I spun the numbers around until I’d remembered the combination. Then I popped the latch on each one. I lifted the top to reveal a window to my past. Suddenly I was flooded with emotion. Preston Brown hadn’t even opened it. He’d just kept it in the closet like he promised. The old, ugly purse was in there with money spilling out.
I looked over at Nash. “That’s what’s in there.”
I closed it, spun the combination, and looked him in the eye. “So take it back and stop meddling in my life.”
I stomped off across the parking lot, headed for the front door.
Nash ran after me, catching up. “Tupelo Honey, where did you get all of that money?”
I turned, shooting daggers from my eyes. “It’s none of your business but it was all of the money in the house. Randall was afraid they’d take it from us so I hid it.”
“Who would take it?”
“The Jesus Man, the dss workers. Who knows? I hid it. But it’s mine. So take it back and get Preston to keep it in his closet.”
I pulled away from Nash, running up the front steps. “Now I know why you liked my mother,” I yelled just to be mean. “You’re just like her.”
I slammed the door, running straight for the stairs. All of the residents were eating dinner so no one saw me. I ran up to the room and threw myself on my bed. God, people were so annoying. Rising up a bit I could see Nash perfectly. He was just standing there in the front yard staring at the house.
Moments later, Mr. Hester knocked on the door. “Tupelo Honey? Are you okay?”
I turned to face him. I was mad but I wasn’t crying. “He didn’t come back to get me. He just came to say goodbye.” The last few words choked in my throat. I looked back out the window. Nash was walking to his car, head down.
I wanted to throw open the window and scream, “I can’t stand you.” But that wasn’t really true.
Mr. Hester interrupted my mental pity party. “I can bring your dinner up here so you can have some alone time, but you’ll have to eat it in the hall.”
I swallowed back my sadness, pushed myself up on my arms and said, “Okay.”
Tonight was spaghetti night. At least that was something to be happy about. “Can I have extra cheese?”
Mr. Hester regarded me a moment more, then said, “Absolutely.”
I turned just in time to see what I’d believed to be my future drive away in a sky-blue Buick. The back taillight was busted and there was a dent in the trunk.
That night during free time I called Preston Brown.
“Did he bring my suitcase back to you?”
Preston sounded confused. “No.”
Crap. That low-life wanna-be jailbird was going to steal my money. “Why did you give him my suitcase?”
“Because I thought he was coming to get you out of that place,” Preston reasoned, his voice quivering.
“No,” I heaved a big, fat sigh out of my chest. “He was just coming to say goodbye.”
That night I lay in bed thinking about the Paper Nash Dolls. I should have used them to wipe my butt. An involuntary snort cracked the silence. What a waste of time. What an asshole. We weren’t allowed to swear in the home. It was against the rules. But I could think it. I should have just taken my suitcase and hid it down in the basement somewhere.
For three days I called Preston Brown when I got out of school.
“I’m sorry, Tupelo Honey. He hasn’t shown up.”
I shook my head. “Yeah, he’s not gonna, either.”
“I feel so bad.”
“Don’t. You thought you were doing a good thing.”
He was really quiet for a minute.
“Are you still there?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m going to ask God for help.”
Roger that. Amen.
Chapter 33
On Saturday, all of the residents went to the zoo. It was so weird. I tried to conjure up an image of Randall waiting in line at the concession stand but it felt like the past was a dream. I could see him out in front of the monkey cage wearing his flannel shirt and yellow pants but I couldn’t get the feeling. I couldn’t remember who I was back then.
On the ride to the group home I was making plans to walk straight upstairs and thrust my head under a pillow when I saw the sky-blue Buick parked out front. The van turned into the lot and Mr. Hester parked. Someone opened the side door and everyone piled out. Except me. I waited and watched the Buick. After a few minutes Nash got out.
“What does he want?” I mumbled out loud, stepping down to the ground.
Nash stood on the sidewalk watching me. I huffed over, swinging my arms to indicate that I didn’t care about him or whatever he wanted to say.
“Hey,” he said, shielding his eyes from the sun. “Can I talk to you?”
“You can talk about why you never took my suitcase back to Preston Brown.”
Nash leaned against his car. “Yeah. I can explain that.”
I put my hands on my hips, staring straight through him. “Go ahead.”
He took a really deep breath. “After I left here the other day . . . ”
“You went and spent all of my money.”
“No,” he shook his head. “You’ve got this all wrong. I went and talked to your case worker.”
My muscles slackened. The frown I’d pulled so tight across my face let up a bit. “How do you know about my case worker?”
Nash pointed at the group home. “They told me. When I told them my name they thought I was your dad.”
I felt my shoulders slump forward. I needed to sit down. I walked over to the curb and plopped down. “My grandmother left a will and said I was supposed to go live with you. She wrote that you’re my dad. I thought you were going to come get me. I guess I was really mad when you didn’t.”
Nash lowered himself to the ground next to me. “Yeah, that’s what your case worker, Judy Dennis, said. That kind of changes everything, doesn’t it?”
I glanced over at him. The sun dropped low behind his head. “How?”
“Because if I leave you here then I’ll always know I lost the most important person in my life.”
My nose started burning as the tears pushed against my eyelids.
“When I came the other day I didn’t think that I could do anything. Then I talked to Mrs. Dennis and I found out that I was listed as your father. I can take you from here legally. Well, it’s almost legal.”
I didn’t know what to say. I’d spent days working myself up into a tizzy because I’d thought Nash had stolen my suitcase. I’d spent all of last night imagining myself ripping the heads off of my Paper Nash Dolls. Now I was so surprised I couldn’t feel my toes.
“And so I drove back over here to find out what you want to do.”
“What are my choices?”
“I guess your choices are to go with the nuns or go with me. Personally, nuns give me the creeps.”
The sky opened up. Angels sang. I turned to look him in the eye. “You mean it?”
“Yeah, but . . . Tupelo Honey, I’m not perfect. In fact, in a lot of ways I guess I’ve really screwed some things up. Who bought you Christmas presents while you’ve been here?”
“Mr. Hester took me to the mall and I bought my own Christmas presents.”
Nash frowned. “See, I didn’t know that.”
“So what do we have to do?”
Nash shrugged. “I guess I just need to call Ms. Dennis tomorrow.”
Before I knew what I was doing I threw my arms around Nash and squeezed. I rocked and bobbed, holding on tight, thrilled to finally have something in my life to be excited about. “Yeaaaah!!” I stood up and danced a jig.
Nash laughed. “Alright,” he said. “Let’s do this thing.”
The next day Judy Dennis faxed over a piece of paper giving me a pass to spend the weekend at Nash’s apartment. I packed up my bags and dragged them downstairs. Mr. Hester was in the office filing paperwork.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so excited,” he said.
“I’ve never had anywhere to go before.”
I practically leapt into the front seat of the Buick. Nash put my bags in the trunk and then got in on the driver’s side.
Nash lived on the other side of town in an apartment complex. There was a big fountain at the entrance. I was so excited. I hadn’t slept anywhere but the group home in over a year. We parked and walked down a winding concrete path. Nash unlocked the door and carried my bags inside. The apartment was bright and new. Perfect white walls and creamy beige carpet filled up the space. I walked room to room, fascinated. Except for some milk crates and lawn chairs in the living room and a mattress on the floor in the bedroom, there was no furniture.
Nash put my bags in the hall and walked into the kitchen. “Do you want something to drink?”
“Sure. What happened to your furniture?”
He peeked around the breakfast bar. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, where is it?”
“Oh, that. Yeah. This is kind of temporary until I work some things out.”
“Like what?”
“Cranberry juice or instant tea?”
“Cranberry juice. Like what?”
Nash walked out of the kitchen carrying a plastic tumbler. He handed it to me. “Come on. Let’s get some Chinese food and I’ll tell you what I got going on.”
Mmmmm. The fragrance alone was divine. Moo goo gai pan. Egg rolls. Little round serving dishes with mounds of steamed rice. Beef with broccoli. Egg drop soup. The Pu Pu platter. Yummy, garlic sauce, deliciousness. I was in heaven. I snarfed down all kinds of tidbits while Nash leaned in close, whispering over his chicken skewer.
Then I stopped. I realized he wasn’t joking. “So what are you saying?”
“Well, I’m saying that I couldn’t go back when I was under surveillance. Then after I got out on bail they tailed me everywhere. It was too risky so I let it go. I didn’t go back to the house and I guess the landlord kept the stuff, but now someone else lives there.”
“So, just wait for them to go to work.”
Nash filled his cup with piping-hot jasmine tea. I held mine up for refill. He put the pot down and rolled his eyes. “I think they’re retired.”
“Why?”
“Because they never leave. It’s a husband and wife. They putter around the yard all day, then start watching TV.”
I leaned across the table. “Do you mean to tell me you left all of your money buried out behind the house?”
“Sure.” He pulled a hunk of beef out of the sauce, popping it in his mouth. “What was I supposed to do with it?”
“So go out there at night.”
“I tried that. The old man came out in his boxer shorts with a shotgun. I ran like hell.”
“Oh.” I picked at the crab puffs. Finally I took a delicious bite of my egg roll and asked, “What are you going to do?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Every dime I have is out there.”
I held a forkful of moo goo gai pan in the air, ready to devour its warm, fragrant goodness. “You need a plan.”
“You’re telling me.” Nash raised his hand to a passing waiter and ordered a beer.
That night I slept in the bedroom on the mattress. The gentle sound of the air conditioner clicking on and off was nice. Moonlight streamed through the windows, reflecting off white walls. I had a soft, blue blanket to keep me warm. It had been a long time since I’d slept in a room by myself. In the middle of the night I woke to a noise. Disoriented, I glanced around. I heard Nash flushing the toilet, then walking down the hall. When I looked over toward the empty closet I saw Moochi.
“Hey,” I whispered. “Where have you been?”
He thumped his foot, and then pointed to a pile of junk mail on the floor.
I leaned over, trying to focus. I heard the lawn chair creak in the living room.
“What?”
Moochi thumped and pointed again.
“Okay. In the morning. Let’s go to sleep.”
Moochi curled his lips back in a big, furry grin and crawled up on the mattress next to me.
The next morning I shuffled down the hall to find Nash sitting in a chair, his feet propped on a milk crate, drinking coffee. “Hey, kiddo. How did you sleep?”
Moochi crowded around me, worrying me about the mail. “Can I go check the mail?” I asked.
“Sure. Just flip the box up that has an 11 on it.”
Outside, I walked down the winding, shaded path to the mailboxes at the entrance. The keys jangled at my side. “You better have a good explanation for this.”
I opened the box. Inside was a flyer that urged Nash to sign up to win a free vacation on a cruise ship. I held it up in the air. “This? You dragged me out of bed for this?”
Moochi ran over to the grass and started digging. I stared at him completely dumbfounded. After a few seconds, he smiled and pointed to the hole.
Huh?
He grabbed the flyer out of my hand and pointed to the hole.
“Oh, my god,” I said aloud. “You’re a genius.” I ran all of the way back to the apartment.
Nash stared at me with big eyes as I burst through the door. “Are you okay?”
I waved the flyer in the air, wild with excitement. “You make them think they’ve won a cruise.”
“Who?”
“The retired people in the house. Then they’ll go away for a week and you can dig up your money.”
Nash didn’t move and for a minute I thought he hated the plan. Then suddenly he jumped up out of his seat, proclaiming, “Tupelo Honey, you’re incredible. That’s the best plan I’ve ever heard of.”
We went to the stationery store. Then to buy a typewriter. With dedicated precision we typed up a letter informing the occupants they had been selected as the Grand Prize Winner. We went to the travel agency in the mall, bought a cruise for two, inserted all of the travel info in with the letter, put it in a big envelope, crossed our fingers and mailed it.
That night we ate Chinese food leftovers Nash heated up in the only pan he owned. We managed to heat the rest of the Pu-Pu Platter in the oven. I told him about all the money my grandmother had.
“Where is it?”
“They say it’s in a trust. I think a trust is just a bank account.”
“Kind of. It protects your money. So what are you going to do with it?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I’ve never even seen it.”
“You wanna go into business with me?”
“Maybe.”
“As soon as I get my money I’m going to get out of here and start a business. I’m gonna have a real job. Truthfully, that whole thing with Pablo scared me. I mean, they could have ambushed him when we were together. Something could have happened to you. They could have just gunned us all down. It’s not worth it.”
I chewed my piece of chicken thoughtfully. That had never occurred to me. I had never given a single thought to the fact that all of us could have ended up like Pablo. I reached for a fortune cookie. After pulling the wrapper off, I cracked it open. Inside, the little slip of paper read Your first choice will be the one to follow. Stuck to the paper was a second fortune. That slip of paper read Now is the time to try something new.
I looked up at Nash, “What does yours say?”
He pulled his fortune cookie apart. A second later he smiled. “It says ‘Commit to what you feel in your heart.’”
Then I saw it. Across the room, on the floor, behind a milk crate. I stood up and walked over. A cord wound up from the back of it where it was plugged into the wall. I pointed, “You have a phone.”
“Yeah,” he said, indifferent. “It doesn’t ring though because I never give out the number.”
“But you have a phone,” I said, illustrating with a sweeping hand gesture.
“Yeah, well . . . you gotta start somewhere.”
Chapter 34
The next morning we went to eat at a diner and then Nash drove me back to the group home. “Ke
ep your fingers crossed,” I said, getting out of the car.
He held up both hands, fingers crossed.
That night, during free time, I called Preston Brown. “Hey, did you talk to God about me?”
“Yeah. A lot. Why?”
“Because something happened.”
“What?”
I told him everything.
“I knew it,” he said loudly.
I hung up and called Nash. Four rings later he picked up. “Any word?”
“Not yet.”
“Alright. See ya later, alligator.”
“After while, crocodile.”
The next two days dragged on with intense anticipation. Finally, on Wednesday, Judy Dennis came to see me at school. I was called out of my social studies class to talk to her in the empty science lab.
She wiggled herself onto a stool, pulling out a folder. “How are you?”
“Good.”
She pulled out a stack of papers, laying her hand on top. “Tupelo Honey, Nash Andrews is named in your Grandmother’s will as your father, but I wanted to talk to you first. Okay?”
I nodded. Glass flasks and beakers sat in rows on top of the counters. My eyes followed them all of the way down to the Periodic Table.
“For starters, do you want to live with him?”
“I never wanted to not live with him but my mom made me go with her.”
Ms. Dennis made a notation on the stack of papers. “And do you consider him to be a good and reputable person?”
I nodded my head up and down so hard I thought it would fly off.
“Name one thing that you like about him.”
“He cares about me.”
Ms. Dennis looked up from her papers with a faint smile. “That means a lot, doesn’t it?”
“From where I’m sitting, yeah, it does.”
She exhaled. “Well, then, that about does it. I’ve talked with him several times and he’s filled out all of the paperwork. I’ll file it.”
She collected her papers, then stuffed them in her bag and stood up. “I’m glad this is how it worked out. It was rough for you at first.” She extended her hand to shake. I did.
She walked me back to class. I watched her walk all of the way down the hall to the big double doors at the end. She was wearing a pair of navy blue pants, and with her high heels on she didn’t have plump legs at all.
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