by Ruth White
He sits on the ground and pulls me down beside him.
“Then your mother doesn’t want me back?”
“I’m sure she does,” he says, “but when she finds out you’re my girl, there will be a problem.”
“Your girl?”
“Aren’t you my girl?”
I give him my biggest smile. “If you want me to be. Yes!”
He smiles too. “I must warn you that Mother and Father will not be as happy as we are about this. In fact, they will be nasty. They will blame everything on you, and I won’t subject you to their meanness.”
We kiss again, and fall back together on the soft woods floor. His lips are hot against my mouth and throat. I return his kisses hungrily. He unbuttons the top of my dress and begins to kiss my breasts. As he runs a hand up the inside of my thigh, I have to struggle to re-gain my good sense.
“Somebody could see us,” I gasp.
But he doesn’t stop. He is slipping between my legs and undoing his pants before I can gather enough will power to say, “No, Brody, please, no.”
He lets out his breath and relaxes on top of me. I can feel him through my underpants. I hug him with my legs.
“Why stop?” he whispers. “I can feel that you want me.”
“I do! But not here. Not now.”
He rolls off of me and onto his back. I rise up on my elbow and look at him. He is smiling.
“Not here and not now,” he says. “It’s almost as good as a promise. Somewhere soon in a better setting, we will make love, won’t we?”
“Yes, Brody, we will. You know I want you, but I definitely do not want a baby, not for a good many years. And I don’t know how to stop that from happening, do you?”
“No, but Lydia Wayne does. She is a Margaret Sanger disciple. She knows all about birth control, and she’s very open about it. She wants to educate other women.”
This is definitely exciting news. “You are razzing me!”
He grins. “No, I’m not. We’ll let her educate both of us.”
He buttons up the front of my dress very slowly, then puts himself back together.
Dixie begins to nudge us with her cold nose, as if to say she wants attention too. I pet her and she rolls over for a belly scratch.
“Thank you, Brody, for bringing her.”
“She was lost without you,” he says. “She lay in front of your door night and day. I was tempted to join her.”
“Didn’t your mother tell you that I wrote?” I ask.
“No. Except for the yelling, we haven’t communicated. Roman told me about your brother, but he said you were coming back. I expected you every day.”
I hasten to explain about Jewel. “And that’s why I haven’t returned to Charlottesville. I couldn’t leave her behind, and your mother didn’t answer my letter.”
“How could your father treat his child like that?” he says. “Did he ever hurt you?”
“Not physically. He bullied me, but I am stronger than Jewel. She is an artiste, and as delicate as a flower. She can’t fend for herself.”
“Of course not. I’ll take care of you both.”
“Surely you jest, sir!” I hit him playfully. “I will take care of my little sister, and nobody will take care of me. I will not be Curly Locks.”
“Curly Locks?”
“It means I don’t expect to sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam, and live upon strawberries, sugar and cream.”
“I never thought you would.”
“I do, however, want you to help me find another job in Charlottesville.”
“Can do. I know practically everybody in town. There’s bound to be something suitable for you besides maid work, something that pays more. Do you have any idea where you might live?”
“In a boarding house.”
“I have a better idea,” he says. “Remember the California bungalow we looked at? You can let it from me. I’ll be your landlord.”
“I can’t afford that!”
“Sure you can. You can help me with my tenants – the paperwork and stuff.”
“Oh, Brody, the bungalow!”
“But we’ll have to get an older female companion for you,” he says. “It’s not proper for two young girls to live alone.”
“A chaperone? Now I know you jest! I don’t want some old prude hanging around to give me respectability. This is 1929!”
He laughs. “Okay. Okay. Just you and Jewel then, but I can hear the tongues wagging all over town.”
“Isn’t this ironic?” I say. “As much as I wanted to be the modern girl, it appears I have been sucked in by the old fairy tale after all. My prince on his white horse has come to rescue me.”
“I’m not on a white horse, thank goodness,” he says wryly, “I’m in a black LaSalle. As for the rest, I feel I am the one being rescued.”
“How so?”
“By myself I didn’t have the guts to break it off with Angel and bring forth all that wrath, but for you, Lorelei – for you, my girl, I found the courage. Anyway, let’s not dwell on the past. Let’s look forward. When will you be eighteen?”
“October nineteenth.”
“You’re a mere child,” he says with a twinkle in his eye, “so we won’t talk about a future together. We’ll just get to know each other in a leisurely way, and have fun for the next three
months.”
“And when I’m eighteen, we’ll stop having fun?”
“Not at all! But let’s suppose you were older – eighteen, say, or even nineteen, and some smart, rich fella got serious and asked for your hand?”
“Smart? Rich? What about dashing? Is he not dashing?”
“Oh, yes, he’s very, very dashing.”
“Then I might agree to marry him.”
“And what kind of marriage would you want with this smart, rich, dashing fella?” he asks.
“I know of only two kinds – happy ones and sad ones. I’ll take the first.”
“Happy is good,” he says, “but very happy is better. Maybe you could tell him you want a marriage like Blake and Lydia’s. I’m dying to tell you about them.”
“I’m dying to hear it.”
“Lydia is not a blue blood, as Mother would put it,” he begins, “but she’s very sweet and smart and pretty – like you. And her crippled foot doesn’t slow her down a bit. She works hard right alongside the doctor. When he met her, she was even poorer than you are.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Yes, it is. They told me the story last night. He was a spoiled, rich medical student, and she was working for pennies in a hospital, and sleeping on a cot in the utility closet. She had a hopeless dream of becoming a nurse, specializing in midwifery. Then he came along and fell madly in love with her. Lucky for Blake, she fell in love with him too, in spite of the arrogance of the Waynes.”
“Dr. Wayne is not arrogant!”
“Not anymore, but his family is still. Just look at his nephew, Luke.”
“I don’t think Luke is arrogant.”
“You don’t know him well. Anyway, Blake sent Lydia to nursing school, and they became partners in every way. It’s obvious they are very happy together. This is what a marriage should be – a partnership. I don’t mean that every couple should necessarily share the same profession, but they should have common life goals. We could do this, Lorelei – I mean you could do this, you and that fella. He could send you to the summer program at the university. You could both become literature scholars. Someday, maybe you could establish a highschool in a place where
there is a need. What do you think?”
“But he might have a dream of becoming a professor at the university,” I say.
“He could do that for a few years while you are finishing your education, but the greater dream is to serve. Don’t you agree?”
“Oh, yes, Brody. I agree with all my heart.”
“You are still too young to consider marriage, so don’t think for a moment that was a proposal from me.”
“Then what was it?” I ask.
“Just a suggestion for when you are eighteen or nineteen – for you and that chap.”
“What chap?”
“The one who loves you.”
At this point we hear a timid clearing of the throat close by. “Excuse me, Lorie.” Jewel is standing a few feet away, nervously twisting her small hands together. “Bea sent me to tell y’all dinner’s on the table. She said invite Mr. Brody.”
“Come here and sit,” I say, and pat the ground beside me. “We want to talk to you.”
She remains where she is, and says quickly, “It’s okay, Lorie. Honest, it’s okay. I’ll be all right. I don’t have to go with you.”
“Jewel,” I say, “you’re jumping to con….”
“I’ll stay clear of Dad,” she interrupts almost frantically. “You don’t have to take me. I’ll just be in your way.”
I can see she is on the verge of tears, and I go to her and put my arms around her. “You are going with us,” I say. “We won’t have it any other way.”
“Absolutely,” Brody backs me up.
Jewel looks from one of us to the other. “Really?”
“Of course, Jewel. Didn’t I promise?”
“Oh, Lorie, I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. Are you sure?”
“We wouldn’t dream of leaving you,” Brody says. “What grade are you in?”
“I have finished all the grades at Deep Bottom,” she says. “I would be in highschool if we had one.”
“Well, there’s a good one in Charlottesville,” Brody says. “I think you’ll like it.”
She clasps her hands together over her heart and gives him a teary smile.
“Lorelei told me about Randal and Doris and Willa,” Brody says to her. “I find them fascinating.”
Jewel’s eyes go wide. “Oh! You know them too?”
Brody and I laugh.
“No,” he says, “but I want to hear all about them on the way to Charlottesville.”
“Should I tell Bea you’re bringing Mr. Brody for dinner?” she asks me.
The very idea of Brody and Dad eating at the same table makes me cringe. Brody sees my hesitation and answers for me.
“No,” he says. “Thank her politely, then tell her we have to be on our way.” He looks at his watch. “It will be past midnight now before we get home. We’ll find something to eat on the way.”
“Go now,” I say to Jewel, “and tell Bea in private that you are coming with me for a short visit. Then slip up to the loft and pack your things in my carpet bag. Don’t forget your drawings. When you’re done packing, go down Willy’s Road and wait for us.”
She practically flies off the ground as she runs home. Dixie scampers along behind her. “Come on, Trixie Dixie!” Jewel cries. “You and me – we’re gonna be buddies!”
Brody gets to his feet and says to me, “A few minutes ago I said something very important, which you didn’t seem to hear.”
“What was that?”
“What was that! I told you I love you!”
“I heard you say that some chap loves me. You didn’t say it was you.”
“Surprise,” he says. “It’s me. This chap loves you. I love you.”
“Oh.”
“Aren’t you going to reciprocate?” he asks.
“I’m only a child of seventeen. What do I know about love? Maybe when I’m eighteen or nineteen? I’ll let you know then.”
He smiles and begins to pick the debris out of my hair, which I collected from the woods floor. Then we kiss again in the enchanted forest before leaving it behind.
Late tonight, I am thinking, as we are driving through Virginia under the stars, I will whisper in his ear that I love him.
He waits for me on the porch as I go to the loft and hastily pack my few things on top of Jewel’s in the carpet bag. Then I go to kiss Bea and the boys, who, along with Dad, are at the table.
“Goodbye, Dad,” I say softly, but he does not respond.
Outside Brody takes my bag, and I say to him, “I think we should make a stop at the store in Deep Bottom. I want you to do something for me.”
“Your wish is my command, madam,” says he.
“I want you to pretend to Mrs. Call that you are an official postal inspector from D.C., and you are investigating the disappearance of certain personal letters. Remind her that it’s a federal offense to tamper with U.S. Mail.”
“Will do,” he says with a smile. “Sounds like fun.”
We find Jewel waiting on the stump, wearing the new dress I bought for her in Skylark. When she sees us coming, she jumps to her feet and skips happily ahead with Dixie, without a backward glance at the only home she has ever known.
As Brody and I begin our long journey together, I say a silent goodbye to the log house and to Willy’s Road, to the tangled woods and the Old Thing, to Starr Mountain and the graveyard on the knob. But I do not say goodbye to Mommie and Roxie and Samuel. They will always be with me wherever I go.
Table of Contents
Part I: Starr Mountain: Chapter One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Part II: Living with Ghosts: Chapter Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Part III: Charlottesville: Chapter Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Part IV: The Old Thing: Chapter Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven