of us lost for a while in the hopes and the dreams that
gave us reason to go on.
I enjoyed the pie, helped clean up, and then
went up to my room. As the hours marched by and I
didn't hear Rhona. Skeeter. and Echo return. I knew
Mrs. Westinaton was probably growing, more and
more agitated. I hadn't heard her come up to bed
either. so I went downstairs and found her dozing in
her chair in the living room with the television set on
but the audio almost too low to hear. The moment I
entered, her eyes snapped open.
"Are they back?"
"No, not yet." I said. She looked at the clock. It
was close to eleven.
"Where could they have taken that child this
late?"
I had no answer, but I saw she wasn't about to
get up and go to sleep, so I sat on the sofa.
"You don't have to wait up with me. April." "It's all right. I won't fall asleep knowing you're
down here worried."
"If my daughter had one ounce of your
decency, I wouldn't be worried."
I wondered if I should reveal what Tyler had
told me about his having to stop tutoring Echo very
soon. It seemed like a flood of bad news. Maybe wait
a little longer. I thought. Maybe he would change his
mind anyway.
I gazed at the television.
"You can make that louder or change the
channel if you want. Half the time I fall asleep
watching it. My eyes get tired and most of what I see
seems silly."
I reached for the remote just as the headlights
of the van ran a ray of light over the walls. We both
turned to look out the windows.
"Finally." she said. rising.
We both went to the doorway of the living
room. We could hear Rhona's loud peal of laughter.
Skeeter was making some strange sound, imitating
something that resembled an elephant. The door
opened and they entered with Echo, who looked like
she had been asleep, probably in the van. Her eyes
were droopy and she barely had enough energy to
smile when she saw us.
"Where have you been with her?" Mrs.
Westington demanded immediately.
Even though a good five or six feet separated us
from them. I could smell the odor of whiskey, Skeeter
swayed a little. holding on to his dumb grin. Rhona
wavered, her hands on Echo's shoulders.
"What are you getting yourself in an uproar
about. Ma? We just stopped at one of old hangouts
and I met same of my old friends, friends I haven't
seen for ten years."
"And what did Echo do all that time you were
in a bar? Don't tell me you took her in. too." "No. She stayed in the van and actually took a
nap on our bedding,"
"You let that girl sleep on that lice-infested
filthy old mattress you had in that van?"
"Don't exaggerate, Ma. It just looks dirty. It's
not. It's old."
"And well used," Skeeter added with a laugh. "Yes, well used,' Rhona agreed.
"Come here," Mrs. Westinton beckoned to
Echo. She moved quickly to her and Mrs. Westington
looked through her hair. "She'll need a good bath and
shampoo."
"That's disgusting, Ma. We're not dirty slobs." "Until someone invents a better way to describe
you two, I'll stick with that." Mrs Westington said.
"This is no hour to bring home this girl. She has to let
her sleep."
"It's Saturday night, for chrissakes," Rhona
said. "Are you still living in those dark ages?" "I'm still a responsible person, if that's what you
mean. yes."
"I don't expect to frustrate the girl the way you
frustrated me. Ma. Here I was locked up in this house
while my friends were out there having fun all the
time. You have to trust the people you love and not
expect they'll do something terrible all the time." "In your case. Rhona, you exceeded my
expectations," Mrs. Westington said, and turned Echo
toward the stairs. She signed and told her she would
help her take a bath and get to bed.
Rhona and Skeeter watched them start up the
stairs and then Rhona turned and glared viciously at
me.
"Did you work her up into this mood?" she
asked.
"I just came down myself, surprised you
weren't back yet."
"Oh, so you let her know you were surprised.
Very convenient. I'm warning you. I'm not going to let
you turn her against us." Rhona said, stepping toward
me.
"I don't have to do that. You do it so well
yourself," I replied and, even though I was trembling,
glared back at her and then turned and followed Mrs.
Westington and Echo up the stairs.
"Bitch," I heard Rhona call after me.
"Easy," Skeeter told her.
I glanced back and saw him whispering in her
ear. She nodded and smiled and then they turned and
went into the living, room. I looked in on Mrs.
Westington and Echo, who was already in the bathtub,
the water runnin g.
"Come here," she said, bringing me over to the
tub. "Just look."
She pulled some strands of Echo's hair apart
and I could see the bugs.
"This is what wants to turn a new leaf and be a
mother. Lord, give me the strength." She poured the
shampoo into Echo's hair and began to scrub. "I can do that for you. Mrs Westington. Please.
Let me," I said.
She thought a moment and then stepped back. I
shampooed Echo's hair and rinsed it with the shower
hose. Mrs. Westington stood by with a towel and
wrapped her as soon as she stepped up and out of the
tub.
"Let's get this child to bed," she said. She told
me where to find her pajamas. Echo put them on and
Zot into bed. She still looked confused. dazed. Mrs.
Westington arranged her blanket and gave her a kiss.
"I'm going to sleep," she told me. She started out. "Are you all right?" I signed to Echo. Through her fatigue, she smiled and then
brought her hands out from under the blanket to tell
me.
"I had dinner with my mother. And she said she
was sorry she left me," Echo told me. "She said she
would never leave me again. Never."
Her happiness not only disappointed me, it
frightened me. She was being set up for a great fall. I was positive, but I dared not contradict her or Rhona
directly.
"People say things sometimes and forget," I
told her.
"No," she said, and shook her head vehemently.
"She won't forget. She promised."
All I could do was smile and nod. I kissed her
on the forehead and told her to sleep tight. She nodded
and hugged Mr. Panda to her.
When I stepped out into the hallway. I could
hear Rhona's and Skeeter's laughter below. They had
put on some music, not caring how loud it was and if
it would disturb me or Mrs. Westington. I thought I
heard the sound of something being knocked over,
too. Their laughter stopped and then I heard R
hona
moan. Skeeter laughed and Rhona cried out
passionately. They're probably making love right on
the living room floor. I thought, For a moment I was
tempted to go look. I went into my room instead and
closed the door.
I stood there in the darkness. trembling. How
horrid all this had become. How sorry I felt for Mrs.
Westington. I was sure she would be having a
troubled sleep tonight.
"Uncle Palaver," I whispered, "you taught me how to make coins and cards disappear. You even showed me how you could make me disappear after I crawled into your magic box on the stage. But you forgot to show me how to make a horrid person
disappear."
That's a bit of magic I'll have to learn on my
own. I thought, and went to bed dreaming that
somehow, maybe through Destiny, I would find the
way.
8 Caught Naked
. Rhona and Skeeter didn't come down for breakfast. They made lots of noise going up the stairway very late at night, completely inconsiderate of Mrs. Westinton and me, especially me. I heard Skeeter growl at my door, in fact, because he woke me and then I heard them both laughing. If Mrs. Westington heard anything, she didn't mention it. In the morning Echo kept looking for her mother to came down and even asked me if I thought she should go up to see if she was awake.
"They went to bed very late." I told her. "Let them sleep." Let them sleep forever. I thought. Maybe that was mean. but I couldn't help it.
Just as I sat down to have breakfast with Echo and Mrs. Westington, the phone rang. She told me it was Tyler Monahan calling for inc. Echo didn't know it was Tyler and I wasn't about to tell her.
"How are things today?" Tyler asked. I told him what had happened the night before with Echo and how upset Mrs. Westington had been and still was.
"I guess this wouldn't be a good time to bring up my leaving." he said.
"No. it wouldn't. Tyler."
"Can you meet me tonight in your motor home
after Echo goes to sleep?" he asked, confirming his promise to return. Excitement trickled through me like a low voltage shock. I knew why he wanted to meet, of course, and it wasn't to improve my academic skills for the equivalency exam.
"I suppose,:" I said.
"And could we turn that doll around?" I laughed. "You're the one who keeps saying it's
just a doll. Tyler."
"That's not just a doll," he said. "Okay. I'll put
her in the bedroom."
"No, maybe leave her out of the bedroom.
That's the one place I don't want her to be," he said. I
could feel myself blush. "One other thing. I think it
might be better if I parked on the road and walked to
the motor home. No need to let anyone else there
know I'm around."
"Okay," I said. although I wasn't comfortable
with us sneaking about the property. Was he trying to
keep all this secret from the people here or from his
mother?
"I'll be there about nine-thirty, waiting for you,"
he said.
Mrs. Westington looked curious about the
phone call, but she didn't ask me anything after I hung
up and I didn't volunteer anything. It's better to say
nothing rather than lie. I thought, and returned to the
breakfast table to join Echo. Trevor hadn't shown up
for dinner the night before and had not come to
breakfast either. I imagined he just didn't want to see
much of Rhona. As it turned out, he wouldn't have
risked it this particular morning. She and Skeeter
didn't come downstairs until nearly noon.
When they finally appeared, they were both
dressed to go out, Rhona wearing one of her old
dresses and a light blue leather jacket I had wished
would fit me. and Skeeter in a relatively clean-looking
pair of jeans, a blue shirt, and a jean jacket with all
sorts of emblems with silly things written on them
like Down with Milk. Mrs. Westington was in the
kitchen. Echo and I were in the living room reading
and working on some of her English grammar
problems in preparation for her tutoring session the
next day..
"Don't bother making any breakfast for us.
Ma," Rhona called to Mrs. Westington from the
hallway. "Skeeter and I are going to eat at the Mars Hotel in Healdsburg and then look at some properties we found out about last night. We'll see you later.
Maybe Echo wants to go," she added.
"That girl needs to do her homework for
tomorrow's lessons,"
Mrs. Westington replied quickly.
"Oh. Well, we don't want to interrupt that now,
do we. Skeeter?"
"Absolutely not, Maybe we'll take her to a
movie or something tonight."
"A movie? How do you expect her to enjoy a
movie if she can't hear a word?"
"People used to go to silent movies. Ma,"
Rhona said. "You probably did," she added, and they
both laughed.
"Silent movies were made differently." I
offered from the doorway of the living room. "They
had written words and the actors performed
differently."
"Who said that?" she cried, pretending it was a
voice from out of the blue. She turned and looked at
inc. "Oh, you're still here?" She turned her back on me
and then marched to the front door. "C'mon. Skeeter,
we have work to do," she called back to him. He smiled licentiously at me and moved his tongue over his lower lip. Then he laughed and joined her at the door. They both laughed at something he whispered and then they walked out. I looked back at Echo. She hadn't realized they had come down and I
wasn't about to tell her.
A short while after they had left. Trevor came
in to see how things were and Mrs. Westington gave
shook his head sympathetically, and urged her not to
let herself get too upset. She told him all about their
request for money and why.
"I got a very bad feeling about those two," he
told me when Mrs. Westington went upstairs. "I don't
think they're here for the real estate business prospects
they claim. Before they left yesterday, two men drove
up and spoke with that Skeeter fellow, and both
looked like they had been dragged out of a swamp.
My guess is they need money, but not to buy old
houses to fix up. They have serious debts with bad
people."
"What are we going to do?" I asked him. "Nothing right now. All I got to go on is a
feeling, but you watch and wait long enough and the
rat comes out."
"To me it already has." I said.
He nodded and went out to the winery.
Meanwhile. Echo, impatient now, went looking for
her mother and discovered she was gone. A look of
panic came over her when she found out they had left.
Her hands were flying about like small birds trying to
draw diagrams in the air. 'Where were they? When did
they leave? When were they coming back?"
"They have business here and had an
appointment," I told her.
Maybe I was passing on a lie as Trevor thought,
but I didn't want her worrying. I saw she couldn't
concentrate on our work. She was constantly thinking
about her mother, looking alit the wi
ndow for her and
Skeeter's return, so I asked Mrs. Westington if it
would be all right to take Echo for a ride. "We'll
return to the mall," I told her. "I need some other
things and Echo enjoyed it so."
She thought a moment and nodded. "It would
be good to keep her mind off you know who," she
said, reading my mind. "And I know you're
responsible and trustworthy enough to look after her." When I told Echo, she was bright and happy
again. This would actually be the first trip she had
ever taken without her grandmother and Trevor
Washington. I unhooked my car from Uncle Palaver's motor home and brought it around to the front of the
house.
"Where you headed?" Trevor asked. I told him
and explained why.
"Can't blame the girl. I guess," he said. "After
you lose someone you love or someone who loves
you, you'd forgive them all their sins and
imperfections if you could have them back. You'd
even make a deal with the devil."
"That's who Echo would have to speak to about
her mother," I told him, and he laughed.
"Have a good time," he said, and returned to his
favorite work. I realized it was work that kept him in
close contact with the best memories of his life. It was
truly a labor of love, and despite all the complaining
Mrs. Westington voiced about it, she was happy for
him, maybe even envious. I wished I could find a way
to reconnect with my good memories, too, reconnect
without all the baggage of sadness that accompanied
them.
I honked the horn and Mrs. Westington brought
Echo out. She had helped her choose one of her new
skirt and blouse outfits and she did look pretty. It was
a partly sunny day with high brisk winds smearing the
clouds over the blue sky so that they thinned out and spread like tattered white cloth toward the southwest. Sunlight brought a brightness to her face the way it
would open a flower.
Echo got into the car. She was very excited
now, the short trip truly a major adventure in her eyes
because it was just the two of us. She watched me
drive and then told me Tyler had promised that soon
he would teach her how to drive so she could be ready
for her driving test when she was of age. She showed
me some of the signing related to driving that he had
already taught her, such as the signs for right and left
turn, speeding up and slowing down. -Wasn't it wrong
to make such promises to her knowing he was