by Jana Zinser
The wind howled outside the barbershop, wailing in agony from its strength. Otis looked down at his long, callused hands. His smile went flat. “Maggie’s pregnant.”
Ivy let the broom drop to the floor. Her heart pounded wildly. Now there were two people who might be in danger.
That night after supper, Grandma sent Ivy back to Mulberry Street to give the Nortons one of Grandma’s sweet pumpkin pastry rolls, a bottle of Haig & Haig scotch for Otis, and a pair of electric sewing scissors for Pinky. Ivy stood outside their house feeling fearful for Maggie.
The front door opened and Pinky appeared in an apron smudged with flour and molasses. Her eyes had dark circles under them, but her smile was bright when she saw Ivy. She held out her arms. “Ivy dear. Come on in,” Pinky said as she coughed.
Ivy walked into her embrace. She followed Pinky into the living room and sat on the same couch that she’d sat on with Maggie and Miss Shirley to watch Leon Wilson sing and dance.
“Otis. Ivy’s here,” Pinky called.
Ivy sat next to her on the couch and handed her the gifts. “Merry Christmas from Grandma and me.”
Otis came down the stairs as Pinky unwrapped the electric sewing scissors. “Oh, my goodness. Won’t these come in handy for making my quilts?” She hugged Ivy again. “I don’t make as many as I used to. I get so tired nowadays.”
Otis saw the bottle of scotch with a ribbon around its neck. “I hope that has my name on it for my poker nights. In fact, I could use a little pinch right now.”
Pinky leaned forward. “So, how you really doing, Ivy?”
“Grandma says she’s feeling fine now. I can finally make some plans.”
“Sounds wonderful,” Pinky said.
“But I really miss Maggie,” Ivy said.
Pinky patted Ivy’s arm. “Don’t worry, Ivy. She’ll come back to us.” Pinky gazed at the pictures of her daughter hanging on the wall, showing happier days. Pinky told Ivy she and Otis had wanted a child for over fifteen years. When she found out she was pregnant with Maggie at the age of thirty-five, she knew it might be their only chance. Although they were older parents, Pinky said Maggie gave them a new life, a new purpose. To lose her now was devastating. Maggie was their everything.
Otis rubbed his thin mustache and jabbed his finger in the air. “It’s that Miles. He’s a street rat. I’ve tried to get her to come home. I even went up there one time, but she won’t leave him.”
“I know,” Ivy said as she shuddered, remembering Miles’ cold, angry eyes. “I don’t understand the Alliance and why he thinks he can tell her what to do.”
“Society doesn’t give young black men any control, so, they try to take it. But in the end, it takes them.” Otis stood up and paced around his small family room. His hand patted the flat waves against his head. “The Alliance’s got our girl.”
Dark circles hung under Pinky’s eyes from her worrying and sleepless nights. “Well, let’s talk about something else. After all, it’s almost Christmas.”
“Grandma says it’s been hard for you to walk,” Ivy said.
Pinky sighed, rubbing her swollen ankles. “Yes. I saw your Grandma over at Miss Shirley’s the other day. I’m not as young as I used to be.”
“Grandma was at Miss Shirley’s?”
“Miss Shirley goes and picks her up. She’s been over there a lot.”
Ivy looked puzzled. “With those two, you know they’re up to no good.”
“Poor Ivy, you got stuck here with all us old folks,” Otis said.
“Well, do you feel like playing a little cards tonight? We’ll just pretend it’s game night down at the Rose Hill Nursing Home.” Ivy laughed.
Otis pulled out the cards from the side table. “I hope my life never gets that bad. They’ve put Thelma in charge over there. But I’d love the chance to beat a highfalutin college girl like you.”
“We need another player,” said Pinky as she picked up the phone. “Let me see if Miss Shirley wants to play a couple of hands.”
A few minutes later, Miss Shirley burst through the Nortons’ front door without knocking. Her commanding stature filled the doorway. “Empty your pockets, suckers. I feel lucky tonight.”
Ivy jumped up and waved her arm in the air. “Miss Shirley’s my partner.”
“Smart girl, Snowflake,” said Miss Shirley, holding out her arms. Ivy hugged her and she smelled of fresh laundry and French fries.
“Ready, girl?” Miss Shirley pretended to throw off a top hat. Then they both yelled at the same time, “Find the fight in your soul!”
They danced a few steps to the Leon Wilson groove.
Pinky laughed as she brought in a plate of gingerbread cookies. “You two.”
Miss Shirley snatched a cookie off the tray as Pinky went by. “Hey. Look at this little gingerbread brother-man. He’s got an afro.” Miss Shirley nibbled at his head. “Oops. He just got a haircut. Now he looks like Max.” Miss Shirley took another bite and held up the headless gingerbread man. “Ruth’s clippers must have cut it a little too close this time.”
They all laughed, and for a few hours Ivy forgot about being stuck in Coffey while the rest of the world went on without her.
When Ivy stepped out of the Nortons’ house to go home, the December wind blew cold, slushy rain against her face. The freezing rain triggered an icy panic, an internal loneliness that something wasn’t right.
She looked back at the warmth and safety of the Nortons’ house. Miss Shirley’s laugh bellowed inside. Ivy got into the Monstrosity, hoping the fear would subside but knowing it would never leave her until she left Coffey.
Nick’s Merle Haggard eight-track sat in the open tape player, and she pushed it in, wishing Nick was driving and she and her friends were tumbling over each other in the back.
Chapter 27
THE BETRAYAL
A few days before Christmas, Ivy stopped in to see Judy at the Beauty Shop. Silver tinsel hung from Judy’s pale pink smock. She wore the dangling Santa earrings that Ivy had given her and snapped her Doublemint gum.
“Jingle Bell Rock” played on the radio. Ivy took off her coat and grabbed Judy’s hands. They danced around the shop like when Ivy was a little girl.
Judy suddenly stopped twirling, and her smile disappeared. “I wanted to tell you. They got in last night, and—”
The back door to the shop opened and Jesse and Raven entered without seeing Ivy. Jesse’s arm was circled around Raven’s waist as he leaned over and kissed her.
Ivy’s face turned ashen.
The pair froze when they saw Ivy. Jesse’s mouth fell open and Raven’s usual perfect complexion, blushed a deep red. Judy looked at the floor as her Santa earrings swayed.
Ivy grabbed the edge of the pink sink to steady herself. Her mind raced. She couldn’t catch her breath.
Jesse cleared his throat and smoothed out his hair. “Listen, Ivy, I’ve been meaning to . . . I didn’t plan it.”
Waves of shock shook her. She felt as if a train was rushing by her, pounding in her eardrums. Her legs wobbled. “You always plan everything.”
Raven flipped her long dark hair out of her fur coat collar. “Ivy, plans change. You were here. We moved on. We didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Ivy took a deep breath.
“You’re never leaving here. You have this weird sense of family responsibility that’s going to suck you in every time. I think you’re even starting to like Coffey,” Jesse said.
Ivy took a deep breath, trying to contain her anger. “Yeah, I guess I have a sense of family responsibility. But I will leave here someday, and when I do, I’ll know I didn’t leave someone behind uncared for. Life isn’t where you end up—it’s how you got there.”
She picked up her coat and put it on, feeling like her legs wouldn’t hold her. Judy’s eyes filled with tears as she followed Ivy to the front of the store.
“Ivy, I’m so sorry. Jesse never really had a father, you know.”
“Neither did I.” Ivy kissed J
udy’s cheek. “Merry Christmas, Judy.”
“Merry Christmas, Ivy.” Tears ran down Judy’s cheeks, smearing her usually perfect makeup.
The bells jingled as the heavy shop door shut behind her. Ivy stepped outside and stared at the blinking Christmas lights, tracing the outline of the store roofs and doorways. But the color drained from her world.
Ivy finally understood that her chance for a future with Jesse had blown away on the winter wind like the last dead leaves of autumn. Not everyone you love will love you back the way you want. The older Ivy got, the more Grandma was right. She took a deep breath and tramped down the sidewalk as Christmas carols filled the air through the town’s loudspeakers. She struggled with the loss of everything she’d ever hoped for, while her destiny flickered like the blinking holiday lights strung along Coffey’s town square.
She glanced in the library window, bare of any holiday decorations, not even a snowman. Edna Jean said the holiday hoopla seemed unnecessary folderol and Ivy began to understand her point. She could see Edna Jean inside the dark library, spraying lemon polish on the tables. No matter how Edna Jean tried, she could not stop the unending dust.
Ivy trudged down the sidewalk and opened the door to the Coffey Shop. Bertha Tuttle sat by herself at the front table, with her lipstick smudged, sipping her coffee and staring into space. Ivy turned around and walked out. The cool wind hit her. She understood Edna Jean and Bertha now. Despite Ivy’s determination to get out of Coffey, she remained trapped, betrayed, and abandoned just like them. She turned around and hurried up the stairs to Russell’s apartment before anyone could see her tears and humiliation, and feel pity for her.
Chapter 28
THE DEATH GRIP OF LOVE
The farmers detasseled their corn, walked their beans, and baled their hay. The end of the summer brought hope for good crops and cooler days, and for Ivy, a chance to get out of Coffey. She was twenty-two and had graduated from Warner College in the spring. Her plan was to leave Coffey. But where should she go?
Grandma began to sleep all night and sometimes during the day. Despite what Grandma and Uncle Walter said, Ivy could tell she was slowing down.
Ivy spent the summer working at the alumni office at Warner College. One humid August evening, she played cards with Grandma and Uncle Walter until they went to bed. But it was still early, so she sat by herself under the covered back porch. It began to rain, cooling off the summer heat. A cat’s distant meow sounded like a baby crying. Ivy sighed. Maggie must have already given birth to her baby. Ivy tried to put it out of her mind. Maggie was just one more missing piece in her life. There were so many now. The phone rang inside the house.
She turned out the porch light and hurried to answer it, so it wouldn’t wake Grandma.
“Ivy, it’s me. You’ve got to help me,” Maggie, out of breath, whispered.
“Maggie, what’s wrong?”
“Miles is on a rampage. You’ve got to come and help me. I’m at the restaurant where I work. I wouldn’t ask you after what I said and everything, but I’m all alone and I’m scared. I’ve called everyone on Mulberry Street and nobody answered.”
“I’m on my way. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Sit tight. Are you okay?”
Maggie’s voice trembled. “Yes, but Ivy, please hurry. He’s got my baby.”
Ivy gasped. Miles had the baby. Fear took hold of her and she couldn’t breathe.
It was still drizzling, so Ivy grabbed Uncle Walter’s old tan trench coat. She got in the Monstrosity and sped down Interstate 35. The truck’s headlights cut through the dark night as she hurried to reach Maggie, not knowing what to expect when she got there.
After an hour and half of driving, it began pouring rain a few miles outside of Kansas City. A Greyhound bus passed Ivy’s camper, splashing her windshield and obscuring her vision. When the wipers pushed the water away, she could see the passengers peering out into the dark from the lighted bus windows. Ivy stared at the bus through the rain. Her mother, Maggie, and Nick had all left on a bus and cold goosebumps crept over her as the bus roared past in a blinding splash.
It was the middle of the night when Ivy pulled into the empty parking lot of the restaurant and bar not too far from Maggie’s apartment. She hoped she wasn’t too late. Maggie was huddled in a corner of a phone booth by the closed bar as the rain fell.
She looked up. “Ivy, you came.”
“Of course I came.” Ivy opened the truck door and Maggie got in. She stared at her friend’s swollen eye and the dried blood on her cut lip. “Hey, you okay?”
Maggie nodded, and they hugged each other. “What happened?”
“I told Miles I was leaving him, and he went crazy. I’ve never seen him this bad. He wouldn’t let me have Carly. He said he would kill us both if I took her. And he would have, so I left to let him cool down.”
“Let’s get out of here and call the police. They’ll help us.”
Maggie didn’t move. “No, you don’t know Miles. If he sees the police, he’ll hurt her. I know he will. He hates the police.”
Ivy shook her head. “I’ve got a real bad feeling about this.”
“Please, Ivy. She’s just a baby. I’ve got to get her back. Miles usually goes to his friend’s house in the evenings to get high. He probably just left Carly in her crib. If we go get her now, we’ll be gone by the time he gets back.”
Ivy rested her head in her hands for a moment. The cold goosebumps of icy dread returned, but a baby should not be left behind. Ivy raised her head and nodded. “Okay.”
Maggie’s hands trembled. “Thanks, Ivy. I knew you would help me.”
“Sure, Doll Baby.” Ivy hugged Maggie, relieved to have her back.
The darkness added to the eerie emptiness as they drove to Maggie’s rundown Kansas City neighborhood. They pulled up at the side of the apartment building, which loomed shadowy and quiet. A few broken children’s toys lay abandoned in the yard.
They opened the front door and crept up the stairs. Maggie’s hand shook as she tried to put the key in the lock. She dropped the key. A door closed inside an apartment. Ivy froze for a moment before silently picking up the key. She unlocked the door and slowly pushed it open.
The dark apartment’s only light glowed from a night light in the baby’s room in the back, casting a hazy glow over the dreary furnishings. Dirty dishes, silverware, and days-old food covered the kitchen sink and counters. It smelled like the rotting garbage mounds of Coffey’s town dump.
Maggie motioned for Ivy to leave the lights off. They walked around the steel poles inconveniently placed in the middle of the room and crept along the hallway toward Carly’s room. Each footstep and floor creak echoed in the depths of the still apartment. When they reached Carly’s eerily lit room, Ivy’s heart stopped. She gasped in horror. The baby’s wrists were tied to the bars of the crib with dirty sweat socks. Silver duct tape covered the baby’s mouth. But somehow the baby still slept, as if she was used to this cruel restraint.
Maggie carefully released Carly’s wrists and gently pulled the silver tape off of her mouth. A red square mark was left after she removed the tape, but she didn’t seem too surprised to find her daughter restrained that way.
Maggie wrapped the baby in an old hooded sweatshirt she found on the floor. Carly stirred and her sleepy eyes fluttered open. They hurried out of the room and made their way back down the long hall. A muffled thud, like the ghostly sounds of Reuben’s farmhouse, sounded behind them.
A closet door in the hallway suddenly swung open, hitting Ivy from behind and knocking her to the floor. Miles jumped out and grabbed the baby out of Maggie’s arms.
“Don’t take Carly. Please, Miles.”
Miles dangled the baby by her arm and she began to scream. His unruly dreadlocks added to his wild appearance and his drug-hazed green eyes seemed to glow in the dim hallway.
Maggie lunged at him. “Don’t hurt my baby.”
He raised his fist and punched Maggie in the face. She crumple
d to the floor, unconscious, but the blow’s force made him drop the baby. Before she could reach Carly, Miles grabbed the terrified baby off the floor. Ivy wanted to cover her ears. The baby’s cries and Maggie’s silence were unbearable. Ivy looked around and grabbed a serrated kitchen knife off of the cluttered kitchen counter. She pointed the knife at Miles, her hand trembling. “Give me the baby and let Maggie go.”
He laughed, and his cold eyes shone like a stray alley cat in the night. “No one leaves me. Maggie’s not going anywhere. Neither is this baby.” Without warning, he flung Carly at the wall. Ivy dropped the knife and dove to catch the baby, hitting her head hard against the wall. Dizzy and terrified, Ivy wrapped her arms around the screaming baby. Ivy lay on the floor for a second, feeling the warm wet blood dripping down her face from the impact.
Maggie’s eyes fluttered open as Miles jerked her back by her hair. She groaned.
The vein in his neck throbbed and his dreadlocks swayed as he struggled to drag Maggie over to where Ivy and the baby were huddled. Maggie wrapped her legs and arms around one of the posts in the middle of the room. “Give me the baby, or Maggie dies.”
Maggie looked at Ivy and shook her head. “Fly like a bird, Ivy. Fly like a bird.” Her voice sounded faint, as if she was calling from a distant world. Ivy gazed down at the crying baby in her arms. She struggled off of the floor and ran toward the door, still dizzy from hitting her head on the wall.
Miles grabbed her foot as she ran past. Ivy fell and landed on her side, protecting Carly. She kicked Miles with her legs and scooted across the floor out of his reach.
He couldn’t get to Ivy and the baby without letting go of Maggie. It was just a matter of who he hated more.
Ivy scrambled to her feet. The room swirled as she tried to focus. Her head hurt. She stumbled toward the apartment door holding the baby tightly, but she hesitated at the threshold, unsure what to do.
“Go, Ivy! Save my baby,” Maggie pleaded. “Fly.”
As she sprinted out of the apartment, Ivy heard a dull thud against the wooden floor. She held Carly against her chest and staggered to the truck before Miles could get to them, too.