Good Heavens

by Margaret A. Graham

  The W.W.s looked at me as if to say, What’s wrong with her? I didn’t try to explain. A body has to be around Dora a while before you understand the way she is. In her case, lying on the floor listening to that slow music wasn’t strange at all; she was probably hearing the wind and the rain in her holler, or seeing the moon rising, or whatever.

  By the third or fourth long piece, the W.W.s and I had just about run out of politeness. They were shifting about on the couch as much as to say, How long is this going on? And I raised my eyebrows, which told them, I don’t have any idea.

  As for myself, I tuned out the music because I had other things to think about, especially Portia. I was glad she wanted to get away from Linda, but if Portia took Martha’s place she’d be alone in that room. Chances were Linda would make her life miserable in there. If Nancy stays, maybe I can get her to take Martha’s place and let Portia room with Emily. The more I thought about it, the more I liked that arrangement. After all, Portia and Emily were study partners, so it would make sense to have them room together.

  As soon as Lenora finished playing the next piece, I thanked her for playing, then excused myself and said it was urgent that I talk to someone. The W.W.s saw their chance to escape and, saying they had a big day coming up and needed to get to bed, they said good night.

  That left Lenora playing, Albert sitting beside her on the bench, and Dora lying on the floor, soaking her soul in that highbrow music. Well, to each his own, I always say.

  I found Nancy in her room. She had put away the suitcase. “I’m glad you’re staying, Nancy,” I said and sat down on the bed. “I can rest easier with you here.” But I could see she was still upset.

  “I’ll stay until Dr. Elsie gets back. After that, I can’t promise anything.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Nancy, I have a favor to ask of you. Portia wants to move out of her room.”

  “It’s about time.”

  “About time?”

  Nancy gave me a knowing look. “Don’t you know?”

  “Know what, Nancy?”

  “If you don’t know, sooner or later you’ll find out.”

  I could see she didn’t want to say anything more, so I asked her, “Since Portia and Emily are study partners, it would be nice if they roomed together, don’t you think?”

  “You want me to move, don’t you?”

  “Would you mind?”

  “Don’t ask me to move in with Linda.”

  “No, not Linda. Would you take Martha’s room?”

  She agreed to do that. “I’ll pack my things.”

  I looked in on Portia to tell her what the deal was. Linda was in the room getting ready to take a shower. When she heard Portia was moving, she flew off the handle. “She’s not leaving this room!” she yelled.

  Portia stood up to her. “Yes, I am, Linda,” she said and started taking her things out of the dresser.

  “You do and I’ll—”

  I called her bluff. “What’ll you do, Linda?”

  “You’ll see,” she said and threw a brush across the room.

  “We’ll have none of that!” I told her. “Portia, Nancy’s going to move in Martha’s room so you can room with Emily. Since you and Emily are study partners I thought that would be nice. Why don’t you ask Emily to help you move?”

  “Okay,” she said and left to find her.

  I sat down on the bed to talk to Linda. “Now, what’s this you’re going to do to Portia?”

  “You don’t understand.”

  “Try me.”

  She was furious. “Miss E., I’m gay and proud of it! Portia’s my girl. You think it’s a sin to be gay, don’t you? You probably never heard of gay pride.”

  “Oh, I’ve heard of gay pride and, yes, according to the Bible it’s a sin for two women to live together like husband and wife.”

  “That’s your interpretation. There’s plenty of Christians who don’t see it that way. In my case, I know it’s not a sin because it’s the way God made me. Being gay is as natural to me as—”

  I shut the door so the others couldn’t hear this conversation.

  “You were saying?”

  “I was born this way—it’s the way God made me.”

  “Don’t blame it on God. Blame it on Adam; he sinned and ever since, people have been born with all kinda handicaps. Maybe you were born that way and maybe you weren’t. I’m no doctor. But Linda, how about the man who lusts after little children—he’d say he was born that way, too. And the—”

  “How can it be wrong to love somebody?”

  “Loving somebody doesn’t mean you have to live with them. Linda, nobody has to have sex. Look at all the single people in the world who live alone and have a good life without sex. I’ve lived alone fourteen years, and before that my husband was sick and—”

  “But you’re old.”

  Somebody knocked on the door. Linda opened it, and Portia came in with Emily. “I’ll get my things.”

  “You’ll get what’s coming to you,” Linda growled and stormed out of the room to take her shower.

  I stayed there while Portia carried all her stuff to the other room. After she was safely moved, I went on downstairs to bed.

  Before I went in my room, though, I looked in the parlor—Lenora was still playing. I walked around the piano to see if Dora was still there. She was. I started to say good night, then realized the three of them weren’t even aware I was in the room. I went on to bed.

  21

  Going up on the Grandfather was an all-day trip because there’s animals behind fences to see, a museum, gift shops, picnic tables, and a swinging bridge. The girls didn’t want to miss their Bible class, so we invited Albert to go along with us and have Bible class on the mountain. The W.W.s. were nervous about hairpin curves so I asked Albert to drive the van.

  Albert was wearing one of those soft hats with a narrow brim and a little feather in the hatband. It matched his windbreaker. Even though Lenora was hanging on to him, Ursula was making it a threesome. I got a kick out of that.

  When we visited the animal habitats, Albert supplied us with peanuts to throw to the bears and also explained all about the cougars we saw next. Some of the girls took pictures and included me with the W.W.s. Albert had brought a camera and he asked Evelyn to take a picture of me and him. We stood close; he put his arm around me. Of course, to be polite he turned right around and asked Evelyn to take one of him and Lenora.

  I was determined that this picnic would outdo any spread put on by those TV chefs. I found picnic tables where the view was out of this world, and while the girls cooked hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, Albert helped me unload the drinks and other stuff. Ursula and the W.W.s battled the wind to set out the paper plates and cups, buns, catsup, mustard, and pickles, while Albert and me set out the baked beans, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, slaw, pimento cheese sandwiches, deviled eggs, olives, grapes, and donuts—you name it, we had it!

  But after all of that, Albert looked at me very disappointed. “Where’s my fried apple pie?”

  I laughed. “Albert, you’ll get one tomorrow. Getting this picnic together this morning, there was no time to make pies.”

  That little exchange did not go unnoticed by the W.W.s, and I only wished Lenora had heard it. While waiting for the girls to finish cooking the meat, we sat down and tried to keep things from blowing off the table. I had brought my Bible along, and Albert asked if he could look at it. Of course, I let him, but he had a hard time keeping the wind from blowing away stuff I had in there. After he had looked as much as he could, he handed it back to me. “Ladies,” he said, “this worn-out Bible explains a lot about our friend, Esmeralda, doesn’t it?”

  I was surprised when Ursula said, “Yes, it does.” Wilma hollered, “The meat’s done!” And soon the girls came bearing trays of hamburgers and hot dogs. Albert asked the blessing, and we filed in behind the W.W.s to serve ourselves.

  Mountain air makes a body hungry. Everybody kept saying how good the food wa
s—that this was the best picnic they had ever went to. I ate so much I thought I would pop.

  After we ate, cleaned the tables, and packed stuff back in the van, we gathered in close to hear Albert teach. In those beautiful surroundings, the blue mountains lying in waves as far as the eye could see, he chose Psalm 19, about the heavens declaring the glory of God. As long as I live I will never forget the beautiful message he gave. Even with the wind whipping the pages of my Bible, I managed to write his name and the date beside Psalm 19.

  After the lesson we went to the museum, where we moseyed around looking at the exhibits. Then we went in the small theater they have got there and watched a movie about falcons and hang gliding. I got sleepy, and Mabel went sound to sleep. Once it was over and she saw the gift shop, she revived and couldn’t get enough of poking around in there.

  I thought we’d never get out of the gift shop. Between the girls and the W.W.s it looked like they were going to buy out the place. I bought a postcard to send to Beatrice then went outside and sat on a bench to wait.

  It wasn’t long before Albert came out—I knew he was looking for me. As soon as he saw me, he made a beeline to join me on the bench. “I bought you something,” he said, reaching in a bag. He handed me a beautiful wood carving of a yellow finch.

  “For me? Oh my, it’s pretty. But why me?”

  “Esmeralda, I see what you are doing for these ladies at Priscilla Home, and this is a little token of my appreciation.”

  “Well, you’re the one! You’re giving them the Word, and it’s changing their lives.”

  “You think so?”

  “I know so!”

  He took off his hat, and the breeze did a number on his hair. I loved the way he ran those long fingers through it, trying to smooth it down. He put his hat back on.

  “Well,” he said, “I know there is one resident who has been brought to know the Lord.” He crossed his legs and folded his arms across his chest. “It is all so providential, Esmeralda. Can you imagine Lenora and me finding each other the way we did? Years ago, after she left the concert stage and I learned about her problems, I never stopped praying for her—but I couldn’t find where she was. That day on the rock, to find her like that—Esmeralda, it could only be the Lord’s doing.”

  I fingered the little bird, turned it this way and that to see all sides, and agreed. “God works in mysterious ways.”

  “He certainly does,” he said, turning around to look toward the gift store. Lenora and Ursula were coming. Quickly, he turned back to me. “Esmeralda, do you think we might drive into Rockville one evening, just the two of us?”

  “Sure,” I said. I couldn’t believe my ears. Albert Ringstaff was asking me to go out with him!

  “After your friends leave—say, Saturday evening?”

  “That would be fine,” I said as calmly as I could.

  “I know a quiet little restaurant where we can have dinner and talk. I’ll pick you up, say around 6:00?”

  “That would be fine,” I repeated, about as excited as a body can get and still stay in its skin.

  Albert drove us up to the swinging bridge, and everyone went out on it except the W.W.s and me. I felt like I had to keep those three company. In the building up there atop the mountain, there was another gift shop, so we went inside out of the wind, and they looked around while we were waiting. I was so excited, I must have showed it because Thelma said, “Well, you look happy. You look like the cat that swallowed the canary.”

  I didn’t say anything, even though I was dying to tell them Albert had asked me out.

  Wind on the bridge can be gale force, so I knew Albert would be cold. When the girls started straggling in off the bridge, I ordered a cup of hot coffee for him. It tickled him pink! Of course, Lenora came in with him and was snuggling up close to keep warm. He ordered a cup for her too.

  On the way home in the van, the girls were laughing and talking, eating boiled peanuts and throwing the shells out the window. I couldn’t eat a thing I was so excited. Brenda was sitting across the aisle from me. I reached over and asked her when we might color my hair. “I want to get it done before Saturday,” I told her.

  “Any time,” she said. “Whenever you get the rinse.”

  That night I could hardly sleep. I planned that as soon as the W.W.s left, I’d go into town and get that ash blond color.

  The next morning I saw the three of them off after breakfast. They couldn’t thank me enough for the wonderful time they’d had.

  I thanked them for the peanuts, tomatoes, and peaches—told them we’d have cobblers and make peach pickle.

  After hugging me, Clara held on to my hand. I’m not sure but what she had tears in her eyes. “Esmeralda, I just want to apologize for the way Mabel and me tried to keep you from coming up here. I speak for both of us—after we have seen this place and the wonderful work you’re doing—we see how wrong we were. And the women you got here, for the most part, they could be our daughters or grandchildren—with few exceptions, they’re no different from Live Oaks women, just down on their luck. We’ve been talking amongst ourselves and we see there’s a lot we can do for Priscilla Home. We’re going back home to tell everybody what a wonderful place this is and how the Lord is using you up here.”

  Oh, I told them there was no need to apologize, and I thanked them in advance for whatever they might do for us; especially asked them to pray for us. As I shut the car door, I motioned to Thelma to roll down the window. “Don’t forget to thank Elijah for the corn he sent.”

  “We will,” they all said.

  I asked again if they were sure they had everything. They thought they had. “If you’ve left anything, we’ll mail it to you. . . . Now, Thelma, you know the way back?” She said she did, so I was satisfied they would make it home okay.

  I stood in the driveway waving and watching until the car pulled onto the Old Turnpike. As much as the W.W.s meant to me, I wasn’t sorry to see them leave. I had to get my ducks in a row for Saturday night.

  22

  The garden was furnishing us with salad greens, green onions, squash, and some peas. Tomatoes were beginning to come in but were still green. Brenda had fried some twice. Soon an abundance of the beans would be coming in, and we would need to start canning them.

  Dora and I decided to drive down to Lester’s place to see about getting a plumber to put sinks in the garage. Along the way, I was surprised to see that flock of wild turkeys again, and we stopped to watch them. “Turkeys has got their regular range close by where they were borned,” Dora told me. “They sleep in the same tree on the same limbs night after night, a-favorin’ evergreens to bare branches. Won’t light on the ground of a night afeared of bobcats and foxes. Lookee yonder at them two gobblers by that rotted fence.”

  I looked and saw only one, his head held high and erect. “I thought you said there were two.”

  “The one you’re a-lookin’ at be the lookout. The other ’un is a-bathin’ hisself on the ground.”

  Then I spotted that one wallowing in the warm, dry sand, his feathers all fluffed out. He rose and shook himself, filling the air with dust and tiny feathers. After preening himself like a peacock, he took up the stand as watchman while his buddy took his dust bath.

  I heard some gobbling, and Dora told me, “He’s a-signalin’ stray members of the flock.” Suddenly, the whole flock took off and flew away from us.

  I cranked the car, and we got back on the Turnpike. “People has not got the sense a turkey has got,” Dora said.

  “How’s that?”

  “A turkey a-guardin’ a flock don’t take nothin’ for granted; for all that gobbler knew, we was turkey huntin’.”

  I didn’t get the point. “What are you saying, Dora?”

  “Miss E., Miss Ursula checks all them packages that come in our place, and after that she thinks you got no need to worry that somebody has snuck in some weed or pills. I could have brought in a load of my weed right under her nose and sold it at a good price.”<
br />
  “How could you do that?”

  “In my pockets and underneath my clothes. But I’d not do a thang like that, beholdin’ as I be to you. A body don’t betray a trust an’ live in peace with hisself.”

  We were turning in the lane to Lester’s place. “Well, Dora, I had thought about that—that somebody could easy sneak in drugs—but there’s a limit to what we can do to keep them from doing it. Priscilla Home is not a prison where they do body searches and the like.” It was hard keeping the tires in the ruts. “You don’t think any of the girls bring in stuff, do you?”

  “Can’t say,” she said, and I knew that was all I could get out of her.

  Lester was coming up from his garden as I parked the Chevy. I had brought him some leftovers and took them in the kitchen.

  “Lester, you’re looking good,” I told him.

  He had his hands full of ripe tomatoes and handed them to Dora. He came up on the porch. “I hear say the blight’s bad this year.”

  “Your tomatoes look good.”

  “Blight won’t touch my tomaters. It’s store-bought plants brings in the blight.” He set a folding chair for me. “Set down.”

  “We can’t stay. Came to find out if you know a good plumber hereabouts. We’re making a canning room out of the garage, and we’ve got to put a sink or two in there.”

  “You got little time to outfit a canning room. Yer garden must be coming in good now, and you ort to be fixed for canning.”

  “I know,” I said. “We got to get a hold of a good plumber right away.”

  He looked off across the valley like he might be studying on that, but it was a long time before he said anything. “I done a little plumbin’ in my day.”

  “You have?” I said. “We would pay you whatever you ask.”

  He didn’t say anything, and I wondered if I had insulted him by bringing up the money business too quick. “When can you start? Could you go back with us today?”