The Lions of Little Rock (12 page)

23

THE ROCK CRUSHER

Betty Jean was waiting for me in the kitchen when I got home from school on Monday afternoon. “Marlee, we need to talk.” Her arms were folded over the big red flower in the middle of her apron, and she was frowning.

I sat down at the table with a gulp. I knew what this was about. My time with a certain girl from Kansas.

“Have you told your parents you went to the Gem this past weekend?”

I shook my head. Of course not. I didn't want to get in trouble.

Betty Jean sighed. “Then I'm afraid I'll have to mention it to them.”

“No!”

She looked up, startled to hear me talking so loud. Truthfully, I was kind of surprised too.

“Betty Jean, please. If you tell, I'll be in big trouble.”

“Marlee, I know your father has some liberal views—and I applaud him for that—but you can't be friends with that girl.”

“I know,” I said.

Betty Jean sighed. “I wish it was different, Marlee, I really do. That girl's having a hard time of it and could use a friend like you.”

“I made a mistake,” I said. “Please don't tell.”

“It can't happen again,” Betty Jean said.

I nodded. I felt like Pinocchio, knowing I was going to meet Liz at the rock crusher on Tuesday. I told myself, “It's not a lie if you don't say anything,” but even as I thought it, I knew it wasn't true.

Guess I did fool Betty Jean, though, because she went over and cut me a piece of apple pie. “Lucky for you,” she said, “I sometimes have a very bad memory.”

She handed me the pie.

“Thank you,” I said.

She nodded. “Now, don't make me regret it.”

On Tuesday afternoon I had Daddy and Betty Jean in my head telling me what a naughty girl I was for being friendly. Still, I managed to ignore them both and wait in the little clearing in the woods, sitting on the very rock where Judy had bandaged my hand. Liz was late. I started to worry that she wasn't going to come at all, so I did what I always did when I started to worry. I started to count.

It was prime numbers at first. But somehow, it changed into counting all the new people on my talking list. I'd added Miss Winthrop. And Mr. Harding. Now that we were doing math together, sometimes I said more than just numbers. Maybe,
I don't understand
. Or more often,
Oh, I get it!
I'd spoken to Liz's mother on the phone, even if I was reading from cue cards, and chatting with Tommy hadn't even made me sweat. For so long I'd been the quiet girl. If I wasn't her anymore, who was I?

“Finally!” said Liz, stepping into the clearing. “I've been wandering around for twenty minutes trying to find you.” She looked, taking in the large stone I was sitting on, the ring of trees, the path leading out into the woods. The grass was tall and turning brown, but a few wildflowers still poked their heads up above the meadow.

“Sorry,” I said.

“No, it's good,” said Liz. “It means other people won't be able to find us.”

She sat down on the rock next to me. “So,” Liz said.

“So,” I said.

We sat there in silence for a moment. “How are things at school?” Liz asked.

“The same,” I said.

“JT ask you out yet?”

“No.” I remembered what he'd called Liz. Even if he did ask me out now, I wasn't sure I would go. “How are things at your school?”

“Fine,” said Liz.

But there was a catch in her voice, and her smile seemed just a little too tight.

“Really?” I asked.

“No.” Liz's face fell like a house of cards. “Things are terrible! Everyone is still ignoring me. This morning in English, the teacher asked Janet to hand out books and she skipped me. I thought it was an accident, so I said, ‘I didn't get one.' She looked right in my face, so I know she heard me, but she just kept on going down the row.”

“That's awful!”

“And when I walk down the hall, people move away to let me pass so I won't accidentally bump into them. Like I'm a leper or something! They talk about me like I'm not there too. At least Shirley does. She's like Sally, only a hundred times worse. She's always saying stuff like, ‘
Some people think they're so fancy, they need to go to school with white folks.
'”

“I'm so sorry.”

Liz shook her head. “I know I make it worse. The words build up and build up until I explode and start screaming.
I asked you a question! Why won't you respond! Don't you have any manners?
When I'm done, the other just laugh and go back to ignoring me. It's embarrassing.”

“What does your mother say?” I asked.

“My mother is so angry at me, she nearly made me go live with my aunt. She yelled at me for an hour when she heard about the Gem, until I convinced her I really didn't know you were coming. Besides, I know what I need to do. I need to learn to ignore them.”

“How are you going to do that?”

Liz looked at me and grinned. “You're going to teach me.”

“Me?”

“Of course! You're the best at being quiet.”

I'd always thought of being quiet as a negative, something that was wrong with me. Was it possible that Liz saw it as a strength?

“I know it won't solve everything,” said Liz. “They probably still won't talk to me. But if I stop yelling, at least I won't feel like such a fool. What do you say, Marlee? Will you help me learn to keep my mouth shut?”

I nodded.

“Good,” said Liz. “I knew I could count on you.”

Now I just had to figure out how to teach her something that came so naturally to me.

24

HALLOWEEN

All October, we didn't get around to the silent lessons. It poured one week, so Tommy didn't have baseball, and the next, he got sick on the way to practice. I waited for an hour alone, worrying about how I was going to teach Liz to be quiet, until I realized she wasn't coming. And then it was Halloween.

Being almost thirteen, I was too old to go trick-or-treating, but being almost thirteen, I also really loved candy, so I volunteered to take the little girl from down the street. Jill was five years old and so shy, she never said a word. She was like a sip of water from a bathroom cup, and we got along great.

On the thirty-first, I threw on a cowboy hat and picked Jill up around seven
P.M
. By eight thirty, she was so tired, I practically had to carry her home. I'd just dropped her off at her house and was on the way back to mine when I heard a whistle.

“Howdy, cowpoke!”

I turned and saw a cowgirl with a leather skirt, chaps, a fringed jacket, hat and bandanna over her face. Beside her stood a little kid dressed as a horse, with a full mask over his head.

“Wow,” I said. I recognized Liz's voice, even if I couldn't see her face. “You look great!”

“Granny can sew,” she said. “Too bad every day isn't Halloween. We could go anywhere we wanted.”

“You're not supposed to talk to your white friend,” said Tommy.

“Shh,” said Liz. “Horses don't talk. Besides, I told you I'd give you half my candy.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Tommy.

“Walk with us a bit?” Liz asked me.

A block or two would be okay. Mother and Daddy didn't expect me home quite yet. “What are you doing here?” I asked.

“We heard about the man who owns the Coca-Cola factory,” said Liz. “He gave out hot dogs and Cokes.”

“They were good,” said Tommy.

“And the lady on Taylor gives out the best candy apples,” said Liz.

“I wouldn't know,” said Tommy. “You ate mine.”

Liz pulled his mane, and they started squabbling, and I missed Judy and David so much, I could almost imagine they were there, taking me trick-or-treating, like they'd done when I was little.

We turned a corner, already to the edge of the white neighborhood. I'd never really thought about how close we lived to the colored part of town.

“Go on home,” said Liz to Tommy. “I'll be there in a minute.” Tommy ran off.

“I'd better be going too,” I said.

“Want to try meeting again next Tuesday?” Liz asked.

Before I could answer, we heard a
splat
. We looked up.

A tall boy with blond hair was throwing eggs at a small white house on the corner.

“Mrs. Jefferson lives there,” I said.

“The old white lady with the little dog?” Liz asked.

I nodded.

Splat. Splat.
Eggs oozed down the front window. Inside, the little dog began to bark.

“Stop it,” Liz yelled, walking toward him.

He took one glance at us and kept on throwing. When the first carton was empty, he reached into a bag to get another one. When he stood up with the new carton, I could see his perfectly straight nose in the streetlight. It was Red.

“Liz!” I hissed. I grabbed her arm and tried to pull her away, but she shook me off.

“She's an old lady,” Liz yelled. “She can't get up on a ladder and wash those eggs off. What a stupid, mean—”

A second boy stepped out from behind a tree and into the light. It was JT.

Liz stopped talking.

JT was holding a whole bag full of eggs. “Marlee, what are you doing here?”

I didn't answer.

“Is that . . . Liz with you?”

Liz was standing still, frozen. At least her bandanna was still in place.

“No,” I squeaked.

“It is,” said JT. “I recognize her voice. You're still hanging out with that—”

I gave Liz a shove, and she finally turned and ran.

“JT,” Red called out, “you got those extra eggs?”

JT watched Liz run off, then gave me a funny look.

“Who is that?” Red loomed over both JT and me in the darkness between the streetlights.

“It's Marlee,” said JT. “My math tutor.”

Tutor? Yeah, right.

“The mute girl?” asked Red.

“And she was with that colored girl who used to go to our school.”

I shook my head furiously.

“It was Liz!” insisted JT. “I recognized her voice.”

“Where's she now?” asked Red.

“Ran off,” said JT, and gestured into the darkness.

“Aw, Marlee,” said Red. “You shouldn't be hanging around with niggers.” He plucked the cowboy hat off my head and crushed it between his palms. Then Red took an egg from the carton JT was holding and placed it in my hands.

I was shaking so much, I could barely hold it.

“Throw it,” commanded Red.

I shook my head.

“Throw it!” Red barked.

I tried to throw, but it landed about a foot in front of us. A little yolk leaked out onto Red's shoe. JT stared at it, but Red didn't seem to notice. He took another egg and shoved it into my hands.

“Hit the house!”

I shook my head. Even if I had wanted to, I didn't have a good arm.

Red took me by the shoulders and shoved me up the front walk, until I was only about a yard from the front door.

“Throw!”

I threw, but the egg still landed in the bushes.

“Idiot!” Red roared, and pressed another egg into my hands, so hard this time that it broke. I had egg all over my fingers.

“Red,” JT asked, “what are you doing?”

“Gotta make sure she doesn't tell on us. Now if she does, we can say that she threw them too.”

The yolk was sticky on my hand. I wanted to wipe it off, but I didn't dare move.

JT glanced at me again, then looked back at his older brother. “She's not going to tell.”

“How do you know?” asked Red.

“She does my math homework for me,” said JT. “I know she doesn't want anyone to find out about that. Besides, she doesn't talk.”

I could feel Red's electric blue eyes boring into me. “You know where that colored girl lives?” he asked.

I shook my head.

Red picked up my flattened hat and shoved it back on my head. “You make sure you stay quiet,” he said. “'Cause if you don't, I'll be coming after you and your little friend too.”

I nodded to show I understood.

“Come on, JT,” he said. “Let's go somewhere else.” They started walking away. After a moment, Red turned back. “And keep on doing my brother's homework!”

I could hear them laughing as they wandered off.

When they finally turned the corner and were out of sight, it was like a spell was broken. I ran and ran, and it wasn't until I reached our front porch that I realized I was crying.

“Marlee, that you?” Mother called out.

“Yes, Mother!” I frantically wiped my eyes. I was going to be stuck doing math homework for JT forever. And if I confessed and told my parents, they'd find out about Liz. I pulled myself together and opened the front door. I was splashing some water on my face when the phone rang. “Hello?” My voice was shaking.

“It's me,” said Liz. “You got home okay?”

I nodded.

“I can't hear you nod over the phone,” said Liz.

“Yes,” I said, but I didn't even smile.

“I had to give Tommy all my candy, but don't worry. My little brother knows how to keep a secret.”

I listened to my heart beating . . . 2, 3, 5, 7, 11.

“I really need those quiet lessons,” said Liz, and she sounded scared too. “Next Tuesday?”

“Okay.” I hung up just as Mother walked into the kitchen.

“Marlee, you're white as a sheet,” said Mother. “What's wrong?”

I wanted to tell her then. I wanted to go back to the days when I sat on her lap and she read me stories and I told her everything. But they were gone.

“I ate too much candy,” I said finally.

Mother nodded. “Go to bed. You'll feel better in the morning.”

I crawled into bed and pulled the covers over my head. I missed Judy something awful. If she'd been there, I could have told her what had happened. She'd have known what to do. I listened to the lions. But it still took me a long, long time to fall asleep.