Tallahassee Higgins (12 page)

"Sure she will, Talley." He sighed and pulled away from me. "Now you get ready for bed like a good girl, and don't you worry about Fritzi or Liz. Everything will be fine. You'll see."

He got up slowly and left me alone. Quickly, I pulled off my clothes, shivering in the cold, and got into bed. "Oh, Melanie," I whispered, "I know Aunt Thelma will hate me forever now."

"Maybe we should just leave for California," Melanie whispered. "Right this minute."

I shook my head and frowned at her smiling face. "You're so dumb, Melon Head. Don't you know you can't go anywhere without money?"

"Then get some," Melanie said. "Rob a bank or something."

"And besides I'm not exactly sure where Liz is."

"Go to every Big Carrot till you find the right one, dummy." Melanie smirked at me.

I hugged her and lay there for a while, thinking about Liz and how surprised she'd be if I showed up in California. She'd be working, I thought, waiting on tables, and she would come to my table. She wouldn't recognize me right away because my back would be turned.

"And what will you have?" she'd say. "The special is excellent today. Fresh cream of broccoli soup and tuna salad on a croissant."

Then I'd turn around and take off my sunglasses. Liz would gasp as I stood up and did one of my best soft-shoe routines for her, the one that always made her laugh. Grabbing my Glinda the Good Witch Magic Wand, I'd tap her on the head and croon, "Be happy, Liz, be happy."

As I was drifting off to sleep, imagining Liz embracing me, tears of joy pouring down her cheeks, I heard voices from my aunt and uncle's room.

"Dan? Is that you?" Aunt Thelma asked. "I thought you were asleep."

"No, I was just checking on Tallahassee," Uncle Dan said.

"I hope she's satisfied now," Aunt Thelma said. "She's hated poor Fritzi ever since she stepped through our front door."

"Oh, Thelma," Uncle Dan began.

"Don't 'Oh, Thelma' me!" my aunt snapped. "You have a blind spot where that child's concerned. Just like with Liz, you think she can't do anything wrong. You saw where that faith got you with her mother!"

"Tallahassee feels awful about this, Thelma. She never meant to harm that dog. She and Jane were just playing with him, that's all."

"She's a cold, conniving little liar, just like her mother, and she knows you'll believe everything she tells you!"

"You don't mean that, Thelma." Uncle Dan sounded shocked.

"I mean every word of it! I knew I'd be sorry when I said she could stay with us! The sooner she leaves for California the better!"

"I've heard enough!" Uncle Dan's voice rose, too.

"Where are you going?" Aunt Thelma asked.

"Downstairs to sleep on the couch!" Uncle Dan shouted.

"Go ahead then!" Aunt Thelma said. "But don't come moaning to me about your back aching in the morning!"

Then the house got real quiet. I shut my eyes and tried hard to get back to Liz in the Big Carrot, but the things Aunt Thelma had said kept echoing in my head, driving everything else away.

Did she really think I was the kind of person who would be glad an animal was hurt? Even though I didn't like Fritzi, I felt terrible about the accident. All my life I would remember the way he'd run in front of the car and the terrible sound of the brakes. If I could make time go backwards, I would never take Fritzi outside wearing those doll clothes.

"Aunt Thelma's probably sorry the car didn't hit me," I told Melanie. "Only she would have wanted it to kill me, not just break my leg."

"What are you going to do?" Melanie wanted to know. "How can you keep on living with somebody who thinks you're an animal-hating, cold, conniving liar?"

"I'm going to have to run away," I whispered. "I can't stay here, I can't!"

T
HE SOUND OF
falling rain woke me up early the next morning. "Great," I said to Melanie. "A perfect day—dark and wet and horrible."

Swatting the button on my alarm clock, I lay on my back and listened to the water gurgling down the drainpipes. Closing my eyes, I let myself drift back to sleep.

"Didn't you set your alarm?" Aunt Thelma's voice woke me up. She was standing in the doorway, holding Fritzi. His leg had a cast on it, but otherwise he looked normal. In fact, he even growled at me.

Trying to overlook the nasty edge in her voice, I said, "I'm awfully sorry about Fritzi, Aunt Thelma. I didn't mean for him to get hurt."

"Sometimes sorry isn't enough." Her eyes were as cold as two pebbles on the bottom of a frozen stream.

"But I didn't think he'd jump out of the carriage and run into the street." I could hear my voice rising into a whine, and I tried to control it. "Jane and I were just playing a little game. We didn't mean—"

"I don't want to hear about it, Tallahassee." Icicles dripped from each word she spoke.

"You hate me, don't you?" I felt myself tightening up all over.

"Believe what you like," Aunt Thelma said. "I know you will anyway." Turning her back on me, she started to leave the room. "Get up," she said over her shoulder. "I have to go to work."

"You're a terrible person!" I shouted at her. "No wonder my mother ran away!"

"Don't you dare talk to me like that!" Aunt Thelma swung around, startling Fritzi. "I didn't ask you to come here, I didn't invite you, but while you're in my house, I expect you to keep a civil tongue in your head!"

"It's not your house! It's my grandparents' house, and if they could see how you're treating me, they'd hate you, too!" I cried. "You're the one who should leave! I wish Uncle Dan would divorce you!"

Before she could say anything else, I ran past her and locked myself in the bathroom.

"You come out of there!" Aunt Thelma shouted.

"Not till you leave!"

"Oh, have it your way! I can't be late for work because of you."

Clump, clump, clump,
down the stairs she went. As soon as I heard the back door slam, I went into my room and got dressed. Jamming everything I owned into my backpack, I picked up Melanie and the picture of Johnny and ran out into the rainy morning. I knew it was too early to meet Jane, but that was fine. I was still mad at her, anyway.

By the time I got to Mrs. Russell's house, I was wet and cold. Pushing open her front gate, I ran up to the front door and knocked hard.

"Why, Tallahassee, is anything wrong?" Mrs. Russell stepped aside to let me come in.

Dropping my backpack onto the floor, I held out Johnny's picture. "I think you're my grandmother," I shouted, "and I've come to live with you!"

Mrs. Russell took the photograph and stared at me. Then she dropped to her knees and put her arms around me. She let me cry and cry without saying a word.

After I'd calmed down a little, she took me to the kitchen and fixed me a cup of tea. While I was drinking it, she sat quietly across from me. Finally she spoke.

"Would you like to tell me what's happened?" she asked softly.

Everything spilled out, not just Fritzi's accident and the horrible things I'd heard Aunt Thelma say, but also my troubles at school, my fears about Liz, and my hopes about Johnny.

"So I want to stay here with you till Liz sends for me," I said. "I'll be the best granddaughter in the world, honest I will. I'll help you and take care of Bo and do everything you ask me to. I'll even do my schoolwork," I added, thinking that was probably important to Mrs. Russell. "I won't be any trouble at all, I swear I won't!"

Again she was silent, too silent.

"You don't want me either, do you?" I leapt to my feet, knocking my fragile little cup to the floor. I saw it shatter into pieces like an eggshell as I grabbed my things and ran out the door.

"Tallahassee," I heard Mrs. Russell call, "Tallahassee!"

Ignoring her, I leapt the fence, almost slipping on the wet grass, and plunged through the rain back to Uncle Dan's house. Just as I rounded the corner, I saw Jane coming down the street, carrying her big, purple umbrella.

"Tallahassee, where have you been?" she asked. "I was just at your house, knocking and knocking."

I skidded to a stop and wiped the tears from my cheeks with my sleeve. "I went for a walk," I mumbled, too upset now to be mad at Jane.

"In the rain?" Jane stared at me. "And why do you have all that stuff?"

"Oh, Jane, I have to get away from here, I have to!"

"It's your aunt, isn't it? She must be so mad about Fritzi."

"She really hates me, Jane. And I went to Mrs. Russell and she doesn't want me either. I'm going to California to find Liz, then everything will be all right."

"But how are you going to get there?"

"Hitchhike. Walk. I don't know!"

"I have a lot of money in my piggy bank, Tallahassee," Jane said slowly. "Over fifty dollars. If I give you that, you could buy a bus ticket, I bet."

I sucked in my breath and clutched Melanie against my chest. I had never had a friend like Jane in my whole life. "I'll pay you back," I told her, "as soon as I can."

"Come on, we'll go back to my house and get it." Jane turned around and started running toward home.

"But we're supposed to be at school! What will your mother say?" I shouted as I splashed through the puddles behind her.

"I'll tell her I forgot my homework." Jane dashed up the sidewalk and let herself in the front door.

"Jane?" Mrs. DeFlores looked up from her sewing machine. "What are you doing back home?"

"Math homework!" Jane gasped. "Have to get it!"

Following her to her room, I shut the door behind me as Jane climbed up on her desk chair and took her piggy bank off the top shelf. He was silver and very round, and he had a big grin on his face.

"You won't have to break him, will you?" I asked as she set him down on her bed.

"No, he unscrews and comes apart." Jane opened her desk drawer and took out a little screwdriver. Inserting the blade in a tiny screw on the pig's belly, she opened the bank and dumped the contents on her bed.

Separating the paper money from the silver, we counted it out. Thirty-seven one-dollar bills, two fives, and five dollars and fifty-five cents in quarters, nickles, and dimes. "Fifty-two dollars and fifty-five cents," I said.

"That might be enough for two bus tickets," Jane said softly.

I shook my head. "No, Jane, you can't go."

"Why not?" She stuck out her lip and blinked hard as if she was trying not to cry.

"Because you
live
here. With your mother and father and your brothers and sisters. If you went, you'd be running away, which is against the law."

"But you said you were running away."

"Well, not really. I'm leaving here to go to my mother, who needs me very much whether she knows it or not."

Jane gnawed on one of her fingernails and stared at the picture of Holly Hobbie on her bedspread. "What do you mean she needs you?"

I sighed. "She just does. Liz isn't as grown-up as your mother, and she needs me to take care of her. Down in Florida, when she'd get depressed, I'd sing her songs and do dances like Fred Astaire to make her laugh. And I'd fix soup and tea for her, and after a while she'd feel better."

Jane started working on a new nail. "Once Matthew and me tried to do a tap dance when Mom and Dad were having a fight. We thought they'd laugh and forget to be mad, but they just told us to go outside so they could keep on yelling at each other."

I didn't know what to say. It had never occurred to me that Jane's parents fought. Of course, her mother was a grouch, but I figured poor Mr. DeFlores was used to that.

"Well, anyway," I told Jane, "I have to go out there and make sure Liz is okay. Then I'll tell her to invite you to come for a visit."

"Do you think she'll say yes?" Jane's eyes were shiny.

"I know she will. Especially after I tell her about the money you loaned me."

We sat on the bed silently, listening to the sound of the rain gurgling in the downspouts. Then Jane said, "I know you have to go, Talley, but I'll miss you so much."

"I'll miss you too, Jane, but I'll send you postcards whenever the bus stops." I took a deep breath. "You're the best friend I've ever had."

"You too, Talley."

Just then Mrs. DeFlores yelled up the steps. "It's almost nine o'clock, Jane! You better get to school!"

I stood up and stuffed the money in my jeans pocket. Then Jane and I ran downstairs and out the front door.

"I
HATE YOUR AUNT
!" Jane said as we walked down Farragut Street toward Route One. "I hope she really feels bad about the way she's treated you."

"Are you kidding? She'll be glad I'm gone. But Uncle Dan won't be." I turned to Jane. "Will you tell him sometime how much I love him? I'll write to him from California and explain everything, but you tell him too, okay?"

"Sure," Jane said. "I like your uncle. He's nice. But I'm never going to speak to your aunt again as long as I live!"

"Me either!" We were at the corner of Route One, and I could see the bus stop about half a block away.

"Oh, Talley, are you sure you ought to go?" Two big tears welled up in Jane's eyes. "Don't forget me," she sobbed.

"I won't. Not ever." I hugged her, and then I pulled away from her and ran down the sidewalk toward the bus stop. I didn't look back. If I had, I might not have gotten on the bus lurching down Route One toward me.

"Do you go near the Greyhound station?" I asked the driver as the doors whooshed open for me.

"I sure do," he said. "I stop right across the street."

Dropping my fare into the box, I sat down on the seat behind him. "Will you tell me when we get there?"

He nodded and smiled at me over a wide shoulder. Then he eased the bus away from the curb. Glancing out the window, I saw Hyattsdale recede into the distance like a bad dream I hoped I'd never have again.

"Where are you going so bright and early on a school day?" the driver asked.

"To California to see my mother," I said, feeling important. I was the only person on the bus, and I wished the driver were my personal chauffeur and we could ride all the way to California together. Just him and me. The two of us, rolling on and on all the way across America, never stopping till we came to the Pacific Ocean, where Liz would be waiting for me.