Swan Place (18 page)

“Roy-Ellis didn’t come home?” I asked.

She looked at me with swollen eyes and nodded.

“That’s not like him,” I said. “That’s not like him at all.”

“It isn’t? Tell me, Dove, did he ever have such a big fuss with
 . . .
your mama?”

It was a hard question for Crystal to ask, and I thought for a few moments before I answered her. Because I’d never heard Mama and Roy-Ellis speak to each other except in soft, gentle ways.

“No. But it still isn’t like him.” And I truly meant that. Because Roy-Ellis wasn’t one to hold on to bad feelings. He liked things to be peaceful. And happy.

“I ran him off!” Crystal moaned, putting both hands around her glass of milk.

“But, Dove, I worked so hard to become a dancer. I worked nights in a box factory, to pay for dancing lessons in the daytime. I hardly ever got any sleep. My job at Across the Line was my first dancing job. It means everything to me!”

I didn’t know what to say. At last, I offered, “Let’s call Aunt Bett.” And all of a sudden, I realized it was Sunday morning, and I didn’t know if we—me and Molly and Little Ellis—were supposed to go to church with her.

“Let’s call Aunt Bett,” I repeated. Crystal nodded.

Darlene answered the phone, and I said, “Hi, Darlene—can I talk to Aunt Bett?”

“Sure, Dove. You all doing okay? I sure do want to meet Crystal.”

“I don’t know if we’re okay or not,” I said most truthfully.

“Hold on,” Darlene said, and I heard her muffled voice calling, “Mama, it’s Dove, for you.” And the way Darlene said
Mama
so easily brought surprising tears to my eyes.

“Dove?” Aunt Bett spoke in a way that made my name sound almost like a whisper.

“Yes’m?”

“Is everything okay?”

“I don’t think so, Aunt Bett,” I gulped. “Crystal and Roy-Ellis had a bad fuss last night, and Roy-Ellis stormed out mad, and he hasn’t come back.”

“That’s not like him,” Aunt Bett pronounced. “Roy-Ellis may get mad a little quick-like, but he gets over it just as quick. What kind of fuss did they have?” I glanced into the kitchen, where Crystal was sitting, with her hands clenched around the glass of milk and the corners of her mouth turned down.

“I can’t say right now,” I whispered, thinking that maybe we could get through all this without Aunt Bett finding out that Crystal had been a dancer at a place like Across the Line. “And I don’t even know if we’re supposed to go to church with you this morning.” There was a moment of silence at the other end.

“Is Crystal a churchgoing girl?”

“I don’t know. This is the first Sunday I’ve known her.”

“Well, you better ask her then.”

“Yes’m.” I put my hand over the receiver and called to Crystal.

“Crystal? Aunt Bett wants to know if you’re a churchgoing girl.” Crystal looked at me with those poor, miserable eyes, like she was trying to figure out what being a churchgoer or not had to do with Roy-Ellis.

“‘Cause we all go to church with Aunt Bett on Sundays,” I explained.

“What did she say about Roy-Ellis?” Crystal asked.

“Wait a minute,” I called. And into the receiver I asked Aunt Bett, “What do you say about Roy-Ellis?”

“Tell Crystal I think he’s on his way home. We can talk about it after church.” I relayed the message to Crystal, who seemed to brighten a little.

“Tell Aunt Bett that I am most certainly a churchgoing girl. My mama and daddy went to church every Sunday morning, and I went with them. For my whole life.” I repeated what Crystal said.

“Good!” Aunt Bett said, but I was still wondering how we could keep her from finding out about Crystal being a honky-tonk dancer. Somehow, her being a churchgoing girl
and
a honky-tonk dancer didn’t seem to fit too well together.

“Well then, it’s all settled,” Aunt Bett pronounced. “I’ll come by and pick you all up at ten-forty-five.”

And so that’s the way things went. I got myself, Molly, and Little Ellis ready, and then Crystal came out of the bedroom wearing a navy blue dress with a white lace collar and with her hair pulled back into a neat ponytail. He eyes were still red, but she did look pretty, I thought. Lots prettier than in that outfit that caused all the trouble.

But where was Roy-Ellis?

I really wondered
if Aunt Bett’s old car was going to be able to hold another person, but Crystal was so tiny, we both managed to fit in the place where I usually sat. I held Molly on my lap, and Crystal held Little Ellis on hers. I did all the introducing of Aunt Bett’s brood, and when it came down to telling them who Crystal was, I said, “This is Crystal, my… Roy-Ellis’s wife.”

The cousins all stared at her dumbly, except for Darlene, who smiled warmly and said, “Where’s Roy-Ellis’s truck?”

“That’s enough, Darlene!” Aunt Bett said. “Don’t you ask so many questions.” Darlene smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

“Sorry,” she said.

At church, Crystal seemed
to fit right in. She sat between me and Aunt Bett and she even knew the words to most of the hymns without looking at her book. When Aunt Bett noticed that, she leaned backward, looked at me behind Crystal’s head, and nodded. Crystal didn’t even notice. Once or twice, she touched her eyes with a tissue, but other than that, she was a real brave lady.

After church, we went in to Aunt Bett’s house with her. As usual, Aunt Bett made all of us change out of our church clothes right away, and once again, Darlene had to find things out of The Closet for me and Molly and Little Ellis. I waited to see if Aunt Bett made Crystal change her dress, as well. But of course, she didn’t. Probably because Crystal’s clothes weren’t ones Aunt Bett made so many pickles to get and needed back in good condition for passing on down.

Aunt Bett motioned Crystal to go on into the kitchen, and I noticed Aunt Bett looking at Crystal’s dress with frank admiration.

“Such fine stitching!” Aunt Bett exclaimed.

“Yes’m,” Crystal answered. “My mama is a wonder with a needle and thread.”

“She made that?”

“Yes’m,” Crystal answered, and I could see the clear admiration in Aunt Bett’s eyes. I could also see her figuring how to get that dress away from Crystal some time down the line, for passing along to her own girls. I wanted so bad to hear what Aunt Bett and Crystal would be saying in the kitchen, but when I heard Aunt Bett say, “Now you tell me exactly what caused such a fuss,” I just couldn’t stand it. Because there was no telling what Aunt Bett was going to say if she found out that Crystal had been a roadhouse dancer! So I hurried into the bedroom and got me and Molly and Little Ellis out of our good church clothes and into some shirts and pants Darlene had found for us.

“What’s going on?” Darlene whispered.

“Crystal and Roy-Ellis had a fuss,” I whispered back. “Roy-Ellis stormed out of the house, and he didn’t come home last night.”

“All night?” Darlene asked, and I nodded.

“That’s not like Roy-Ellis,” she said. And I nodded again.

After we got our clothes changed, we all went out and sat on the porch, waiting for Aunt Bett and Crystal to get done talking. Nobody said a thing. We just sat and waited for the longest time, and every once in a while, somebody’s stomach growled, and we all giggled. Then silence again, until somebody else’s stomach growled. After what seemed like hours, Aunt Bett came to the screen door.

“You children get washed up and come on in to dinner.” I didn’t know whether she meant just her own children or not, so me and Molly and Little Ellis stayed put where we were sitting on the porch steps.

“You all too, Dove,” Aunt Bett said. Why, I was surprised as could be! Aunt Bett was inviting all of us to Sunday dinner, and Crystal too, even though I was sure Crystal’s secret must be out by now. But when we got into the dining room, I was even more surprised. The table was all set and extra chairs from the kitchen already in place. On the table was a big bowl of applesauce and one of green beans cooked with ham, and also a huge platter of hot cornbread. Just the smell of the food made the place under my tongue tickle. Then Crystal came out of the kitchen carrying a big dish of macaroni and cheese, fresh out of the oven. She put the dish on a folded kitchen towel Aunt Bett had put on the table, and Crystal and Aunt Bett looked at each other and
smiled!

“You children sit down,” Aunt Bett commanded, and she pointed to a chair right beside her own. “You sit here by me, Crystal.” So we all got settled and took each other’s hands, so Aunt Bett could say grace.

“Dear Lord,” she began, and I guess we were all praying for a short blessing, we were so hungry. “We thank you for all this good food.” Her words were met by the sound of growling stomachs. She looked up for one startled moment, and so did most of us, as well. Then we got back at it.

“We especially thank you for this good macaroni and cheese that your child Crystal has made us from her own sweet mama’s recipe.” Another chorus of growling stomachs, but this time, no one looked up.

“And we ask you to bless Crystal as she starts her new career.” My eyes flew open and met Crystal’s. Hers were full of tears, but she smiled and sort of shrugged her shoulders at me, just like I’d seen Darlene do so many times.

“Bless her, Lord, and help her do well at this new—
respectable
—trade.” We waited, praying hard for an amen, but it wasn’t to be. Not yet.

“And bless Crystal and Roy-Ellis’s marriage and bring peace to their home. Bless this food to our bodies and us to Thy service. Amen!” We all knew better than to lunge for the food, but we sure made quick work of passing around the green beans and applesauce and cornbread, and we even managed to get a couple of quick bites before we had to pass our plates to Crystal, who served us her mama’s good macaroni and cheese. Then there was only silence and a very serious time of eating. I will have to admit that the macaroni and cheese was the best I ever tasted. And I was so hungry, I forgot to wonder how Aunt Bett got Crystal to agree to stop being a roadhouse dancer.

As soon as Sunday dinner was over, Aunt Bett said, “Crystal, you take Dove and the children and go on home. I’m sure Roy-Ellis will come home soon, if he isn’t already there.”

“But can’t I help clean up?” Crystal offered. Aunt Bett fluttered her hands at Crystal. “Not at all! But fix Roy-Ellis a plate and take it home, for when he comes.”

So that’s what we did.