Читать книгу Ludell - Brenda Wilkinson - Страница 10

4.

HAVING CHANGED HER wet panties and socks, and stuffed them at the bottom of the dirty clothes, she decided she’d go next door and sit with Mattie until the others came.

When she knocked, Mattie came to the front eating a Baby Ruth and holding a True Confessions magazine and the baby.

“You aine go to school today?” she asked chewing.

“Yeah, but I got sick and had to come home,” Ludell lied.

“What you got girl?” she asked pulling her baby back as though Ludell were poison.

“Oh I aine gon’ give him nothing,” Ludell said walking on in the house. “I might as well gone tell you the truth, ’fore the ‘street committee’ do! I peed in school and had to come home.”

“Oowee, hee, hee,” laughed Mattie. “You got sick!” she said, mocking Ludell who was looking some kinda shame.

“Don’ feel bad chile,” said Mattie. “You not the firse one! When I was in Mis Rivers’ room a girl did the same thing. She asked that woman bout twenty times, and she kept telling the girl she shoulda went at recess. Sometimes you don’ even have to go till you get back! That woman crazy! I done tole Ruthie Mae nem that if they ever have to go bad and she or any of them teachers say they can’t, to just walk out the class, and I’ll go out there to tell whoever the teacher is off!”

Mattie was quiet for a second, then she started up again shouting, “A person could git their bladder outta control holding their water when they need to go!”

Ludell felt better now after listening to her. She no longer was hurt about Mattie mocking her, realizing that it had to be funny, her making up that story.

Mattie turned her True Confessions magazine and came to a page of decorative furniture.

“This how me and Alvin Jr.’s house gon look,” she said pointing it out to Ludell.

Mattie was always talking about what she and Alvin Jr. were going to do. He was the father of her baby, but had never seen the child. He’d left Waycross long before the baby came, but Mattie claimed he’d told her he was coming back for the two of them. She hadn’t received one word from him, but had insisted on naming the baby Alvin the third over Mis Johnson’s objections.

Ludell just smiled while she talked about her and Alvin Jr.’s marriage plans. Mattie smiled too.

She was still telling her stuff when they heard the others coming in. Ludell decided she’d better go home and check in with mama. She ran into Willie on the way out and braced herself for what she knew was coming today, even if she was on grounds out of territory for him messing with her. She was so sure he was going to say something about what had happened, but to her surprise he just passed by ignoring her. “I guess he aine heard yet—or saving it one!” she concluded as she walked on.

When Ruthie Mae passed her, she gave her a look like the kind she herself flashed when she visited sick friends and wanted to appear cheerful.

“Why you going Ludell?” she asked her.

“I got to let mama know where I’m at. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Ludell replied.

“Okay,” she said, with a sweet gentle ring to her voice.

“Dog, I ’on know why she treating me so tender,” thought Ludell. “All I did was peed. I aine bout to die or nothing!”

As she came to the porch, Mis Henley pulled up with mama. She was in the backseat, Mis Henley in the front alone as usual. One day Ludell had asked mama why she didn’t sit up front, and she told her that white people liked for the help to sit in back. In response Ludell had laughed and remarked, “Seem kinda silly to me, cause with the help sitting in the back riding, and the white person sitting up front driving, they look like the help their ownself!’ And mama just laughed about that thing until she cried.

“Mama can I go over to Ruthie Mae’s?” she asked the moment her grandmother stepped out the car.

“Chile cain’t you speak ’fore you go begging bout rambling off?” she said.

“Yes mam. Good afternoon mama. Kin I go. . .?”

“You aine got to repeat the whole thang girl. Common sense should tell you I heard you the firse time. I reckon you can go on. You better have yo fun this afternoon though, cause we got plenty washing to do in the morning!”

“Yes mam,” she shouted, then turned and ran back next door.

When she saw Ruthie Mae again, she had the same funny dry look on her face. She was all quiet, but Ludell wanted to hear! She wanted to know what people were saying, so since Ruthie Mae wouldn’t say anything, she brought the subject up herself.

“What they say bout me peeing on myself Ruthie Mae?” she asked trying to put a bounce in her voice, as if she didn’t really care.

“Nobody was saying much,” Ruthie Mae replied. “They was just saying it was funny the way you said ‘MIS RIVERS MAY I BE EXCUSED?’ and took off ’fore she could answer.”

“That’s all they said?” Ludell pressed further.

“Yeah, that’s all I heard. By then, them fool boys was after us. Girl by Monday everybody gon be done forgot the whole mess!” Ruthie Mae shouted, perking out her mouth and giving that confident wave of the hand she was famous for. She was always acting and talking like she couldn’t be wrong about anything. This was one time Ludell was hoping she wasn’t!

Willie was gathering his pecans for selling. He had pulled their old wagon around front and was steady loading it up. Buddie Boy told him that he would be too shame to pull that ole rusty wagon all the way uptown if he was him, and Willie just said, “You ain’t!” and kept loading on up.

“M-m-m, let me see what I’m gon git from the store today,” Ruthie Mae said to Ludell, who assumed she meant with the money Willie gave her when he came back. But then Ruthie Mae just kept naming so much stuff.

“Some gingersnaps, some candy, some head-cheese. . .”

“How much you think he giving you, a dollar?” Ludell asked.

“Shhh,” went Ruthie Mae. “Don’ talk so loud. I’m crediting this.”

“You going back again?” exclaimed Ludell.

“Why—you scared to come?” Ruthie Mae wanted to know.

“Naw!” snapped Ludell, jumping up more than ready. Her mouth watered just thinking about all the good stuff Ruthie Mae had named.

Soon as they began walking off, along comes lil snotty-nosed Cathy running up to them.

“Gone back!” Ruthie Mae shouted.

“I wanna go, I wanna go,” Cathy hollered, jumping up and down like an idiot.

Mattie heard her from inside and came wobbling on the front porch and shouted, “Yall let her go, or Ruthie Mae you can just brang yo lil butt on back home! Aine no reason she caine play wif yall!”

“I git tide o’ her following me everywhere I go!” screamed Ruthie Mae.

“Well I usta git tide o’ you following me too! But that didn’t stop you, did it?” went Mattie. “Now you let her go, or like I say, you don’ go!”

“Come on,” Ruthie Mae shouted to Cathy. “You make me sick girl! Don’t you know people git tide o’ you? I’m gon take you wif me, but you gon wish you’d ’ave stayed yo behind home!”

Cathy wouldn’t say anything. She just wiped her nose on her sleeve and kept walking way over to the side of the road, like she was afraid Ruthie Mae would hit her if she got too close.

“Mattie get on my nerves bossing people,” Ruthie Mae complained to Ludell. “That’s all she good for! Firse thing she say when I tell her I ’on wanna be bothered with Cathy is that I followed her, and I aine never hardly go noplace with her, cause she wouldn’t let me. Once I begged like a dog to go to the drive-in with her and Alvin Jr. and she still said no. So while he was in the house waiting for her, I got in the backseat and laid down and kept real quiet. I stayed down there till I thought we was almost there, then I jumped up and went, ‘Dum-de-dum, SURPRISE!’

“I thought they was gon start laffing, but Mattie she went to cussing and told him to turn roun and take me back! I was so mad! I started to tell mama bout how she was hugging and kissing on him on the way. You should ’ave been there. She was justa smacking all over him and he was going, ‘Cool it bay-bee!’ wit his ugly self. Mama say she glad that baby took a lil looks from ou-r side of the family cause Alvin Jr. and all-lll his people ugly! Even with whatever looks mama claim he got from us, I still say that’s one ugly lil chile. Mattie say Alvin Jr.’s family don’ wanna own the baby. They claim it aine his, but all anybody got to do is look at that lil rascal and rat away you know he’s a Green—they whole family got them bulldog faces!”

“Where we going girl?” Ludell asked, laughing as they turned the corner. “You just running yo mouth and aine said a word bout where you heading.”

“Thought we’d go down by the canal!” she said.

“Down in back o’ the funeral home?” Ludell asked.

“Yep! In back o’ the ole FUNERAL HOME WHERE THEY EMBOMB DEAD PEOPLES,” Ruthie Mae shouted.

Ludell realized that she wanted to scare Cathy, but how she wished she’d thought of another way, because she wasn’t keen on going down there at all!

When they walked across the old rotten wooden bridge it was squeaking like it would give in any minute, and Ruthie Mae wouldn’t as much as hold poor little scarey Cathy’s hand. Ludell would have had she known Ruthie Mae was going to act that way, but she was already over before she turned to look back. Having been so scared herself, she’d just been concentrating on getting over as fast as she could. She stood at the other side now, watching poor Cathy creeping along like somebody on a tightrope, while Ruthie Mae walked ahead of her humming. “That Ruthie Mae know she can be mean when she wanna,” thought Ludell.

After they’d all crossed, the three of them sat down on the ground beside the canal. The water looked slimy and green. Word was that the funeral home people dropped whatever they drained from dead people in there. Huge trees surrounded the canal, blocking off the sunlight, making it dark and spooky. Looking all around, Ludell thought the Kangaroo man’s house was the only place that could be scarier.

“Ludell?” went Ruthie Mae.

“Yes-my-darling,” she answered.

“Oh shoot, I wasn’t calling you for that mess!” she said. “I’m tide o’ that junk now. Let’s join out.”

“Okay,” Ludell said interlocking baby fingers with her. “I’m tired of it too. Lots of people at school done joined out. It’s bout gone outta style now.”

“Will you hush, so I can tell you what I was fixing to before?” Ruthie Mae asked impatiently.

“What?” she asked.

“The news,” she said.

“What news?” Ludell asked puzzlingly.

“They say some people spotted the Kangaroo man ghost in town chile!”

“Wha-aat?” shouted Ludell, before noticing that Ruthie Mae was winking an eye at her.

Meanwhile Ruthie Mae looked to check Cathy’s reaction. Seeing that she was getting her scared, she continued. “Guess where they say they saw him at?”

“Where?” Ludell asked, going along with her, even though she didn’t altogether approve.

“Right roun here,” she answered. “Riding a ghost horse and carrying a net big enough to scoop up people—you know that’s how they say them men caught him, scooped him up from the jungle; so I guess he out for pay-back!”

“Ruthie Mae, I’m getting cold,” said Cathy. “I’m ready to go home.”

“I thought you wanted to play with us ti-day Cathy,” she sang out to her sweetly.

“I did,” said Cathy. “But I changed my mind cause I’m too cold.”

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll take you back, but don’ be telling Mattie I ran you home. You can stay with us long as you feel like it.”

“I ’on feel like it no mo already, Ruthie Mae,” went Cathy. “I’m ready to go rat now. I’m ca-ca-cold,” she said shivering.

“Okay, you aine got to beg. I’ll take you on back, but I’m gon only walk you to ou-r street. Then me and Ludell turning round and coming back down here,” she said, giving Ludell the sign once more that she was only fooling.

“Okay,” said Cathy. “Will yall stand and watch me till I get on the porch before you turn roun Ruthie Mae?”

“Yeah Cathy, we’ll wait,” Ludell said, determined not to see this poor child suffer a minute more. She took her hand as they went back across the bridge. Ruthie Mae ran to the other side and tried to make them both nervous, shouting, “It’s gon cave in!” as they trembled along the decaying brown boards.

When they got back to Highsmith street, Ruthie Mae and Ludell stood at the end of the block while Cathy ran, looking back every few yards to check that they were still in sight.

“Come on, let’s go to the store,” Ruthie Mae said impatienly.

“Just wait till she reach the porch,” Ludell pleaded.

“Girl you better come on if you wanna go with me,” Ruthie Mae snapped.

“Okay,” she said, waving at Cathy who had reached her destination now.

“You didn’t have to scare pore Cathy so bad,” she said after catching up with Ruthie Mae, who’d switched off, leaving her behind.

“She aine had no business following us in the firse place!” Ruthie Mae snapped.

“You did make up all that bout somebody seeing the Kangaroo man didn’t you Ruthie Mae?”

“Yeah girl,” she answered laughing. “You know you scarey don’cha? Well you can be scarey all you want to but when I git the stuff, I’m going rat to the same spot we went to yesterday to eat it; so if you aine going all the way with me, let me know before I go in there buying for you!”

“I’m going,” Ludell said immediately.

“Okay then,” Ruthie Mae said, walking on into Mis Kelly’s.

Ludell wasn’t as nervous as she’d been yesterday, when they arrived at the Kangaroo man’s house. She still didn’t think it the ideal spot to eat, but was concentrating too hard on all the good stuff Ruthie Mae had in the bag to be worried about any Kangaroo man!

“Wasn’t passing you a thang till I was sure you was coming all the way with me,” Ruthie Mae commented as Ludell joined her on the stump. Their feast then began, and continued until they were both stuffed.

“Ruthie Mae why you git so much?” Ludell moaned. “We caine eat all this. What we gon do with the rest?”

“I ’on know. Just throw it back yonder in that lot over there I guess,” she said. “Seem like my eyes was bigger than my stomach, I mean ou-r stomachs,” she laughed. “I sho do hate to throw way good food like this though.”

“Me too,” said Ludell. “Maybe we could take it home and say we foundt some money—na-aww, on second thought maybe we just better gone do like you say and throw it away.”

“Yeah,” went Ruthie Mae. “I trust myself for sticking to a story, but I ’on know bout you . . .”

“What you mean?” Ludell asked.

“Oh never mind,” Ruthie Mae said. “I’m just gon gone chuck the rest away. You want any more ’fore I do?”

“You kidding?” Ludell asked, pressing her stomach. “Girl, when I finish this here, I ’on wanna see no mo food! I know I aine gon want my supper tonight—even if it’s something extra good like fried chicken, which I know better than on a Friday anyhow. Course I noticed you Johnsons were having chicken on a weekday,” she remarked, teasing.

“Girl we eat chicken during the week lots of times,” Ruthie Mae said as she walked over to the lot to throw the remaining food away.

“Well aine nunna them ‘lots-a-times’ ever been when I be there, cept for yesterday,” said Ludell, smiling.

“Well maybe not lately, but we do eat chicken in the week, plus we don’ eat it every Sunday like yall,” she said. “I aine never came to your house on a Sunday and seen yall have anything different.”

“And we aine never had nothing different either,” laughed Ludell. “Mama said when she was a girl, the preacher would come eat with them every Sunday after church and they’d have to wait for him and all the grown people to eat first. She said there wouldn’t never be nothing but necks and backs left when she and her sisters and brothers got to the table, so she vowed that when she got grown, she was gon have all the chicken she pleased every Sunday!”

“Oh, that’s funny,” went Ruthie Mae. “I guess by now you done vowed that you aine never having it on Sunday when you get grown, huh?”

“No-ooo chile, I ’on never get tide o’ having it! See this here mark on my thigh?” she said, pulling up her dress. “What that look like to you?”

“I ’on know,” replied Ruthie Mae. “Just look like a plain ole mark to me.”

“Well it ain’t no plain ole mark,” she informed her. “Can’t you see how much that look like a drumstick? It’s a chicken birthmark stupid!”

“Oooh, that’s what it is?” said Ruthie Mae.

“Yeah, that’s what mama say,” said Ludell.

“Well you see this big ole blotch on my arm here?”

“Yeah,” Ludell said examining it.

“Well what that look like to you?” Ruthie Mae asked.