Then He Kissed Me: A Cottonbloom Novel
Read Then He Kissed Me: A Cottonbloom Novel Online
Authors: Laura Trentham
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For Steve
Nash Hawthorne ducked into the tall reeds by the water. The stream widened farther down and joined up with the Mighty Mississippi, but behind his house in Cottonbloom, Louisiana, it burbled along, shallow enough in most places to wade.
That’s what he’d do. Wade all the way to the Mississippi and take to the river like Huck Finn. He checked his pocket for his inhaler. It was the only thing he really needed.
Everyone was up at his house. They tried to smile around him, tried to keep the whispers confined to corners, but he knew exactly what was happening. He was ten years old, not an idiot.
His mother was dying.
She’d spent the last three years dying. Almost as far back as his memories went. He had vague recollections of her swinging him in the air, her dark hair thick and lustrous, her cheeks round and full of color. Now her hair grew in sparse patches over her mostly bald scalp, and she looked like a character in her own black-and-white comic. Pale papery skin and dark shadows.
His father worked an oilrig out in the Gulf, and he’d heard his aunt Leora saying it would be touch and go whether he made it back in time.
Back in time. He wished he could turn everything backward like one of the characters in his comic books. Back to when his mother could get out of bed to make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Back to when his father smiled.
Or maybe he would shrink to the size of a ladybug and hide in the grass until it was all over. Sit on a blade of grass and watch the river flow by and the sun circle the earth. They’d just finished studying about planets in science, and he envied the stars up in the sky, cold and beautiful.
He toed off his sneakers and stepped into the cool water. Instead of heading toward the freedom of the Mississippi, he waded upstream and sent out telepathic messages for Tallulah. He knew that sort of thing was make-believe, like Santa and Superman, but he wanted to believe. Wanted to believe his mother would get better.
As he drew closer to the Fournette’s house, a girl rose out of the reeds, a breeze tangling her long, dark hair around her shoulders. His heart swelled until it was painful. Maybe there was hope.
His tongue froze, and he didn’t know what to say. She saved him by throwing her arms around him and giving him a hug. He dropped his forehead to her bony shoulder and took a deep breath. She smelled faintly of oranges.
She pulled away first and scrabbled back up the bank to sit cross-legged under the drooping limbs of a willow tree. He followed, sitting so they both looked out over the water.
“Mommy’s dying. It might even happen today.” The wobbly way he’d said “mommy
”
heated his face. He was too old to cry, especially in front of a girl.
“I know. I heard Daddy talking this morning when he didn’t think I could hear.”
“No one up at the house will say anything in front of me, but I can feel everyone waiting for it to happen.”
“Where’s your dad?”
“Still out on the rig. Bad weather is keeping him there.” Nash stripped the leaves off a thin green branch, his gaze down. “They want me to go sit with her.”
“Don’t you want to?”
He would never admit his shame to anyone but Tally. “She’s not my mother. Not anymore. I don’t understand what she’s saying. I think they’ve given her a bunch of drugs. And, she smells funny.”
“How so?” As he expected, no judgment, only curiosity lilted her voice.
“Stale. Like I imagine death would smell.” He risked a glance at her, but her attention was on poking at a piece of moss. “You know the comic where the police commissioner dies? And, he’s all pale and stuff? That’s her.”
She abandoned her stick, pulled a cloth bag with her name embroidered on the front closer, and took out two oranges. She handed him one and dug her thumb into the peel of hers, a burst of orange scent surrounding them. He did the same, and they were quiet as the pile of discarded peel grew between them.
“Is your dad going to get a job on the mainland … after?” She bit into a slice, squirting him with juice.
He wiped his cheek, dropped to his back, and stared into the newly sprouted leaves. The breeze rustled them and sunlight dappled the twirled ends. “I heard Aunt Leora say something about taking me to her house.”
“But … but that’s in Mississippi? Miles away. What will we do?”
He was relieved to hear the panic and outrage he’d been unable to voice at the time, considering he was eavesdropping on an adult conversation. Somewhere along the way, his mother had taught him that was a no-no.
“We both have bikes. Maybe we could meet in town.”
“But it won’t be the same. Who’s going to go fishing with me?”
Even though he was wondering the same sorts of things, he said, “At least you have two parents and your brothers.”
She looked over her shoulder, first at him and then her house. “It’s not the same. I don’t belong in this family.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mama and Daddy go together like a pair of gloves. Cade and Sawyer are whip-smart. And, I’m … I’m just … here.”
“You’re smart.”
This time the look she shot him was dire. “They’re talking about holding me back. I would never be able to set foot in that school ever again.”
He popped up on his elbows. “If they hold you back, let’s run away together. We can head toward the Mississippi and find somewhere to live. You can fish for our food, and I can … I don’t know, find work somewhere.” As the idea took root, a shot of excitement made his breathing ragged. He fumbled his inhaler out of his pocket and took a pump.
“Are you serious?”
“Sure, why not? Huck Finn did it.”
“Yeah, about a hundred years ago. Don’t be silly.”
Her words smarted, but he pressed on. “Wouldn’t living out there be better than me living with crazy Aunt Leora or you getting held back?”
Her mother’s voice, singsongy and strong, called from up the hill where her house sat. “Tallulah! Come on up for ice cream before your brothers eat it all.”
His breathing fractured again, but an inhaler wouldn’t help. It was the kind of hurt medicine wouldn’t fix.
She took his hand and squeezed. “We can decide whether or not to run away together later, right?”
“Sure,” he said vaguely and turned his face away so she wouldn’t see the sting of tears in his eyes. Why would she leave her family? Two brothers who teased her, a mother and father who exasperated her, but even so, warmth and love seemed to pour out of her whenever she talked about them. He wished he could collect the feelings to study alone in his room.
She stood and brushed the dirt off the back of her shorts. He pushed up too, awkwardly stomping his feet, suddenly aware his T-shirt had a strain from his morning chocolate milk along the bottom. He hoped she didn’t notice.
He turned back toward the river, but she grabbed his hand, hers slightly sticky from the orange. “Will you come back later … afterward?”
“If I can get away from everyone.”
Going downstream should have been easier, but his feet felt heavy, numbed by the cool water. He climbed up the bank to find his aunt Leora standing in the middle of the backyard, scanning the river. When she saw him, she gave a little sob and ran forward.
He stood still, but she was there too quickly. Her words buzzed around him like gnats. His mother had died sometime while he was eating oranges and talking about running away. No tears came. His aunt guided him toward the house even as every part of him longed to throw himself back into the river and run toward Tallulah’s house where he could pretend nothing had changed.
The rest of the day was a blur of neighbors hugging him and dropping off food. The mingling food smells upset his stomach to the point he couldn’t eat any of it. His father arrived sometime during the night, the commotion waking him. His mother had been taken away in a shiny, black hearse, and his aunt had already washed the sheets and disinfected the room as if what his mom had was contagious.
The funeral was somber and long, drawing a large crowd. He sat on the red cushioned church pew and picked at his fingernails until they bled. The organist played “Amazing Grace,” the music vibrating through his chest.
The next days passed in a haze, and he was kept home from school, even though he’d rather be learning about Galileo than staring at their fruit bowl–covered kitchen wallpaper.
Whispers between his aunt and his father drifted out of the kitchen.
“… tragic. And, leaving those three children parentless and on their own. That uncle of theirs is a ne’er-do-well. Can’t ask him to take three children on.”
Since they weren’t talking about him, he felt safe enough to step through the doorway. “Who are you talking about?”
His father glanced up from his coffee and the newspaper, his eyes bloodshot and two days growth of beard on his face. “The Fournettes up the river. Parents were killed by a drunk driver last night.”
His father flipped the page, and his aunt took a carton of eggs out of the frig. Nash backed out of the room, pulling his inhaler out and taking a puff, his heart pounding like a kick-drum. He ran outside and grabbed his bike, peddling like mad.
Like his house of a week ago, cars lined the front and somber women with casserole dishes drifted inside. As if they had some psychic connection, Tallulah poked her head out of a second-story window. She disappeared, and he waited, wondering what he should say.
She ran out the front door toward him, her eyes red and swollen, her hair a tangled mass around her head. “They’re gone.” She sounded shocked and hurt.
“I know. I’m so sorry.”
Someone from the house called her name, but she didn’t look over her shoulder. “I have to go. Will you come back?”
He swallowed, the words getting stuck like taffy in his throat. “Daddy’s going back to the rig. I’m moving across the river to Aunt Leora’s.”
“When?”
“Soon, I think.” Desperation drove his question. “Will you run away with me?”
“Nash…” She shook her head.
Somehow, she seemed older and infinitely wiser than him even though only a few days had passed since she’d held his hand with her orange-scented sticky one.
“I can’t. My brothers need me.”