Love, Ruby Lavender

by Deborah Wiles

"I know she did it! Here's her note! It's her!" Ruby brandished the crumpled note and waved it in front of Miss Mattie, but she wouldn't give it up.

  "Where's the third egg, sweetie?" Ruby's mother dabbed at a dribble of blood that made its way down the back of Ruby's hand. She looked like she might cry herself.

  Dove sniffed. "Ivy's sitting on it. It's still peeping."

  Miss Mattie left the doorway. Ruby heard her talking to Mr. Harvey Popham outside. "Go on over to the Lathams' and get Leila and Melba Jane..."

  "Don't you bring her here!" Ruby leaped to her feet. "Don't you bring her anywhere near my chickens! Bemmie is missing, too. I don't know where she went. Melba left the gate open."

  Ruby wiped her hair from her face and left a streak of blood on her cheek.

  "You're bleeding, honey." Her mother stood and held Ruby's face in her hands. She looked intently into Ruby's eyes. "First things first. Let's take care of these cuts and scrapes—you, too, Dove. Come on into the house, where we can see."

  "I'm not leaving my chickens." Ruby wiped her nose on her shirtsleeve.

  Miss Mattie used her in-charge voice. "Ruby, you come with me, now. You, too, Dove. We're going to clean you up. Evelyn, can you manage here?"

  "Yes, ma'am." Ruby's mother sounded relieved.

  "I won't go!" Ruby stared at her mother.

  Miss Mattie held out her hand. "I'll bring you back directly. You won't be any good to these chickens if you get tetanus. Now let's get cleaned up and make sure you aren't carrying glass in those cuts."

  Ruby's mother nodded. "I'm going to take care of this glass with Mr. Harvey. When you come back, we'll be able to think more clearly, okay?"

  Ruby faced Miss Mattie. "You're not bringing Melba Jane here, are you?"

  "No, I won't do that. We've got other things to attend to right now."

  Ruby smelled the dirt of the chicken yard and the straw from Ivy's nest. Ivy clucked from her perch on top of the last egg. "I'll be right back, Ivy girl. You are such a brave chicken." She turned to her mother. "Look at how she tried to protect her chicks." Her voice choked again, and tears were fresh in her eyes.

  Her mother's eyes filled with tears, too. She hugged Ruby. "You've done what you could do, honey." She put an arm around the sniffling Dove. "I'm going to call your aunt and uncle and tell them what happened. I'll tell them you're okay. All right?"

  Dove nodded. She sniffed again and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. Then she followed Ruby out of the greenhouse. She walked onto the porch of the Pink Palace with Ruby and Miss Mattie. The three of them disappeared into the house.

  18

  Soap and water stung Ruby's skin, but Miss Mattie's no-nonsense way was a comfort. She helped wash each girl's hair carefully in the big kitchen sink. Then she had each one take a shower in Miss Eula's pink bathroom. She found Hawaiian muumuus, sent by Johnson, on the back of Miss Eula's bedroom door and had the girls wear them while she fixed cuts and scrapes.

  "It's a wonder you two weren't cut worse than this," she mused, as she finished dabbing both girls with Mercurochrome.

  "I was under the counter," said Dove. She was still pale.

  "Thank goodness for small favors."

  Ruby had been silent all through her head wash, through her shower. She had had no comment when Miss Mattie found six pink muumuus behind Miss Eula's door and rolled her eyes and shook her head. She sat in the kitchen at Miss Eula's table, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. If she tried, she could smell her grandmother. She could even smell her grandfather and imagine he was in the room, in his overalls, getting ready to pot geraniums in his greenhouse. She missed them both so much.

  "Do you hear from Miss Eula, Miss Mattie?"

  Miss Mattie looked up from her dabbing. "I do." She sounded tired. Ruby wondered what time it was.

  "Does she ever say when she's coming back?"

  "No, she doesn't." Miss Mattie put the cotton balls back where she had found them, in a bread box labeled FIRST AID. HELP! HELP!

  "Do you miss her?"

  "I expect I do."

  Ruby felt the hard lump in her throat again. "You do? Really?"

  "Well, of course I do, child. She's my sister-in-law."

  Dove walked out to the back porch in her muumuu, a towel wrapped around her head. Miss Mattie sat down in a kitchen chair. "What's this about?"

  Ruby blinked at Miss Mattie. "I don't know. I just wondered." She hesitated, then spoke. "I don't know what to do now. I wish Miss Eula was here and she could tell me. I don't know where Bemmie is—she could be lying in a ditch somewhere."

  "Oh, now, you know better than that. That blue-footed floozy is off to the Butterfields' the minute that gate is opened. I bet she's there right now, helping herself to the corn and chatting with Herman."

  "I need to go find her."

  "Wait for morning, honey. It'll keep until morning. Bemmie is a resourceful old girl."

  "So what do I do now?"

  "Right now all we can do is take care of what's in front of us."

  Ruby sniffed. "I want to have a funeral."

  "For the chicks?"

  Ruby's lower lip quivered. "Yes, just like the one we had for Grandpa Garnet. Will you come?"

  Miss Mattie sighed. "Yes. I will come, Ruby." She touched Ruby's wet hair. "Let me comb this out for you now." Ruby didn't protest, and Miss Mattie pulled a comb from her pocket and began, gently, to comb Ruby's hair. "When you lose someone you love, it hurts, doesn't it?"

  Ruby nodded slowly. A fat tear dropped off the end of her nose. She sniffed loudly. "I'm a crybaby."

  "Oh, honey, we've all dampened a pillow in our day. There's no shame in crying." She handed Ruby a tissue.

  Ruby blew her nose. "Well, I don't cry anymore."

  "Why ever not?" Miss Mattie worked on a tangle in Ruby's hair.

  "Last summer, when Grandpa Garnet died, Melba Jane laughed at me for crying at his funeral. She said I was no better than a baby and she would tell everybody in school that I was a selfish coward besides."

  "Well, Melba said plenty of things she shouldn't have said last summer, Ruby. And you can bet she cried plenty. I know her mama did. My goodness, so did I."

  Ruby sat still while Miss Mattie glided her comb smoothly through Ruby's long red hair. Ruby sniffed. "I'm sorry about ruining the operetta this year."

  "You didn't ruin it, child. The operetta will be fine, one way or another. There's always another day. Matter of fact, I think this day is about to dawn."

  Miss Mattie took an elastic out of her pocket and pulled Ruby's hair into a neat ponytail. "There. I hardly recognize you. But I like it."

  Ruby looked Miss Mattie in the eye. "Miss Mattie?"

  "Hmmmm?"

  "Do you ever laugh?"

  "No. Never." Miss Mattie smiled a smile that softened her whole face. It surprised Ruby so much, she smiled back.

  "Good." Miss Mattie gave Ruby's shoulder a pat. "You're going to be all right. Don't worry. This family is full of strong women who know how to laugh."

  Ruby nodded and blew her nose again.

  "Ruby!" It was Dove, calling in a voice full of excitement.

  "What in the world?..." Miss Mattie opened the back door.

  "Ruby! Ruby, come quick! The new chick is coming—now!"

  19

  Miss Mattie made coffee in Miss Eula's kitchen, and Ruby's mother joined her. The neighbors made their way home. In the greenhouse, the broken glass was gone. Ruby's mother had placed the cracked eggs in a small basket on the counter and covered them with a cloth napkin from the kitchen. She had put some of Grandpa Garnet's black-eyed Susans in a Mason jar of water and put them next to the basket. Now Ruby and Dove leaned against a straw bale in the greenhouse, wearing Miss Eula's muumuus, watching.

  Ivy clucked loudly, encouraging her chick. The moon lit the greenhouse with a silver glow, and the air smelled like straw and morning dew.

  Ruby got on her hands and knees and peered closely under Ivy. "She's out! She's out,
but she's staying under Ivy to keep warm and to dry her feathers."

  The girls waited, and the summer sky lightened. Dove spread her fingers and smoothed her muumuu with the palms of her hands. "Are you okay?"

  Ruby nodded. "I'm okay. Are you?"

  "I was so scared."

  "Me, too." Ruby eyed Dove. "You look different when you're not wearing your uniform."

  "So do you. I never see you in anything but your overalls." Dove stifled a yawn. "What are you going to do now?"

  "I don't know. I'll write Miss Eula. She'll know what to do."

  "What will she say?"

  "I was thinking about it. When something terrible happens, Miss Eula says, 'Life does go on,' but it doesn't, does it? Those chicks will never have a life now."

  Dove thought about it. "I don't know. Maybe it means something else." She took the towel off her head and used it to rub her hair vigorously. Ruby was surprised to see the short white tips stand in place, just like they always did.

  Ivy squawked, stood up, ruffled her feathers, stepped off the straw ... and there she was, Ivy's chick. She was still damp, but her feathers were drying. She was cornmeal yellow, tiny and new. She shook herself, like a puppy, and peeped three times. She tried to take a step and stumbled. Ivy stepped back over her and covered her chick. She clucked. The chick peeped. Mother and child settled themselves again.

  "Good golly!" Dove held her hands under her chin. "Oh my golly."

  Ruby's heart pounded in a smooth, hard rhythm, she's here! she's here! Ivy's chick was here. Ruby was sure the chick had seen her, knew her. After all, she'd heard Ruby's voice for weeks. Ruby thought about the day she and Miss Eula had rescued Ivy and Bemmie and Bess. It was a lifetime ago. Since then, Ivy had laid three eggs. Miss Eula had left. Dove had come. And Melba had ruined everything. Almost everything. Ruby didn't know what to do about that, and she was too heartsick to think.

  Bone tired, thought Ruby, I'm bone tired. The stars were winking out overhead. The first morning birds welcomed a new day. Ruby pressed her fingers to her lips and kissed them, then turned them out, toward Ivy. That was for the new chick. She blinked, stood up to stretch, and looked silently at the small basket on the counter. She brushed her fingertips across the petals of the black-eyed Susans. She swallowed back her tears. "It'll be a long time before Ivy gets off the nest and lets her chick walk around. We should go to sleep."

  "Good." Dove rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. "I'm so tired I can hardly stand it."

  "It'll be too hot out here soon—let's go in. Miss Eula won't mind if we sleep in her bed."

  Ruby's mother tucked the girls in. She kissed them both on their foreheads and then on their eye-lids. "Sleep tight. I'm walking over to the Butterfields' to get Bemmie—they called a little while ago and they've got her. Then Miss Mattie and I are going to the Lathams'. Dove, your aunt and uncle are coming to check on you in a few hours. Your aunt said she was making you breakfast. You girls get some sleep. When that new chick is ready, we all want to welcome her into the world." She smiled and touched Ruby's cheek.

  Miss Eula's bed was enormous. The girls had three pink pillows apiece. They lay under a pink sheet, wearing pink muumuus, with their eyes closed for a long time, listening to the birds through the screened windows. Peaceful, thought Ruby. It was peaceful. Dove's tape recorder and camera lay on the dresser. She hadn't taken a single picture, hadn't recorded a sound.

  "I hear the sunflowers growing outside the window," Ruby said.

  "Can you really hear them growing?"

  "My grandpa always said you could hear all living things if you listened. He used to talk to his flowers, especially the black-eyed Susans. He called them 'the Girls.' He said, 'They all look alike, and they're all named Susan.' And then he'd laugh."

  "I like that," said Dove.

  "Me, too."

  The girls were silent for a moment, listening. Then Dove turned over and faced the wall. "Peas?"

  "Yeah?"

  "I'm glad you're my fiiend." Dove sounded sleepy. She pulled up the sheet and tucked it under her chin.

  Ruby turned onto her side and faced the window. "What am I going to do now, Dove?"

  "I don't know, Peas." Dove's voice was drowsy and soft.

  "What would you do?"

  Dove didn't answer. Her breath was smooth and rhythmic, in and out. Ruby lay there a long time, listening to Dove sleep, listening to the quiet. By and by, her eyes closed and she fell deeply asleep and dreamed of her grandpa Garnet. He was kneeling in his garden, digging for worms with a silver trowel. Three soft yellow chicks cheeped around his knees. He talked to them and called them "the Girls." Ruby walked toward him and he waved at her and told her he was home now and she should get ready; he was taking her fishing on an early August morning. Taking her on a fishing trip he had promised her all summer.

  Aurora County News

  Twilight Edition, June 27

  Happenings in Halleluia (Special Midweek Installment)

  by Phoebe "Scoop" Tolbert

  Just as this reporter settled down last night to a "bowl of mint ice cream and a rerun of "Angel in My Pocket," what should come out of the night "but crashes and screams!

  Mr. Tolbert and I rushed up the street to Miss Eula Dapplevine's abode, from whence the screams came, and found a disturbing scene: glass broken around the greenhouse, definitely a destructive act in our quiet town, and two distraught girls, Ruby Lavender and—visiting for the summer—Miss Helen Dove Ishee, niece of Halleluia School's new fourth-grade teacher, Ferrell Ishee.

  As it turns out, this fiasco comes on the heels of another equally disturbing incident, in which Melba Jane Latham, daughter of Leila and the late Lionel Latham, was doused with a can of peacock-blue paint after being scared out of her wits by a chicken owned by Ruby Lavender.

  It is believed by all that both incidents were accidents at heart. The upshot is twofold: (1) that there has been death and destruction at the Pink Palace, as two chicks in the greenhouse died from failing out of the nest before hatching as a result of alleged rock throwing by Melba Jane Latham in retaliation for (2) the death of Melba Jane's acting career due to having her hair cut off at the roots, because of its irreversible blueness.

  I am awaiting further developments and will have a write-up as soon as I know more.

  * * *

  June 28

  Dear Miss Eula,

  The funeral for the chicks was today. Dove came and so did Aunt Tot and Mr. Ishee and Mama and even Miss Mattie. She brought a bucket of zinnias from her garden and we sang "In the Sweet By and By." The chicks are buried near the elm tree. Mr. Ishee is making a marker for me. He is putting "To bloom in heaven" on it. I asked for that.

  Melba told Mama she didn't mean to throw the rock through the window, just to throw it in the chicken yard, but she missed. Well, what did she expect? She can't throw a softball. She can't cast a fishing line. She can't climb a tree. She made apologies to Mama because I won't let her talk to me.

  Mama says I can't have her arrested. Old Ezra Jackson gave Melba a job so she can pay for the window, and now she has to help clean out cow stalls and put down fresh straw. Ha! Miss I-don't-get-my-hands-dirty has her hands around pitchforks stuck in you-know-what! She won't last one day.

  For your information, Ivy is fine. I have named the new chick Rosebud. I carry her with me everywhere, in my front overalls pocket. She sleeps in a box by my bed. Ivy said it was all right. When Rosebud peeps, I reach down and pat her. I do not have any free advice. I miss you. It feels like a year since you left.

  Love,

  your (weary) granddaughter,

  Ruby L.

  * * *

  * * *

  July 1

  Dear Miss Land of Paradise,

  Miss Mattie convinced Melba Jane to stay in the operetta. She asked me to stay, too, but I said no. I will not be anywhere near Melba.

  I heard Miss Mattie talking to Melba's mama in the store, and I bet it was about me and Melba. She said,
"They'll work it out, Leila." Ha! That's what she thinks.

  Dove is coming in a few minutes to play with Rosebud. For your information, we are going to have a picnic on your back porch. We do that a lot.

  Free advice: A remembrance is better when there are lots of people around to remember, you should come home. I'll wait for you, and we can picnic in the cemetery when you come back.

  Love,

  your (new mother) granddaughter,

  Ruby L.

  Pee Ess: I love the photographs you sent of Hortense. She's kind of cute, isn't she? Have you told her all about me?

  * * *

  * * *

  July 6

  Dear Ruby (very dear),

  Sugar, I am so so sorry to hear about Ivy's chicks, when I read your letter, my heart sank right into my toes. Thank goodness for Miss Mattie, and your mama, and our good neighbors. (And I have heard about this from every one of them—it's amazing how tragedy brings out a desire to write long letters.)

  There's just nothing that can make us feel better when someone we love dies, is there? I'm so glad you have Rosebud. I can't wait to meet her.

  The funeral sounds lovely, and you sang one of Grandpa Garnet's favorite hymns. His other favorite was "stop This Preaching, Before I Fall Asleep." Let me know if you do decide to do a remembrance. Maybe you could put a pillow on the pew where he always sat in church.

  But don't worry about that now. Right now is for remembering those chicks and taking care of Rosebud. Take care of yourself, too. And Dove. You are brave girls, and I love you.

  Love,

  your (full of compassion) grandmother,

  Miss Eula

  * * *

  * * *

  July 7

  Dear Miss Grandmother of Two,