by Jon McDonald
◘ ◘ ◘
Mr. Howland was in his study first thing in the morning, and Dexter was determined not to delay tendering his resignation. What he had wrestled with all night was how to do this without incriminating the rest of the family. It would be entirely inappropriate for Dexter to disclose to the head of the family the indiscretions of his wife and two children.
“Sir, might I have a word with you?” Mr. Howland looked up from his paper and nodded. “I regret having to do this, sir, but I have had word that my mother is gravely ill and I must return home.”
“Indeed? I am saddened to hear that.”
“And as I don’t know what the situation is with her, or how long I might have to remain in Quincy, I believe it best if I tender my resignation now.”
Mr. Howland was silent as he contemplated this news. He put down the newspaper and rising, crossed over to his desk. He turned and looked out the window at the blustery spring morning.
“Sir?” Dexter was becoming unsettled by the long silence.
Mr. Howland turned to face Dexter. “Son, I don’t believe a word you’re saying.” He walked over and put his arm around Dexter’s shoulder and led him to the window.
“But sir…sir,” Dexter stammered.
“No, no, listen. I don’t care what you told me. You mother may be ill or not, but I know that’s not the issue. I’ve taken quite a liking to you, my boy, and I know my children are devoted to you as well, even after such a short period of time. If it’s a matter of money….”
“No sir, it’s not that.”
“Well, it must be something else, then.” He paused and turned to look directly at Dexter. “Is it my wife?” Dexter turned pale and looked away. “She and I lead very separate lives, except for the family, of course. She’s a very attractive woman and has a great many admirers. And she is not above entertaining them, if you know what I mean. I am guessing she expressed an interest in you that has not been reciprocated.” He paused and looked again directly at Dexter.
“Sir, I cannot say.” Dexter was now extremely uncomfortable and moved away from Mr. Howland.
“Well, I’m guessing that you might not follow that particular persuasion. Am I correct?” He walked over to Dexter and put his arm around Dexter’s shoulder once again. “As I’ve said, I’ve taken quite a liking to you, and I feel that we might have a lot in common you and me. If you could find your way to accommodate me, then I am certain you would benefit greatly. I have a great many friends who could offer you similar companionship; they are highly placed gentlemen, all with sterling connections for the advancement of a young man of your persuasion. And I am certain we could offer you a far more generous salary for your position here at this house. What do you say?”
Dexter was now in utter panic and could not even speak. He just looked incredulously at Mr. Howland and fled the study. He rushed up the stairs to his room, threw his few belongings into his bag, and fled the house without saying good-bye to anyone. He went directly to the stables where his horse was quartered and searched for Daniel, the groom.
“Daniel, you there?” Dexter called out.
“Sir?” Daniel responded, emerging from his small room behind the stable. “Were you wanting something?”
“Yes, my horse, as soon as possible. I am leaving.”
“Going for a ride, Sir?”
“No, I’m leaving this house and all its degenerate occupants.”
“Sir?” Daniel queried, somewhat confused.
“I’ve resigned my post. I’m going home.”
“Oh that is a pity, it is, a handsome young gentleman like yourself. Why I was thinking that you and I might go riding together one day. I know some really beautiful spots where there are no prying eyes - if you get my meaning, sir.”
Dexter stared at Daniel in utter disbelief. “No, not you too?”
◘ ◘ ◘
Dexter sat with his mother by their fireplace with its warm and comforting fire. It was still nippy, even this late into the spring.
“I don’t know. I just don’t know,” Dexter responded to his mother’s question about what he was going to do next.
“Well, Mr. Todd, I hear, is looking for a tutor for his six children. All sorts of ages. From six to about sixteen, I believe. You should stop by and have a chat with the Mistress. I’m sure they would find you most agreeable.
“Yes, I’m sure they would. But no thank you, mother, no more tutoring for me.”
“Really? Well, you must have had a very nasty experience up there in Boston, then. Why won’t you tell me about it? You’ve been so secretive ever since you’ve been back home. What happened? Do tell me, dear.”
“No, Mother, I don’t think I can.” He paused and was lost in contemplation for a moment. Then he looked up at her. “But I have reached a decision. I’m going to become a priest. I crave a totally spiritual life. I’ll go into the seminary, where there are all those young men just like me - so chaste, so pure. It will be the perfect place for me, don’t you see? And then, finally, I shall have some peace.”
I Wuv Ooo Daddy Snooky
It was all Chenille LaFonse could do to peel the carrots without paring them away down to tiny stubs. She had to concentrate so real hard - and she did. She held a picture in her mind of a strong robust carrot proudly sporting his orange suit. And if she held to this image firmly, she could control her obsessive desire to whittle the poor little carrot away to nothing. And she had to remember how much Daddy Snooky loved carrots in his stew. He often commented, “How I love carrots in my stew.” Chenille knew this for a fact, and wrote it down the first time Daddy told her, so she would never forget.
Leddy Pardu was fussing at the screen door and calling out Chenille’s name.
“You in there, girl?” Leddy was peering in through the screen, squinching her face all up like a prune. Chenille laughed to herself, imagining Leddy flapping about in a bowl of stewed prunes. Oh my, Chenille, you really like to laugh, she thought.
“Come on in Leddy. It okay,” Chenille called out, relieved that she had eight or ten good peeled carrots with no homicides in the bunch. She figured that would do right good towards Daddy’s dinner.
Leddy came in through the screen door and immediately began fanning herself with the copy of People Magazine she had just plucked from the mailbox along with two utility bills, and a Piggly Wiggly grocery flyer. Leddy fancied herself as one hot chick. She was shapely under her snug tee shirt and flared black shorts with big white polka dots. Her dark hair was cut short, and even without make-up she was saucy. But she had a playful twinkle in her eye that let everyone know she didn’t take herself too seriously.
“My, my. You ever seen such heat like this before? Gonna be tossin’ and turnin’ all night long, I can tell ya. You got a cola?” Leddy flopped down on the sofa with the busted springs on the back porch. It weren’t worth nothing now but as porch furniture Snooky had declared as he scooted the sofa from the living room onto the porch. Next stop was bound to be the shed out back by the magnolia.
“Got a cherry Nehi. That do?” Chenille asked as she rummaged in the Frigidaire.
“Oh that be beautiful,” Leddy sighed, as she tossed off her flip-flops.
“Here go.” Chenille handed her the bottle.
“Oh, your daddy say you simple, but you nice.” Leddy sighed once again, wiggling around on the sofa to find the sweet spot without the busted springs. Weren’t much of a good spot ‘cept in the far right corner. “Ain’t got any saltines, does ya, baby? Got a terrible notion for ‘em ever since Darrell knocked me up.”
“You gonna have a baby.” Chenille beamed with the thought of a little toddler scooting across her kitchen floor.
“Yes, I am sweetie. Like I told you last month.”
Chenille handed Leddy a box of crackers.
“Much obliged,” Leddy nodded and tore at the wax paper envelope with the salty crackers that smelled like powdery fresh laundry. “Ummm.” They was fresh and crisp. Not like the soggy one
s at home – the package left open in the swampy Louisiana air. She looked up at Chenille. “You sure got pretty hair, sugar. Here, let me fix it up for ya. Come on, sit down right here,” she indicated by patting the floor between her now spread legs.
Chenille obliged by scooting back up against the front of the sofa. Chenille’s fragile frame was almost lost in her overly large print dress – three sizes too large – scrounged from her deceased mother’s closet. Leddy spread a poker hand of saltines on the sofa pillow next to her so she could nibble as she braided Chenille’s hair. Leddy began combing through Chenille’s watery blond hair with the brush from her bag.
“Honey, you ever been with a man?” Leddy asked as she nimbly sorted the hair into strands.
Chenille looked up briefly at Leddy. “I go stepping out with Daddy on Sundays after church. We go walking ta graveyard ta say hi to mama.”
“Ya haven’t have ya? Well, that’s a blessin’ in disguise, I reckon. How old you be now, anyways?”
Chenille figured it out with her fingers, then remembered as well. “Nineteen next month. Daddy Snooky says I can have a barbeque party in the backyard. You gonna come, ain’t ya?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the whole wide world, honey baby. Anything you want special as a present?”
“Could you bring me a baby? I’ve been hankering for one of those for ever so long. Daddy Snooky says you can’t buy one at the five and dime.”
Leddy laughed, but sweetly. “That sure is true, Chenille. They be a gift a God and only he can bring ya one.”
“Would he bring me one if I prayed a whole lot real hard?”
Leddy didn’t answer right away, as she worked deftly on the first braid. She popped a saltine in her mouth and figured how she might answer Chenille’s question so she could understand. “It ain’t just a matter a prayin’. God don’t just reach down and hand ya a baby or send it in the mail. It gotta grow inside a ya. Like the one I’m sportin’ right now. It’s a gift, but ya gotta be with a man to get the seed planted. Ya understand me at all?”
Chenille thought about it for some time before she answered. “I got little packets a seed out in the shed. But I never seen no baby seeds.”
No, no honey, not those kinds a seed. Gotta be daddy seeds. Mommies got eggs inside a them and daddy gotta seed the egg so baby can start up. Understand?”
Chenille thought hard about that. “How daddy get seed inside mommy?”
Leddy wasn’t sure she wanted to go there. She finished up the first braid and tied it off with a rubber band she had around her wrist. “There, that’s the first one. You are sure gonna look real nice. Daddy Snooky gonna think you one fine lady.”
Chenille beamed with pleasure. She reached back and grabbed the completed braid and felt its smooth rippled twists. “That’s real nice.”
“What ya makin’ for dinner?” Leddy wanted to redirect the conversation in a new direction.
“Daddy Snooky stew. It’s his favorite. He wants me to make it once a week. We always have it on Wednesdays.” Chenille was not to be misdirected however. “Ya never finish tell me about the baby makin’. Wanna get me one a those.”
Leddy started working on the second braid. “Oh honey, I think you gotta talk to your Daddy Snooky ‘bout them things. Ain’t no place for me to go tellin’ you ‘bout that. It’s considered private business. Family stuff. You understand?”
“No ma’am, I sure don’t.” Chenille pouted and tried scooting away from Leddy.
“Here now, you gotta let me finish your braid or you be lop-sided as a tall truck with a flat tire.”
“Don’t care.” Chenille pulled away, got up, and marched back to the kitchen to begin working again on the stew.
Leddy downed the rest of her Nehi and closed up the packet of crackers. “Chenille, Chenille, you be such a child. Gotta get me goin’ anyhow. Thanks for the drink and the snack. My daddy be coming home soon, and gotta fry up the damn fish he gonna be bringin’ back from the lake. All bones and not enough meat on ‘em to feed a cricket. Honestly, these men…always be just boys. Haven’t got the sense of a mudbug.” Leddy slipped into her flip-flops, picked up her mail, her bag, and headed for the screen door. “Well, look who’s a-comin’ up the walk – be your own Daddy Snooky.”
“Well, well. Look who’s a-standin’ at my door. If it ain’t the lovely Leddy Pardu. How’s Darrell?” Daddy climbed the steps while Leddy held open the screen door for him.
“Good as can be expected, I suppose. Ornery as a rabid coon half the time.”
Daddy leaned in as he passed by and whispered. “You free later?”
“He’ll be out cold by ten after fishin’ and half a dozen beers. Usual place?” she whispered back.
“Yep.”
“You gotta be careful of our baby though,” she smiled.
“You know I will,” Snooky answered, patting her still trim belly. He came in and stood on the back porch looking into the kitchen.
Chenille danced over with her arms open wide. Daddy scooped her up and swung her around in a wide circle. “How’s daddy’s little girl? Been good?”
“Good as little girl can be,” she crooned.
“See ya.” Leddy called back as she descended the steps and disappeared, flip-floppin’ through the back yard to her house across the alley.
“Whatcha makin’?” Daddy asked, as he lifted the lid off the pot on the stove.
“Wednesday stew. Just like you like it. Look, got ya lots a nice carrots,” she replied, proudly holding up her orange trophies.
“That’s a good girl. Daddy’s gonna take a nap now. Call me when dinner’s ready. Will you remember to do that?”
“Oh Daddy Snooky. You know I will.”
Daddy left the kitchen.
Chenille called after, “I wuv ooo, Daddy Snooky.”
“I wuv ooo too,” Daddy called back, disappearing down the hall to the back bedroom.
Chenille danced around the kitchen, holding out her arms and admiring her fingers as she twirled in waltzing circles. But suddenly she stopped, and her face clouded over, and she began to cry. She didn’t know why. She tugged at the braid Leddy had been unable to finish. She stood there looking at the screen door, remembering Daddy patting Leddy’s belly. She couldn’t figure why that made her so sad, but it did. Then she bolted and headed straight to her bedroom.
The blinds and drapes were drawn to keep out the heat of the afternoon. She stood in the semi-darkness – the light a liquid swimming haze – thick as chicken soup. It felt like the time when she was ten and Daddy Snooky took her to the fishin’ lake and said she needed to go into the water. She didn’t know nothing ‘bout swimmin’ she kept saying, but he said she had go in anyway. She was dressed in her white Sunday church dress and she was wearing her white shoes with the diamond buckles. She wanted to take the shoes off to keep them from getting ruined but Daddy wouldn’t let her. He rowed the boat out to the middle of the lake and told her to jump in. She really didn’t want to. He gave her a big rock and told her to hold on to it real tight. He said it would keep her safe and would help her to breathe under water. He said she must not let go of it for any reason. Then he made her jump in.
The splash startled her and she almost let go of the rock. But Daddy Snooky had told her she must not let go no matter what, so she held on tight. The water was cold and she began to sink rapidly towards the bottom. The water was both green and brown and filled with flakes of gold. She looked up as the light receded and she thought she might soon be in total darkness.
That is what her room felt like now. It was dark and cooler than the rest of the house. She felt like she was sinking – just like before. She sat on the edge of her bed. She bent her head and closed her eyes. She remembered once again sinking deeper and deeper in the water until her feet touched the bottom of the lake. Her first thought was for her shoes sinking into the mud and getting all ruined. But then she felt as though her lungs were about to burst, and she so badly wanted to take a deep breath.
But now, still sad, she stretched across her bed and pulled Baby Clarissa to her. As she lifted the doll, Baby Clarissa’s eyes popped open and from deep within a mechanical “Ma-ma” plaintively called out.
Chenille held the baby close, and began to rock and sing ever so sweetly. “Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly, Lavender’s green. When you are king dilly dilly, I shall be Queen.”
She left her room, crossed the kitchen, and went through the screen door to the back yard. Dark was settling in fast, and the first fire flies began winking at her in greeting. Chenille eased onto the swing hanging from the great oak, and kicking out her feet she began to swing, singing, “Who told you so, dilly dilly, who told you so? ‘Twas my own heart, dilly dilly, that told me so.”
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