Chapter 35 #6
We didn’t even open the dance club that night.
It was raining too hard. By eight it’d turned to a mist, so we were taking shifts sitting on the front porch, in case a car happened to show up.
Charlie’d gotten word to Mr. Binny not to come, and the girls were in the parlor listening to Ruby’s radio.
When it was my shift, I rolled the phonograph table out on the front porch for something to listen to.
I’d have to change the needle and wind it up with the screwdriver after each record, but it was something to do.
Sitting on a towel on the front steps, I listened to Wayne King croon “Wabash Moon” and thought about Jack.
The rain reminded me of that downy afternoon we’d spent at his apartment.
I missed him deeply, darkly, in a way that I knew was not realistic—we’d only had what, four dates?
And I ought to be glad he wasn’t here to come by and see what I was a part of.
I lit a half-smoked Lucky I’d stuck in my pocket, inarguably Flossy’s from the deep teeth marks and red lipstick so bright it looked lit on both ends.
She hadn’t sold any specialties since we’d opened, so what could it hurt.
When the original owner of the cigarette came outside, I stubbed it out quick so she couldn’t see it—nobody needed to know I did things like that.
“Why you smoke them old butts, Bird,” Flossy said and sat next to me on the towel.
“Here.” She offered me her pack and I took one out and she drew one for herself.
We smoked awhile, watching the quilt of fog hang over the road.
The night felt ripe for a nice, strong tornado to barrel through, a perfect ending to the Calamity Club.
After a while, Flossy asked, “You miss your family much, Birdie?”
“No.” I’d said it fast and laughed. “Sorry, I’m just terrified of them. Or some of them.”
“Why? They like you, don’t they?”
“Yeah, but they won’t after this.”
I drew in smoke and thought about that first morning Flossy’d come to the house. It’ll be like a family. That was what had made Flossy turn around and come back inside.
“You miss your family, Flossy?” Maybe she’d asked me so I’d ask her, as people sometimes did.
“Oh sure, some real characters in my family. It’s a while since I seen ’em.” She pushed her top teeth up with her thumb, grimacing a little at the pain. “But, you know the thing what I was telling ya about my uncle and all? How I choosed me since my sis was too young?”
I nodded. That story would probably never leave me.
“She hates me on account a this is what I do. Ain’t that something?”
“But you did it so your sister didn’t have to.”
“I know,” Flossy said and then smaller, “I know.” She was staring straight ahead.
“Look, I ain’t saying I’m a saint or nothing, I ain’t saying that.
But she really thinks you can do this at age twelve and then grow up and just go do another thing?
You can’t do no other thing after this one, not really.
Sure, you can go get the job in maybe the fancy dress store or the butcher, putting the frilly shoes on the little chicken feet, but you’ll still be doing this in your sleep.
” She watched as the fog billowed up the road.
“Do this every night for the rest a your life.”
There was no joke to make here or smart-aleck comment.
I moved closer to Flossy so my shoulder was touching hers.
She wasn’t young like Ruby and she wasn’t beautiful like Esmeralda; she didn’t have a career ahead of her like Virginia did and she didn’t have a twin.
All she had was a specialty the college boys liked to joke about, but the truth was, Flossy was getting old.
“When’s the last time you saw your sister?” I asked.
“It’ll be two years next Thursday I went up there. For my birthday. She called me a succubus whore and run me off her porch.”
“Your sister’s starting to make my sister look like a real treasure, Flossy,” I said.
“The password, right?”
I nodded, sort of laughed.
“Don’t let her treat you like trash, Bird. There was anybody left in my family besides her, I wouldn’t take it. But they’re all dead or disappeared and didn’t bother to tell me where to.”
A fresh patter of rain blew in, tossing the trees side to side with a whooshing sound. “I’m a little scared we ain’t made no money here,” she said.
“Yeah. Me too.” I got that sinking dread in my heart again, of them taking our house. And this one. “Where will you go after this place closes, Flossy?” I prayed it was somewhere besides Priscilla’s.
“I dunno,” she said like she was just now wondering, but then her voice cracked a little.
“I ain’t got the choices I used to. Guess I’ll give New Orleans another shot.
” She sucked on her cigarette. “Maybe I’ll try going up to Dakota and see will she let me past the porch. People change their mind, don’t they?”
I thought again of my daddy’s story about the Mississippi River going south to north, proving to me that anything can change. “They certainly can.”