and wife acted when you showed up.”

“Well, I guess I can,” Perry said. “I need to make a couple of phone calls first, but I can come after that.”

“Good!” said Eldeen. “It's something we do every year. Jewel makes a special angel food cake, and we eat a piece at midnight to start off the brand-new year. She's whipping the cream for the frosting right now. Willard's coming, too.”

“He just got here,” Joe Leonard said, peering out Perry's front door.

The sound of firecrackers spattered in the distance, followed by several loud pops nearby. Eldeen pointed to the clock on the bookcase. “Oh, my, looka there! They've done started up a whole hour early. Come on, Joe Leonard, let's get going and help your mother get things ready. Bless her heart, baking a cake on the night before her own wedding. Perry, you come on over directly, and you can tell us all about your Christmas while we eat our cake.” She almost shoved Joe Leonard out the door. “We'll have to show you the locket Willard gave Jewel for Christmas,” she told Perry as she started down the steps. “It's pure twenty-four carat solid gold!” She laughed loudly. “I told Jewel she better not wear it in a thunderstorm, though.” Starting off down the sidewalk, she called back, “You remember that story back in the summer, don't you, about that lady in Alabama who always wore a Saint Christopher medal around her neck, and one day she was running from her car to the house in a terrible storm and a great big bolt of lightning struck right on that Saint Christopher medal and nearly electrocuted her to death!”

Perry called Dinah first to let her know he had arrived, then dialed Cal's number. Cal answered on the eighth ring, just as Perry was ready to hang up. He sounded sleepy.

“Hey, Cal,” Perry said. “Did I interrupt your New Year's Eve party?”

“Perry? Where are you?”

“Back in Derby. I just got in an hour ago, and guess what? We might have our funeral.”

“Oh . . . yeah,” Perry heard Cal yawn, slowly inhaling a great whoosh of air, then expelling it loudly.

“Well, let's not get too excited about it,” Perry said.

“Hey, ease up, it's going on eleven o'clock at night.”

“So?”

“So I've been asleep for an hour, and you wake me up, telling me somebody I don't even know died, and I'm supposed to be thrilled?”

“Cal, it's New Year's Eve. You've been asleep since before
ten o'clock
on New Year's Eve?”

“I told you I lead a dull life these days.” Cal yawned again. “So whose funeral is it?”

“Just somebody at the church. A man named Mayfield Spalding. He hasn't died yet, but he had a stroke this morning, and they say he probably won't make it another day.”

“Well, good . . . I mean, it's good for your book. Not so good for poor—what's his name? Mayfield?” Cal laughed hoarsely, then broke off.

“I wanted to tell you to hold the manuscript for a few days or so till we see about the funeral,” Perry said.

“Yep, I will,” Cal said. There was a brief silence, then “It was good to see you last week. The chapters look good. Thanks for driving over while you were home. How did things . . . turn out at home anyway?”

Perry started to say, “Fine” but caught himself. One of the things he and Dinah had discussed was his reliance on pat generalities when asked a question. “Well, we still have some potholes to fill in,” he said. “Maybe even a few new roads to build.” He laughed awkwardly.
That
was certainly no improvement on the standard “Fine.” He couldn't help wondering what would have gone through his own mind if someone else had answered a question of his with such metaphorical claptrap. “Things are looking hopeful, though,” he said. “It's going to take some work, but we'll get there.”

“Well, I'm glad for you,” Cal said. He sighed and added, “Why didn't anybody tell us family life was going to be so
messy
?” There was a long pause before Cal continued. “Say, I might be coming down that way in a couple of days. My mother called . . . she's not feeling too good. Says she wants to see me.”

“Why don't you stop by Derby and see me?” Perry said. “I could show you the church, and . . .”

“Yeah, and maybe I could even attend the funeral with you, huh?” But neither of them laughed. “Well, we'll see,” Cal said wearily. “I don't know what Mom's up to. Hope this isn't just some trick to get me down there so she can preach to me. I wouldn't put it past her.”

“Don't be too hard on her,” Perry said. “You never know . . . you might . . . well, she's not going to be around forever, and . . .”

“Yeah, I know—maybe it's time to try to reconcile,” Cal said, sighing. “Who knows? I sure don't.”

Perry walked next door a few minutes later. Jewel met him at the door and welcomed him home.

“Well, I guess
home
isn't going to be the right word for much longer, from what Mama told me,” Jewel said, smiling. “She says you're going back to your family.” Her blue eyes glowed steadily, like pilot lights. “I'm so happy for you, Perry,” she said. Willard came in from the kitchen, his round face shining with goodwill, and shook Perry's hand vigorously.

As they sat around the kitchen table a few minutes later, Perry told them all about meeting Dinah at the front door on Christmas morning, about his last-minute impulse to carry his suitcase in one hand, like a tool kit, and a screwdriver from the trunk of the car in the other, then when she opened the door, to say, “Hello, ma'am, I got your call and came right away. Don't worry about the high rates on a holiday. My prices are reasonable. Now exactly what is it that needs fixing around here?”

They all laughed. “And what did she say?” Jewel asked.

“She just stared at me for a minute,” Perry said. He didn't tell them that it was the longest minute of his whole life, that he had stood there during those endless seconds castigating himself for choosing such a stupid introduction, telling himself to turn around and get in the car and head back the way he had come but stubbornly refusing to do so until he got some signal from her that she still hated him. He didn't mention either that he was still praying silently.

“Then Troy called from inside and asked her who it was,” Perry continued, “and she kept staring at me like I was some kind of ghost and said, ‘It's the repairman I called.' Then all of a sudden she started crying,” he said, “and she looked up at me smiling and crying at the same time and pointed to her eyes and said, ‘Come on in. Do you fix leaky faucets?'”

Eldeen almost choked on a bite of angel food cake. “How did you two ever think up such a thing?” she said after she had gotten herself under control. “That's the funniest thing I ever heard!” Perry could imagine her telling and retelling the story to people all over town.

Outside, Hormel began howling—a thin, pitiable wail.

“Aw, listen there,” Eldeen said. “I bet Hormel wants some attention. He knows we're all in here having us a good time, eating cake and laughing, and he's feeling sorry for hisself left outside in the cold.”