May Cocker (Cocker Brothers Book 24)

by Faleena Hopkins

  Sable shivers and hugs her books closer. “How could we forget?”

  “Are you afraid of flying?”

  “Why do you think I skipped the Ferris wheel?” We stop and stare at her, and she looks over her glasses at us like we’re the biggest lugheads she ever saw. “Have you ever seen me get on that thing? Every year I find a way to steer clear!”

  Stunned we never noticed, we continue walking in silence for a bit, running our memories back to all the times she squeezed out of what we thought was fun, on account of she was afraid of heights this whole time!

  Finally Lily asks, “Have you received a letter from him,” a breeze lifting her hair in a pretty way, now that it’s getting longer.

  “Not yet.” Watching a butterfly flutter past I add, “It’s been seventy-three days today, since I saw him.”

  Nobody teases me for counting. In fact, they take time very seriously.

  We all do, these days.

  The war began in 1939. America joined in 1941, three years ago this month. And I suppose around now is when Jerald enlisted, back then. That’s an awful long period of time, with terrible news reported daily. Grief is everywhere, folded flags delivered to parents, wives, and children for far too long.

  They’re waiting for his letter with me, just to make sure he’s alive. Hank has had no news good or bad.

  As we approach Sable’s car, Lily lightens the mood on purpose. “Say, how about bowling this weekend? Peter suggested it, and I think it’s a fine idea, don’t you?”

  “When did you talk to him?” Sable asks her.

  “Just last night. On the telephone.”

  “Does he call often?”

  A blush rises in Lily’s cheeks. “What are you getting on about?”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “You know how often he calls.”

  “I want the other girls to know that Peter Thomas Tuck calls you every single night on the telephone. Every night!”

  Gertie and I drop our jaws on the sidewalk.

  “It’s not a big deal,” Lily insists. “We enjoy talking, is all.”

  Sable bumps their hips together. “I’d say!”

  “I wish Hank would do that!” Gertie switches her books to her other side. “He only calls about once a week.”

  “But you saw him when we all went to the movies on Saturday,” I remind her to make her feel better. “And you held hands the whole time!”

  “Yes,” Gertie says, wistfully. “I just wonder, when I hear about Peter, why it’s not more.”

  Sable rolls her eyes. “This is why I’m going into science. There are more important things to think about than boys. Just imagine, I could help cure diseases! That seems a worthwhile way to spend one’s time. Oh, I know it’s not for everybody,” she admits, on account of the looks on our faces. “I just know it’s for me. And one of the things this war has given me is the understanding that we women should make our mark. Do you girls want a ride home?”

  Gertie and I look at each other, deciding, and we both shake our head at the same time with me saying, “Thank you, Sable, but I think we will walk today. It’s lovely out.”

  Lily climbs into the passenger side and waves to us, placing her books on the floor as a footrest. Sable places hers in the backseat, carefully spacing them so they don’t slide around easily. She hops behind the wheel and says, “So long! See you tomorrow!”

  Lily waves one last time as they drive off.

  It’s a chilly Tuesday but nevertheless, Gertie asks, “Would you like to stop for ice cream on the way home, May?”

  “That would be swell.”

  We move for some younger girls hurrying to join their waiting parents, then fall into an easy pace side-by-side.

  “You’re awful quiet today.”

  “Am I? I just miss him, I guess. That mock air raid we had today felt different than the others somehow. I was curled under my desk and I thought of him at sea, in a submarine with the Germans hidden in dark waters.”

  “May! You can’t think like that. You’ll scare yourself!”

  “It’s the truth, isn’t it? And isn’t he scared, way deep down even if he doesn’t know it? What must it be like to steer a submarine when you don’t know what’s hidden waiting for you half the time. Did you know that they invented sonar radar to tell when another boat is nearby? It sends out a signal that pings over and over. And when the ping returns, depending on how fast and all, that’s how they know if they’re not alone. Doesn’t that sound dreadful?” The look on Gertie’s face! When she doesn’t say anything, I nod, “I thought so, too.”

  After a couple steps, she finds her voice. “Let’s get two scoops this time.”

  I loop my arm through hers. “Good idea.”

  28

  MAY

  We’re wearing high-waisted slacks to bowl in, our button-up blouses with fashionable shoulder pads, and our hair is curled. Sable’s pulled hers into a ponytail. Gertie’s sitting in back, and since we’re going to pick up Lily, I’m temporarily in her place in the front passenger seat.

  “Marvin is nice. I wasn’t claiming him not to be, but I’m not sure if he’s smart enough for me.” Sable frowns while craning her neck to assist in parking perfectly parallel to the sidewalk outside of Lily’s home. “I know that makes me sound terrible.”

  Impressed with her driving skills, I’m poking my head out the window. “Oh, I don’t know. If you think about it, you’ll be awfully stimulated by science. Just imagine yourself cooped up in a lab all day long. What would you want to return home to?” I turn in my seat and look at her. “An egghead?”

  “Remember, you’re talking to an egghead.”

  “That’s exactly my point. Would it be more fun to have someone different from you, or someone who talks about exactly the same things you think about all day long?”

  Her mouth twists, and after several moments, she still hasn’t made up her mind. “Go on and get her. We’ll wait.”

  I hop on out, walk up the steps and give the door three raps. “Hi dee ho!” Nobody answers, and I look back and call to the girls, “What’s the time?”

  Sable leans to see me through the window I left open, “Knock again!”

  Gertie yells from the backseat, “Yes, May! Try louder!”

  I give it a shot, but still don’t hear anything. After a moment I shrug both shoulders to the girls. “What gives? Could she have gone to the bowling alley without us?”

  “It’s just like her to change things and not tell me. I specifically told her what time I would pick her up!”

  I nearly jump out of my skin when I hear Lily’s shaky and very distant voice call from inside, “M-ay-ay-ay?”

  I wave the girls up, and slowly turn the doorknob, hurried car doors opening and shutting behind me. They run up the steps, and I leave the door open for them, calling from inside the foyer, “Lily?”

  There isn’t a light on in the house.

  “Lily?”

  “Upstairs.”

  Gertie, Sable, and I exchange a look, and I lead them, our footsteps creaking the whole way. We turn the corner and see her door is open just a crack. It’s dark inside. I push it open and discover our beautiful and courageous friend in a ball on the floor by her dresser, with a black eye, cut lip, and bruised arms, tears streaming down her cheeks.

  We race forward. “Lily!!”

  I drop to my knees, horrified. Bloodshot eyes look at me as she whispers, “Is she gone?”

  Furious, Sable demands, “Your Mother did this?”

  Lily nods, and Gertie moans, “Oh no!”

  She curls into my hug. “I hate her bottles so I hid them. And I wouldn’t tell her where. She got so mad! I should’ve told her where I put them. I didn’t know how mad she would get. But then…” She stops and sobs, shoulders shaking in my arms.

  Rocking her, I whisper, “It’s okay, we’re here now,” and look up at Sable as she paces.

  Gertie asks, “What do we do? Should we call the police?”r />
  Sable shakes her head. “Lily is coming to my house! My parents will make sure nothing happens to Lily ever again. This is my fault. I knew I couldn’t trust that woman’s promise! But what was I supposed to do? I was only sixteen at the time! She’s supposed to be the grown-up! I’m supposed to believe her when she promises something like that!”

  I look at Gertie, both of us realizing this isn’t the first time it’s happened. We weren’t in on it, but Sable and Lily are best friends. They must have kept it secret in hopes it was just the once.

  Gertie places a reassuring hand on Sable, stopping the pacing. “We should go. Just in case she comes back.”

  I help Lily up, her body a noodle from sadness. Throwing her arm around my shoulder, I whisper, “We must hurry, Lily. Please walk fast!”

  She leans on me, not trusting her own legs, her judgment, or her heritage. My mind can’t help but travel back to all the times she mentioned her Mother’s love of booze. The disdain that was in her eyes. Jokes edged in pain. Smile forced. All of our parents know Mrs. Marlow has a problem. It’s why mine accepted that Lily had to visit her in the hospital. And why Tommy needed looking after by someone trustworthy like me.

  “Where is Tommy?!” I ask.

  Sable answers for her. “He went to live with their father, didn’t you know?”

  My silence says I didn’t.

  It’s dark outside, the beginning of southern winter. We hurry into the car. Sable turns the key, but the car doesn’t start. We see headlights approach, and Gertie and I twist in the backseat.

  “Is it her?”

  “I can’t tell.”

  We hear Lily say, “It’s her.”

  Fear launches into us. We look forward. Lily is craning her head to see past us through the back window, headlights lighting up her damaged face.

  “Hurry, Sable!” I urge, heart beating like wild.

  She jiggles the key, “I’m trying!“ pulls it out, puts it back in, and turns it again. “Oh please!”

  Mrs. Marlow parks behind us, and Lily slinks down. The engine starts, and Sable grabs the wheel, but now we’re all frozen with fear.

  Gertie and I watch Mrs. Marlow out of our peripheral vision. The driver’s door opens. She steps out. Walks around the back of her car. Onto the sidewalk. Up the steps. Fumbles with her keys. Drops them. Has trouble picking them up. A slew of curses fill the night.

  Sable slowly pulls away from the curb, hands tight around the wheel. Gertie and I have yet to breathe.

  Lily is dully staring out the window at her Mother. “Guess she found other bottles.”

  29

  MAY

  Sable’s house is dark, too, so we all go up together. Gertie keeps twisting her hair between two fingers while staring off. Lily is walking on her own now, but her eyes have lost their light, and there is none of the usual bounce in her step. We’re all trudging, to be honest.

  The door is unlocked, not uncommon in our town, and we walk in with each of us heading for a lamp — one in the wallpapered hall leading to the guest washroom, one in the elegant foyer, and two in the comfortable living room where we collapse onto the same couch and chairs we shared sandwiches on with the boys seventy-nine days ago.

  Gertie asks, “Where are your folks tonight? Not out of town again?”

  Sable lets out a long breath. “At a party I would guess. I don’t even have to ask if Lily can stay with us. They wouldn’t notice either way. Ever since my brother left for college last year, I never see them.”

  “They probably know how grown-up you are,” Gertie offers. “It’s not like you need looking after.“

  “True.” The telephone rings, and we go ice cold. “Perhaps I had better not answer.”

  As it rings we stare at each other until I say, “What if I answered?”

  “What would that help?”

  “I don’t know. Only, if it’s Mrs. Marlow, and you answer the phone, she knows you’re Lily’s best friend. But if I answer, I could make like she called the wrong house and she would just hang up, confused.”

  Lily nods dully that it would work. Sable motions for me to try it, and I hurry over. Closing my eyes, I pick up. “Hello?”

  “Sable?” a boy asks.

  “This is May. Who am I speaking with?”

  “May! It’s Peter! That’s funny the operator mixed things up. Of all the houses she could’ve connected me to!”

  Relaxing I confess, “I’m sorry, Peter. This is Sable’s phone.”

  “What? Someone put gin in your soda pop, May?” He laughs. “Listen, I’m using the phone at the bowling alley. Asked the manager if he wouldn’t mind. Where are you girls? Did we get the night wrong?”

  I cover the mouthpiece and whisper, “It’s Peter Tuck calling from the bowling alley!” Lily’s expression is heart breaking. “Peter, I’m afraid we won’t be able to bowl tonight. We’re awfully sorry, but something has happened.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that at all. What gives?”

  “I can’t say, Peter.”

  “Is Lily with you? Can I talk to her?”

  “Yes, she’s with me.” I cover the mouthpiece again. “He wishes to speak with you, Lily.”

  She rises from the sofa as Sable whispers, “You don’t have to tell him!”

  “I won’t.”

  Giving her the phone I back against the wall, clasped hands behind me.

  “Hello, Peter? It’s me. How are you?” Pause. “No, I’m alright,” she smiles, wiping a tear. “I sure do wish I could be there. Let’s go bowling another night. Although I have to warn you, I’m very good. And I won’t pretend I’m not just to make you feel better,” she laughs, looking at me with pain in her eyes. “Only I have to go now, so you boys have fun. Oh, and when you call me tomorrow night, don’t call my house. Phone here, if you wouldn’t mind.” A short pause and then, “Sable needs my help in the kitchen so I can’t talk anymore. Thank you, Peter, goodnight.”

  Lily hands me the mouthpiece. I place it back in its cradle as she walks to her reflection in the window, the darkness outside and the light in here making it as good a mirror as any. She touches her bruised eye, color bleeding further under her skin now. “I won’t be able to see Peter for weeks, will I?”

  “Oh, I hardly think so. Maybe one at the most.”

  Gertie jumps in with me. “Maybe even sooner!”

  Sable says, “It can’t be sooner than a week. Human beings don’t work like that.”

  Gertie snaps at her, “Oh, why don’t you stop being so logical!”

  “Gertrude Felts! I can’t lie and have her feeling sore when she realizes her face is still awful! What good would that do? The truth comes out, and what then?”

  “Then she’s had time to get used to the idea!”

  Sable blinks, shocked at someone else’s logic making sense to her.

  I sigh, “Perhaps we had better eat something.”

  “I’m not hungry,” Lily whispers from the window.

  “It’s hard to think on an empty stomach. And tempers run high. Sable, let’s pull something together.”

  We start for the kitchen, and Sable turns around. “Gertie, I’m sorry. I’m feeling a little…well, not myself.”

  She offers a sad smile, “I shouldn’t have snapped at you,” and rises from her chair to come help.

  Lily remains in the living room while we three tear into the cupboards, none of us saying a word as we fix up baked beans and sliced ham. Sable produces a casserole dish of leftover cheesy potatoes. We all react, agreeing it’s the perfect comfort food in a time like this.

  But the sound of a car horn turns our heads. We run, abandoning the food, to peer out of the front window, hiding behind thick curtains. We’re all panting.

  Lily whispers, “Is it her?”

  Sable is the first to realize, “It’s Marvins car!”

  She rushes to the door. “They’ve come over! Oh, what do we say? What do we do?”

  Before we have a chance to answer, Sable has
run outside.

  Gertie looks at me, and I shrug that I don’t understand, either. She runs out.

  Lily grabs my arm as I attempt to follow. “May! What would you do?”

  “If Jerald were here, you mean? Were I in your shoes?” She nods. I gaze at her poor, bruised face. “There isn’t anywhere on Earth I’d rather be than with Jerald, no matter what happened.”

  “What if Peter can’t stand to look at me?”

  I smile, “Then he’s a fool.”

  Fear and hope combine to make up the tears that hover. She takes my hand and together we walk.

  He’s growing louder outside, dissatisfied with the answers from Sable and Gertie. Finally he shouts, “Lily! Lily girl! Where are you?” bounding up the front porch.

  I give her an encouraging nod and Lily steps out. “Peter?”

  He freezes in his tracks, arms flying out for balance at the top of the stairs. “What the Sam Hill?” Rushing forward, he gently touches her face. “Who did this to you?”

  When a person is kind it unlocks the jail you put around your pain, the one covering your heart. The look in Peter’s eyes gets through to Lily in a big way, and even though she doesn’t answer him, it doesn’t matter. He has begun to lightly kiss her bruise and every other inch of the face he clearly loves.

  “Oh, Peter! I’m so happy to see you!”

  He gathers her into his arms, voice hoarse. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you again. Never ever, you hear me? Never!”

  Down on the path stand Sable and Marvin, Hank and Gertie, heads upturned as we silently watch our friends falling in love.

  30

  MAY

  “M other! Mother! It’s here! There’s a package from Jerald!” Into our house I race, breathless. Finding her scrubbing the kitchen tile while on her hands and knees, I shout, “Look! Look!”

  She sits back on her ankles, and wipes her forehead with the back of her wrist. “Well go on, open it!”