Thirty-Two
Trudy
Trudy met Emily at the end of the driveway, and the two of them headed straight to the bedroom while Leta Pearl and Pete were distracted with carving a jack-o-lantern.
At the kitchen table, Pete’s hands were slimy from scooping pumpkin guts, an activity Trudy was happy to skip; the earthy smell and the cold, gelatinous strings gave her the heebie-jeebies.
Leta Pearl was banging away on the side of the Magnavox trying to get a clearer picture of Phil Donahue.
“Hang on, Pete. I’m coming,” she called.
“Lord help me, I’m calling to get cable tomorrow. ”
“Sister! What’s going on?” Emily always knew when something was up. Sister sense. “Spill it.”
Trudy paced the floor of their bedroom, her palm on her forehead. “Haskel’s building me a house.”
“And that’s bad? Because . . . ?”
“It has a ridiculously large room for Pete.”
“Okay.”
“Way too big for a six-year-old.” Trudy stopped pacing and looked at Emily. “There’s a bathtub that’s big enough for two.”
“That sounds fantastic!”
Trudy sat down next to her sister and squeezed her pinky around Emily’s harder than she’d ever squeezed. “Zimple’s Dimples?”
“Zimple’s Dimples,” Emily said.
Trudy whispered, somberly, as if confessing to murder, “I kissed Shug Meechum.”
Emily blinked a couple of times, perhaps waiting for the punchline. “Guess you better make that a bathtub for three.”
“Emily.” Trudy jerked her pinky away and stood. “This is serious.”
“Okay, fine,” Emily said. “Tell me about this kiss. How’d it happen? Was it in the rain ? Please tell me it was in the rain!”
Trudy shook her head. “Sunny. But on the lake. In his boat.”
“Almost as good as the rain.” Emily studied Trudy’s face. “You’re in love .”
“No.” Trudy held up a finger and guffawed.
“You’re in love with Shug Meechum!”
“No. No. No. Absolutely not. I am in love with Haskel Moody. My fiancé!”
Emily shook her head. “I don’t know, True.” She stood, held Trudy’s cheeks, inspected her again. “I haven’t seen you this lit up since Pete was born. It’s right there in your eyes. Your face said everything the minute I pulled up. You couldn’t wait to get in here and spill your guilty little guts.”
“I repeat, I am engaged to Haskel.” Trudy pulled away and paced the room again.
“Which is not the same as married,” Emily said.
“No. That’s wrong, Emily. On so many levels.”
“Why?”
“Because Haskel is perfect.”
“No one is perfect.”
“Haskel’s close, and you know what I mean. He’s kind and sweet and handsome.”
“Handsome fades. And kind and sweet are just polite words for boring .”
“Emily, I’m serious. Don’t you think I could . . . should love him?”
“Well ... Now I’m confused because a few seconds ago, you said that you did .”
Trudy rolled her eyes. “But isn’t Haskel the best thing for Pete?
I’m definitely doing the best thing for Pete.
We won’t have to worry about money, and Haskel has connections with powerful people all over Alabama, all over the country really.
I mean, come on, Emily, you have to admit, if you could have all that, wouldn’t you do it? ”
“With Haskel the Rascal?” Emily shrugged. “Sure, I guess it could be nice to marry a friend.”
“Exactly!” Trudy said. “Haskel and I are friends , and isn’t that really important?
We have a good time. We authentically enjoy one another’s company, and even if he’s much more infatuated with me than I am with him .
..” Trudy took in a deep breath and sighed it out.
“Does it really matter that there’s no . .. no ... ?”
“Tingle in the tingly parts?”
Trudy plopped herself down on the bed. “I was going to say spark .” She grabbed a pillow, hugged it close to her chest, and looked at Emily’s sympathetic eyes. “But don’t sparks fizzle? Shouldn’t I skip the frenzy and just get to the grownup part of love?”
“Honey, that frenzy is the best part. Oh, I can’t get enough of it: that passion of a new man. It’s what I love about being a stewardess. The excitement, especially if it’s in secret ...” Emily whispered, “Like when they’re married.”
“Emily! You’ve not done that, have you?”
“You’re one to judge,” Emily noted. “Fooling around with the football coach behind the superintendent’s back. Sounds like an X-rated plot,” Emily shook her hips and sang, “ Boom-Chicka Bow-Wow! ”
“Stop it!” Trudy punched Emily in the shoulder. “Shug and I didn’t fool around. We kissed. Once. Rather innocently in fact.”
Emily positioned herself on the bed next to Trudy. “All I’m saying is, that frenzy is the first necessary step, the sweet juice of the almighty love fruit. It’s how you create memories that keep things going during the ‘grownup part of love,’ to use your tragic description.”
“I don’t think Shug Meechum will ever grow up.”
“Maybe you’re grown up enough for the both of you. Maybe it balances out, sort of like salt on a watermelon.”
Trudy sighed. Emily might be right; perhaps Trudy and Shug could balance one another.
But she quickly dismissed the idea. What was she thinking?
She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she broke Haskel’s heart, throwing his life into chaos right in the middle of the campaign, after he’d paid for a new house.
Besides, Shug Meechum was cut from the same quarterback cloth as Jimmie.
What if Shug decided he was trapped and lonely one day, the way Jimmie had?
What if he started drinking? She’d never really known for certain: did Jimmie’s broken knee and dismissal from the team at Alabama really turn him?
Was that it? Or would the same thing have happened if he’d never gone to Tuscaloosa, never gotten hurt?
“I learned my lesson about sparks and frenzy with Jimmie. And Emily, I have to play it safe; as a mother, I don’t get the luxury of frenzy. I have to go with who I know will be there. The one where no fire has to burn out because nothing was ever really kindled in the first place.”
“Are you listening to yourself?” Emily wrinkled up her nose. “Trudy! You just made a case for marrying someone with whom you’ve not kindled anything.”
“It’s been kindled for him. I simply need to ignite something for myself. That’s all. I just need to make that spark happen. Don’t you think it will? Don’t you think I can? Make that happen?”
“No, Sister. I don’t think you can manufacture love.”
“Can’t you? I mean Haskel really loves me.”
Emily rolled her eyes. “Only because he’s eating Mama’s biscuits.” Instantly, Emily sucked in a breath like an Electrolux set on high . She covered her mouth and her eyes shot wide open.
“What?” Trudy’s eyebrows pinched tight. “What does that have to do with—”
“Nothing.” Emily shook her head. “Absolutely nothing. It was dumb, some weird Freudian slip.”
But sister sense worked both ways; Trudy, too, could always tell when something was up with Emily. And something huge was most certainly behind what Emily had just blurted out. “What do you mean Haskel loves me because he’s eating Mama’s biscuits?”
“You’re right. It doesn’t make any sense at all.” The corner of Emily’s lip started to twitch.
“You’re twitching.”
Emily’s hand shot up to cover her notorious tick. Everyone close to her knew it was the sure sign Emily was lying.
“Sit.” Trudy pointed to the bed and Emily obeyed. “Talk.”
Emily sighed heavily. “Okay. Fine. But you should sit too for this.” She guided Trudy to the bed beside her, threaded her pinky through Trudy’s. “This is like a Zimple’s Dimples times a billion, times infinity. Do you understand me?”
Trudy shook her head. “No. So spill it.”
“This is going to sound so completely unbelievable. In fact, it’s probably best if you don’t believe it. It’s like something from The Twilight Zone or one of Daddy’s ghost stories he used to tell when we went camping.”
“Okay?”
“Mama’s biscuits do things”—Emily peered into Trudy’s eyes as if hoping Trudy could simply glean the rest of the story on her own—“to men.”
Trudy scrunched up her face and eyed her sister’s lip; it had stopped twitching. “Like what?” Trudy asked.
“Feel things they might not normally feel, do things they might not normally do. Do you understand?”
Trudy shook her head. “No.”
“Mama’s biscuits are made with a secret ingredient, an old Aberdeen woman recipe from the mountain.”
“Emily.” Trudy jerked her pinky away. “This is ridiculous.”
“It causes men to fall in love. They start cleaning the garage. Taking out the garbage without complaining. Sometimes, they become so rapt they simply must make love right then and there.”
“Emily.” Trudy blew out a sigh of frustration and stood. “I’m trying to have a serious conversation with my big sister. I’m confessing something horrible I’ve done. This is not the time for some sort of Halloween nonsense.”
“It’s not a—”
“Stop making light of this! I just need to know, Emily, do I say something to Shug? Do I tell Haskel about this kiss?”
“Definitely not.” Emily stood to face her sister and forced their pinkies back together. “And if I were you, I’d ask myself: Are there any men, Trudy, in your life, eating mama’s biscuits, and then professing their undying love to you?”
Every Tuesday. Without fail. Haskel has come over for biscuits and coffee with Leta Pearl.
He’d been doing it for months, and they both insisted that this ritual happen.
Trudy had somehow made her way to the window and was looking outside at Pete riding his tricycle in circles on the patio, his interest in the jack-o-lantern apparently having waned.
“Pete eats Mama’s biscuits. Are you telling me that—”
“Pete’s got Aberdeen blood,” Emily shrugged. “They don’t do anything to him.”
Trudy grunted and rolled her eyes. “Well, now I’ve heard it all.”
“And even if he wasn’t an Aberdeen, they must be a grown man. Pete’s simply not yet of the age for what the Aberdeen Mountain Oil does.”
“It has a name ?” Trudy sniggered. “Aberdeen Mountain Oil? Come on, Em, that’s enough. I’m certain if Mama was making magical love biscuits, I would have learned about it by now.”
“Not if Mama kept it from you.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Because you’re such a goody-goody.”
Trudy grunted again and rolled her eyes. This was becoming truly offensive.
“I don’t mean to be ugly, Sister,” Emily said. “But, let’s face it, ever since your disaster with Jimmie Beaumont, you do have a slight tendency to assume the moral high ground and elevate your nose a bit.”
Trudy touched her nose. “I have to follow the rules!
“Lower your voice,” Emily placed her arm around Trudy’s shoulders.
“I am a mother .”
“And a very good one.” Emily squeezed her sister.
“Let go of me.” Trudy jerked away. “You need to grow up, Emily. The world isn’t just some fantasyland amusement park.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We can’t all fly around the world avoiding reality. Some of us have to work at real jobs and raise children.”
“Wow.” Emily stepped back. “Okay.”
“Magical biscuits? You think this is all a joke?”
“Look, Trudy. I’m sorry, I was only trying to—”
“Grow up, Emily!”
Trudy expected better, needed better; a joke or two, yes, to keep things light the way Emily does. But this was too far. Aberdeen Mountain Oil? This was certainly a fantastic concoction, even for Emily, and it hurt Trudy’s feelings deeply.
Trudy realized tears had wet her cheeks, so she wiped them off.
“You know what? Forget I said anything at all. I thought you would understand, but if you didn’t like Haskel, well, maybe you should have spoken up before we got engaged!
There’s no reason to make a mockery of it with some outrageous story. ”
Emily stood still for a moment, drew in a breath, and let it out slowly.
“I apologize. You’re right. And the reason I haven’t spoken up is because I like Haskel and because you seem happy.
Like you, I love the idea of Pete having a father like him, and I want to see you two succeed. That’s the truth.”
Trudy and Emily sat next to one another on the bed, instinctively their pinkies twisted up again.
“Really?”
“Yes. Really.” Emily took Trudy’s head and laid it on her shoulder. “I also think it’s really cool that you’re gonna be married to the mayor, and that maybe Barbara Beaumont will finally die of a conniption because of it.”
Trudy released a half-suppressed laugh. The two sat silent for a moment. Trudy thought about Haskel, how disappointed he would be if he knew what she’d done. “Maybe this was a test?”
“A test?” Emily said.
“Like, maybe I had one lingering question about whether Haskel was the right one for me, and so I had to go and see for myself. Like, if I never kissed Shug, I would never know the truth about how I feel. So now that I have kissed him, I’ve gotten it out of my system, and I can, like, move on. Right?”
Emily and Trudy eyed one another, their pinkies tightened. “Okay. Experiment complete. So, what’s the truth, chemistry teacher?”
Trudy’s eyes started to sting. She drew in a shaky breath as tears broke over her eyelids. The truth was, she had to find a way to forget about Coach Meechum and fall in love—real love—with Haskel Moody.