Lily of the Springs

by Carole Bellacera

CHAPTER TWO

  I took the starched and ironed red polka-dot dress out of my wardrobe and laid it carefully on the bed where my sister, eight-year-old Norry sprawled, her brown eyes saucer-like. She was curled up on her side, one hand cupping her narrow chin. Dark sausage curls tumbled to her thin shoulders against a lace-edged nightgown.

  “Oh, Lily, it’s beautiful,” Norry said. “You’re going to look just like Liz Taylor tonight.”

  I smiled at my little sister and sat down in a reed-woven chair opposite the vanity dresser, eyeing myself in the mirror. “Oh, yeah. Liz Taylor with brown eyes, right?” I joked.

  Yet, I couldn’t help but be pleased by Norry’s remark. After all, I did look like Liz Taylor. That’s what a lot of people said, anyhow. I gingerly touched my bobby-pinned curls. Still damp. That was okay. I had hours yet before I had to get ready.

  Somehow, I’d managed to get through a simmering-hot graduation this morning in the high school gym. And only Landry and Edsel had been there to watch me receive my diploma. Twelve-year-old Edsel had done his best to try to make me laugh as he crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue in a grotesque imitation of “Radar Men from the Moon” which he’d seen at the Star Theater a few weeks ago.

  Next to him, Landry, at 20, was as sober-faced as a preacher giving the eulogy at the graveside of his beloved mother. There had always been a special bond between me and Landry, forged years ago when it was just the two of us living in the little house in Opal Springs, long before Edsel, Norry and Charles Alton arrived.

  I’d been glad my brothers had made it, but I’d sorely missed my parents.

  They’d taken my little two-year-old brother, Charles Alton, to old Dr. Scudder in Jamestown this morning because last night had been the worst one yet for the poor little thing. Up all night crying and feverish and vomiting like there was no tomorrow. But even not having my parents there wasn’t the worse thing about graduation. Chad and I had had a huge fight last night, parked out at Rock House Bottom—over the same old thing—because I wouldn’t go all the way with him. He hadn’t even spoken to me at graduation, and the one time I’d caught his eye, he’d looked away. The rat! Well, I’d see him tonight, and he’d be singing a different tune because I was going to look so daggone good, he’d be falling all over me.

  I glanced at Norry’s reflection in the mirror. “I’d rather look like Marilyn.”

  Her laughter reminded me of Tucker Creek in high summer as the water gurgled over the flat slabs of rock just above the swimming hole. “Lord forbid!” she said, still giggling. “Mother and Daddy wouldn’t let you out of the house if you looked like Marilyn!”

  I grinned, glancing at her. “Well, it’s obvious you’re getting back to your ornery self, Miss Smarty-Pants.”

  I still felt ashamed of myself for thinking she’d been playing possum yesterday. The poor thing had been really sick last night. Thank the Lord she was on the mend; I just wished Charles Alton was, too.

  Mother and Daddy hadn’t returned from the doctor when we got home from graduation. Here it was, near four o’clock, and we hadn’t heard a word from them. What the dickens was taking so long?

  I got up from the chair. “You hungry, Norry? How about I heat up some of this morning’s biscuits? We’ll have ‘em with butter and molasses.”

  Just as we reached the threshold of the kitchen, a knock came at the front door. “Yoo hoo, Lily Rae!” a high-pitched feminine voice called out. “It’s me, Sylvie Lou.”

  I frowned. What, for Pete’s sake, was Sylvie Lou Blankenship doing here? I headed for the door. “It’s open. Come on in!”

  The door opened, and a large woman with salt-and-pepper hair stepped inside, wearing a flowered housedress under an apron soiled with what looked like blood. Killing chickens for Sunday supper, I suspected.

  “Excuse my appearance, child.” Sylvie Lou rubbed restless, knobby hands down her stained apron. Her gaze darted nervously around the room. And that was when I felt the first stirrings of uneasiness.

  Sylvie Lou was our nearest neighbor, living just down the road a piece. She was a widow-woman who kept mostly to herself. Friendly enough, but not the kind of person who made a habit of dropping in on folks to share a cup of coffee and some gossip. And did she always have that pinched look on her face, or was something really wrong?

  My stomach muscles tightened. But before I could say a word, Sylvie Lou spoke again, “Your papa just rang and told me to get you a message.”

  Sylvie Lou was one of the few neighbors here on the ridge that had a telephone. The news that Daddy had called her made my feeling of doom grow stronger. He hated using “them new-fangled telly-phones” and just didn’t, if he could help it, so I knew things must be serious, indeed, to make him call Sylvie Lou.

  “Is it Charles Alton?” I asked, holding my breath.

  The old woman’s face softened. “Yes-um. The baby is real sick, Lily Rae,” she said quietly. “They’s up in Louieville Hospital. Old Doc Scudder in Jamestown couldn’t figger out what was ailing the child, so he sent them up to Columbia this morning. And them doctors up there sent them on to Louieville. Your daddy says it’s no telling how long they’ll be up there, and for ya’all to come stay with me until they get back.”

  Oh, Lord, no! Why, I’d up and die of boredom if I had to go stay at that widow-woman’s dull old house. Nothing to do there at all! Why, she didn’t even have any good magazines laying around, like Photoplay and Movieland, just boring old religious ones, or maybe, once in a blue moon, she’d have Look or Collier’s.

  I heard Norry step into the room behind me.

  “Hi, there, Sylvie Lou.” Norry’s dark eyes fixed anxiously upon the old woman’s face. “Did I hear you say Charles Alton is in the hospital in Louieville?”

  “Yes, hon, he is…and ya’all are gonna come stay with me until your mama and daddy get home.”

  I swallowed hard and glanced at my sister. She looked curiously vulnerable in her long white cotton nightgown, her shell-like pink toes peeking from beneath its hem. The color had drained from her cheeks, leaving her as pale as she’d been the night before when she’d been so sick.

  I understood why. It was fear for our baby brother. Just a few weeks ago, he’d been a happy, healthy two-year-old, an angelic, laughing child, his head covered in bright gold ringlets. When I’d kissed him goodbye this morning, he’d barely stirred, poor thing. And his cheek had felt like it was on fire. But now, at least, he was in the hospital, and them big city doctors would take good care of him.

  One thing was for darn sure, though. There was no way on God’s green earth I was going over to Sylvie Lou Blankenship’s. No matter what Daddy said! Tonight was the biggest night of my life, and I wasn’t about to have it ruined. After all, I was a grown woman now. Not only had I turned 18 back in March, I now had a bonafide high school diploma. Didn’t Daddy remember that?

  “Do they know what’s wrong with him?” Norry asked in a small voice.

  Sylvie Lou shook her tightly-curled head. “They’s doing tests. That’s all I know.” She looked around the room. “Where’s the boys? Y’all need to get your things together and come on now. I got soup beans on the stove and cornbread in the skillet. And later, you can help me fry up a pullet for Sunday dinner.”

  “I don’t know where the boys are,” I said, trying to sound all grown up. “They’re probably down at the Star Theater watching the matinee. Anyhow, I really appreciate your offer, Sylvie Lou, but we’re gonna stay right here and wait for Mother and Daddy and Charles Alton to come home.”

  The old woman’s haggard face darkened like a thundercloud. That meant she was gearing up for a fight. “But your daddy tol’ me---”

  “My daddy is upset about his baby,” I cut in, holding the woman’s gaze defiantly. “He’s forgotten he has a grown up daughter here, perfectly able to take care of things while he’s gone. So, thank you kindly for your offer, Sylvie Lou, but we’re gonna stay put.”

  Sylvie Lou opened her mouth as if to prot
est, but I didn’t let her get to it. “Thanks for bringing us the message,” I added, walking toward the door.

  The elderly woman shook her head and tsked under her breath, but stepped out onto the front porch when I opened the door for her. “I just don’t know,” she muttered in a last ditch effort to change my mind. “Your daddy ain’t gonna like this one bit.”

  “It’ll be fine,” I said firmly, and closed the door in her face, feeling only a little ashamed of myself. But Lord Almighty, I was a grown-up now. When was people going to start treating me like one?

  I turned to Norry with a sigh of relief, then stiffened at the stricken look on her face. “Oh, honey…”

  She stared back at me, eyes wide with fear. “What do you think is wrong with Charles Alton, Lil? Is he going to be okay?”

  I crossed the room and took her into my arms. “He’s going to be just fine, honey,” I murmured, stroking her dark curls. “You’ll see. Them big city doctors are going to fix him right up. Before you know it, he’ll be home playing Peek-a-Boo with us, fit as a fiddle.”

  Norry lifted her head. “You promise?”

  I nodded firmly. “Cross my heart and hope to die.” Relief settled onto Norry’s face, and I hoped desperately I’d spoken the truth.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “I don’t believe it,” I moaned to my best friend, Daisy, over the sound of Eddy Howard singing “(It’s No) Sin” on Katydid’s record player. My eyes scanned the crowd in the Wilkes’s large basement recreation room. “Why isn’t he here?”

  Daisy pursed her ruby-red lips and took a sip of the Coca-Cola her pudgy-faced boyfriend, Lawless, had just brought her. He hulked at her side, watching her every move, trying, I supposed, to anticipate her slightest whim. I’d always thought Daisy could do better than Lawless Russell.

  Drinking my cola, I caught a tender glance exchanged between the couple, and it reminded me of what Chad had said last night about our friends going all the way. But surely not Daisy and Lawless! Daisy would’ve told me. Wouldn’t she have?

  The thought of Daisy and Lawless doing it just made my stomach curdle. Trying to erase the image from my mind, I looked away and took a gulp of my Coca-Cola. Where the dickens was Chad?

  “Well, looky who’s here,” said a male voice behind me. “Recent graduates from Russell Springs High, acting all high and mighty because they finally got themselves high school diplomas.”

  I turned to see a tall, lanky boy with his arm wrapped snugly around a petite, auburn-haired girl who barely came to his shoulders. Malcolm and Mardelle, looking, as always, like they were joined at the hip.

  I smiled. “Well, look who’s talking? I seem to recall you going up on that stage this morning and getting yourself a diploma, too.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Malcolm said with a wide, easy grin. “And I’m heading off to UK in the fall to play for the Wildcats. Just got the telegram this afternoon.”

  A chorus of excited congratulations rang out. I studied Mardelle’s heart-shaped face as Malcolm accepted handshakes and pats on the back from all the guys. Despite the smile on her face, sadness glimmered deep in her doe-like brown eyes. Oblivious to his girlfriend, Malcolm laughed and joked around with the boys. I felt a wrench in my heart.

  Everything was changing. This would be the last summer we’d all be together. These people, most of whom I’d started grade school with 12 years ago, would be going off on their own paths, some to college or trade school, some—the unlucky ones, I thought—going back to the family farm to raise pigs and cows, to plow fields and plant corn and tobacco. But whatever they did, life would forever be different. Never again would we experience these carefree days of high school. That had all ended yesterday. Well, not really. But it would end with autumn.

  My eyes met Mardelle’s, and for a moment, we shared a brief communication. I sensed the petite cheerleader was feeling the same bittersweetness of the moment. “Quite the bash, huh?” boomed a deep voice on my left.

  It was Lonnie, who’d been in front of me at graduation this morning. He made his way through the crowd, hand in hand with Jinx who was flashing a 100-watt smile. The couple was even more inseparable than Malcolm and Mardelle, and had been since fourth grade.

  Now, those two probably were doing it, I thought. They just had that look about them. After all, Jinx was known to be a little fast. Right now, she looked like she was about to bust a gut or something. I wondered if she had to use the ladies’ room and just couldn’t pull herself away from Lonnie’s grasp long enough to do it.

  But no, it was something else altogether. While the boys were still talking about UK and the never ending subject of basketball, Jinx, apparently unable to hold it in any longer, thrust out a slim, pale hand to us girls, showing off a small diamond on her ring finger.

  “We’re engaged,” she trilled, her blond pony-tail bouncing in her excitement. “We’re getting hitched next month, and y’all are invited to the wedding!”

  Another round of “congratulations” burst around her, and I added my voice to them. But inside, I was feeling a little sorry for Jinx. Why would anyone want to get married to the only boy she’d ever kissed (assuming that was true) just out of high school? Didn’t Jinx want to see the world? To do exciting things? It didn’t make sense.

  Malcolm elbowed Lonnie. “That’s some rock, my man. What’d you do? Rob a bank?”

  Lonnie laughed. “Cut the gas, Mal. I worked hard for this bread. Anyhow, we got a lot to celebrate tonight.” He pulled a silver flask out of his white sports coat. “How about a little Jim Beam in your Coca-Colas?”

  Everyone, even the girls, eagerly held out their tumblers, and Lonnie poured a stream of whiskey into each one. I hesitated a moment, then shrugged and held out my own glass. Lord, Daddy would just die if he knew I was drinkin’ Satan’s water.

  Lonnie poured a healthy splash of the liquor into my tumbler and I swirled it around, sending the ice cubes clinking against the glass. I took a hesitant sip, then grimaced. It was just downright awful!

  Watching me, Lonnie threw back his brown flat-top and laughed. “It’s an acquired taste, Lily Rae. It’ll grow on you.”

  I wasn’t so sure about that, but I took another sip.

  “Hey, you better not let Katydid catch you with that stuff,” Daisy admonished, even though she hadn’t turned down a shot in her own Coca-Cola. “Her daddy will tar and feather all of us.”

  Everybody knew that Etheridge Wilkes had been a deacon at Poplar Grove Baptist Church for years, and wouldn’t take kindly to finding liquor on his property.

  But Lonnie just snickered. “Heck, RJ has been spiking his soda pop with Johnnie Walker since he first walked in the door.”

  I wondered where these boys had got all the liquor. There wasn’t a wet county around for at least 60 miles. Bootleggers, I reckoned. I’d heard tell they not only made moonshine, but drove to the wet counties to stock up on beer and whiskey for them that didn’t like the stuff from the stills.

  I glanced around the room again, narrowing my eyes to focus my vision. The liquor was already making my head feel a mite light, but I could see that more folks had arrived; the place was jam-packed with bodies.

  I turned back to my circle of friends and waited for a break in the conversation. “Anybody seen Chad?” I finally asked.

  Everyone stared at me, and my cheeks grew warm. That’s when I realized that not one soul had asked me about Chad, which was really sort of odd, since everybody knew we were a couple. Could it be the news about last night’s fight was already out? But I hadn’t told a soul this morning at graduation, except, of course, Daisy. And she wouldn’t blab.

  “Saw him earlier,” Lonnie said, avoiding my eyes. “Talking to RJ and Katydid. You might ask them where he went off to.”

  I glanced across the room and saw Katydid and RJ dancing to Johnny Ray’s “Cry.” Her dark head lay against his shoulder, her eyes closed as they swayed slowly to the music.

  I waited until the song ended, then made my way
through the crowd toward the couple. When Katydid saw me, her sapphire eyes brightened and a welcoming smile spread across her face. “Oh, Lily Rae, that dress is just scrumptious on you!” She reached out a hand toward me. “Why, you’re just the belle of the ball, isn’t she, RJ?” She beamed up at her steady who towered above her by four inches.

  RJ Skaggs nodded. Even without his football uniform, he looked the part of the halfback he’d played for the past four years on the Lakers’ team. He was big and burly, with a firm, square jaw and a crew-cut. “You sure do look pretty tonight, Lily Rae,” he said. “Especially pretty.”

  “Thank you kindly.” I gave them my biggest smile. “Lonnie said y’all was talking to Chad awhile back? Do you know where he went off to?”

  Katydid’s smile dimmed. A brief, awkward pause followed, and then she said, “Well, now, I’m not exactly…” Her gaze darted around the room.

  “You might as well tell her, Katy,” RJ said quietly. “She’s bound to find out anyhow.”

  “Find out what?” I asked, my stomach tightening in alarm.

  Katydid’s eyes met mine, her smile gone now. “Oh, hon,” she said softly. “I’m so sorry to hear about you and Chad.”

  I pasted a stiff smile on my lips. “Oh, it was just a little spat. Nothing serious. That’s why I want to talk to him…” I looked from Katydid to RJ, and my pulse jumped at the sympathy on their faces. “Well, we’ll get it sorted out. We’ll both apologize for losing our tempers and we’ll kiss and make up. So…do you know where he went?”

  The couple exchanged a meaningful glance, and my stomach did another slow somersault. Finally, RJ sighed. “Lily Rae, Chad left about a half-hour ago with Pat-Peaches Huddleston.”

  I caught my breath. No! I couldn’t have heard him right. Chad with Pat-Peaches? Why, she was the most notorious girl at Russell Springs High, and she was only a junior.

  “That can’t be true,” I said in a soft, shocked whisper.

  RJ and Katydid only stared back at me silently. And with a sick certainty, I knew it was true. I turned blindly and elbowed my way through the throng of teenagers until I reached the basement stairs.