Chapter 13
“Endora, are you sure you’re up to this?” Willa Rose asked. “I can finalize everything myself with help from Rae and Luna. You had twins less than forty-eight hours ago and haven’t even seen a doctor yet.”
“Yasmin says they are thriving, and I’m right on track for healing.
As soon as the roads are clear, we’ll go to the hospital and get checked out, but right now, I can sit on a pillow and help you go over the plans,” Endora answered.
“Parker is very happy to watch Sarah and Stella sleep. After the program on Sunday, we are going home. Mama wants us to stay a couple of weeks, but the girls need to get adjusted to their own space.”
Willa Rose opened her sketch pad to show Endora what she had in mind. “Two little blond girls must bring back memories for her.”
“Yes, they do,” Mary Jane said as she joined them.
“Did Endora tell you that Ivy wants to write books someday? I would love to mentor her, and I can do it from a distance, but…” She paused.
“I would like to see her finish her education in a public school and then go on to college. If she goes with the carnival, I’m afraid…
” A hard knock on the back door stopped her midsentence. “That will be Zeb.”
She hurried across the kitchen and swung the door open. “Come in. Sweet tea or coffee?”
Zeb removed his coat and hung it on the rack. “Snow is melting, but it’s still cold enough to aggravate this old hip.”
“Can we get you some coffee or sweet tea?” Mary Jane asked.
“Coffee, please, and…”
Ivy peeked around the corner. “And black like you like to see the books at the end of the tour every year. Not running in the red. I’ll get it for you. Do you want something, Mary Jane?”
“You are a good kid,” Zeb said.
“Coffee is good for me, too, and I like mine with a spoon of sugar,” Mary Jane answered. “Zeb, come on into the kitchen and have a seat.”
Ivy brought two coffees and a glass of sweet tea for herself to the table and sat down across from Zeb.
Zeb held the warm mug in his hands for several seconds before he took a sip. “Finn said the roads aren’t clear, but the bridges are open, so we think we can probably get out of your way tomorrow.”
“Could you possibly stay a couple of extra days?” Mary Jane asked. “Our Christmas program is Sunday, and we’d love to have you and the animals here for the event. Plus, we want to have a big supper for the whole carnival in the barn as a farewell party for all y’all.”
“We figured you’d want us out of your hair as soon as possible, but if we can be a help for your program, we’d be glad to stay over until Monday morning,” Zeb answered.
Willa Rose started to say something, but Endora shook her head. “We can’t see around the corner into the kitchen, but we can hear what’s being said. Mama is about to ask Zeb about Ivy living here.”
Willa Rose was reminded of all the times she hid in the shadows and eavesdropped on adult conversations.
Like the day before Erica had stormed out of the house with what she could throw into a big, black garbage bag.
Willa Rose still shivered at what she overheard that morning when her mother and sister were arguing in the kitchen.
Erica had said that she was not a Thomas, and she was going to change her name back to her birth name, and that she was never coming back to Poetry.
Vada was crying so hard that Willa Rose finally left her hiding place and tried to console her mother, but all that did was make Erica scream at her and then stomp off upstairs.
She did come back to Poetry a few times.
There was hope when she arrived, but it always left with her, and Vada was sad for days afterward.
Willa Rose usually wished that her sister would stay away.
“Zeb, since you are the nearest thing to a relative that Ivy has, I want to talk to you about letting her stay here at the Paradise when the carnival leaves,” Mary Jane said.
He shook his head. “I don’t know about that. I promised her grandpa on his deathbed I would take care of her.”
“Is there legal paperwork, like a will or a trust fund?” Mary Jane asked.
“None of that,” Zeb said. “Just a handshake between me and my old friend. He didn’t have anything when he died. I’d been helping him pay for the medicine he needed, and he lived in my rental houses when we weren’t on the road. I guess it would be up to Ivy, not to me.”
Mary Jane stood up and brought a platter of cookies to the table. “A few years back I filed all the paperwork to foster children,” she said as she sat back down. “Help yourself. Sometimes coffee sloshes around in my stomach if I don’t have something to soak it up.”
“Thank you.” Zeb reached for a cookie and took a bite. “How does this work legally?”
“I called the caseworker who handled everything when I wanted to foster a child,” Mary Jane said.
“She says my standing paperwork is still good, so it would be legal, but there would have to be a court date for you to relinquish whatever rights you have to be her guardian. I will put Ivy in the public school where my daughter, Rae, teaches. When she graduates, I promise that I will send her to the college or university of her choice if you will let her stay here with us.”
Mary Jane reminds me of Mama. She would have taken in a homeless child if Erica hadn’t broken her heart so badly.
Tears welled up in Willa Rose’s eyes. Mary Jane wanted to take Ivy and give her a good life, and Erica talked about giving her baby away.
“What do you want, Ivy?” Zeb asked.
“The carnival has been my home my whole life,” she answered. “I’m third generation, and I don’t know anything else. But Finn has already said that I won’t have a job when we get back to Oklahoma.”
“What if I told him that he had to keep you?”
“You will be laid up with your hip surgery, and then retired,” Ivy said. “Finn doesn’t like me, and to tell the truth, I don’t like him much either. I don’t want to be where I’m not wanted. So, the answer is yes, I would like to stay here. These people have made me feel like family.”
“Then I guess I’m fine with that. But remember, Ivy, we are only an hour away from here. You will be welcome there anytime you want to come home, and you visit us anytime, and whenever things get settled, I’ll come back for the court thing.”
“Yes, sir.” She beamed and circled around the table to hug him.
“Yes!” Endora pumped her fist into the air. “Now let’s go over the plans for the program.”
Willa Rose opened the book, but her mind stayed on what she’d just heard. Would she be willing to take in a basically homeless child? Was the Universe trying to tell her that she could be a mother even if she couldn’t give birth to a child?
“You’ll have to be in complete charge,” Endora was saying when Willa Rose tuned in again.
“We salvaged enough curtains from the church to use one last time. There’s enough family to meet up on Saturday night and help move things from the yard here at the Paradise to the staging area.
Daddy says he’ll get the sleigh put in the middle part for the older folks to gather around. ”
“The cutouts of Frosty and Santa can go on the first part,” Willa Rose said.
“And the back part will have the manger, the camel and sheep,” Endora added. “We’ve got this all down well enough.”
Willa Rose made a few notations on her sketch pad and closed it. “I’ll be here tomorrow morning right after breakfast.”
“Come for breakfast,” Endora said. “Tripp and Hank have already volunteered to help, and Remy and Parker will be here. Your job is to give orders and make sure everything is ready for Sunday.”
“I can do that,” Willa Rose said.
***
Tripp picked up the phone when it rang, saw that it was Bernie, and answered it on the third ring. “Hello, Miz Bernie, how are you today?”
“You better get to the Paradise quick. I need help,” she said in a frantic tone.
“What’s happening?” Tripp asked, but Bernie had already hung up on him. “Hank, something is going on at the Paradise,” he said as he shoved his arms down into his coat. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Hank waved him away. “I’ll hold down the fort. I don’t expect many folks will come out today anyway.”
“Thanks,” Tripp said and rushed out to his truck.
His mind ran in fast circles. Had something happened to Willa Rose, and the family needed him to break the news to Hank?
From the way Bernie was talking, it might even be that Endora or the new twins needed help getting to the hospital.
The roads weren’t cleared yet, but he would do his dead level best to get her there if that was the issue.
He was careful to drive in the ruts already made by tires, but there was still a layer of ice under the snow that made him feel like he was hydroplaning most of the way.
His phone rang again when he came to a long, greasy slide beside the back door.
He picked it up and answered it without even checking the caller ID.
“Don’t stop there. Come on down here. This is where the emergency is,” Bernie shouted into his ear.
He put the truck back in gear and drove through snow down to her trailer. She looked like a homeless person, all wrapped up in a patchwork quilt and with the wind blowing her red hair across her face.
“Do you need me to take you to the hospital? Why didn’t you call Joe Clay? He was closer,” he yelled as he jumped out of the truck.
“Do you really think I’d go anywhere looking like this?” she barked. “It’s Pepper, not me.”
“Does he need a vet?”
“No, he needs rescuing. Brodie isn’t answering his phone, and neither is Audrey.
You are next in line so it’s your job to get that pesky pig and save my dog,” Bernie told him.
“I’ve had enough of Pansy leading my precious Pepper into trouble.
For all I care, you can roast her for supper tonight.
They’re under the snow and…” She pointed.
“There he is now. Every now and then he pokes his head up for air, but he won’t backtrack and come to me. ”