A Yonkers Kinda Girl

by Rose O'Callaghan

  Tony spent every break outside in the parking lot with the band. Mike and Colleen came to the bar after the movie and stayed for the last set. Cuando was to play the next afternoon at a yacht club on Gardener’s bay. The band had to wait for the crowd to clear to move their equipment.

  Mike and Colleen left with Frank and Sheila. Tony helped move equipment, and then he and Lilly drove further along the bay. Tony brought a blanket from the trunk and they walked on the beach. Lilly felt embarrassed and talked about playing the yacht club.

  Tony said, “You’re rubbing elbows with the elite.”

  “Didn’t you see when Sam and José made those remarks, Hillary stepped back with such a look. I’ll bet some of her friends belong to that place. I think it really hurts Hillary. Since she married Jay, so many people act as though she doesn’t exist.”

  “Maybe to them, she doesn’t.”

  They sat on the blanket and looked at the moon shimmering on the still bay.

  “Want to go swimming?” Tony asked.

  “I can’t”

  “What?’

  “Swim. I can’t swim ’til the stitches come out next week.” She knew she could postpone the inevitable by holding her side and moaning, but putting it off would make her dread it even more. She said, “The pill doesn’t work ’til you’ve been on it for two weeks. I had my first one today.”

  Tony put his arm around her shoulder. “That’s OK. I didn’t think you would have gone to Planned Parenthood yet. I brought rubbers.”

  He spoke huskily into her ear. She responded by putting her hands on his chest. He lay her down on the blanket.

  It wasn’t half as uncomfortable as she remembered. She knew afterward he wanted to look at her body, but she was too shy so she covered herself with clothing. Tony didn’t dress right away. He wanted her to get used to his body. They lay on the blanket and looked at the stars. She adored him, but as curious as she was, she couldn’t let her eyes wander.

  Lilly showered slowly at home, not wanting the night to end. The next morning, Mrs. O’Dwyer woke everyone for church. Sheila did not have a dress and had to borrow one of Ann’s.

  After church, Lilly went to see her boss at Shop All to tell him she could return to work on Tuesday, and then Mrs. O’Dwyer had the girls help fix brunch while the guys sat outside waiting to be called. Mrs. O’Dwyer told Lilly, “You’ll have to tell Tony good-bye for a while today. He can’t come out and visit while your uncle and aunt are here. Next week we are leaving for Ireland. The first week back, he can visit, but that is four or five weeks from now.”

  Lilly put down the plates she was hugging while her mother spoke.

  Mrs. O’Dwyer spoke softly, “Lillian, we can’t expect your Aunt to entertain your company. They are being generous taking care of you.”

  Lilly turned from her mother and sisters and struggled with herself. Finally she said, “Mom, I didn’t think … I mean of course. I didn’t think that far ahead.”

  “Next week?” Mrs. O’Dwyer laid her hand on Lilly’s shoulder.

  Lilly turned back to the room, “I’ll make toast.”

  Lilly couldn’t look at Tony during brunch. She was sure a separation would send him back to his “Fifis.” She left the kitchen and went to change clothes.

  Tony was waiting for her when she left her room, “What’s wrong?”

  “We have to talk. I won’t see you for four weeks,” Lilly said uneasily.

  “Four weeks? Why?”

  They talked for a minute while she explained.

  Tony gave the keys to Frank and let him take the car. “They’re playing this afternoon so it will be around 6 or 7 before we leave. If you go anywhere, put gas in it.”

  Tony and Lilly walked for a long time without speaking. They came upon a newly cleared dirt road and followed it to a large construction site. There was an architect’s rendition of what the finished house would look like leaning against a tree.

  Tony studied the plans, “I’d love to live this far back from the road.” He studied the house and the clearing. “Let’s see. That part is the garage, and I’ll bet this is the living room.” He took her hand. ”This is the master bedroom. Let’s be the first to make love here.”

  Lilly blushed and looked away. It seemed so calculated. In the movies everyone fell spontaneously into each other’s arms. He lifted her chin. “Lillibelle, you have to relax. It’s only me.”

  She realized she liked it this time and started to move with him during the lovemaking. He kept kissing her and telling her he loved her. In the brilliant July sun, with no place to hide, Lilly let him touch and study her body. She became acquainted with his. She wished she had little flowers, like in the book, Lady’s Chatterley’s Lover, which Ann had brought home from college.

  Lilly had a light blonde streak that ran crookedly down her slightly darker pubic hair. Tony kept touching it and calling it her lightning bolt. She ran a finger from his navel down the black line of hair to his springy pubic hair.

  She sat up suddenly. “I have to get to the yacht club.”

  Tony said, “Another ten minutes won’t matter” and laid her back down.

  Afterward, they walked swiftly along the bay to the yacht club. They had their excuse ready. They would say that Frank took the car.

  Tony spoke about his plans. He had decided to move out. He needed space from his family. He was going to Brighton during the following week to talk to the coach about the basketball team. He hoped to get information about housing.

  She asked how he could afford it.

  “I’ll keep working at the station. I need a place … we need a place. I don’t want to take you parking in a car. Frankie’s my brother and all, but I don’t want to share a room anymore.”

  He asked her not to mention his plan to move because it might upset his father.

  “I don’t think his lungs are so hot. Sometimes he gets coughing … He always hacked in the morning, but he used to get over it. When it’s hot and sticky, you can hear him breathe, like whoosh, whoosh, or like a balloon deflating,” Tony confided as they walked the thirty minutes to the yacht club.

  When they walked in from the beach to the clubhouse, Jay looked up, “We were just about to call your house. We start at two.”

  “What time is it?”

  “Two. See.” Jay pointed to the clock.

  Lilly walked to the bar with Tony to get sodas. Tony whispered, “I thought you were at least an hour late.”

  “Me, too,” Lilly whispered back. “At least we didn’t have to implicate Frank.”

  The band played until six. Twice Tony was confronted and asked to explain his presence. Randy called him their roadie. Hillary was conspicuous by her absence. They finished playing, and Tony and Lilly started toward the shore.

  Randy called, “Hey, roadie. Aren’t you going to move equipment?” They went back to load the vehicles.

  Lilly called home to say, “Don’t wait dinner. We’re packing equipment and have to move it all. Mom, would you tell the others to be ready in about an hour?”

  As soon as they started up the beach, Tony began confiding in her again. He was angry with his boss. The station owner had finally fired the main mechanic in June because the mechanic had pilfered too much. For the next month, Tony did all the repairs. Then a mechanic was hired. To keep him from going to a dealership, the boss was paying top dollar. Tony was making two dollars less an hour.

  “I’m doing the same repairs. It really pisses me off. But I can’t quit because my boss always accommodates my basketball games and practices and school.”

  Lilly had a feeling he didn’t really want advice but just needed to talk it out. She thought she would always remember this weekend, pinpointing it in her mind as the time their relationship moved to a higher plane. Tony stopped walking as they entered a secluded expanse of a private beach and looked at her questioningly.

  Lilly put her arms around him and said, “Do you want to make love again?” She kissed him, feeling like a tig
ress, and slipped her fingertips under his tee shirt.

  Lilly was still glowing too much to feel sorrow when her city friends left.

  Everyone was quiet on the way home. Sheila and Frank had seen too much of each other. Each was sitting pinned to a window.

  Mike was hoping Colleen wasn’t falling for him too badly. He wanted to go to college with no strings attached. Tony thought of how to approach his father about moving out.

  Lilly called Tony at work Wednesday night. Her family was coming to Yonkers on Sunday afternoon and planning to fly out of Kennedy on Monday. Mrs. O’Dwyer decided Lilly could come in on Sunday, and then take the train back Monday. They planned a picnic. Tony was sitting on the O’Dwyer’s porch when they arrived. Lilly apologized for being late as she and Tony drove off.

  “Even if I have two dozen children, I’m never going to be late.”

  Tony shook his head. “You’re never going to have two dozen children. Maybe three or four, but not two dozen.”

  Lilly smiled, “Three or four? The house will be empty. At least six.”

  Tony countered, “We’ll get a smaller house.”

  Lilly sat close to him. He put his arm around her as he drove.

  She asked, “Did you speak to the coach?”

  “Yeah. Since there are so many on partial basketball scholarships, they have open tryouts this week. I’ve been running and shooting every night after work. They have some good players. They play some decent competition. One of the assistant coaches owns a home. He rents rooms, but mostly to basketball and soccer players. I’m going to look at it tomorrow.”

  “Where is it?”

  “Close, in Yonkers. Just north of the Bronx border, off Kimball Avenue. There’s a bus that goes right by it to the school. There’s only one thing. I have to get my own auto insurance. I’ve never had a ticket or an accident, but I’ll still be assigned risk. It’ll cost twenty-five dollars for nine months a year.”

  “Who’s had your insurance ’til now?”

  “I’ve been on my father’s. My parents don’t know about my moving.”

  “Tony, you’re going to have to tell them.” She looked up at his worried face and joked lightly, “It would be tacky to leave a note on your pillow.”

  Tony laughed. They went to Bear Mountain State Park and walked around the lake, and then followed the Appalachian Trail.

  “Lillibelle?” Tony asked gently.

  “Yes.”

  “Someday, do you want to walk the trail?” Tony asked.

  “The trail? Like go for a hike?”

  Tony told her, “The trail is more than a hike. My physics teacher told us about it. It goes from Georgia to Maine – a couple of thousand miles. It takes months. We’ll walk it, you and me,” Tony decided. They veered off the trail to be alone.

  They got back to the della Robbias late. Lilly had brought an armload of wildflowers. Most wilted in the car, so she carried in a little bouquet. She knew it wouldn’t soften Mrs. della Robbia, so she gave them to Tito.

  Tito said, “You’re the only one who ever gave me flowers. Now you’re done it twice.”

  Lilly giggled. “It’s my name; it influences me.”

  They ate and then went downstairs to the other della Robbias. Nick was pulling apart the kitchen sink. Tony played with his cousin, Tommy, who was sixteen but closer to two mentally. He carried a GI Joe and a stuffed tiger. He frustrated easily and would hurt himself if not watched carefully. Tony called him Captain Tommy because of the protective skullcap he wore. Lilly visited with Isabel, Karen, and Karen’s daughter, Lydia. Lydia told her mother and aunt about the Irish kids in school.

  “They all cut school one afternoon last year. The school decided to break up the group. They split up the homeroom with the O’s,” Lydia said seriously. Lilly smiled.

  Lydia said, “What homeroom will you have?”

  “Two eleven, that’s OK because I’ll be with my friends Paderic and Peggy Delany and Nora Clancy, and they transferred my best friend Eileen O’Rielly there too.”

  “Two eleven? That’s my homeroom. EO’s going to be in my homeroom!” Lydia made a face, “EO is this girl who is always in trouble. They say she’s easy.”

  “That’s not true. Eileen’s so pretty that big talkers are wishful thinkers. Eileen and I have been buddies since we were babies.”

  Frank came out of the kitchen where he had been watching Nick and Tito wrestle the sink. “Lil, want to go for a soda?”

  “Sure, Frank.”

  They stood outside to decide direction. “Let’s go to Pondfield Road. I want to walk through the park,” Lilly said.

  Frank replied, “Haven’t you had enough nature for today?”

  “This time, I won’t have to worry about getting attacked by wild animals,” Lilly teased.

  Frank was trying to perceive some change in her. Tony left his wallet on the dresser every night, and Frank had checked it before Tony had gone to East Hampton and after he had returned. Frank’s suspicions were confirmed by the disappearance of all four rubbers that had been in it. Lilly didn’t act like a fallen woman the way good girls were supposed to. She was happy. They took turns skipping stones across the dormant river.

  They took the long way home, stopping at the O’Dwyers’. Things were really cooking for the next day’s departure.

  Frank watched the scene unfold. “This is somewhere between pandemonium and chaos,” he said.

  “That’s not so bad. Actually, I’ve seen it at Warp Factor Five. No one knows what they’re doing, but you keep moving because you feel an obligation to contribute to the mayhem.” Lilly led Frank to the phone and whispered, “Call Tony and tell him to come up.”

  Then they weaved through the maze of open suitcases to the kitchen where Mike was watching Colleen iron piles of clothing. He asked, “Aren’t they going to wrinkle in the suitcases?”

  “They’d better not,” Colleen spit out.

  “That’s the stuff, Colleen. Put a little fear in them,” Lilly joshed her.

  “Lilly, don’t you have something useful to do, like take a nap in the middle of the street.”

  “Lillian,” Mrs. O’Dwyer came in, undaunted by the mess around her. “Would you check the twins’ suitcases? Here’s a list of what I think they’ll need.”

  Lilly was in the process of tracking down a dress for Kelly when Tony arrived. He was led to the kitchen where Frank, Mike, and Daniel had formed a spectator’s booth. Ann came in carrying a stack of clothes needing ironing and stumbled over the cord.

  Daniel said, “I’ll rate that a nine point six.”

  “Nine point six? Are you crazy! That wasn’t much more than nine-one,” Mike countered.

  Lilly appeared at the doorway, never lifting her eyes from the button she was sewing on a blouse. “Frank, did you call Tony? Oh, I guess you did. I’ll be back.” She didn’t know why she was blushing. She thought anyone who saw them would know they were lovers.

  Her mother came back full of second thoughts about leaving Lilly with Sean and Vera. “Lillian, help out, but you are not their maid. Also, you can’t expect them to give you rides to work when it rains. They never had children, so go easy on them. I’m not sure this is the right thing.”

  “I’ll be fine. You’ll see,” Lilly reassured her.

  The next morning Lilly was supposed to catch the early train to East Hampton. She decided to stop to say goodbye to Tony since he didn’t have to work until noon. As she walked up to the della Robbias’, Frank opened the door on his way out.

  “Go on in. My mother went grocery shopping. He’s sleeping. Do you want me to wake him?”

  “No, I’m going to say goodbye for only a second. Thanks Frank.”

  Frank left, and Lilly walked into their room. She had always been curious about it. She watched him sleep for a second and then kissed him.

  He woke. “Hey, Angel Face. Where’s my mother?”

  “She’s gone grocery shopping.”

  “That’s right, it’s Mond
ay. How’d you get in?”

  “I broke in. No, Frank let me in on his way out.”

  He lifted the sheet to invite her into bed.

  “I have to go. I can’t, really.”

  “Just for a minute?” Tony asked woefully.

  “Just for a second,” Lilly gave into him.

  They were already having intercourse when Tony remembered he wasn’t wearing protection. Lilly hadn’t noticed, and he didn’t tell her. They held each other afterward. Neither wanted a gooey adolescent scene. They dozed off.

  Frank and Mike met Mrs. della Robbia coming in the building and took the groceries. When they entered the apartment, it was quiet.

  Mrs. della Robbia said, “Is he still asleep? He stays up watching those old movies. Get your brother, Frank.”

  Frank and Mike walked in and froze, looked at each other, and turned to leave.

  Mrs. della Robbia said, “Hey, you gonna get him up? I’ll do it.”

  “No, Ma. I got it.”

  Tony started. “Oh shit, go!”

  Frank and Mike stayed in the hall thinking they’d have to smuggle Lilly out past Mrs. della Robbia. Tony came out carrying Lilly’s satchel and walked past them to the bathroom. He came out and headed for the door.

  “Bye, Mom.”

  “What, no breakfast?” Mrs. della Robbia came out of the kitchen.

  “No time.” Tony opened the door.

  “Didn’t you shave? Are you growing a beard, too?

  “See ya, Mom.” He left.

  Frank and Mike went back into the room for Lilly.

  “I know I saw her,” Mike whispered.

  “The window! She went down the fire escape. Pretty sneaky,” Frank chuckled.

  Lilly sat on the end of the fire escape, sure someone was going to call the police. It was an eight-foot drop to the ground.

  An older man walked by the building with a dog and called, “Another nice day, huh?”

  “Sure is,” Lilly squeaked.

  Tony came out and over to help her down.

  “What’d you do, stop to do laundry?”

  “Talk like that and I’ll leave you up there.”

  He reached up and she slid down to him.

  She pleaded, “Frank and Mike. Make sure they don’t say anything. God! I don’t want to come back to hear how easy I am. I missed my train. My uncle was going to meet me.”