She had made a good point though. Why would she return the ring and take the money? The ring would have been enough to pay her way anywhere she’d wanted to go and the Madelyn he knew wouldn’t steal. Especially, from working people who had little more than she did.
He slid on his pants and peeked at the plate on the dresser. How could a thief, who sure didn’t trust him right now, bring him lunch? Maybe she was having as much difficulty separating then from now as he was. He pulled the roll off the plate.
Along with growing up, she’d gotten better at cooking. She’d been good at that, cooking for herself, since her mother disappeared.
Life was so much simpler before they grew up. He knew where he stood. He’d always stood by Madelyn.
Four
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Langley, my aunt’s sick and I can’t leave her at home with her pa. There’s no way for him to take care her.”
Galen stood at the railing of the stairs watching the plane float down. His mama sure wasn’t happy that the nice lady that cleaned the house brought her daughter.
“Well I can’t have her wandering around, Cassie.”
“Oh no, ma’am. She’ll be right with me the entire time. You won’t even know she’s here.”
“Well,” his mama bent down toward the girl. “You’re Maddy, right?”
The nearly black hair moved around the edge of her mother’s flowered skirt.
“Galen!” his mama called, sending her back to hiding.
He went down the stairs to the landing, turned and went down again, staying on the dark red carpet. His feet echoed off the hardwood, as he hoped not to get yelled at for the plane hitting the foyer floor. He picked it up, “Yes, Mama.”
“Now that was quick. Were you eaves-dropping again?” Her hair, the color of honey, fell into her face with the grimace.
“I couldn’t help it. I was playing with my plane and . . .”
“I’ve told you about that.” She put her hands on her hips.
“Yes ma’am.”
“This is Maddy, she’s going to be here for the day. Think you can keep an eye on her for us?”
“Mrs. Langley, that’s not necessary.” Cassie said, pushing a strand of blonde behind her ear.
“She’ll have more fun playing with Galen than helping you fold sheets. What do you think, Maddy?”
Big brown eyes looked at him from her hiding spot, the sun pushing through the windows on the side of the front door highlighting her head.
“You can play with my plane.” He held out the small paper toy.
She looked up at her mother.
“It’s fine with me, baby.” Cassie shrugged.
The girl eased out, staring at the plane.
“She wears pants, like a boy, Mama.”
Maddy stopped moving forward to look at the floor.
“Galen!” Mama was yelling again.
“I’m sorry. I was just saying.” He backed away.
“The chickens peck ma’ legs if I wear a skirt.” Maddy’s words were directed to the floor and seemed so soft especially after his mama’s voice which hadn’t made her jump.
“You got chickens?”
She nodded.
“Neat.”
She smiled.
“Wanna go outside, before Mama makes me get a switch?”
His mama moved her hand over her mouth, which she normally only did when she was trying not to laugh at him.
Maddy looked a little more scared of his mama now, but nodded.
He took off for the back door with her a step behind. Once outside, he ran to the tire swing and she looked in awe as he swung back and forth.
“You’ve never seen a tire swing?”
She shook her head, still eyeing the plane he’d forgotten to give her.
“Never seen a plane before, either?”
She shook her head, looking at the ground again.
“Daddy owns one.” He handed the paper replica to her.
She sat down hard on the ground and looked it over like it was impossible.
“This thing fly?” her words were drawn out more than anyone he normally heard.
He held out his hand and she gave back the plane. Once he double-checked that she hadn’t torn it, he threw it through the air. It looped back to him. He turned to give it back and her mouth was standing open.
“You wanna try?”
She took it back, even gentler than before.
“Now don’t go throwing it, you just kinda let it glide out your hand.”
Letting it go, it started the loop and she followed it all the way around.
“Do it again if you want.”
She it picked up, watching it intently as it glided through the air.
“You don’t talk much.” Galen continued.
Her eyes moved back to the ground. “Pa gets mad.”
“My daddy yells when we get too loud or run through the house.”
She smiled, picking up the plane.
They spent the morning out there. When he pushed her on the swing she laughed good and loud before closing her mouth, waiting for someone to yell. The color and smile returned when no one had.
They even spent a few minutes tossing his baseball back and forth. Harland’s glove was a bit big on his hand, but she couldn’t wear it at all. His was closer to her size. She sure didn’t throw like a girl, tossing it almost as far as Harland could.
Mama called out the back door that lunch was ready and she’d gone running in with him, but when he climbed into the chair next to Harland, she’d stopped dead in her tracks at the door, her eyes back on the floor.
“Go ahead and get a seat, Maddy,” Mama said.
“I. . . better ask my mama.”
“I already talked to her, get up there with the boys.”
His brother poked him. “You’re playing with a girl.”
“Better than going to work with Daddy.” He pushed him back.
“Stop that.” Mama swatted them both with a kitchen towel. “No fighting at the table.”
Harland turned to Maddy, “You gonna eat standing?”
“Are you going to . . .” Mama corrected him.
“Fine. Are you going to eat standing up?” He pronounced out every syllable.
“Shut up, Harland.” Galen pushed him again. “She’s just quiet.”
“That she is.” Mama stated. “Your behavior isn’t helping any. She’ll sit down when she’s ready.”
Tess, their cook, set a plate down in front of each of them and one by the empty seat, too. His mama left the room with their daddy’s plate. He must have been eating in his study as usual.
Daddy spent a lot of time in his study and that’s when he was home. Mama said he worked so much to provide a good home. Harland said it was because he wanted to be in politics, whatever that was.
Tess bent down to Maddy’s height and whispered to her. The girl’s face colored, but she nodded and eased toward the empty chair.
“Tess, what’d ya tell her?” Galen asked.
“That I made potato salad.”
He looked back to Maddy to see her taking a bite of the stuff like it was as good as chocolate. “You want mine?”
She nodded and he slipped it off his plate to hers. When he’d eaten his sandwich, she offered half of hers while she was finishing the potato salad. Mama was none the wiser.
“Fred, we can’t just ignore it.”
Galen heard his mama’s voice and crept into the hall, taking a spot just outside the light next to Harland.
Harland whispered, “They’re talking about that girl.”
“Maddy?”
“Yeah. Daddy said her pa used to work with Uncle Will and was hurt in one of the fish packaging plants. That’s why he can’t work.”
Fredric’s voice carried better than Kate’s, “What do you want me to do? I can’t get a cripple a job.”
“Let me give her a raise.”
“A raise?” Both boys ducked with the
volume.
“Just a small one. Enough that she can get the girl a dress for church. She’s wearing hand-me-down boys’ pants. It just isn’t right.”
“Then buy her a dress.”
“I will, but I want to give Cassie a raise.”
“You’re going to keep pestering me until I agree.”
“That I am.”
“Fine, give her a small one.”
“Oh, Fred.”
They heard the kiss and rolled their eyes.
“And a dress.” His mama finished.
Since Maddy’s mama only came to clean once a week, Galen looked for Maddy in church. The balcony was where most of the poorer folks sat, with the kids hanging their legs through the slats of the railing for a better view. He wished he could do that, but his mama would have yelled.
Maddy wasn’t with the other kids. She was trying to sit on her Mama’s lap without showing her underwear to everyone and was failing at it. He laughed.
“Galen, don’t you laugh at her.”
“She looks like a girl, Mama.”
She looked a little proud. “That she does.”
“Are you happy now Kate?” His daddy asked, almost growled as usual.
She smiled bigger.
After church, while he and Harland played with the other boys, his mama talked to Cassie. Maddy stood by them instead of running around.
“I’d love to bring her to work, Mrs. Langley, but I don’t think. . .”
“No, buts. She can keep Galen out of my hair and maybe even study with him.”
“Not sure her pa would like that.”
“Then don’t tell him.” Mama patted Cassie’s arm.
“It would save me walking her to my aunt’s.” She looked down at Maddy. “Would you wanna go to work with me, baby?”
Maddy glanced his way, bit her lip and nodded.
Maddy came in the back door with her Mama and every Wednesday for the rest of the summer. She’d come in the back door, greet Mrs. Langley and Tess, and run off to find Galen.
Most of the time they’d spend in the yard, playing and staying out of trouble. That is until the rain hit.
After watching Maddy put together the puzzle of the forty-eight states for the fifth time, Galen had enough. “I’m gonna go bonkers sitting in here all day watching you do that.”
She pushed away the wooden toy, moving to sitting cross-legged. “I don’t have anything like this at home, I find it interesting.”
“You find everything interesting.” He moved away from the window. “Don’t you have any toys?”
“I got a doll Mama’s aunt gave me.”
He sat down in front of her. “And?”
“That’s all.”
He looked around his room full of toys. “One doll?”
She nodded.
“Your family’s different than mine.”
She nodded.
“What’s your house like?”
“Small.”
“Well, how small?”
She thought about it for a moment. “About the size of your garage.”
“How do ya’ll live there?”
“Mama and Pa have their room, we got a kitchen, and I sleep on the sofa.”
“You sleep on the sofa?”
“Well yeah, I don’t have a bed and the floor is too hard.” She frowned and rubbed her bottom.
“So what do you do for fun?”
She shrugged.
“No brothers?”
“No sisters, either.”
He imagined life without Harland and smiled.
“We could go down to the library and read.” Her eyes grew and it occurred to him they’d never gone to the library. “Do you know how to read?”
“Me and Mama read every night from the Bible. She says it’s the only book I ever need to read.”
“One book?”
She shrugged, “It’s the only one we have.”
He jumped up from the floor and dragged her along, downstairs, through the parlor, and into the library. She stopped just inside the door.
He picked out three books from the shelves that were his and Harland’s. Then headed back out the door, having to back step to drag her along.
“You don’t read in there?” She was trying to look back as he pulled her along.
“Mama says we can’t ‘cause me and Harland get to playing and end up breaking something. So, we get a book and go to our rooms or wherever with them.”
She nodded.
In his room, he climbed into the window seat where he could watch for the rain to go away and she followed. He opened the book using their knees to hold it open so they both could see.
“The Sea Hare,” Galen began.
And they spent at least one hour every time she was there reading in his window seat. The stories changed, Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew, even fairytales. The only thing that didn’t change was the way she listened and caught on to the words herself.
“I can’t play, Galen.” Standing in the backyard, she poured more hot water in the bucket of soap.
“What do you mean you can’t? We’re all going down to the river.” It was the summer he turned thirteen.
“Mama says I have to start working. That I can’t be running around with you this summer.”
Six years she’d done just that. They’d played baseball, read in the window, and explored the town. This year his mama told him they could go to the river with Harland when his brother wasn’t at Daddy’s office.
“Well you’re too young to be working.”
“I am not.” She dropped the sheets in the bucket. “Most of the kids out by me were working last year. I’ve been working with Mama for weeks now. She’s talking about working here more since you all are getting older and picking up jobs around town, too.”
“We’ll see. I’ll just go tell Mama.”
“She already knows.” She called toward him as he went in the back door.
Thirty minutes he’d tried. Thirty minutes he failed.
“Galen, I can’t make her mama let her go. She has to do right by what Maddy needs. In a few years she’s going to be marrying age and she will have to know certain things.” His mother was no help.
Marrying age? She was only eleven. They couldn’t already be thinking of giving her to some guy. Of course, several of the girls from around the street had been acting funny. He was thankful it was mostly toward Harland.
He pulled his bike from the garage, watching her use a step stool to hang the sheets she’d washed. Most girls weren’t Maddy.
Galen called down to the front desk.
“Local calls, only.”
He didn’t laugh, “What time does the diner close?”
“Eight sharp.”
“Thank you.” He hung up.
Twenty minutes until she locked up. He wanted to be the last person in there.
Five
He walked down at five minutes until eight, ignoring the little old man laughing behind the counter.
“She’s gonna slap you, yet.”
The wind whipped around the building as he hurried along. This time when the bell jingled over the door, no one looked at him odd. There was no big lug that wanted to smash in his head as he took the same seat he’d eaten in this afternoon. The waitress, Paula, even smiled at him. She walked to the serving window and knocked twice, the grin grew.
She sat down a glass of water for him and went back to the window in time to pick up a plate of food that appeared by Maddy’s unseen hands. She set it in front of him and leaned on the counter.
“Galen, huh?” Paula winked.
Before he could say anything, a loud bang came from the kitchen and Paula turned on her heals. There was a look exchanged through the window and the girl retreated to wipe down empty tables. The last table cleared out before he finished and Paula locked the doors behind them.
He finished the last of the potatoes that
were with the pork chop and Paula grabbed his plate, setting down coffee.
“Thanks.”
Another bang came from the kitchen. Paula didn’t jump so high this time but did report to the hole in the wall.
“Go home,” Maddy’s voice carried.
Paula started to open her mouth.
“Full pay until your normal time.”
“Fine by me.” Paula took off the apron, exchanging it at the door for a coat. The door locked behind her.
He sipped the coffee, listening to her bang around in the kitchen. Slowly he drained the cup, and then slipped behind the counter to refill it because there was no way he was asking her to do it.
Trying not to make a sound, he looked through the hole in the wall, watched her toss things around. She was tense, her back rigid, and she seemed to be mumbling to herself. Some things never change.
He set his coffee in the window and rolled up his sleeves as he walked through the door. The spatula came flying and he ducked before it hit him.
“Get out of my kitchen.”
“I figured if I help, you would get done quicker.”
“I don’t need help, Galen.”
He picked up the spatula and tossed it in the sink. “You might not need it but I’m offering just the same. What can I do?”
“You can go home.” She drained the water from two sinks on the side wall.
“Already said I can’t do that. I meant it.”
“What am I supposed to do?” She turned to look at him, her eyes wide.
“Tell me what happened.”
She shook her head. “Not now.”
“Why not?” He raised his voice.
“I’ve had kind of a hard day. Having a ghost walk in on you is a little . . .” She stopped and leaned against the sink. Her eyes closed and she looked to be praying.
“You really thought I was dead?”
“Three years is a long time.” Came out nice and calm.
“It’s not like I could send you letters.”
“Well you’re not going to blame that on me.” She was back to being shrill, then pushed off the sink and went past him into the diner.
“I didn’t blame you,” he barked back. “What was I to think when I came home and you weren’t there? When Harland told me you ran off with the payroll? When . . .” He stopped this time.
Finding Madelyn Page 3