Sixty-Five
I’D INVITED VINCE over for dinner tonight. EJ then suggested—make that ordered—that I invite Abby Wells, too.
“It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to have a nice girl like her in your life,” she’d said.
“She already is in my life, if you haven’t noticed.”
“Not the way I meant, Silas,” she said. “Listen, just because you can’t have…”
I looked at her, knowing where this was going. We both did, and there was no need for her to complete the thought. “Can’t have what?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Just tell Abby to be here around six thirty.”
Despite the sad events of another bad day in Cross Rivers, it turns out to be a pleasant evening at EJ’s table.
A lot of it has to do with the upbeat presence of Miss Abby Wells, who’s reminding me tonight, in a big way, why I’d liked her the way I had in high school, why I was as happy to be walking into the prom with her as she was with me.
Maybe more.
Not that I’m going to mention that particular fact to my grandmother, and risk having a whole can of I-told-you-so being opened up on me later on.
But it’s not only Abby making the night.
It’s EJ’s food. Not just chicken-fried steak, though that’s clearly the main event, mostly because of the best white gravy I’ve ever tasted anywhere.
There are also mashed potatoes on the side, both green beans and English peas, a bowl of fried okra, and corn muffins EJ had taken out of the oven right before we sat down, butter already melted into them.
Vince puts his head back and says, “If you somehow choose to take me tonight, Lord, at least I’ll die happy.”
“Oh, shut up and pass the potatoes,” Abby says, “before we all die before we get our own second helpings.”
I laugh and so does everybody else. EJ looks pleased to hear that sound come out of me. Almost as happy as Abby herself does.
“So tell me, Abby,” EJ says. “What kind of date was my grandson in high school?”
Now I put my head back. “Take me, Lord, right along with Vince, if it’s not too much trouble.”
Abby pokes me with an elbow.
“For somebody as big as he is,” Abby says, “he was very cute and very shy. And a gentleman, too. Well, most of the time.”
I look up again. “Any time now, Lord.”
“Not when things are starting to get good,” Vince says.
“I shouldn’t be telling him this,” Abby says. “But I remember being a little surprised, when we did start dating, how intelligent he was.”
“And not just another dumb jock?” I tell her. “Is that what you’re really trying to say here?”
Abby smiles. “You said it. Not me.”
She is wearing a pretty blue summer dress and has done something new with her hair, though I’m not quite sure exactly what. Shortened it maybe or lightened it up or something. But it makes her even prettier, all in all, which is saying—or thinking—a lot in her case.
“Did I mention how nice your hair looks tonight?”
“Don’t try and change the subject.”
“Tell us more,” EJ says, and to my embarrassment, Abby does, including how it wasn’t really a blister that had made me miss one of my last starts for the baseball team that spring, it was the cut on my index finger from when I’d tried to pin her corsage the night of the junior prom.
“You promised you’d never tell that one,” I say to her.
She reaches over and puts her hand on top of mine, as if that’s the most natural thing in the world.
“Figured the statute of limitations had run out, big guy.”
I laugh again. And after the day I’ve had and that the town has had, it feels really good.
“Miz Tucker,” Abby says now, “you have got to give me your recipe for this steak.”
“No mystery there, dear, it’s all in the breading,” my grandmother says. “And if you don’t call me EJ, no dessert.”
“Am I allowed to ask what is for dessert?” Vince says.
“Strawberry rhubarb pie.”
“Oh, God,” he says, his voice full of emotion.
“I’m sorry,” EJ says. “Did God do the cooking tonight?”
I’d truly hoped we could get all the way through the dinner without discussing what feels like the Civil War going on in our town, even though it’s the elephant in the room.
But that’s where we go now, as if the dinner conversation is like one of those self-driven cars and that’s been the destination all along.
“I don’t want to go all serious here,” Abby says. “But with all that’s going on, what do you think is going to happen, Silas? How do you think it all ends, I guess is what I’m asking?”
“I’ll handle that one,” Vince says. “Silas is going to win, like he always has.”
“Whoa,” I say. “You know this isn’t just my fight. Or war, whatever you choose to call it. We all know that by now.”
“You don’t talk to people around town as much as I do,” Vince says, “because that was never your way even when we were growing up. But the reason so many people are fired up to finally fight back against the Crocketts isn’t because Burt is as fired up as he is, or because Helene Mayes has brought in reinforcements like she has.
It’s because of you, Silas. It’s because you’re willing to put yourself out there.
And people are just as willing to get behind you as they would have been if it was your dad leading the charge. ”
EJ sips some of her wine and quietly says, “Where do you think he got his stubborn gene?”
Abby smiles again. “Hold on, Miz… EJ,” she says. “I’d always assumed he got it from you.”
“I’m liking this young woman more and more,” EJ says.
“Same,” I say, surprising myself when I hear that come out of my mouth.
I look around the table.
“The last thing I’m going to say about everything, without going all serious myself, is that something may be about to pop,” I say. “Burt told me he might possibly have found a way to tie the Crocketts to these girls.”
“Really?” Abby says.
“Really.”
“Found what?” Abby asks. “Did he tell you?”
“He did not,” I say. “But I don’t think he would’ve mentioned anything to me if he didn’t have something solid to go on.”
Vince finally cleans his plate for the last time, having announced he’s left room for pie, even though I find that difficult to believe having just watched him eat. But once he does push his plate away, I tell EJ to stay right where she is, that Abby and I will clear the table.
“We just need a break,” I tell Abby over at the sink. “And I’m talking about a big break. The kind I used to say in football might not just turn a game around, but a whole season sometimes.”
I hear Vince and EJ laughing behind us at something she just said to him, completely inappropriate, I’m guessing.
“You need to be careful, Silas,” Abby says, lowering her voice now.
I lean down as a way of getting closer to her.
She closes her eyes as I do, as if she thinks I’m about to kiss her, even with EJ and Vince right over there at the table.
And in that moment, I almost do. Like we really are back in high school, in the front seat of EJ’s Suburban, when she’d loan it to me for a car date, even when it was brand new.
But I just don’t want my grandmother to hear what I’m about to say, knowing it would make her really mad.
“Think about it, Abs,” I whisper into her ear. “At this point, what do I have to lose?”