Lily is dully staring out the window at her Mother. “Guess she found other bottles.”
29
MAY
Sable’s house is dark, too, so we all go up together. Gertie keeps twisting her hair between two fingers while staring off. Lily is walking on her own now, but her eyes have lost their light, and there is none of the usual bounce in her step. We’re all trudging, to be honest.
The door is unlocked, not uncommon in our town, and we walk in with each of us heading for a lamp — one in the wallpapered hall leading to the guest washroom, one in the elegant foyer, and two in the comfortable living room where we collapse onto the same couch and chairs we shared sandwiches on with the boys seventy-nine days ago.
Gertie asks, “Where are your folks tonight? Not out of town again?”
Sable lets out a long breath. “At a party I would guess. I don’t even have to ask if Lily can stay with us. They wouldn’t notice either way. Ever since my brother left for college last year, I never see them.”
“They probably know how grown-up you are,” Gertie offers. “It’s not like you need looking after.“
“True.” The telephone rings, and we go ice cold. “Perhaps I had better not answer.”
As it rings we stare at each other until I say, “What if I answered?”
“What would that help?”
“I don’t know. Only, if it’s Mrs. Marlow, and you answer the phone, she knows you’re Lily’s best friend. But if I answer, I could make like she called the wrong house and she would just hang up, confused.”
Lily nods dully that it would work. Sable motions for me to try it, and I hurry over. Closing my eyes, I pick up. “Hello?”
“Sable?” a boy asks.
“This is May. Who am I speaking with?”
“May! It’s Peter! That’s funny the operator mixed things up. Of all the houses she could’ve connected me to!”
Relaxing I confess, “I’m sorry, Peter. This is Sable’s phone.”
“What? Someone put gin in your soda pop, May?” He laughs. “Listen, I’m using the phone at the bowling alley. Asked the manager if he wouldn’t mind. Where are you girls? Did we get the night wrong?”
I cover the mouthpiece and whisper, “It’s Peter Tuck calling from the bowling alley!” Lily’s expression is heart breaking. “Peter, I’m afraid we won’t be able to bowl tonight. We’re awfully sorry, but something has happened.”
“I don’t like the sound of that at all. What gives?”
“I can’t say, Peter.”
“Is Lily with you? Can I talk to her?”
“Yes, she’s with me.” I cover the mouthpiece again. “He wishes to speak with you, Lily.”
She rises from the sofa as Sable whispers, “You don’t have to tell him!”
“I won’t.”
Giving her the phone I back against the wall, clasped hands behind me.
“Hello, Peter? It’s me. How are you?” Pause. “No, I’m alright,” she smiles, wiping a tear. “I sure do wish I could be there. Let’s go bowling another night. Although I have to warn you, I’m very good. And I won’t pretend I’m not just to make you feel better,” she laughs, looking at me with pain in her eyes. “Only I have to go now, so you boys have fun. Oh, and when you call me tomorrow night, don’t call my house. Phone here, if you wouldn’t mind.” A short pause and then, “Sable needs my help in the kitchen so I can’t talk anymore. Thank you, Peter, goodnight.”
Lily hands me the mouthpiece. I place it back in its cradle as she walks to her reflection in the window, the darkness outside and the light in here making it as good a mirror as any. She touches her bruised eye, color bleeding further under her skin now. “I won’t be able to see Peter for weeks, will I?”
“Oh, I hardly think so. Maybe one at the most.”
Gertie jumps in with me. “Maybe even sooner!”
Sable says, “It can’t be sooner than a week. Human beings don’t work like that.”
Gertie snaps at her, “Oh, why don’t you stop being so logical!”
“Gertrude Felts! I can’t lie and have her feeling sore when she realizes her face is still awful! What good would that do? The truth comes out, and what then?”
“Then she’s had time to get used to the idea!”
Sable blinks, shocked at someone else’s logic making sense to her.
I sigh, “Perhaps we had better eat something.”
“I’m not hungry,” Lily whispers from the window.
“It’s hard to think on an empty stomach. And tempers run high. Sable, let’s pull something together.”
We start for the kitchen, and Sable turns around. “Gertie, I’m sorry. I’m feeling a little…well, not myself.”
She offers a sad smile, “I shouldn’t have snapped at you,” and rises from her chair to come help.
Lily remains in the living room while we three tear into the cupboards, none of us saying a word as we fix up baked beans and sliced ham. Sable produces a casserole dish of leftover cheesy potatoes. We all react, agreeing it’s the perfect comfort food in a time like this.
But the sound of a car horn turns our heads. We run, abandoning the food, to peer out of the front window, hiding behind thick curtains. We’re all panting.
Lily whispers, “Is it her?”
Sable is the first to realize, “It’s Marvins car!”
She rushes to the door. “They’ve come over! Oh, what do we say? What do we do?”
Before we have a chance to answer, Sable has run outside.
Gertie looks at me, and I shrug that I don’t understand, either. She runs out.
Lily grabs my arm as I attempt to follow. “May! What would you do?”
“If Jerald were here, you mean? Were I in your shoes?” She nods. I gaze at her poor, bruised face. “There isn’t anywhere on Earth I’d rather be than with Jerald, no matter what happened.”
“What if Peter can’t stand to look at me?”
I smile, “Then he’s a fool.”
Fear and hope combine to make up the tears that hover. She takes my hand and together
