Hot Fudge Sundae Blues

by Bev Marshall

  I decided to practice my flute, but I got frustrated and put it back in its case after I kept playing sour notes. My fingers just weren’t nimble anymore, and it had been so long since I’d practiced my breathing exercises, I couldn’t hold a C for more than a second. Fishing my sandals from beneath the couch, I decided I had to get out of the house, and within minutes, I strolled around the block to pass by Jehu’s house.

  After being in the country for an entire day, the sounds of the light traffic on Fourth Street seemed deafening, and now I wished I had called Mervin anyway. Although it was only nine o’clock and Third Street was lined with sycamore trees to shade the sidewalk, by the time I rounded the corner, beads of perspiration popped out on my forehead. My camp shirt fell limply over my shorts, and as I walked, my sweat-soaked hair clung to the nape of my neck. Brown sycamore balls that had fallen from the trees crunched beneath my feet, and every few steps, I irritably kicked one or two into the street. Just as I passed the walk leading up to Jehu’s house, the front door opened and he came out onto the porch. My heart skipped a beat. He’d know I had no reason to be standing on the sidewalk in front of his house, wouldn’t he? I quickened my pace, hoping to get past before he saw me, but I’d only taken a couple of steps when he called to me. “Hey, Layla Jay.Where’re you going?”

  I stopped walking and turned my head to him, lifting my arm in a half wave. “Hi. I’m on my way to, uh, a friend’s house,” I said, trying to remember if anyone I knew lived on his street.

  “Do you have a minute? I saw you out the kitchen window. Could we talk? Just for a second or two?”

  “I thought your folks didn’t want you to talk to me,” I said, but my sandals were already moving up the walk.

  “They’re not home.” He came farther out onto the porch and met me on the concrete steps. “Can you stay a little while?”

  “I guess. I didn’t say what time I’d be there.” Wherever “there” is, I said to myself.

  We sat a couple of feet apart on the top step, Jehu with his back against the white post. “I’ve been thinking about you,” he said.

  I waited. Thinking what? That I’m a pariah? That I’m the daughter of the accused? That I’m not a virgin?

  We watched a Flowerland delivery van slow in front of the house and then turn into the drive across the street. Jehu looked back at me. “And what I was thinking is that my parents aren’t being fair about you. They don’t have the right to tell me I can’t see you if that’s what we both want.” He pulled a brown camellia bloom from the bush beside the step and tossed it out into the yard.“Do you still feel the same way about me? You said you wanted to have some fun and I thought we kinda agreed to do something together.”

  No one was home across the street, and I watched the woman, who had gotten out of the van with a vase of roses, walk back to the van after leaving the flowers on the porch. I wiped the sweat from my face and then swiped my palms across my shorts, and breathing in the scent of the few remaining camellias, I felt light-headed. I hadn’t eaten anything, and I wasn’t sure if I felt so weak because of my empty stomach or because I was filled with dizzying hope. “Sure,” I finally said,“but when you called last Sunday and told me you had to do what your parents said, I assumed you wouldn’t want to risk seeing me again.”

  “I’m willing to risk it now. If we didn’t go anywhere in public where they might find out, we could still do something or other together.”

  The delivery van backed out of the drive and went back down the street from the direction it had come. I hoped the lady who was getting the roses would be home soon before they wilted in the heat.“Do something or other,” Jehu had said, but what and how? “You mean sneak around?”

  Jehu frowned. “Well, I don’t see it as sneaking, just not telling them. I wouldn’t lie about it if they asked, but what they don’t know ...”

  “But where would we go?”

  Jehu stood up. “Not here. Mother is usually home most days. What about your house? Your mother works all day, doesn’t she?”

  Praise God, she does, I thought. And now that Papaw had gotten married, he didn’t come by very often, and even if he did, he wouldn’t tell. “Yes, she works from eighty-thirty till five-thirty Monday through Friday. Sometimes half a day on Saturday.”

  “My hours at Piggly Wiggly are from two to six, so we could do something before that.”

  I looked across the lawn, and then shifting my eyes to the sycamore, I lifted my gaze on up to the sky. The greens, blues, browns, and white clouds were suddenly brighter, the perfume of the camellias sweeter. Piggly Wiggly two to six was a poem.“Do you want to come over right now?” I whispered.

  “I thought you had to be somewhere.”

  I’d forgotten the lie of my excuse for parading in front of his house. “Oh, I can go later. I didn’t say what time I was coming exactly. It’s not a big deal.”

  Jehu stood up and held out his hand, pulling me up to stand beside him. “Then let’s go,” he said.

  We bumped hips twice on the short walk, and as we neared my house, I began to worry about what Jehu was going to think when he saw that we lived like pigs. I took a mental inventory of all that he would see: last night’s dishes on the kitchen countertop, Mama’s nightgown on the hall floor, my tennis shoes in front of the couch, several glasses strewn around on the coffee and end tables, some of them half-full of orange juice, Coke, and red Kool-Aid. And a coat of dust lay on every piece of furniture, including Mama’s new exercise bike sitting in the middle of the den. As I felt for the house key in my pocket, I said, “I haven’t cleaned the house yet. I was going to get to it this afternoon.Things are kind of a mess.”

  “You don’t have to apologize. My mother’s the Clorox queen, drives me and Dad crazy worrying about germs. It’s nice to know somebody who cares about more important things.”

  I stuck the key in the door. “Exactly,” I said with a huge grin.

  He stayed two hours and they were the fastest 120 minutes of my life so far. During all of the other times we’d been together, at my party, the dance, riding to the game, brief snatches of talking together, we hadn’t ever really gotten to know each other all that well. Everything I did know about him made me think he was just about perfect, and I didn’t change my mind about that as he sat on the floor of our den sorting through Mama’s records. “Man, your mother’s so cool. She’s got all of the latest and a lot of the Top Forty that I like.”

  I eased down beside him and hugged my knees against my chest. “We listen to music every day, and Mama and I dance around the house like we’re trying to win best couple on American Bandstand. You’re a good dancer,” I said, remembering being in his arms in the school gym.

  “I’m not that good,” he said. “Lyn was always wanting to practice with me in her living room.”

  Suddenly music and dancing didn’t appeal to me anymore. “You want something to drink? I think we’ve got some Coke.” I thought of all the 7-Ups in our refrigerator. I hoped he wouldn’t follow me into the kitchen. If I opened the door, he might see them and want one. Neither Mama nor I could touch the bottles, even though we both badly wanted to throw them out.

  Jehu did come into the kitchen, but I managed to block his view as I snatched two Cokes from the top shelf. “What’s all this?” he asked. He was pointing to Wallace’s belongings stuffed into the trash bags lined up beside the back door.

  I opened the Cokes and handed him one. “Uh, just old stuff.Trash.”

  Holding his Coke in his right hand, he reached down with his left and lifted the nearest bag. “I’ll take it out to the street for you if you want.”

  “No. No, we’re saving them for the celebration.”

  He dropped the bag. “Celebration? What do you mean?”

  I took a long swallow of Coke. “I’ll tell you, but let’s sit down first.” He followed me to the couch and set his Coke exactly on t
he spot I had identified as Lexie County on our state of Mississippi coffee table. “Those bags are Wallace’s stuff. Mama got the idea to burn it all for a celebration when all this manslaughter stuff is over.”

  Jehu looked miserable. He hadn’t come over to talk about our scandal. “Oh.Well, I hope my dad can get her off.”

  “Me too, but, Jehu, can we not talk about it? I don’t want to think about Mama right now.”

  The tightness of the muscles in his face loosened and he reached for his Coke. “Right. We’re here to have fun. That’s what we said at Pisgah that Sunday.” He drank from the bottle and then held out his hands. When I laid mine in his, he pulled me over and began tickling me. As his fingers played along my ribs, I kicked my feet against the couch, shrieking with surprise and laughter. “Is this fun? You having fun?” he said with a big smile on his face.“You must be having fun.You’re laughing.You like being tickled?” And he grabbed my left foot and pulled off my sandal, raking the bottom of my foot with dancing fingers.

  “Stop. I’m very ticklish. Stop it, Jehu.” He was grinning so widely I could see his back molars.“I’ll get you back,” I screamed, as I wrested my foot away and ran with one shoe on across the room. He came after me and we raced around the exercise bike, and down the hall. I darted into my bedroom, slamming the door just before he reached for me.

  “Let me in,” he said in a deep voice. “I’m the big bad tickle wolf who will blow your door down.”

  I giggled and leaned back against the door crossing my hands over my racing heart. “I’m not scared of you,” I gasped.

  Jehu scratched on the door and howled, nearly sounding like a real wolf. “Let me in,” he said.

  I opened the door before running to my bed and jumping up onto it to stand in the middle with my feet wide apart.“Go away, wolf,” I said. “You ...” and before I could say any more, he was in the room, grabbing my ankle. I fell onto my back, and Jehu leapt onto the bed, nearly on top of me with his legs weighing down on mine. I rolled my shoulders sideways and fell to the floor.

  “Gotcha now,” he cried, as he tumbled off the bed beside me and threw his arm across my stomach, pinning me down.

  I looked up into his face and smiled.“I give,” I said.“You’ve got me.”

  He bent his face close to mine. “Do I? Do I have you?”

  “Yes,” I said, closing my eyes. I would be ready for the kiss this time. And when his lips touched mine, I opened my mouth slightly and knew I’d done it just right.

  He kissed me once more and buried his nose in my hair, nuzzling against me as my arms encircled his back.When I pulled his chest against mine, he raised up on his arms. “We’d better go back into the den,” he said. “I don’t want to, but I think we better.”

  Disappointment welled up inside me as I watched him stand and adjust his shorts with his back turned to me. I sat up and laid my palms against my warm cheeks. He was right, of course. I shouldn’t have led him into my room, let him kiss me so easily, and now I worried that he might think the rumors about me were true. I wanted to cry. “You’re right. I was just going to say we shouldn’t be in here.You’re the first boy who’s ever been in my room. Honestly, you are.”

  Jehu turned back around and pulled me up. He kissed my nose. “I know that, Layla Jay. I don’t listen to gossip.”And then I felt like we were floating side by side as we left my room and went back down the hall.

  For the rest of the time we spent together, Jehu talked about himself. I wanted to know everything. I asked him how he felt about going to a country church like Pisgah, and he said that it was much more personal than Centenary.“I feel closer to God there,” he said.“I don’t know what it is, but it just feels more holy than a big fancy church.”

  He told me that he’d had a little sister who had died with a defective heart when she was only a few weeks old. He was only two, and didn’t remember her, but he felt sad anyway whenever he thought of Melissa Kay, who was buried in the Zebulon Cemetery nearby. He said his father told him that his mother’s sadness over the death of her baby was the reason sometimes she was too protective of him. Jehu liked western movies, and he used to pretend to be Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan. His favorite color was purple, but he’d never buy a lavender shirt. Lyn was the only girl he’d ever dated besides me, and he wished now that he’d never called her to begin with.

  I knew he had questions he wanted to ask me, but I didn’t give him a chance to satisfy his curiosity because I was afraid that some of them might lead back to the bags that lined our kitchen wall, and before we knew it, it was time for him to go home to get ready for work.

  After we agreed to meet the next morning, I said, “What will you tell your mother?”

  “I’ll let her think I’m going over to Red’s. Don’t worry. I’ll figure something out.”

  At the door, he turned to me and placed his palms on my cheeks.“I had fun. Just like we said we would.”

  I didn’t have to think about being ready for his kiss. I knew exactly how to do it now.

  Chapter 26

  BY THE TIME MAMA CAME HOME, I’D CLEANED THE HOUSE from top to bottom. Although Jehu had said he didn’t mind the mess, I worried he was being polite and was secretly appalled by the way we lived. I had just rolled up the vacuum cleaner cord and stowed it in the hall closet and was thinking about baking some brownies for Jehu when I heard Mama slam the front door. “Hey,” she called. “Good Lord, Layla Jay, you’ve been busy. Is Steve McQueen coming over?”

  “No, I just felt like cleaning up a little.”

  Mama kicked off her shoes and slung her purse down on the couch. “Good. Mervin’s bringing Chinese food over in a little while. He had a delivery to make somewhere over in Tylertown and is going to stop here on his way back.”

  She had her dress off by the time she walked past me to her bedroom. I followed her to the door and leaned against the doorjamb. It still bothered me to come into the room, so I hadn’t cleaned it, but it sure needed maid service. Clothes were tossed helter-skelter everywhere, there was spilled powder on the dresser, three coffee cups sat on the bedside table, and the sheets on the bed were hanging on the floor.“Can we go to the store? I want to make some brownies, and we don’t have any cocoa or milk.”

  Mama jerked a pair of pedal pushers off a hangar. “What’s up with you? How come you’re wanting to be Suzy Homemaker all of a sudden?”

  I tried to look nonchalant. “No reason. Just bored.”

  “Well, we don’t have enough time to go before Mervin gets here. Maybe he’ll take you later. After your birthday, we’ll get your license and then you can drive yourself.” She brushed past me and darted into the bathroom. “You sure nothing’s up with you?” she yelled across the hall. “Come in here while I’m freshening my makeup.” Mama gave me the long appraising look that meant she was determined to reach into my brain and suck out the one thing I didn’t want her to know.The power of her suction skill when she was really dogged about finding out something was equal to our Electrolux vacuum cleaner’s.“Now what’s the big secret?”

  I leaned against the bathroom door watching her pencil her brows with deft whisks. “Don’t have one.”

  Mama laid her lipstick on the glass shelf above the sink.“No sale.The truth.”

  I might as well get it over with. She was going to find out eventually. “Jehu’s coming over. He came over today.”

  Mama smiled. “Why didn’t you want to tell me?”

  “Because his parents don’t want him to date me, because . . .” I hated to tell her why.

  “Wallace?”

  “Yes, but Jehu doesn’t think it’s fair. And neither do I.”

  “Well, you’re right. It’s not fair.You shouldn’t be punished for what I’ve done.”

  “Don’t tell Mr. Albright.”

  Mama smiled. “I won’t tell. After the judge dismisses the charges at t
he hearing, they won’t care if he dates you anymore.”

  She squirted Elizabeth Arden’s newest scent into the air between us, and I leaned my head into the heavenly mist.“I hope you’re right. About the hearing and about Jehu,” I said.

  AN HOUR AFTER MAMA LEFT for work the next morning, Jehu knocked on our front door. I had dressed in my best pair of navy shorts and sprayed that new Elizabeth Arden fragrance all over myself and most of the house. Jehu breathed it in. “Smells like gardenias in here,” he said looking around our immaculate den. I could tell he was going to be a man who appreciated the little things a woman did for him.

  I hadn’t gotten to the store so there were no brownies, but I’d made cinnamon toast, which he said he liked. He only nibbled at his though as we sat across from each other at the kitchen table. When Jehu asked about the hearing, I shook my head from side to side.“Mama thinks the charges will be dismissed, but I’m real scared she’ll go to trial.”

  “My dad will get her off. He’s gotten a lot of people out of some big trouble.”

  “He hasn’t had my mama for a client.” I debated how much I was willing to tell him. I didn’t know how much he already knew, but I suspected that the lawyer-client privilege Mr. Albright had talked about didn’t extend to his family. “Did your dad tell you what happened that afternoon?”

  He dusted sugar off his fingers onto the plate. “No, he doesn’t talk about his cases, at least not with me.”

  Then maybe, I reasoned, he didn’t know about my not being a virgin after all. And if he found out, would he still like me? My face must have shown my worry, because Jehu reached across the table and took my hand. “Layla Jay, you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.”

  “I know,” I whispered. “But if Mama goes to trial, you’ll hear all about everything there is to know.” I felt the pressure of his fingers against mine and squeezed his hand so hard he winced. “You may not like me when you learn the truth about what really happened.”