by Rosa Jordan
“Then what happened?” Chip asked, looking puzzled.
“Well,” Booker said slowly, swirling the ice in his tea glass. “I was walking across the sand, point person, in front of my squad. Then all of a sudden, kerbloom!”
“Kerbloom?” Chip repeated.
“Next thing I remember was waking up in a hospital with Muzak playing on the intercom. A nurse came in to change the bed, and that’s when I noticed I was missing my feet. Plus a good bit of my legs.” Booker looked around. “Anybody want more tea?”
Luther and Chip shook their heads no and bounded off the porch. Kate held up her glass for more. “Thank you,” she said, her eyes on Booker so as to not miss a word. You never knew what he was going to say next.
Ruby came out of the house and collapsed on the swing. “Can’t believe it’s Thanksgiving and this hot.”
“You stayed too long in that Yankee climate,” Booker teased. “Your blood’s gone thick.”
“Could be.”
“How long you been back? Six months?”
“About that.”
“Long time for a vacation.”
“Don’t start on me, Booker!” Ruby’s voice was so sharp it made Kate jump.
“Start what?” Booker asked innocently.
“Preaching about what I’ve got. I know what I’ve got,” Ruby snapped.
“Like what?” Booker challenged. “Give me a fr’instance.”
“Fr’instance, legs,” Ruby said, kicking the side of his wheelchair. “But that doesn’t make me a baseball star.”
Kate thought it would be a good idea to change the subject, but she couldn’t think of anything to say. Ruby’s mouth turned down, giving her the same hopeless expression that Justin often wore.
“You making it doesn’t mean everybody can,” Ruby grumbled. “There’s still a lot of discrimination out there.”
“You think I haven’t been discriminated against?” Booker demanded.
“Ah, come on, Booker,” Ruby snapped back. “There hasn’t been any racial discrimination against top athletes in this country since you were born!”
“Yeah,” said Booker. His loud voice went real soft. “But what about a top athlete with no feet? You think when I went looking for a coaching job, I didn’t face some prejudice because I’m in a wheelchair? But I didn’t use that as an excuse for not getting on with my life.”
“And I guess not having feet gives you an excuse to go stomping on everybody’s feelings!” Ruby yelled, and stormed into the house.
Kate and Justin just sat there, their mouths hanging open. Booker winked at them but Kate was too upset to wink back.
“Time we headed home,” Kate mumbled. “I’ll go get Chip.”
She went to the side of the house and called Chip. He knew it was a go-home call. They had promised Mom they would leave right after the ball game. Chip didn’t fool around, but waved good-bye to Luther and ran off down the road toward home.
Kate walked back to the front porch to get Justin. He was at the bottom of the steps, scuffing his toe in the dirt. Kate could tell by the way Booker was looking at him that he was about to give Justin some kind of lecture. She could have told Booker it wouldn’t do any good. In Kate’s opinion, Justin gave up way too easily, but that’s the way he was. Now that he’d made up his mind they were going to have to move pretty soon, he seemed more down on himself than ever.
Kate said, “Bye, Booker. Thanks for letting us play.”
“Sure thing,” Booker said. Then he looked at Justin. “You know why I didn’t make it to the majors?”
“No. Why?”
“I was a real good ballplayer, but I wasn’t a hitter. Now you, you’re a hitter.” Booker took a long swallow of tea, as if giving Justin time to let that sink in. Then he said, “I sure hate to see a player of your caliber not put up a fight to get what he wants.”
Justin stood there for a minute, thinking about what Booker said. Then, to Kate’s surprise, he stood up straight and stuck out his chest.
“Right,” he said with a grin. “Thanks, Booker.”
13
Partners
Mom had made such a big deal about not messing up Booker’s visit with his family that they didn’t go to the Wilsons’ the day after Thanksgiving. But on Saturday morning, Kate, Justin, and Chip couldn’t stay away any longer. They headed over with some eggs and got to the Wilson house just as Booker was getting in the van to leave.
“Hey, neighbors!” he yelled. “I was hoping I’d get a chance to say good-bye to you all.”
“You’re leaving already?” Chip asked in a voice full of disappointment.
“That I am,” Booker said. “This man’s got places to go and people to see.”
“What he’s got,” Ruby said tartly, “is a girlfriend he can’t wait to get back to.”
Booker looked at the children gathered around. “Now which of you kids told her I had a girlfriend? That was supposed to be a secret.”
Luther laughed. “You did, Uncle Booker! You told us!”
Booker reached out the window of the van and flipped Ruby’s long braids. “Can’t see that you’d mind, Sis. You been picking on me for two days now. I thought you’d be glad to get rid of me.”
“Who’s been picking on who?” Ruby shot back. “Lucky for you I’m the forgiving type.” She was holding four gift-wrapped boxes. As soon as Booker had gotten himself settled in the van, she passed them through the window to him. “Put these right under the air conditioner, and refrigerate them as soon as you get home.”
After about a dozen more good-byes from everyone standing around hating to see Booker leave, he gave each one of them a long look, then drove off in a cloud of dust. Kate watched him go and wondered how he’d done that—how he had managed to look at her and Justin and Chip and Luther and Ruby and his mother and father in a way that made it seem like he had a special feeling about each one of them.
“There goes our superstar,” Ruby sighed. She put her arm around Mrs. Wilson, who had tears in her eyes.
“I brought some duck eggs,” Kate said. “You want me to put them in the kitchen?”
“Sure, Katie,” Mrs. Wilson said. “Come on in.”
“You boys come with me,” Mr. Wilson said, heading around the house toward the goat pasture. “You’re going to be surprised how much old Billy has learned about cart-pulling.”
What surprised Kate was the Wilsons’ living room. Instead of its normal neatness, she saw piles of small white boxes, gold ribbon, craft materials, and other decorative stuff. Ruby sat down at the desk, picked up one of the boxes, and began to write on it with a fancy fountain pen.
“What do you think of that?” she asked, handing Kate the box.
Across the top, Ruby had written “Ruby’s Exquisite Handmade Chocolates” in gold ink with lots of fancy curlicues.
“Wow!” Kate exclaimed. “I didn’t know you knew how to do calligraphy.”
“One of my many talents,” Ruby said, tossing her braids.
Kate handed the little box back, carefully so as to not smear the gold ink, and went into the kitchen to put away the duck eggs.
“Just set them there in the refrigerator,” Mrs. Wilson told her. She looked tired. Kate could see why. The kitchen was a mess. The sink was stacked with dirty pots, pans, bowls, spoons, and knives. The smell of chocolate was overpowering. There were splotches of burned chocolate on the stove, and smears of chocolate on the cupboard doors, the counter, the fridge, and the floor.
Kate picked up a sponge and started scrubbing the chocolate off the stove. Mrs. Wilson glanced up from the sink where she was washing dishes and smiled. “Thank you, Katie,” she said. When Kate finished the stove, she cleaned chocolate fingerprints off the cupboard door, then wiped the counter, the fridge, the floor, and the wastebasket. “You are one good worker, Katie Martin. Why don’t you go out and see if Ruby needs any help?”
Kate washed her hands and went back into the living room to watch Ruby. “Want some help?”<
br />
“Well …” Ruby didn’t sound enthusiastic about having a helper. Then she seemed to change her mind. “Maybe.” She picked up one of the little white boxes. “See here? I’m gluing a gold bow on each box, and I want one of these plastic rubies glued in the exact center of each bow. Can you do that?”
“Sure!” Kate was thrilled that Ruby would trust her with such an artistic assignment. “What’re all these boxes for?”
“Samples.” Ruby stopped writing and lowered her voice. “What happened, see, was Booker kept ragging on me about not doing anything with my life till I was ready to strangle him. Then I had this idea. Friday morning I got him to take me to town, where I bought all the ingredients to make fancy chocolates like the ones we made in the gourmet candy shop where I used to work in New York. I spent all the rest of the day and most of last night making candy, and voilà!”
“Is that what you gave Booker to take with him?” Kate asked.
“Yeah. He bought the first four pounds for his girlfriend and her mom and a couple more friends. The rest I used for these samples.” Ruby waved her hand at the little boxes. “There are four pieces in each box. My plan is to take them into town this afternoon and leave one for each of the shopkeepers on Main Street. Then go back next week for orders.” Ruby gave Kate a brilliant smile. “Which I know I can get.”
“Oh, Ruby, you are so smart! I would never have thought of something like that!”
Ruby went into the kitchen and came back with a piece of candy. “Open up,” she said, and popped it into Kate’s mouth.
“Umm!” Kate said. The center of the candy had an almondy crunch, and the chocolate on the outside was smooth and buttery. When she’d sucked the last bit of the flavor out of her mouth, she said, “That’s the best candy I ever tasted!”
“It’s going to be the best anybody around here’s ever tasted,” Ruby said confidently. She picked up her special calligraphy pen and studied the point for a minute. Then she said the last thing in the world Kate would have expected her to say.
“Maybe,” Ruby drawled, “I could use a partner.”
“You mean—” Kate was about to say, “me?” but she was sure Ruby didn’t mean that. Ruby was nice to her almost all the time now, but it was mostly in a helpful way, suggestions about how to fix her hair or reminding her to stand up straight. She never got the feeling that Ruby actually liked her.
“Meaning you,” Ruby said, arching an eyebrow at her. “Unless you have something better to do.”
“No! I mean yes! I mean … Oh, Ruby, I’d love to be your partner. Just tell me what to do.”
“Well, for starters, you can help me take these samples around to the shops this afternoon. A little town like this, I expect you know most people.”
“Oh sure. In this town, everybody knows everybody.”
“I remember,” said Ruby. “And knows everybody’s business, too.”
It was two in the afternoon when they started out. Ruby noticed Mom’s car at the house when they passed the end of their lane. “You want to let your mom know you’re going to town?” she asked.
Kate hesitated, then said, “No need. I told Justin.”
What she had actually told Justin was to tell Mom that she had walked to town to pick up more library books. Kate knew Mom wouldn’t mind that, but she had some doubts about what she would say about going to town with Ruby. Given how almost-rude Ruby had been to her the day before Thanksgiving, Mom might think up some excuse for Kate not to go. But she never objected to her kids going to the library. And it wasn’t a lie. They’d pass right by the library coming into town. Kate could stop there for a minute on the way home.
It took almost an hour to walk to town. The land around was flat as a pancake. Some fields were planted in corn, some in beans, and some in other vegetables, because this part of Florida was the winter vegetable–growing capital of the country. Fortunately there were Australian pines along the highway, and they gave a little shade on the footpath. Kate was glad for the shade because although the chocolates were packed against bags of ice to keep them cool, it didn’t help keep her cool. In fact, the ice only made the little baskets she and Ruby carried that much heavier. By the time they got to the town line sign, Kate was sweating and her arms were aching.
“Population 3075,” Ruby read the sign and laughed. “That’s about how many people live in one square block of Manhattan.” She looked down Main Street, which more or less started at the library and went on for about a mile, all the way out to the hospital and the feed store and a farm equipment place. Main Street went that far but the town didn’t. What everybody called “downtown” only went from the library at this end to the bank three blocks down. Most of the town’s stores were crammed in between, on both sides of the street, except for a few things like the beauty parlor and movie theater and video rental place, which were up side streets.
“Tired?” Ruby asked.
“A little,” Kate admitted.
“Me, too,” Ruby said. “But just you wait. Once folks around here get a taste of my chocolates, they’ll be coming to us.” She walked gaily into a kitchenware shop, which also sold some hardware items and rented carpet shampooers.
A man who was putting up Christmas decorations glanced over his shoulder. “Sorry, no peddlers,” he said.
“We’re not—”
“We don’t need anything,” he interrupted, climbing down off his stepladder. When he turned around, Kate saw that the fly of his pants was unzipped. Before she could look away, he reached down and yanked up the zipper. He glared at them so hard, they backed out the door in a hurry.
“That wasn’t the kind of place for my product anyway,” Ruby said. With a determined look, she headed for the place next door, a small café. Kate was glad to see that the cashier in the café was Mrs. Sikes, the mother of a girl in her class.
“Good morning, ma’am. My name’s Ruby Wilson. I—”
“Sorry, we’re busy,” Mrs. Sikes said. “Can’t talk to you now.”
Kate looked around. There was only one man at the counter, all the way down at the end, drinking coffee.
“I have a gift for the owner,” Ruby said coolly.
“She’s not in,” Mrs. Sikes snapped.
“I’ll just leave it,” Ruby said. “And my card. You will give it to her?”
Mrs. Sikes acted as if Ruby had asked her to do some major favor. She screwed up her face like she was about to say no.
Kate stepped quickly up to the cash register. “Thanks, Mrs. Sikes. Say hi to Billy Sue for me.”
In fact, Kate hated Billy Sue Sikes, who was one of the biggest bullies in school. But she figured that if Mrs. Sikes knew they were in the same class, she’d think they were friends and wouldn’t have such a bad attitude toward Ruby.
Mrs. Sikes gave Kate a surprised look, as if noticing her for the first time. “Yeah,” she said. “Oh sure. I will.” She looked down at the pretty sample box. “And I’ll give this to the boss.”
Ruby and Kate continued up the street, stopping at all the stores they thought might be interested in ordering some. Once Ruby explained she was only giving out samples, most of the clerks agreed to take a box. It only took about twenty minutes to walk from one end of downtown to the other. They finished one side and started back down the other.
Ruby pointed to a little gift shop just around the corner from the ice cream store. “Who runs that place?”
“Old Mr. Bainbridge used to, but he died. Now it’s his son, Mr. Bainbridge Jr. Everybody calls him Mr. Junior. He looks old for a junior, but Mama says that’s just because he drinks so much.”
Ruby laughed. “Okay, let’s say hello to Mr. Junior.”
Mr. Junior was squatted down behind the counter. When they pushed open the door he stood up quickly.
“How can I help you ladies?” he asked with a smile. He slid his liquor bottle behind a display.
Ruby put one of the boxes on the counter and smiled back at him. “I’m selling homemade chocolat
es. We’ve brought you a sample.”
“Oh, I’m not a candy eater,” Mr. Junior began. Then, seeing the disappointed look on Kate’s face, he said, “But my mother adores chocolates. Reckon I could give it to her. Here—” He reached into his pocket and brought out a crumpled dollar bill.
“Oh no,” Ruby explained. “This I brought today is free. If you want to order more—”
“Nothing in life is free, missy.” Mr. Junior grabbed Ruby’s hand and pressed the dollar into it. “Now you and the little girl run along, and have a nice day, hear?”
Kate took one look at Ruby’s face and saw that she had better get her out of there, fast. Kate knew that Mr. Junior was just trying to be nice, but Ruby didn’t seem to be taking that into consideration. They were barely back on the sidewalk before Ruby exploded.
“That condescending old wino! People around here got their minds squinched shut so tight you couldn’t shove a dime in edgewise.” She was talking so loud that a woman passing by turned to stare. Ruby flopped down on a bench outside the ice cream store and glared at the woman.
Kate sighed. It was hard dealing with Ruby’s mood swings.
“I’m going over there to the bathroom,” Kate said, pointing to Ralph’s Gas-and-Go. She eased away, figuring it was a good idea to give Ruby a little time by herself to cool off.
There were two guys hanging around the gas pumps and another one changing oil on a car. They didn’t notice Kate when she went past them to the bathroom. She sort of knew them, or at least knew their names. José was the mechanic who had put the new battery in Mom’s car last summer. Ralph was the chubby one who owned the station. Then there was Bubba, a big black guy who hung around there a lot, polishing his big black motorcycle. Most of the time, including today, he wore a white T-shirt that said, “Harley Power is Black Power.”
On her way out of the bathroom Kate stopped at the watercooler for a drink. The guys still didn’t notice her because they were staring at Ruby, who was crossing the street toward the station. Ruby had the kind of looks that always turned heads. Kate could see that what got people’s attention wasn’t so much Ruby’s classy jeans and polished boots, but the way she marched along posture-perfect, head held high and long beaded braids swinging.
