Читать книгу A Little Bit of Ivey - Lorelei JD Branam - Страница 6

When I was in grade school, my parents hired an architect and designed their very own dream house. The new house echoed. It was huge. Rolling over on the lush, powder blue carpet, I came right up to my reflection in the mirrored doors that covered my closet. Looking past my eyes and staring at the vastness around me, I thought, “Wow, I can fill this whole place up with stuff.”

I loved the smell, too. Our new mansion on the lake had a brand-spankin’-new smell, like a furniture store or a new car or the bag of summer clothes from Belks that Mother bought us each year for vacation. My wonderful blue room held my very own antiqued white bedroom set, hand painted with the slightest etch of powder blue to match the carpet, and thick linen drapes that flowed all the way down to the floor. Amongst all of these new household furnishings I didn’t feel displaced though, because the smell of dinner cooking on the stove found its way up to my room, followed by mother’s Leu de Temps perfume, as she poked her nose in the door to say good night. “Good night, Ivey Mae. Sweet dreams. I love you and don’t worry. Do what your sister tells you. We are going out to dinner with Auntie and Uncle. See you in the morning.”

After lining my brand new closet with Wacky Pack stickers and chewing all fifteen big slabs of gum at once, this room I didn't have to share started feeling a little too big and way too quiet. Jumping up, I looked for Lucy. Running down the hall I turned left and skipped awhile down another long, forest green hallway. The thick softness beneath my feet was great. I couldn't resist and dropped to roll the complete distance to her door. I wondered if she felt scared way back there. I would have.

"Hey, what ya doin’ mildoin?" I asked, probably a little too loudly, as I rolled through her door, pushing it aside with my feet.

My sister, with her long blonde hair, smiled, while peering over her book at me. I continued to roll on her carpet, just as plush as mine, but soft daffodil yellow.

"I'm reading,” she said, amusement obvious in her tone. “What are you doing? Rolling around the house? Be careful of the stairs, Ivey Mae. That’s all we need—for you to fall on your head, the first night here."

My sister then closed her book to watch me in amazement as I maneuvered the huge wad of gum in my mouth and continued to roll on her floor, as if no one was watching. Chuckling she asked me, “What in the world do you have in your mouth? Is that gum?”

“Bubblegum,” I laboriously replied around the wad, and she laughed.

“How many pieces are you chewing?”

Pausing only momentarily, I rolled over to her matching, mirrored closet doors and admired the bright pink wad of sugar in my mouth. “Well, I opened fifteen packs of stickers to line my shelves, and I’m chewin’ the gum.”

“At once? Those are not pieces of gum: those are thick slabs of gum. I don’t see how you fit it all in there together,” she told me, still smiling, but shaking her head. Then she added, “Didn’t Mother tell you not to hang anything on your walls?”

“I didn’t. I just put stickers in my closet. And yeah, my jaw is getting a little tired. This place is really cool. It's so big though. Are you a little scared?" I asked.

"Scared of what? Scared of Mother, after she gets a look at what you did to your closet? No, I’m not afraid. But maybe you should be.”

“No, no. Aren’t you afraid of somebody gettin’ us?”

“Don’t worry, Ivey Mae: if somebody ever got you, they’d bring you back because they wouldn’t know what to do with you. And besides, the doors are locked, and Dad installed an alarm system. It won't seem so big and rambling once all of the furniture gets here. We are very fortunate, Ivey Mae."

"I know. I know. But having those doors in my room that go straight out back is kind of creepy. And the lake looks black at night; it scares me. Can I sleep in here with you tonight?”

"That’s fine. After we eat, go get your blankets."

Lucy put down her beloved book, and we walked the hall together, but only for a moment; then I dashed to the top of the stairs and counted how fast I could make it down.

While eating, all of us decided that for the first night in our new home we preferred to be together. Mother and Dad were out to dinner, and there was so much more space than we were used to that we all felt a little lonely. Improving on the pot roast and vegetables that mother left us, Lucy fried us homemade doughnuts, dipping them in sugar and cinnamon. Then we got our things and met back in Lucy Lea's room to watch TV.

It didn’t take long for the excitement of the day to catch up with us, and each one drifted off to sleep, all seven of us in my sister’s queen-size bed.

Around midnight, as the story goes, my parents returned home. Climbing the stairs, they went first to check on the baby in her nursery, and the crib was empty. Next they went to my brother’s room, and there was no one in his bed either. The same happened for me and my other sisters, until lastly, they walked down the long green hall to the very back of the second floor. And there they found us, snuggled in and sound asleep, amongst a sea of yellow bedding and big down pillows.

Lucy Lea was the only one awake, reading her book by the glow of a flashlight as she heard Dad whisper to Mom in the dark. "Well, Slim—I woulda never built this big ol’ house if I knew they were gonna pile up in here like a bunch of puppies."