Page 32

Chapter 32

Ginger, Jasmine, and Fern watched It! The Terror from Beyond Space in Ginger’s room.

“The sun enters Virgo this weekend,” Jasmine said during a commercial for used cars. “Goodbye to all the drama of Leo. It’s time to dig a more practical scene.”

Going home, Fern thought. Forgetting about vows, and promises, and witches, and plans to run away, and other people’s problems.

And flying.

And Rose in the firelight prying off her fingernails.

The clock striking thirteen.

But it was like her mom always said, Keep your eyes on your own knitting .

They watched the monster get killed and Fern wondered why everyone hated it so much. It didn’t ask them to come to Mars, but they killed it like it was the one who’d done something wrong.

Sorry, Monster , she thought. It’s not a perfect world, but it’s the only one we’ve got.

Tomorrow was Monday. When she woke up in the morning her dad would be there. She wondered if she’d see Zinnia and Holly again. It didn’t matter. Tomorrow she’d go home and forget about them, forget about everything that had happened here. She sprinkled salt in front of her door before bed, just in case. Her radio played “Rainy Night in Georgia” while she fell asleep, one hand clutching the bag around her neck.

She didn’t worry about witches.

Soon Miss Parcae would be dead. Then the line would be broken and they’d have no more reason to look for her. She’d forget about Rose in the firelight, covered in blood. She’d forget about flying. She’d forget about the book and Miss Parcae.

She’d forget about Holly and Reverend Jerry.

She had come here to do one thing: have the baby and go home. That was what she’d done.

Something woke her up. Fern saw darkness, then someone standing over her. She jolted awake, grabbing for her pouch.

“Help me,” Zinnia whispered, clicking on the bedside lamp. “Please. I know you hate me but I need help.”

Fern sat up on her elbows, blinking. The radio was playing some song she didn’t recognize.

“What happened?”

“It’s Holly,” Zinnia said, and as soon as Fern heard her name, she lowered herself back down and rolled over.

“I can’t,” she said, because she went home tomorrow. “I’m sorry.”

“Please,” Zinnia said, pulling on her shoulder. “She hid up in Rose’s old room and I can’t make it up the stairs. I’m worried she’s going to hurt herself. She hasn’t been the same since that man came to see her. It was Reverend Jerry, wasn’t it?”

No , Fern thought. I can’t get involved. I have to forget any of this ever happened.

“Get Nurse Kent,” she said.

“She’s asleep,” Zinnia said. “All you need to do is go up there and make sure she’s all right. She won’t answer me and she’s on two-week warning. Please. She’s just a little kid.”

Fern felt Holly behind her in bed, curled up against her back, snoring.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll go up and make sure she’s okay but that’s it.”

She got dressed and they walked across the backyard. Fern didn’t care if anyone saw her now. Like Clem said, what were they going to do? Send her home?

They got upstairs and Fern could hear Nurse Kent watching a rerun of The Debbie Reynolds Show in the Cong. She gave Zinnia a look.

“She was asleep earlier,” Zinnia whispered.

Fern stepped toward the Cong, but Zinnia put a hand on her arm.

“Please,” she whispered. “Holly’s scared of Nurse. She likes you.”

Fern tried to stare her down, but their friendship had become a habit. She might as well get it over with. Zinnia waited at the bottom of the attic stairs as Fern went up, taking them one at a time because her stitches were tight. On the top step she saw a drop of something. She followed wet drops to Rose’s old room and flipped on the overhead bulb. The cot was empty but the drops led to it so Fern lowered herself to the floor and lifted the edge of the blanket. She saw Holly’s blond hair glowing dimly in the dark beneath the bed.

“Holly?” she asked.

Holly whined and wriggled deeper.

“No…” she panted.

Fern realized what was happening and felt a flash of anger that Zinnia hadn’t gone to Nurse Kent right away, that she’d tried to involve her in her stupid scheme. Then she reminded herself that Holly was barely older than Midge. She reached one hand into the dark and kept it there.

“I love you, Holly,” she said.

Holly reached over her shoulder and twined her fingers into Fern’s, gripping hard enough to crack her knuckles.

“Help…me…” she panted fast, like a rabbit. “Hurts…hurts…hurts…”

“You’re going to be okay,” Fern said. “We’ll get Nurse.”

“No!” she gasped, air whistling between her teeth. “Zinnia…”

“It’s going to be okay,” Fern said. “We need to get you to the hospital.”

“Can’t!” she hissed again. “Zinnia…Hagar’s…”

“Don’t listen to Zinnia,” Fern said. “She’s all mixed-up. You need the hospital.”

“No,” she begged. “They’ll…send me home…please…”

Her words dissolved in a steam-kettle hiss and her hand clamped down on Fern’s hard enough to leave a bruise.

“It’s going to be okay,” Fern said. “I did it and I’m okay. They give you something that puts you to sleep. You don’t feel a thing.”

Liar.

“Pleeeassse…” Holly said, another long hiss.

“Okay,” Fern said. “Hang on. Can you do that? Hang on and trust me. I’ll talk to Zinnia.”

It was too late for her, Fern thought. She needed to get this over with. Like her mom said, The faster you take your medicine, the better it tastes .

***

Fern sidestepped down the stairs, one at a time, clinging to the banister, careful not to let her legs open too wide and rip her stitches. At the bottom, she found Zinnia pressing her back to the wall, her bulging stomach resting on her thighs. Her eyes searched Fern’s face for clues.

“We need to get Nurse Kent,” Fern said. “Holly’s close.”

“We can’t,” Zinnia whispered.

Anger bubbled through Fern’s brain. Why did Zinnia keep thinking her stupid plan was going to work? Why had she put these ideas in Holly’s head? Why did she think Fern was going to help?

“She needs the hospital,” Fern said. “Myrtle had her baby on the bathroom floor and she almost died. Holly’s about where she was.”

Zinnia shook her head.

“We can’t let that man get his hands on her baby,” she whispered. “We promised.”

To Fern, it sounded like something a little girl who hadn’t had a baby would say.

“She’s having her baby under a bed,” Fern said. “I’m getting Nurse.”

Zinnia pushed herself off the wall and grabbed Fern’s arm.

“Just help me get her to Hagar’s,” she insisted, her face close to Fern’s. “You’re white. The taxi driver’ll listen to you if you tell him to go someplace else.”

“You don’t even know Hagar’s last name,” Fern said.

“Sunday,” Zinnia answered.

“You don’t know where she lives.”

“We’ll look in the phone book.”

“She’s country people,” Fern said. “They don’t have phones.”

“If the taxi driver’s black I’ll ask him,” Zinnia said. “If she delivers babies, I bet every black person around here knows where she lives.”

“She needs the hospital,” Fern said. “She might die.”

Zinnia looked for something in Fern’s eyes, but Fern could have saved her the trouble. It wasn’t there anymore. Zinnia let go. Fern walked to the Cong, where Nurse Kent sat on the sofa, watching Tom Bosley say something funny.

“Nurse,” Fern said. “Holly’s ready.”

Nurse Kent put out her cigarette.

“How far along is she?” she asked, turning around.

“Pretty far,” Fern said, flattered Nurse Kent thought she’d have a clue. “She’s been up in the attic almost all day.”

Nurse Kent stared at Fern for a minute, like a comedian doing a bit.

“Are you kidding?” she asked. Then her shoulders slumped. “It’s never easy. Okay. Fern, go get my bag from my office. It’s on the desk. There’s a booklet beside it with taxi vouchers. Tear out two. I’ll get Holly.”

Zinnia gave them a lot of room when they walked out of the Cong. Nurse Kent tromped up the stairs, hollering, “Holly? It’s Nurse. Hang on!”

Fern went into her office. Her desk light showed a yellow floral-print bag and a booklet from Minute Man Cab Co. ( Radio-Dispatched, Special Pick-ups, Regular Schedule Runs ). She tore out two vouchers.

Back in the hall, Fern heard movement breaking out all over the house as girls realized someone was going downtown. They began drifting out of their rooms to watch. Nurse Kent came down the attic stairs carrying Holly in her arms. Even pregnant, Holly looked like a big doll Nurse had won at the fair.

“Follow me,” Nurse said to Fern, and headed for the main staircase.

Girls drifted from their bedrooms, watching them go down the pink steps.

“Bye,” a new girl they called New Hazel said. “Blessings to your baby!”

“Bye-bye!” Petunia called, waving big and clumsy like she was sending her dog to the vet.

In the hall light, Holly’s face was pale around her birthmark. Her skin looked dry, like roasted bone.

“Nurse Kent!” Violet called from upstairs. Nurse stopped and turned, almost smacking Fern in the mouth with Holly’s swinging feet. “There’s something wrong with Iris.”

“It’ll have to wait till I’m back,” Nurse Kent said, and turned to continue down the stairs, almost hitting Fern with Holly’s feet again.

“But she looks pretty beat,” Violet said, following them down a few stairs. “She’s breathing funny and says she’s having pains.”

“Tell her to bite a nail,” Nurse said.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and she dropped Holly’s legs, stood her up, and pushed her onto Fern.

“Hold her,” she said, taking her bag and tromping to the phone cubby to call the cab.

By the time she came out, Willow was waiting for her.

“Nurse,” she said. “I’ve got some blood and I’m worried.”

“Put in a pad,” Nurse Kent said. “I’ll check it when I get back.”

“It’s a lot of blood,” Willow said, sounding nervous.

“Put in two pads,” Nurse Kent told her.

Fern and Nurse Kent walked Holly to the front door. Nurse Kent took most of her weight.

“Don’t want…to go…” Holly panted. “Don’t want…to go…”

“Nurse!” Violet called down the hall. “Iris really doesn’t look so good.”

“I don’t have time for this,” Nurse Kent muttered.

“I’ve already got two pads in,” Willow said, following them down the hall. “What if something’s wrong from when I got hit with those rocks? What if I’m bleeding to death?”

Fern remembered Myrtle.

“You’re not bleeding to death,” Nurse Kent said, but she hesitated briefly.

“I’m really scared,” Willow pressed on.

“Has it soaked through both pads?” Nurse Kent asked.

“Nurse!” Violet called again. “Iris is breathing real funny now!”

Hanging between Nurse Kent and Fern, Holly whimpered in pain.

“Don’t want…” she panted, “…to go…”

“It’s a lot of blood,” Willow said.

Outside, a pair of headlights swept the front of the Home, and Minute Man Cab was there, idling at the bottom of the porch steps. Nurse Kent looked from it, to Willow, up the hall to Violet, to Holly, then back to Fern.

“Help her to the cab,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

“Yes, Nurse,” Zinnia said, materializing beside them. “I’ve got her bag.”

She held up the paper bag from Holly’s room. Nurse Kent traded places with Zinnia and let her take Holly’s weight, then she was striding up the hall, Willow at her side, heading upstairs for Iris.

“Come on,” Zinnia told Fern, getting one arm around Holly.

Together they slow-walked Holly out onto the front porch. The screen door banged shut behind them, and a storm of crickets greeted them from the dark. They took the steps one at a time, Holly gasping at each one.

Zinnia opened the back door of the idling taxi and the inside light came on. Immediately, bugs swarmed it. The driver was colored. Zinnia gave Fern a significant look.

“She needs the hospital,” Fern said.

I go home tomorrow , she thought. My dad is already in town. I’m going back to my real life.

“Just help me get her in the cab,” Zinnia pleaded. “Violet and Willow are helping.”

Fern didn’t understand.

“Iris is fine,” Zinnia said. “Willow isn’t bleeding. They’re all helping.”

“This isn’t a joke,” Fern said.

“Y’all need a hand getting her in?” the driver asked.

“No, sir,” Fern said.

“Don’t…let him…” Holly gasped. “…help…me…”

I go home tomorrow , Fern thought. I’ll never have to think about these girls again, or the witches, or preachers putting their babies inside children.

“Slide in and I’ll pass you Holly,” Fern said. “Then we’ll wait for Nurse.”

She was the only one acting like an adult. Zinnia slid in and Fern handed her Holly and they fumbled for a moment, then Zinnia pulled her along the back seat. Holly tried her best to lie down but there wasn’t enough room.

“Ready?” the driver asked.

“Yes, sir,” Zinnia said, and she held out something so only Fern could see: the vouchers. “We’re ready.”

How had she gotten them?

Zinnia gave Fern a hard look and Fern looked at Holly squirming on the back seat.

“Fern…” Holly whined. “Please…”

Never start anything you can’t finish.

“You coming or staying?” the driver called.

Fern swung herself into the cab and slammed the door.

“Coming,” she said.

The driver shifted into gear and pulled away, crunching dirt.

“Hospital?” he asked.

Zinnia started to say something from the other side of Holly, but Fern cut her off.

“Yes, sir,” Fern said.

It was hot in the taxicab and Fern’s thighs stuck to the vinyl seat. Holly felt damp against her. She cracked the window. Outside, dark trees went by. Nurse Kent would come downstairs in a minute and discover they were gone, but they were going to the hospital. They weren’t doing anything wrong. She could say Holly was getting closer and she’d been worried and she’d misunderstood her instructions. She couldn’t tell Nurse Kent she was scared Zinnia might hijack the cab.

“Got your voucher?” the cabdriver asked. “I catch hell if I don’t get the voucher.”

Zinnia passed it over the seat. Fern watched her. Between them, Holly panted. Fern felt Holly’s hand smack into her leg, searching for her hand, and she put it in Holly’s and felt their fingers twine together. Holly’s hand was so hot Fern could barely stand it.

“Be there in twenty minutes,” the driver said. “Tell that girl to hold on.”

Holly’s body tensed. Fern’s stomach muscles clutched in sympathy but there was nothing in there for them to grip. A white cinder-block church flashed by and on its portable sign out front it read He is coming .

Holly moaned, loud.

“Is that baby coming?” the driver asked, fear in his voice. “Don’t do that in my car, little girl. Wait till we get to the hospital.”

“Hold on, Holly,” Zinnia said. “It’ll be over soon.”

Zinnia clearly hadn’t had a baby, Fern thought. Holly looked like a wrung-out rag on the seat between them. Fern wanted to do something for her so she dug in her pocket and pulled out her dad’s wedding ring, then she grabbed Holly’s left wrist and slid the ring over her finger. Fern held it up in front of Holly’s face.

“See this?” she said. “When you get to the hospital, that shows people you’re married. They’ll treat you better.”

In pain, Holly’s face looked even younger. Fern thought about the nurses shaving her rough, giving her an enema, leaving her alone for hours, cutting her open, pulling out her baby, giving it to Reverend Jerry. She thought about Holly going home, being sent up to Reverend Jerry’s house, watching Reverend Jerry take down her baby’s diaper.

In the end, he won. They always win.

“Do you know Hagar Sunday?” Zinnia asked the driver.

He looked at her in the rearview mirror, then put his eyes back on the road.

“Who?” he asked. “Hagar? Who works at the Home?”

Zinnia looked at Fern as she answered.

“Yes, sir,” she said, and wet her lips. “You know her?”

“She’s my cousin’s neighbor,” he said. “Lots of people know Mrs. Sunday.”

“Well,” Zinnia said, keeping her eyes on Fern. “We need to pick her up, right, Fern?”

“We what?” he asked, and the cab wobbled on the road.

They always win.

Fern saw the driver’s eyes flick to her in the rearview mirror.

“What’s she saying?” he asked her.

Holly’s hand tightened in hers. Fern’s mouth opened.

“We’re supposed to pick her up and take her with us,” she heard her mouth say. “That’s what they told me. An adult has to check us in.”

“You know where she lives, don’t you?” Zinnia prompted.

“?’Course I do,” he said. “But no one said anything about two stops.”

“Because we’re not stopping,” Fern said. “You know Hagar, just slow down and she’ll catch up.”

A little road passed before he answered.

“I was told to take y’all to the hospital,” he said.

“Hagar’s going to be angry if we don’t get her,” Zinnia said. “You’ll never hear the end of it. I bet she’s waiting outside right now.”

He looked at them in his rearview mirror, then reached for the handset of his radio.

“Dispatch,” he said. “This is Darius in Eleven.”

“Go ahead, Eleven,” a woman’s voice said in the night.

“Is there a second stop on the trip from Wellwood?” he asked.

They all listened in the dark as more road passed.

“Wellwood to Flagler,” the woman said. “One stop. Paying by voucher.”

“Thanks, Maryann,” he said, and hooked his handset back on the dash.

“You heard the lady.” He shrugged. “Hagar might mean to meet y’all there.”

Zinnia and Fern looked at each other over Holly.

“Well,” Fern said. “I guess that’s your choice.”

“Not what I would do,” Zinnia said. “I sure wouldn’t want Hagar angry at me.”

“She’s going to be angry at Nurse, too,” Fern said, talking to Zinnia loud enough to include the driver. “Angry at us, angry at you. Pretty much angry at everyone.”

“It’s not worth my job,” Darius said. “I go where they tell me. That’s it.”

Fern made her voice sound like someone facing a firing squad and refusing the blindfold.

“Well,” she said. “I bet Hagar can hold a grudge for years.”

Road flew by on either side of the cab. The white line down the center unrolled. Something started to click and Fern saw the driver putting on his turn signal.

“We’ll go by her house,” he said. “And she can jump in. But if she’s not out front, I’m not waiting.”

***

They took so many turns down so many country roads that Fern and Zinnia had no idea where they were. Darius focused on his headlights, trying to stay on the rutted dirt road. There weren’t any streetlights out here. Holly whimpered between them on the back seat.

“It…hurts…” she panted, again and again.

Fern saw the driver’s worried eyes in the rearview mirror.

“She’d better not have that baby in my car.”

Fern was starting to think that might be exactly what was about to happen.

Finally, they got down a narrow dirt road that came out in a clearing. At the other end, two people sat in ragged mismatched armchairs on a wooden platform under a bare lightbulb getting battered by moths. One of them stood as they pulled in and Fern saw it was Hagar. She felt a soul-deep relief they’d gotten there before the baby.

The taxicab had barely stopped before Fern had the door open and her feet in the dirt.

“What do you want?” Hagar shouted at the taxi. “Get off our land.”

“Hagar!” Fern called.

She couldn’t tell if Hagar recognized her or not.

“It’s Fern,” she prompted. “From the Home.”

The other person stood up. It was Miriam.

“Miriam,” Fern called. “It’s Fern.”

Miriam stood at the top of the sagging wooden steps beside her sister, outlined in the bright bare bulb behind them.

“You getting in, Mrs. Sunday?” the taxi driver called. “This girl’s about to have her baby.”

“Darius?” Hagar asked. “I wouldn’t have you drive me on a merry-go-round.”

Darius shot a look at Fern, then looked back at Hagar.

“These girls say I’m supposed to pick you up,” he told her. “Take you to the hospital with them.”

“What girls?” Hagar barked. “These girls? Why’re you listening to what these girls say?”

“You said—” Darius began.

Fern cut him off.

“Hagar,” she said. “You have to help us. Holly’s having her baby and she won’t go to the hospital. She wants you.”

“Is that child stupid?” Hagar exploded. “I’m not touching her baby. She needs to get to the doctor.”

A tight, high scream came from the back window of the taxicab. Darius looked over the back of the seat, then called out the window.

“Come on if you’re coming,” he said. “This girl’s about to ruin my upholstery.”

By now Miriam had come down the steps and across the dirt yard. Fern stepped aside to let her look in the back of the taxi.

“I’m not fooling around,” Darius said to Fern. “Get in the car or I’ll leave you.”

“Get these children out of my yard and take them to the hospital,” Hagar snapped from the front porch. “You’ve got no sense bringing them here.”

“They told me to!” he said.

“A full-grown man being bossed by little girls?” Hagar asked, letting the implication hang.

Miriam stood and gestured for Hagar, who came instantly, complaining the entire time.

“You’re as weak as your daddy and not half as good-looking,” she said, and the insults flew off her tongue like birds leaving a tree. “Dumb as a cow’s knuckle, letting yourself get pushed around by a pair of little girls.”

She reached Miriam and bent over Holly in the back seat. Through the door Fern saw her reach up under Holly’s dress. When she straightened, Hagar looked more serious.

“We don’t have time,” she said. “Get her in the house. Can you carry her?”

This was addressed to Fern.

“Yes, ma’am,” she said.

“What’m I supposed to do?” Darius asked. “I’m supposed to take them to the hospital. Man, I can’t lose this job. Come on and get in, they’re going to Flagler.”

Zinnia pushed from inside and eased Holly out into Miriam’s arms. Fern stepped over to help.

“Take your taxicab on to the hospital,” Hagar said. “I can’t believe I have to do all your thinking for you. Act like you’re letting them out, then drive away and turn in your voucher, and don’t say boo.”

Miriam showed Fern how to make a hammock with their hands and they cradled Holly between them. She lolled bonelessly in the swing they made for her, feet skimming the ground, hands gripping their shoulders.

“But they’ll see no one gets out,” Darius complained.

Holly’s weight made Fern’s arms strain but they were gliding toward the platform fast and Fern realized it was attached to a wall behind it, and those unpainted, mismatched boards were the front of Hagar’s house.

“They won’t notice if any girls get out of your taxicab or not,” Hagar snarled at Darius. “They don’t see these girls. I can’t tell you how much they don’t see these girls. Now go on.”

Fern put her foot on the porch steps and they creaked loudly as they went up. Moths tapped the hot light bulb overhead. The night was so still Fern could feel it warm the top of her scalp.

“But—” Darius started.

“Go on out of here with your nonsense,” Hagar yelled. “I’ve run out of patience. I’ve got work to do and it’s already late.”

Miriam bumped open the door of their house with one hip as Darius roared away up the lane and the sound of his engine got quieter behind the sound of crickets and the sound of Hagar cursing as she stomped across the yard.

“What’re you waiting for?” she asked. “That girl’s not having her baby on my porch. Get her inside.”