by Catie Rhodes
“What if I said I bet I can talk Miss Leticia into letting you come to the prom?” His face crinkled into a smile.
“I’d say you’re wasting your time. She’s pissed.” I put my feet on the dashboard and leaned my head on the window of the Tahoe’s door.
“Never underestimate my charm.” He pulled into a parking space near Dottie’s Burgers and Rings and shut off the engine. “Now, kiss me.”
I did, still thinking Chase had a better chance of Memaw chewing his ass into raw, red shreds. We walked into Dottie’s holding hands.
This was my first after-school visit to Dottie’s Burgers and Rings. I always had chores after school, and Memaw insisted all homework be done before any fun activities. Stepping inside the small café overloaded every one of my senses. Too bad we were here to work on a school project with other kids.
The smell of hot grease and frying batter prompted my stomach to let out a plaintive howl. The whir of the stainless steel drink mixer competed with the sound of the two-dozen kids from the high school who jostled each other and joked in a line stretching from the ordering counter to the glass door. Even the temperature intensified, going from a crisp, mild spring afternoon to a humid summer day because of all the bodies pressed together.
I stood right in the middle of the chaos, not sure what to do. Dottie turned over her duties to another woman and came over to meet us.
“I’ve got us a table in the back corner.” She pointed and whipped out an order pad. “Y’all go on and tell me what you want. It’s on the house.”
Everybody but Rainey ordered Dottie’s special burger with grilled onions and onion rings on the side.
“Miss Rainey, you still want to see how to short order cook?” Without waiting for an answer, Dottie headed back to kitchen. Rainey hurried after her.
Chase watched them go. “She trying to get a job here?”
“She’s worried she won’t make enough money modeling to pay her expenses in college, dummy.” Tubby elbowed Chase. “Let’s go play some music.”
The two left me standing alone. I sat alone at the big table in the back corner, wide-eyed at the hubbub. Chase stood at the old fashioned jukebox, feeding in quarters. Tubby pointed out songs. Sometimes Chase punched in the number. Other times, he made a face. He saw me watching and pointed at the jukebox before he punched in a number and mouthed, For you. I smiled at him.
Felicia sat down across from me. “You really love him, don’t you?”
Oh, gross. I’d hoped she would stay away. Instead of answering, I stared at her.
“Doesn’t matter anyway.” She opened a salt package, poured some into her hand, and licked it off. “Sooner or later, he’ll figure out there’s girls more interesting than you.”
I gave her the evil eye. She glared back. We did everything but bare our teeth and growl. I considered getting up and peeing on her leg.
Dottie and Rainey emerged from the kitchen, both carrying trays of red-and-white-checkered paper trays holding onion rings and burgers. White Styrofoam cups surrounded the food. They set them down on the table. Rainey grunted with relief.
“What’d you think, Miss Rainey? Want to become a short-order cook instead of going off to New York City for college?” Dottie laughed and distributed the food, her soft stomach pushing against the table. She snapped her fingers at Chase and Tubby.
Chase shoved the rolls of quarters in his pocket and rushed over from the jukebox. He snatched his burger and ate half of it in three huge bites. Juice dribbled down his chin. I handed him a paper napkin. Then I bit into one of my onion rings, chewing slowly with my eyes closed. Dottie’s was a rare treat for me, and I wanted to savor it. Tubby sat next to me, promptly picked up the ketchup bottle, and held it over my rings.
“Don’t you dare,” I said through a mouthful of food.
Tubby grinned at me and unwrapped his hamburger.
“I don’t think I’ll be changing my plans, but thanks for the lesson, Miss Dottie.” Rainey picked at her salad. “If the modeling doesn’t work out to give me spending money…this might be something I can do.”
I glanced at Tubby. He’d been right about Rainey’s reason for wanting to learn to short order cook. The blond-haired boy showed no sign he’d heard or noticed. He had one arm curled around his food and ate hunched over it, barely chewing before he swallowed.
“I’m here if you want more lessons.” Dottie set a drink in front of each of us. I took a sip of mine and found it contained chocolate malt. The older woman took off her white apron and sat in front of her own grilled cheese. “My advice is never give up on your education.”
We ate in silence for a few minutes. Just as quickly as the storm of school kids arrived, the diner cleared out as they got their orders—mostly ice cream drinks or onion rings—and went on their way. Soon, the only sound was the clatter of someone cleaning in the kitchen and Chase’s music choices playing on the jukebox. I listened to a bit of each song, trying to figure out which one he’d played for me.
Rainey finished her salad and set up the camcorder and the tripod. She focused it on Dottie. Holding the remote loosely in one hand, she sat next to Dottie, took a compact from her pocket and examined herself. She blotted powder on her nose and turned to Dottie with an expectant expression.
The older woman hurriedly finished her grilled cheese and wiped her face. She checked her teeth in the aluminum paper napkin dispenser and smiled. “I’m ready for my close-up.”
“Like I said on the phone last night, Leticia Mace suggested we talk to you about Chris Leeland’s disappearance.”
“Leticia Mace was the only person in town who didn’t treat me any different after my husband and I split up. You got a good grandmother, Peri Jean.” Dottie winked at me. “She’s the one who got Junior Johnson, who owned this place back then, to give me a job.” Dottie sucked on her malt. “Boy, that was a lot of years ago. Why don’t you tell me specifically what you want to talk about?”
“The Leeland couple rented the Mace Carriage House from June of 1970 to November of 1970.” Rainey glanced at her notebook. “You moved there in May of 1970 and stayed through most of 1972. Miss Leticia was under the impression you knew the Leelands.”
“I did. Me and Julie shared one bedroom in the main house. Imagine what Child Protective Services would say about that now.” She widened her eyes and let out a nervous chuckle. “The Leelands rented the carriage house. I only met them because of Julie. See, Alice Leeland was a real dish. She had her hair bleached blonde and would wear her fancy, tight clothes even just to go the Laundromat. Julie was just fascinated by her and wouldn’t leave her alone. It was a good thing Alice liked kids.”
“So you and Alice became friends?” Rainey spoke the words like a TV news reporter, just the right amount of polite curiosity on her face.
“Yep. We’d sit on the steps of the carriage house and have a beer some evenings while Julie played. Alice never said a whole lot about herself, other than she’d lived on her own since she was fifteen years old and was only twenty-five.” Dottie stopped talking and glanced at the tabletop. “Her age surprised me because she looked older, like those twenty-five years had been super-hard ones. Harder even than mine.”
“Do you remember anything about Chris Leeland?” Rainey politely brought the conversation back on track, but I saw the impatience sizzling in her dark eyes.
I reached for my last onion ring. My hand collided with Tubby’s. I waved to let him know he could have it and scooted my chair closer to Chase, breathing in the familiar scent of his soap and shaving cream. He reached under the table and gave my fingers a gentle squeeze. He hummed softly with the music on the jukebox, his gaze locked on Dottie’s face. Probably writing a song about her in his head. I could almost hear the lyrics. A woman who’d shaken off a bad life to find a better one and won her fight, but it was a bittersweet victory, won by sweat and hard work. We exchanged a smile. I glanced at Felicia in time to see her pout. Score one for me.
“Chris
Leeland…” Dottie trailed off and tucked in one corner of her lips. “I didn’t like him as well as I did Alice. You could tell she was a hard woman, but she had a sweetness about her. Chris wasn’t like that. He dressed nice—just like Alice—but he was rough. Used rough language in front of my Julie. Got where if he was around, I’d just wave to Alice and take Julie to the park.”
“Did the couple get into fights? Were they arguing the night Chris disappeared?” Rainey’s voice gained a desperate edge. This interview with Dottie wasn’t revealing anything too interesting. Even I could tell it wouldn’t go too far on our project.
“The only thing I ever heard them arguing about was Alice wanted to move on. She wanted to get out of Gaslight City.” Dottie stared straight at the camera. “The one time she said it to Chris in front of me, he cussed at her. She tried to laugh it off, but she seemed scared.”
“Scared he’d be violent with her?” Rainey’s usually graceful posture took on a rounded, wilted look. I felt the same way. This interview wouldn’t help much on the project. That meant more work.
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Dottie’s eyes widened, and she snapped her fingers. “One day, not long before Chris Leeland disappeared, Alice came racing in here all red in the face and upset. It was a school holiday of some sort, and she’d agreed to keep Julie. She told me she thought Julie’d be better off here with me. Said there were some people looking for her and Chris, and she thought they might be in town.”
“What happened?” Rainey perked up.
“Well, Junior was pretty unhappy, but he let Julie sit over there at the soda fountain—”
“What about Chris and Alice Leeland?” Rainey broke in. “Did Alice say any more about the people looking for them, like who it was? Bill collectors? Police?”
“She never mentioned it again. It was like the whole episode never happened. It scared me enough I never asked her to keep Julie again, and Chris Leeland disappeared not long after.” Dottie glanced at Rainey and sort of deflated. “I’m not being much help, am I?”
“Don’t feel that way.” Rainey patted Dottie on the arm. “You only know what you know.”
My thoughts wandered from the conversation. The image of Mr. Dowthitt’s ghost kneeling in the carriage house’s closet came back. What had he been doing there? Had he known the Leelands? I sure wasn’t going to communicate with his ghost or whatever—Memaw would have a fit—but Dottie might know, and it might help our project.
“Can I ask a question?” The words came out of my mouth before I had time to talk myself out of asking.
Annoyance passed over Rainey’s face like a cloud. She quickly covered it, forced a smile, and said, “Go right ahead.”
“Back then, there was a teacher at the high school named Mr. Dowthitt—”
“You mean the one who haunts the high school?” Tubby reached for my malt as he asked the question. I slapped his hand away. He gave me his cunning grin.
“My Julie was going to school about the time he died.” Dottie sat up straighter. “She said she saw Mr. Dowthitt’s ghost.” She glanced at me, and her sun-spotted cheeks reddened.
I pretended not to notice her embarrassment. “Did Mr. Dowthitt ever live at the Mace House when it was a rooming house?”
“Funny you should ask, Peri Jean. Mr. Dowthitt actually lived in the carriage house. Now he moved out right before Julie and I moved in.” Dottie’s eyes brightened the way Memaw’s did when she had some good gossip to relate. “He and another teacher there at the high school, a Miss Sharon Brashear, got married. Big scandal as he was a good twenty years older than her, probably fifty to her thirty.”
Dottie picked up her malt, sucked at it, but put it back down almost immediately. “Do you kids think Mr. Dowthitt had something to do with Chris Leeland’s disappearance?” She sounded more interested than horrified.
“No, ma’am.” Rainey threw an annoyed glare at me before she turned to Dottie. “I’m sorry Peri Jean threw off the conversation. If we can get back to what you knew about the Leelands…”
But Dottie was already shaking her head. “You’ve heard all I know, hon.”
Rainey clicked off the camera. “Miss Dottie, I really thank you for taking the time to interview for us and for fixing us this wonderful after-school snack.”
Dottie’s lips pursed, and she slumped.
Chase shifted next to me. Sadness deepened his brown eyes, and the corners of his mouth turned down. This would be part of his song, if I was right about him writing one. Dottie would be someone nobody ever noticed anymore, someone who fed the town, but whose real self had faded to the point of non-recognition. Chase had a talent for empathizing with others, for seeing below the surface.
Dottie perked up again. “I’ll tell you one thing that might help. After Chris Leeland disappeared, Alice Leeland took off like a thief in the night. That was what made her a suspect, you know. The sheriff pulled me in to question me—same as he did all the other residents of Mace House.” She laughed and waved her hand. “Like y’all kids figured out, I didn’t know anything of real use. But the interesting part was Wilton Bruce—” She turned to speak to Rainey. “Your grandpa was the county prosecutor then, hon. Wilton Bruce was there. The sheriff showed me some pictures of men, mugshots. When I didn’t know any of them, Wilton Bruce shook his head at the sheriff, and they told me to go on home and lock the door. Boy, I wished I could have moved then, but we just didn’t have the money. I bought an extra lock for our door.”
There wasn’t much else to say. We all thanked Dottie for the interview and helped clear the table before we took down the lights and camcorder. We loaded them into Rainey’s Cadillac.
“I’ll call Grampa Wilton.” Rainey shut the car’s trunk. “See if he feels like talking about the Chris Leeland disappearance. Sometimes he’s his old self, but his sight’s going and you know they had to remove several of his toes. Doctor Longstreet said it’s the diabetes.” Her face tensed in sadness, but she quickly recovered and got into her car. “You need a ride?”
I glanced at Chase and Tubby. Felicia stood in front of them jabbering and waving her hands. I recalled her nasty words in the diner.
“Naw. I’ll make Chase give me a ride home.”
Rainey saw the direction of my gaze and shook her head. “It’s your ass.” She drove off.
I joined hands with Chase and walked down the street with him and Tubby. Felicia inserted herself into every conversation, often talking over me. We stood outside Bullfrog’s Billiards talking until a familiar brown sedan cruised up to the curb.
Memaw rolled down her window. “Peri Jean Mace, get in this car right now.”
Embarrassment burned through me and I slunk to the car, wishing I couldn’t hear Felicia’s laughter in the background.
* * *
The next morning, Memaw dropped me off with only minutes to spare before homeroom started. I dared not say a word. We spent the evening before arguing about my irresponsible behavior. I lost. Barely waiting for her to stop, I leapt from the car and ran for the building.
“Peri Jean!” shouted a voice just as I reached the front door of the high school. I turned to find Rainey approaching, huffing and puffing under a load of books. She pushed around me and stood in front of the door until I opened it for her. “Grampa Wilton agreed to see us. You can ride over with me.”
“Will you call Memaw and let her know?” We walked down the hall together. The other students deftly avoided us, their gazes fixed on each other, exchanging smiles and jokes.
“Already on my list.” She stopped in front of a bank of metal lockers and pushed the books at me. She worked her combination lock and took her time removing the pile of books from my arms. Someone slammed into me, and I hit Rainey hard. Books scattered, crackling through the grit on the floor as they slid everywhere. Squeals of female laugher erupted near me.
Rainey spun around, eyes wide. “Peri Jean! Those books don’t belong to me.”
“I didn’t do it,” I yelled before
I could stop myself.
The squeals of laughter came from all directions now. Students walked through, stepping on Rainey’s books, wearing empty grins. The two of us hustled to get them all picked up. The bell rang, and the hall cleared like magic. Across the hall stood Felicia and Lanelle, still laughing at their prank. I ignored them, but Rainey didn’t have as much practice as me.
She marched over, long legs pumping, and got right in Felicia’s face. “What is wrong with you? Why did you do that?”
“You want to hang with Satanists?” Felicia bared her buckteeth in a sneer. “This is how you’re going to get treated.”
“I don’t have time for this, you twit.”
“What did you call me?” Felicia pushed her boobs out.
“A twit. Do you want me to tell you what it means?”
“You are such a nerd. Nobody likes you.”
“Well, nobody likes you either.” Rainey took a step back from Felicia and regarded her with cool eyes. “They’re just afraid of becoming your scapegoat.”
Felicia’s face turned red, and her lips trembled.
Is she going to cry? I held my breath, dying to see her break down. I wanted front row seats to this show.
Rainey elbowed me. “Come on.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me away. We walked off to Mr. Stubblefield’s class together.
Felicia stayed away from class, probably in some hidden corner licking her wounds with Lanelle right there to tell her she’d been wronged. I didn’t see her the rest of the day and thought she’d gone home, but she was waiting at Rainey’s car when the final bell rang, shoulders slumped and arms crossed under her boobs. Tubby whispered something to Chase, and both of them broke into nasty laughter.
Rainey spun to face them. “If the two of you can’t act right, take your own vehicle.”
Chase bowed his head to hide his smile.
Tubby kept laughing, but he waved a bony hand at Rainey. “I won’t say anything.”
