9. Best Friends
CHAPTER NINE
BEST FRIENDS
Payne
Twenty-seven years ago
“Payne, darling, this is Bess and her daughter, Ruby. Bess will work here on business days maintaining our home and laundry. Ruby is your age and will accompany her mother. When you both start school in the fall, she will come here and spend the afternoons until her mother is done with her duties. Please greet her the way I taught you.”
“Hello. It’s nice to meet you.” I stare up at Bess who looks nothing like Mama.
Her hair is pulled back so tight, I’m not sure how she blinks.
I’ve never seen a grown up with holes in their pants.
When I get a hole in my pants, Mama gets mad and throws them away.
Bess even has a picture on her shirt of a big red tongue. What a funny shirt.
Mama turns to Bess and sighs. “We will need to do something about your uniform. Our employees dress in all black, and your shirt must always be tucked in.”
The little girl pipes up. “But it’s the Rolling Stones.”
“Shut up, Ruby.” My eyes widen when the housekeeper snaps her fingers at her daughter before slapping a hand over her mouth. Bess turns to Mama. “I don’t have all black clothes. I’ll have to wait for my first paycheck.”
“I suppose that will do.” Mama does that thing with her eyes that she always does right before she leaves the room mad. “We have a tutor three days a week for our son. Your daughter is welcome to join them. If she pays attention, she might learn something.”
Bess finally takes her hand off the girl’s mouth. “Thank you.”
“Payne is to spend thirty minutes a day, twice a day, with his studies. When I’m not here, it will be under your purview to make sure that happens.
” Mama turns and looks down her nose at me.
“Bess is going to watch you when I’m not here.
At least you’ll have a playmate to keep you busy.
I expect you to follow our rules and not push boundaries. Do you understand, Payne?”
I nod. “Yes, ma’am.”
“What’s purview?” Ruby asks.
Bess snaps her fingers again but doesn’t slap a hand over her mouth this time. “Shh.”
Mama ignores Ruby’s question and keeps talking to me. “Show the little girl your activity room, the grounds, and kitchen. But she isn’t welcome in the rest of the estate.”
I look at the girl with a stain on her shirt and flip flops on her feet that look like something chewed on one of them. Her hair hangs down to her back and looks soft even though it’s not brushed.
Mama doesn’t let me eat breakfast until she sprays water all over my head and combs my hair flat.
Mama turns to Bess. “Follow me. I will give you a tour of the estate and go over my expectations.”
Mama turns and her heels click on the marble, but Bess doesn’t follow. She bends at the waist and sticks a pointy finger in Ruby’s face. “Do not get in trouble and mess this up for me.”
Ruby shrugs.
Mama would put me in the timeout chair if I did that.
Bess shakes her head and hurries to catch up to Mama, leaving me and the girl alone at the bottom of the staircase.
Ruby tips her head back to look all the way up to the ceiling before she turns in a circle, stops, and looks at me again. I’ve never seen anyone with eyes like hers.
“Your house is really, really ginormic.”
“Gigantic?” I don’t look around. We just moved here, and it is big. Bigger than our last one. No one lives near us, which means I have no one to talk to or wave to when I go outside. “It’s big, but it’s boring.”
“Why’s it boring?” she demands.
I mimic what she just did and shrug. “Because I’m by myself unless my teacher is here.”
“I’ve never had a teacher,” she states. “Whatcha wanna do?”
“I don’t know.”
Then she smiles. “Are you fast?”
I frown. “I can run.”
Her smile gets bigger. It’s almost ear to ear. “I’m fast. I bet you can’t catch me.”
“Why would I want to catch you? You’re right here.”
And with that, she kicks off her dirty shoes and picks them up. What she does next surprises me.
She slaps me on the shoulder with the chewed-up flip flop and yells in her outside voice. “Tag! You’re it!”
Then she turns and races up the stairs faster than I ever have.
“Hey! Come back!”
She doesn’t stop. She’s almost to the top of the first staircase before I realize I’m supposed to follow. This girl is as weird as her mother’s shirt.
Does she really want me to catch her?
As if I asked the words out loud, she looks over her shoulder. “Come on! Don’t be a dummy-dum-dum. Catch me!”
I finally move, because I’m not dumb. My teacher always says how smart I am.
I’m halfway up the stairs when I see her turn in the opposite way of my activity room.
Oh no. She’s headed toward my parents’ part of the house. I hardly ever go there.
“Ruby, wait!”
She doesn’t stop racing through the halls screaming even though she’s never been here before and doesn’t know where she’s going. “You’re it! You’re it!”
She disappears into Mama’s sitting room. I don’t know what to do. I don’t have any friends here, not that Mama let me have friends come over to our old house.
Ruby wasn’t kidding when she said she was fast. I’m breathing hard by the time I run through the doors. She’s nowhere to be seen.
“Ruby,” I whisper. “We’re not supposed to be in here.”
I look around and head into the bedroom. Their new furniture is big and dark, and everything is covered in the color of mashed potatoes but not gravy.
“Ruby!” I whisper again. “Where did you go?”
She doesn’t answer, but I hear a giggle.
I enter through the tall doors to their bathroom that’s almost as big as their bedroom. Ruby’s chewed up flip flop is upside down on the floor. That’s when I see her yellow hair pop up and down from inside the bathtub.
I walk over to the tub. When she sees me, she erupts into giggles that take over her whole body. And she’s not quiet about it. I’ve never seen anyone laugh like that.
“You found me!” she exclaims. “You could be faster, but good job, Payne-Wayne-Slayne-Cayne! Get in.”
I turn around to see if anyone followed us.
If for no other reason than to hide so I don’t get in trouble, I hurl myself over the edge and duck down. We’re both sitting criss-cross applesauce facing each other. Ruby proves to be the weirdest girl I know, which isn’t that weird since I don’t know any other girls. “Do you have a best friend?”
I shake my head and do my best to keep up with her. “I don’t have any friends.”
“Me either. I mean I did, but Mama and I just moved here. We live with my Grandma because we don’t have our own house.” She leans forward to grab my hands in hers and pulls me so close, we’re almost nose to nose. “Since we don’t have any friends, do you wanna be best friends?”
I shrug. “I guess.”
She squeezes my hands. “That means you always have to pick me before anyone else. And if someone is being mean to me, you have to stand up for me. And you always have to be nice to me, and if you have candy you have to share halvesies.”
I shake my head. “Mama says candy is bad for me.”
Her eyes widen in horror. “Then I’ll share mine. And I’ll do all those things for you. But I won’t slow down to let you catch me. That’s no fun. You need to be faster.”
I nod because I like the idea of candy and knowing someone has to be nice to me no matter what. “Okay. I can do that.”
She leans forward and lowers her voice. “All of it? You promise?”
“Yeah. All of it.”
Her smile reaches her ears again, and I realize how much I like that too. “Cool beans. Ruby and Payne ... best friends for life.”
“Payne! Where are you two?”
We both freeze when Mama’s voice thunders from somewhere far in the house.
I stand but keep hold of one of her hands. “Come on. I’ll show you all my hiding spots.”
We climb out of the tub, and I grab her shoe. This time I run as fast as I can, pulling her along. Her giggles start again.
When I turn back, her messy yellow hair flies behind her.
I like Ruby.