“Adios, Rupert,” I said, turning and heading toward home. I was almost to my mailbox when I heard Rupert holler, “Adios, Jennalee.”
Fourteen
And so the summer went. Me trying to keep things predictable and Rupert trying to mess things up. Leastways, that’s the way I saw it.
Like the time he come home with a cat. Mangiest looking alley cat I ever seen. Rupert claimed Hal Roper give it to him for digging fence holes. Well, first off, if that was true, then he got taken for a fool. And second off, we didn’t want no cats around the store. Uncle Beau is allergic to the dern things, and Jake, well, you can imagine how Jake reacted to the situation. First thing he did was chase that cat around the store, knocking over stuff and sending that thing clawing its way up the curtain in Uncle Beau’s room.
I figured Uncle Beau would make Rupert take that cat back where it come from. I couldn’t believe my ears when Uncle Beau said, “You keep that thing outside, Rupert, you hear me?”
It wasn’t two days before that cat was spending its days on Rupert’s lap. Then, when it started catching mice and moles and stuff, Uncle Beau was just tickled pink. Me and Jake, though, we never did take a shine to that cat.
Then there was the time the dairy truck showed up at the store with a new driver. Never been to Uncle Beau’s before. Me and Uncle Beau was busy inside, so Rupert, he decided to play Mr. Important and signed for the delivery. Even helped unload it. About fifty cases of yogurt and not one drop of milk. Well, trust me when I say there ain’t too many yogurt eaters in Claytonville, North Carolina.
Me and Uncle Beau walked outside just as the dairy truck was disappearing down the road and there stood Rupert, grinning like he just saved the world.
“What in tarnation is this?” Uncle Beau said when he saw the yogurt.
Rupert looked at the cases stacked up there on the porch and scratched his head like it never occurred to him to wonder what was in them.
“They from the dairy man,” he said.
So there we were with a mountain of yogurt in August (which, in case you didn’t know it, is hot as blazes down here in the South) and nowhere to put it and nobody to buy it.
Now, if it was me, I’d’ve made Rupert pay dearly for that act of sheer stupidity But Uncle Beau, he just sit Rupert down and give him a talking-to in the nicest voice you ever heard. Rupert nodded like he understood, but I could tell he didn’t.
By the time the dairy got another truck up the mountain, that yogurt wasn’t worth eating, I can tell you that.
So things went along like that, all mixed up and crazy. And then came August 10, a day that will be forever etched in my mind.
We had played about a million games of crazy eights that day, keeping a tally of who won each game. (I was clearly the champion.) Right in the middle of a game, Uncle Beau had a hankering for pinto beans.
“Too hot for pinto beans,” I said, waving a paper fan in front of my face.
Rupert had sweat running down the side of his face and every now and then he’d wipe it off, making the cards all dirty and sweaty and grossing me out.
“Aw, now, it ain’t never too hot for pinto beans,” Uncle Beau said. He set his cards down and went inside. I heard pots clanging and water running and then Uncle Beau came back out on the porch.
“There,” he said. “Long and slow, that’s the trick. Wish I had me a ham hock.”
After we took in the bargain table, me and Rupert ate Popsicles on the porch steps. We had to eat fast cause they was melting, sending a stream of red juice running down our arms and dripping off our elbows. Rupert’s fell off the stick onto the ground and Jake hightailed it over and ate it, dirt and all.
When the mosquitoes started coming out, I said, “What time is it, Jake?”
“Quittin’ time,” Rupert said.
We walked toward Arrowhead Road, Uncle Beau kind of wheezy and Jake with his tongue hanging out so far it like to dragged on the ground. Rupert kept stopping to pick stuff up off the ground. Bottle caps and shiny rocks. Even found an old sneaker. Uncle Beau walked so slow it didn’t bother him none, but me and Jake, we had to keep stopping.
I turned and watched Rupert inspecting something in the weeds. “Come on, Rupert,” I said. And then I saw it. Clouds of black, black smoke rising into the darkening sky.
“What’s that?” I said, pointing.
We all three watched the smoke getting thicker and darker. Then the next thing I knew, Rupert was running. I never in my wildest dreams would have guessed he could run that fast, his skinny arms pumping and his huge feet barely touching the ground. Jake started barking and I turned and looked at Uncle Beau. The second our eyes met, I knew we both got the thought at the same time. The store! The store was on fire!
I took off after Rupert, but he was nowhere in sight. My heartbeat was pounding in my ears and I swear I could feel the blood racing through my body. When I got closer, I could see smoke rising thicker over the tops of the trees. Then I rounded the corner and saw the worst sight of my life. Uncle Beau’s General Store, looking the same on the outside, but the inside glowing orange through the windows.
I stood in the parking lot, holding my hands over my ears to drown out the terrible crackle and roar of the fire. And then I remembered Rupert. I ran around to the side, yelling his name.
Then I saw him. Running out of the store with an armful of stuff that he dumped on the ground. Paper towels, cans of soup, bags of pretzels.
“Rupert,” I yelled. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t even look up. Just ran back into the store.
“Rupert!” My throat burned from the smoke, but I kept yelling.
When he came out again, I grabbed his arm, but he shook my hand away. He dropped more stuff on the ground. Toothpaste and shampoo. Rice and spaghetti. I tried to grab his shirt as he turned to run back in, but he was too fast. My eyes were burning and I could feel the heat of the fire on my face.
Then I heard Uncle Beau calling my name, calling Rupert’s name. I turned. Uncle Beau was coming toward me, his arms stretched out and his eyes so filled with scared I had to look away.
“Jennalee!” he called in a voice I hardly knew.
We grabbed each other and held on for dear life. When Rupert came out again, Uncle Beau pulled away from me and tried to grab Rupert.
“Stop it, Rupert!” he yelled in a hoarse voice that I could barely hear over the noise of the fire.
Rupert didn’t stop.
“P-l-e-a-s-e stop!” Uncle Beau hollered, his voice all hoarse and pitiful. Then he dropped to his knees beside the growing pile of stuff that Rupert kept hauling out of the store. He held his chest and coughed and I prayed with all my might that he wasn’t going to up and die.
I ran to him and knelt beside him. All we could do was hold each other and watch Rupert. By then, he was covered with black soot, coughing like crazy, with a look on his face like he didn’t see one thing but what he held in his arms. Boxes and bags and cans. Moccasins and tom-tom drums.
I could hear crashing inside the store and then I threw up. I wiped my face with my shirttail. Then I jumped up and ran at Rupert full steam ahead. I grabbed him around the waist and pushed with all my might. We hit the ground with a thud that took my breath away.
“Stop it, Rupert!” I screamed, shaking his shoulders so hard his head whipped back and forth. “Stop it,” I said again, softer this time. His eyes finally met mine and for the first time I could tell he was really seeing me. “Stop it, Rupert,” I said, giving him one more shake.
As soon as we got ourselves up off the ground, Uncle Beau come staggering over and pulled Rupert to him. I watched them there in the parking lot, in front of the burning store, beside that pathetic pile of groceries, holding each other and crying like I never heard nobody crying before in my life and hope to never hear again.
Then Uncle Beau held out his arm and motioned for me. I could barely get my feet to move, but somehow I managed to join their crying, hugging heap. I don’t know
how long we stood like that, clinging to each other, arms all tangled up and heads leaning together.
Then all of a sudden Rupert jerked his head up and looked toward the store. Before me or Uncle Beau could figure out what the heck he was doing, Rupert took off running toward the store again. By now, the flames were leaping out of the windows. Uncle Beau hollered for Rupert to stop, but he disappeared inside.
Uncle Beau said, “Rupert,” real low under his breath, and started toward the store.
I took off after him. If he was going in there, then I was going in, too.
I thank the Good Lord to this day that, before we got to the porch, Rupert come out, coughing and sputtering. Uncle Beau grabbed the front of his shirt and shook like crazy.
“What the hell you doing, Rupert?” he hollered. “Get hold of yourself.”
Rupert dropped to the ground and took big gulps of air. Then he held something up for Uncle Beau. Through my burning, tearing eyes I could tell it was that wrinkled picture of Hattie. Hattie Baker, smiling out at us from the cool shade of that tree.
And that was the exact moment that I knew it. Knew there was something powerful holding Uncle Beau and Rupert together. Knew Rupert had something in him behind that veil of crazy that Uncle Beau had seen all along. And as I watched Rupert that day, loving Uncle Beau like that, I knew that it was true. Me and Rupert Goody had a lot in common.
Fifteen
“But it ain’t my turn!” Marny stamped her foot and glared at me.
“Hush up and do them dishes like I told you,” Mama said, lighting a cigarette and blowing a stream of smoke up to the ceiling.
“She ain’t never even here, Mama,” Marny whined. “The only thing she does here is sleep. Why don’t she just go on and move in with that old geezer and his retard helper or son or whatever the hell he is.”
Mama did what I wanted to do. Slapped her silly. I figured I’d just sit back and enjoy the show. But then Mama whirled around and grabbed my shoulder with her bird-claw fingers and give me a shake. “What you grinning at? You get yourself in there and finish that laundry.”
I didn’t give Marny the satisfaction of looking her way as I walked back to the washing machine. I put the wet T-shirts and jeans and underwear in the laundry basket and went out back to the clothesline.
I was nearly done when I heard my name.
“Jennalee!”
I looked up.
“Look at me, Jennalee!”
What do you think was coming toward me but Rupert Goody on a bicycle.
“Jennalee!” he called again. He stared at the ground with his eyebrows squeezed together, holding on to that bicycle so hard the veins were about to pop right out of his hands. Every now and then, the front wheel would start to wobbling and Rupert’s smile would drop into a look of sheer panic.
He kept pedaling till he run right into the wet clothes and fell over into the dirt. He jumped up and brushed hisself off. “Did you see me on the bicycle, Jennalee?”
My smile came natural. I didn’t even know it was coming till it came. When I felt myself smiling and saw my hand reach up to give Rupert a high five, I couldn’t help but think about how quick things can change. Just last week, I’d’ve probably said, “Of course I seen you. You dern near run me over, you idiot!” But now here I was in my yard, picking up Rupert’s bike and saying, “That was some real good bike riding, Rupert. I couldn’t hardly believe my eyes.”
“Uncle Beau’s waitin’ on the lumber man and then we can go,” Rupert said.
Uncle Beau had decided that what we needed to do was go ruby mining. “Ain’t no reason to sit around whining like a bunch of crybabies,” he had said. “A day over in Cherokee’ll be just what the doctor ordered.”
“But we ought to be here in case they do something we don’t like,” I protested. “What if they don’t leave room for the produce stand or forget which side the dairy case is gonna go on?”
But Uncle Beau wouldn’t listen. He wanted to go to Cherokee. Maybe it was breaking his heart as much as it was mine to see that pile of ashes that used to be the store. We’d poked around afterwards and found a few pitiful remnants of our lives before the fire. The blackened counter stool. A half-melted cashbox. The soda-machine key on a charred beam. But most everything else was a pile of ruin, except the porch, standing there all alone with the bargain table and the rocking chairs and the glider.
Uncle Beau had set up a cot back in Rupert’s shed. Jake had wandered around the parking lot for a few days, then settled on a spot in the corner of the porch. Rupert’s mangy cat run off for a while. Rupert stayed up half the night, calling, “Here, kitty, kitty,” and leaving sardines out by the woods, till it finally came back.
The insurance company was going to pay for a new store. Me and Uncle Beau had made a solemn vow and promise never to tell Rupert that them men from the fire department said it was the hot plate caused the fire.
“I ain’t eating another pinto bean as long as I live,” Uncle Beau had said.
“Me neither,” I said.
Now the construction guys were coming to start Uncle Beau’s new store and my biggest worry was that they weren’t gonna make it just the way it was before. But Uncle Beau said, “Don’t worry, Gravel Gertie.”
So off we went to Cherokee, me, Uncle Beau, Rupert, and Jake. I read the signs out loud and Rupert repeated everything.
“Rocky Creek Family Campground. Pets welcome.”
“Rocky Creek Family Campground. Pets welcome.”
“Smoky Joe’s Gift Shop. Two miles ahead.”
“Smoky Joe’s Gift Shop. Two miles ahead.”
“Oops! You missed it! Smoky Joe’s Gift Shop 1/2 mile back.”
“Oops! You missed it! Smoky Joe’s Gift Shop 1/2 mile back.”
When we got to Cherokee, we went straight to Thelma’s. Me and Rupert got the Big Chief Special. Uncle Beau got grits and ham biscuits. When it came time to pay, Uncle Beau patted his pockets.
“Damn, I left my money out in the truck. Jennalee, run out there and look in the glove box.”
I took a piece of bacon with me for Jake. I found Uncle Beau’s money rolled up in a rubber band in the glove box. Beside it was Rupert’s wallet. The bear-and-Indian-chief wallet.
Put that back, Jennalee, I told myself when I picked it up. That ain’t yours, I said to myself when I opened it up. Stuff fell out onto the floor of the truck. I looked back at the diner, then picked up the things that had fallen. Rupert’s things. A picture of a dog torn out of a magazine. A score card from Starland Miniature Golf. The Lord’s Prayer printed in gold on a paper napkin. The last thing I picked up was a piece of paper so creased and worn it felt like cloth. I reckon that paper must’ve been folded and unfolded about a million times. I opened it carefully. And then my stomach dropped right down to my feet with a thud when I read that paper.
North Carolina State Board of Health. Certificate of Birth. Name at Birth: Rupert Beauregarde Goody. I skipped over the stuff about the hospital and the doctor and went on down to the part that said Mother’s Maiden Name: Hattie Belle Baker. And then Father’s Name: Beauregarde Samuel Goody.
My hands were shaking so bad I couldn’t hardly fold that paper back up.
I didn’t say nothing on the way to the ruby mine. When we got there, I got my bucket and scooped and sieved and thought.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Rupert. I hopped up on the back of the pickup next to Uncle Beau.
“Rupert’s got a birth certificate,” I whispered to Uncle Beau.
He rubbed Jake behind the ears and nodded. “I know.”
I stared at him. “What you mean, you know?”
“I mean I know. I seen it.”
“Where?”
“He showed it to me.”
“When?”
“First day he come to Claytonville.”
Well, now, I didn’t know what to think about that. I stared down at my sneakers, thinking things over for a minute. A wave of mad come over me.
/> “You mean all this time you known how I was thinking that was a cockamamy story about him being your son and you had proof right there on a piece of paper but you didn’t tell me?” I said.
Uncle Beau kept scratching Jake. He opened his mouth to say something but I butted in.
“How come?” I felt the tears coming and tried to blink them away.
Uncle Beau put his hand on my knee. “Cause you needed more than a little ole piece of paper, Jennalee.” He squeezed my knee. “That piece of paper wouldn’t’ve made you like Rupert any better. You had a wall built up too high, Gravel Gertie. Couldn’t no piece of paper knock it down.”
I let Uncle Beau’s words sink in and settle down and I knew he was right. I should’ve said, “You’re right, Uncle Beau,” but I didn’t. But I knew Uncle Beau didn’t care about words. I put my hand on top of his and then Rupert called out, “I got one!”
All the way home Rupert kept sorting through his rubies. Counting them. Putting them in piles by size and color.
“What you gonna do with all them rubies?” I said.
Rupert, he didn’t pause for one tiny little second. Looked me right in the eye and said, “Make me a crown and call myself Queen of the World.”
Uncle Beau laughed so hard he had to pull the truck over to the side of the road. Rupert started poking me in the ribs, and the next thing you know, I’m laughing, too. The kind of laugh like I’d been needing for a long time.
“That sure cleans out the pipes, don’t it?” Uncle Beau said, wiping his eyes and pulling back onto the highway. Me and Rupert nodded and we all settled into gazing at the sights along the way, feeling better about things and glad to be going home with our clean pipes.
The day the new store opened, I reckon nearly everyone in Claytonville came by. Even mean ole Marny came with John Elliott. Me and Rupert taped balloons up everywhere. Roy Mattson brought some of them triangle flags from his used-car lot and me and Vernon hung them up out in the parking lot. Somebody put up a “Grand Opening” sign like the ones they have in the big stores like Winn-Dixie.
Me and Rupert Goody Page 7