A Sliver of Sun (3 page)

Ben dropped Ginger back on her feet, but she kept hold of his hand. “Come and see your car hood,” she said. “Piper Lee tried to shine it up.”

I swallowed and stepped closer to Mama. Ginger had totally ignored my efforts over the past couple days. I didn’t expect she’d paid much attention at all. And I definitely didn’t expect her to put a positive spin on the whole situation now.

Ben glanced my way. “Just hold on now,” he said. “Let me get our stuff out of the trunk.”

Ginger clapped her hands as if she suddenly remembered something. “What stuff? What’d you bring us?”

“Who says we brought you anything?” Ben asked. “Y’all ready got more stuff in your bedroom than you know what to do with.”

Ginger rolled her eyes. “Daddy!”

I waited, trying not to act too eager, but real glad I had Ginger to do my begging for me.

Ben opened the trunk and set out his and Mama’s suitcases. Then he reached into a brown paper sack and pulled out two brightly wrapped packages. They were both long and skinny, like giant Tootsie Rolls. “Oh, yeah,” he said, “guess we did get ya’ somethin’ after all.” He handed one to each of us.

Ginger ripped the paper off hers and squealed with delight. It was a water cannon, made of see-through pink plastic with a big water reservoir. Mine was light green. I ran a hand over the smooth barrel and grinned. I’d had water pistols before, but never a big cannon. “Wow, Ginger,” I said, “I can ’bout drown you with this thing.”

“Like ’em?” Ben asked.

“Yes, sir,” I said. “Thanks a lot.”

“Better thank your mama,” he said, “she’s the one who picked ’em out.”

Ginger jumped over and gave her a hug. “Thanks, Mama.”

Mama.
I marveled at how easy that word came from her lips, like she’d been saying it all along instead of only a short time. I wondered what it might feel like to call Ben
Daddy?
Or to jump into his arms? I couldn’t imagine working up the courage for either.

Ginger darted toward the garden hose. “Come on, Piper Lee. Let’s go fill our cannons.”

“Told you they’d like ’em,” Ben said, as I turned to follow Ginger.

“Mmm,” Mama muttered, in a soft voice I don’t think I was meant to hear. “But I’m not so sure what they’ll think of the other surprise.”

M
ama’s comment about
the other surprise
sent a little zing of alarm through me. At first I thought maybe they’d brought us something else, but instinct told me it wasn’t
that
kind of surprise. I forgot about it a few minutes later as my focus turned to drenching Ginger. The plunger on the water cannon had enough power to shoot a stream of water a good thirty feet, and I nearly soaked poor Miss Claudia before I figured out how to aim.

The grown-ups settled on the front porch, sipping sweet tea and watching Ginger and I battle it out. Then after a bit, Miss Claudia went inside and reappeared with her suitcase in hand. Mama waved us over to say our goodbyes before Ben drove her home.

Miss Claudia gave us a half-way hug without getting too close. “Now don’t y’all take it personal,” she said, “but one shower a day is plenty.”

My soaking bangs dripped water into my eyes as I watched the car disappear back down the driveway. It gave me a little pang in my heart to realize Miss Claudia wasn’t my across-the-hall friend, or neighbor, or babysitter anymore. And even though we’d only moved a few miles away, it wasn’t the same … nothing was the same.

“Wanna play any more?” I asked Ginger.

She shook her head, and water droplets sprayed onto my shoulder. “Naw,” she said, “think I’ll go dry off.”

“Me too,” I said. But what I really wanted to do was talk to Mama. She still sat on the porch, sipping her tea. I ambled toward the house real slow so Ginger had plenty of time to get ahead. Then after she’d gone through the screen door I kneeled down beside Mama’s chair.

She jerked her leg away with a laugh. “Goodness, Piper Lee, you’re freezing.”

“Is everything okay, Mama?”

“Everything’s just peachy, honey. Why?”

“I heard what you said to Ben, about us maybe not liking something.”

Her face flushed a shade rosier. “Oh … did you now?”

“What do you think we won’t like?”

She pushed a wet chunk of hair from my face. “We’ll talk about it later. Maybe tonight after supper.”

“But nothing’s wrong is it, Mama?”

She clamped her lips into a smile and shook her head, and I knew she wouldn’t let me finagle any more information, at least not right then. “Okay, fine,” I said. “Then can you at least tell me if I’m in trouble with Ben for what happened to his Mustang? ’cause I swear, Mama, the whole thing was Mowgli’s fault. I was up on the ladder, and I was being real careful and everything.”

Mama shook her head. “It’s okay, honey. At first he was a little put out, but he can always paint again if he needs to. Let’s go take a look.”

I led her over to the hood and watched her expression. Her eyebrows knit together. “My goodness! All that worry for this? I was expecting something much worse.”

I couldn’t help but grin at how perfectly Miss Claudia’s plan had worked. I only hoped it worked as good on Ben. “Should’ve seen it at first,” I said.

“Well, I don’t think you have much to fret about now,” Mama said. “Get dried off, and then let’s see what we can find for supper.” She made a half-turn and stopped, a funny look on her face. She rested her fingertips on my arm.

“You okay?” I asked.

She shook her shoulders. “Just a pinch dizzy all of a sudden. I’m fine now. Come on.”

Ginger and I were on the porch steps, shelling a big bowl of peas when Ben came back from dropping off Miss Claudia. My insides wobbled like a fried egg as he walked over to look at the Mustang’s hood. He stood for a minute, his back to us with feet planted wide. Then he turned and headed toward the porch.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, as he walked past.

“I’ll declaw that dang cat,” he said. And my mouth went dry as I stared up at him. But then he winked, and I started to breath again.

Ginger grinned and stuck a pea in her mouth. “Guess what, Daddy? Me and Piper Lee divided up my bedroom.”

“Divided it up?”

“Yep. Cut it right in half with a chalk line. Wanna see?”

“I reckon I better,” he said.

I stayed put, shelling peas, and trying to calm my nerves.

Mowgli strolled over a minute later. He sat himself on the top step and started to lick his behind. Ever since the incident with the car hood, I’d tossed his leash and left him to his own devices. I flicked a pea at him. “That’s disgusting, Mowgli, knock it off.” He watched the pea roll off the edge of the porch, and then went right back to grooming.

Ginger came back out the door and plunked herself beside me.

“What’d your daddy say about the room?” I asked.

“Said we’ll have to see.”

“See what? We measured real careful.”

She stuck a peapod in her mouth. “I know. That’s what I told him.”

“What’d he say then?”

“Nothing.”

I figured she’d told him dividing the room had been my idea. That’s probably why he didn’t like it. I sighed. “Speaking of things that don’t make sense, I know somethin’ you don’t.”

She stopped in mid-crunch. “What?”

“Mama and Ben have another surprise for us.”

“What are you yapping about, Piper Lee?”

“I heard Mama say. But she’s not sure we’ll like it.”

Ginger’s eyes widened. “Well, what is it?”

“Don’t know. Mama said we’d talk about it later.”

“Got any guesses?”

I shrugged. “Maybe dresses or something boring like that.”

“Dresses? We just got dresses for the wedding.” She furrowed her brow, then her eyes lit up. “Maybe it’s a dog. A cat-eating dog.”

I scowled at her. “It’s not a dog. Besides, Mowgli could handle a dog just fine. Scratch its eyes right out.”

“That’s nasty, Piper Lee.” She shelled another pea. “Did Mama say
when
we’d talk about it?”

“Why don’t you go ask her?”

She hesitated a minute, then set her handful of peas aside and charged back through the screen door. I smiled. Ginger could stand not knowing a secret about as long as she could stand a June bug landing on her.

Ginger was gone a long time, a lot longer than I expected. Just about the time I figured I might have to send out a search party, she came back outside. Before I could scold her for taking so long, Mama and Ben pushed through the screen door behind her.

Ginger shot me a sly little glance of triumph and plopped down on the step beside me. Mama and Ben settled themselves on the porch swing. For several heartbeats the four of us just took turns staring around at each other with nobody saying a word. Mama had a smile on her face, but it looked kinda fake, and her hands were clasped together. Ben looked more relaxed. He draped his arm around Mama’s shoulders and gave the swing a lazy push with his bare feet.

I couldn’t stand it any longer. “Somethin’ going on?”

It was quiet enough to hear a dandelion grow.

Ben winked at Mama. “Might as well go ahead and tell ’em, Heather.”

Mama gave him a hesitant look, and her throat bobbed out a bit as she swallowed. “Girls,” she said, “uh, your daddy and I have somethin’ we wanna share with you.” She paused long enough to clear her throat. “Now, I know it’s gonna be a bit of a shock … but, well … in about five months you’re gonna have a little brother or sister.”

Ginger let out a shriek and grabbed her face.

I didn’t move. I couldn’t.

Ginger jumped up and started hopping in place. “A baby! Daddy, is she serious?”

Ben chuckled.

My whole body jerked like I’d grabbed an electric fence. I searched Mama’s face as I replayed her words.
A little brother or sister? A baby? Mama and Ben’s … baby?

Mama bit her bottom lip and stared back at me, and I could read her thoughts clear as day. She wanted me to be happy. She wanted me to say it was okay. But it wasn’t okay. It was just plain crazy. “You’re kidding, right?” I said.

Mama flushed and looked down at her hands.

Ben fixed me with a warning look. “It’s a little soon for us too, Piper Lee. But things don’t always go according to plan.”

Then maybe you ought to have planned better, I wanted to say. But I felt too lost to say anything at all.

My reaction seemed to take some of the crackle out of Ginger’s fire. She stopped jumping and sat back down. And it was a good thing, because there wasn’t any reason to be jumping for joy. In fact, the more I thought about the situation, the hotter I got. Mama had already turned my whole world upside down. On account of her, I had a new dad, a new sister, a new house. In just a couple weeks I’d have to start at a new school. How
dare
she throw any more new into the mix. I glared at her a few seconds longer, but she wouldn’t meet my eyes.

I jumped up and stalked into the house.

I
made a beeline for Ginger’s bedroom because it was the only bedroom I had, but a chalk mark down the middle didn’t make it mine. Nothing was mine. Not the room, not the house, not the people in the house. Mama wasn’t even all mine anymore. She was Ben’s wife, and Ginger’s mama … and now she was gonna become somebody else’s mama too. I’d been booted from the top of the pile, clear to the bottom.

I slid down to the floor with my back against the wall and started wishing for things. I wished for the comforting
clackity-clack
of Miss Claudia’s sewing machine, and for the yummy cinnamon smell of her peach cobbler. I wished for the sliver of sun in front of the couch where Mowgli loved to lay, and for the sweet scent of jasmine drifting through my open window. I wished for the pale blue of my bedroom walls, and for the little B-52 bomber dangling from my bedroom light. It was gone. All of it.

But then I glanced over at my stack of unpacked boxes, and I realized that I
did
still have the bomber. I crawled across to the box and carefully lifted the little plane by its wire hanger. I rubbed my finger over its shiny metal wings and gazed up at Ginger’s light fixture. If I hung the plane up there, maybe one tiny part of the room might feel like mine. ‘Course I wasn’t even close to being tall enough to reach it.

I heard footsteps behind me and tucked my shoulders, hoping it was Ginger and not Mama. I never expected it to be Ben. My heart started to pound like I’d been caught stealing, and I scrambled to my feet.

He studied me with his dark brown eyes. “Whatcha’ doing?”

“Nothin. Just thinking I might hang my plane from the light, like at home.”

Ben looked from my plane to the fixture. Then he stepped over and took the bomber from my hand. He reached up and twisted the wire around the bottom of the little knob of the plastic cover so the plane dangled a foot below. “That okay?” he asked.

I swallowed. “It’s real good. Thanks.”

“Alrighty then,” he said. “Now go on out and talk to your Mama. She’s feelin’ bad about the way you ran off.”

My hackles rose right away. I wanted to tell him I had every right to run off, and that I had no desire to talk to Mama. But experience had taught me that sassing Ben was best done in my own head. “Yes, sir,” I mumbled.

Mama still sat on the porch swing, jiggling her glass so the little splinters of ice rattled together. She smiled when she saw me. “Hey, you. Come sit for a minute.”

I sat, but I didn’t smile. The bowl of peas was still on the top step, but Ginger wasn’t around. Mowgli crept across the yard stalking a butterfly.

“I wanted to tell you about the baby first,” Mama said, “but Ben didn’t think it’d be right.”

“Why not?”

“On account of we’re a family now, and this will be something that affects all of us. So he thought it right to tell both you girls at the same time.”

My shoulders slumped. “It don’t feel like we’re a family,” I said.

“You can’t expect it to yet, Piper Lee. But it will, in time. Especially if we all work at it.” She put an arm around me, and I breathed in the scent of her new perfume. “What are you wearing?” I asked. “It doesn’t smell like your vanilla.”