Miss Janie’s Girls

by Brown, Carolyn

Determination flashed through her as she opened her eyes—she was going back to Birthright. She picked up her phone and found the bus station—a bus left going east to Dallas that afternoon at one o’clock. Kayla packed her suitcase and wound duct tape around the outside to keep it from falling apart. Even though Denver had never hit her, he did have tantrums and throw things. The nice luggage that Miss Janie gave her for graduation had been the object of his last fit.

  She wrote a note to Mrs. Witherspoon and put it in the mailbox. She’d been paid on Friday, so she would forfeit only one day’s work by leaving without giving notice. Then, at noon, she hitched a ride into town with one of the gardeners. She paid for a ticket on the next bus leaving for Dallas and never felt so free as she did when Abilene disappeared behind her.

  After half an hour, she began to worry. Denver had family in Sulphur Springs. What if he’d gone back there after she’d left him? That was exactly what she got for not thinking things through. She started making plans as she watched the flat countryside going by at seventy-five miles an hour. If he was there, she would go to the courthouse and get a restraining order against him. Of course, he wouldn’t think twice about walking right through it, like the Dixie Chicks sang about in “Goodbye Earl.” Maybe if Denver did do something stupid, she would take care of him the same way the girls did in their song. After all the places where she’d put her head at night in the last year and a half, jail didn’t look scary at all.

  After a two-hour layover in Dallas, Kayla climbed aboard the bus to Sulphur Springs. During the hour-long ride, she mentally counted the money she had left several times. The ticket had cost ninety dollars, and she’d spent five on a chicken sandwich and a glass of sweet tea in Dallas. That meant she had two hundred left of Noah’s money, and she’d barely managed to save about that much during the past six months while working for Mrs. Witherspoon. The old lady had counted the slices of bread and grains of salt to be sure “her girl” didn’t rob her.

  Once Kayla made up her mind to do something, she seldom looked back at her decision, but it was full-steam ahead. Yet when the bus came to a stop at the Pilot gas station in Sulphur Springs, the steam ran out and she questioned if she was doing the right thing. She still had enough money to purchase another ticket. She could go to Tulsa and get a room in a cheap hotel for a couple of days while she looked for work.

  You are so stupid. Denver’s voice popped into her head. You can’t use Mrs. Witherspoon for a reference after quitting your job.

  She sat still until everyone else had gotten off the bus before she finally stood up, stepped out into the hot air, and picked up her taped suitcase from the ground. She was on her way inside the station when she heard someone call her name. She whipped around to see Sam Franks, Miss Janie’s neighbor, not ten feet away.

  “Mr. Sam?” she asked, to be sure she wasn’t hallucinating. She hadn’t told a soul that she was going to Sulphur Springs, so why was he there?

  He poked a thumb at his chest. “It’s me in the flesh. You going through, or do you need a ride to Birthright?”

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “Nellie Thompson is coming home from Houston after visitin’ her daughter for a week. She asked me to pick her up and take her home. There’s room in my old truck for one more passenger if you need a ride.” He gave her a quick hug.

  She’d always loved Mr. Sam and Miz Delia. They’d treated her like she was kinfolk that they liked.

  “I’d love one and thank you.” She couldn’t believe her luck. Kayla waved to the older woman, whom she’d met at church, as she got in.

  A minute later, Sam spotted Miss Nellie and then helped her into the truck. Teresa slid over to the middle of the bench seat and sat between Nellie and Sam on the ten-minute trip to Birthright, and Nellie talked the whole time about everything from her grandkids to how much she missed her cats. Listening to her tell stories about her kids and cats brought back memories of ten years earlier, when Nellie would come sit on the porch with Miss Janie. They’d been friends—not best friends, like Miss Janie and Delia were—but they were in the same Sunday school adult class, and Nellie had always known the latest gossip.

  When Sam finally stopped in front of her house on the west end of Birthright, she patted him on the shoulder and said, “Thanks so much for coming to get me, and for taking care of my precious Bonnie and Clyde while I was gone.”

  “Didn’t mind a bit,” Sam said.

  Kayla slid across the bench seat and grabbed Nellie’s luggage from the truck’s bed. “I’ll take this in for you.”

  “Thank you, darlin’,” Nellie said. “Tell Miss Janie I’ll be down to see her once I get settled in. This travelin’ is tough on a ninety-year-old woman. I’m glad you’ve come home. Last time I went to see her, she was cryin’ because her girls were so far away.”

  “I will sure tell her.” Kayla had never known anyone to cry about her—not even her own mother. “And I’m glad to be back for a while.”

  Nellie laid a wiry hand on Kayla’s arm. “Don’t you leave until she’s gone. Her heart was broken when you girls didn’t come see her, and now her mind is all jumbled up. I think it’s like havin’ four jigsaw puzzles all mixed up together.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Kayla patted Nellie’s hand and then slipped free of it and jogged back to the truck.

  Birthright was so small that Kayla often wondered why they didn’t use one welcome sign and paint the goodbye on the other side. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Sam was parking his rusty old truck in front of Miss Janie’s house.

  She’d thought she’d have a few moments to catch her breath from the truck to the porch, but Miss Janie was sitting on the porch swing, and be damned if that wasn’t Teresa right beside her.

  Sam hopped out of the car and yelled, “Look who I found at the bus station when I went to get Nellie!”

  “She’s here.” Miss Janie squealed like a little girl and held up her arms. Teresa helped her to her feet, and she shuffled across the porch. “My other baby has come home. Sam, you prayed, didn’t you?”

  How in the world had that strong woman she’d left behind gotten so feeble? Ten years before, Miss Janie had still had a bit of brown hair left in the gray. Her bright-blue eyes had been full of laughter and witty sayings. Now she had wispy gray hair and she’d aged forty years instead of ten. If a strong wind whipped through Birthright, she’d need rocks in her pockets to keep it from blowing her away. And to top it all off, she was talking like Teresa and Kayla were her real daughters, not just foster children.

  “I sure did.” Sam stood to the side and grinned. “And God answered my prayers.”

  “Hello, Kayla,” Teresa said.

  Kayla wasn’t sure how she’d be received after ten years, but Miss Janie opened her arms wide, and Kayla walked right into them.

  “I might believe that God is good now that you’re home,” Miss Janie said. “Come and tell me about the people who adopted you. Were they good to you?”

  Kayla glanced over at Teresa.

  “Miss Janie, how old were you when you had to give us away?” Teresa asked.

  “Sixteen, but that was a few years ago.” Miss Janie sighed. “Now we’re all together again.”

  Kayla left her suitcase sitting on the porch and supported Miss Janie back to the swing. She looked over Miss Janie’s head and mouthed toward Teresa, “What’s going on?”

  “Play along with whatever she says,” Sam whispered from behind her.

  From Noah’s letter, she knew that Miss Janie had Alzheimer’s and also cancer, but Kayla didn’t expect to find her looking like she did. When Kayla ran away with Denver, Miss Janie was still helping out with funeral dinners, taking food to new mothers, and was a force to be reckoned with in Birthright.

  “I knew Noah would find my girls.” Miss Janie’s eyes sparkled. “I felt it in my heart. You grew up to be beautiful. What’s your name? You would’ve been Maddy Ruth if I’d gotten to keep you. Tell me about the people who
adopted you.”

  “I’m Kayla Green. Don’t you remember me, Miss Janie?”

  “Now, now!” Miss Janie patted her on the back. “We don’t have to keep secrets any longer. Times have changed. You can call me Mama now. Is that your suitcase? Have you had supper? Teresa made tortilla soup for supper and there’s plenty left over.”

  “Yes, that’s my suitcase, and I could eat. Thank you, ma’am.” A vision of a spotless kitchen where three meals a day had been prepared flashed through Kayla’s mind.

  “We have a lot to talk about. I want to know everything. Did you go to church? Were you a cheerleader like Teresa was?” Miss Janie pushed up out of the swing.

  Sweet angels in heaven. What had she agreed to? Miss Janie had had a mind like a steel trap, and now she thought Kayla was her real daughter and that she’d been popular in high school. Noah hadn’t mentioned anything like that in his note when he’d sent the police to find her.

  Miss Janie stopped inside the door and frowned. “Sam, thank you for finding my baby. These other two wasn’t havin’ any luck with it. I knew you could do it, though. You should come on in and have a bowl of soup, too.”

  “I happened to be at the bus stop when she came in.” Sam followed them inside. “Noah must’ve been the one who really found her, right, Kayla?”

  “Yes.” Kayla picked up her suitcase and carried it inside. “He sent a letter by the police this morning. I caught the first bus out of Abilene.”

  Kayla took a deep breath as she took the first step inside the house. She’d always loved the smell—a faint aroma of roses and food mixed with something lemony that Miss Janie brewed up for cleaning. Kayla associated the combination with safety.

  She was standing in a long hallway that ran from the front porch to a door leading out to the back porch. Miss Janie had told her that the house was built that way so the breezes could flow into the place. A hall tree stood against the wall to Kayla’s right. Hats hung on the four hooks, and boots were lined up on each side of the antique piece of furniture. She recognized a pair of the boots as her own. Not one thing had changed in the past decade. The living room was to her left and stairs leading up to the second floor, to her right. She headed toward the next door to the left, into the kitchen. The one right across the wide hallway went into Miss Janie’s bedroom. She peeked inside before she entered the kitchen. The same cute little lamps were on each end of the dresser. The four-poster bed bore the same quilt, and the rocking chair, its pink-and-white-checked cushions.

  Miss Janie was already sitting in a kitchen chair when Kayla stepped through the door. A confused look passed over her face. “Where’s Aunt Ruthie? She always sits right here.” She pointed at a chair beside her. “I wanted her to meet you. We used to talk about my girls so much. I know she’d love to finally see you for herself.”

  “Well, hello, again. Look who finally made it home.” Noah came into the kitchen from the back porch. “I got a phone call this morning from the private investigator I had workin’ on findin’ you. He said the police had delivered my letter, but I didn’t know if it paid off.”

  “I’m here.” Kayla waited for someone to tell her to help herself to the soup or to tell her to sit down.

  Miss Janie pounded on the table with her fist. “I asked y’all about Aunt Ruthie. Someone needs to tell her to come in here and meet Maddy Ruth. She should see the little baby I named after her.”

  “Aunt Ruthie has been gone for thirty years,” Noah told her.

  “Why didn’t someone tell me?” Miss Janie began to weep.

  Kayla rushed to her side before Teresa could and bent to hug her. “I’m so sorry that we didn’t tell you, but we didn’t want to upset you.”

  Miss Janie blinked several times before her expression changed. “I remember now. We had her funeral at the church. I get things all jumbled up. But now that my girls are home, I’ll get all better. We can be a family at last.”

  “That’s right,” Teresa agreed. “Soup’s on the stove. Jalapeño corn bread is under the cake dome. Chocolate cake is over on the bar. Y’all help yourselves.”

  “You aren’t goin’ to play the perfect hostess and serve me?” Kayla raised a dark eyebrow at Teresa.

  “You’re a big girl.” Teresa’s tone dripped icicles. “Help yourself or starve.”

  “Well, I ain’t about to go hungry,” Sam said as he walked in from the porch. He opened a cabinet door and got down a bowl. “I love soup and corn bread.”

  Kayla ignored Teresa like she’d tried to do when they lived in the house together those four years. She followed Sam’s lead and ladled up a bowlful of soup, plopped a square of corn bread into it, and sat down at the table. Not gobbling it down like a hungry hound dog took a lot of self-control, but she managed to use her manners—like Miss Janie had taught her when she had come to live at the Jackson house. She’d been scared out of her mind that day, maybe even a little more than today, but by damn Teresa wouldn’t ever know it.

  “Who adopted you?” Miss Janie asked. “I wanted to meet them, but things weren’t done that way back then.”

  “The Green family were wonderful parents,” Noah answered very quickly.

  “Yes, they were.” Kayla played along even though it was a big, fat lie. Her mother and stepfather had abandoned her when she was fourteen years old.

  “I’m so glad you had a good family, but now you are back with me where you belonged all this time. I thought you and Mary Jane were identical twins, but I can see now that I was wrong.” Miss Janie stared at Kayla like she was a celebrity.

  Holy hell! Teresa would never be mistaken for Kayla’s sister, much less her twin. Kayla had gotten her kinky hair from her black father and the freckles across her nose and her green eyes from her white mother. Teresa was part Mexican, with good hair and flawless skin without a single freckle.

  “Maybe after I eat, I could have a long, hot bath and wash my hair,” Kayla said, trying to buy some time to figure out what she’d walked into. On one side, Miss Janie was as warm as sunshine. On the other, the chill from Teresa frosted her to the bone. There had never been any love lost between them, and like when she’d come to live there, Kayla had the feeling she was trespassing on Teresa’s territory.

  “Of course, darlin’.” Miss Janie yawned. “This is your home now. We’re all three finally together. I’m going to take a little nap now, and we’ll talk more when I wake up.” She stood up and kissed Kayla on the forehead as she shuffled off toward her bedroom. “I never thought I’d see my babies again. I’m so glad to get a second chance to show you that I’ve always loved you.”

  The minute Kayla heard the bedroom door close, she locked eyes with Noah. “Babies? What’s going on?”

  Noah explained about Miss Janie giving birth to twin girls out of wedlock when she was sixteen, and now that her mind was scrambled, she thought Kayla and Teresa were those two babies. “The doctor says she’ll most likely be gone by Christmas, so if you could stay until then and let her die in peace, thinkin’ that she finally reconnected with her babies, it would be great.”

  “I ain’t got nowhere else to be, so I might as well stick around until the end.” Kayla carried her empty bowl to the sink, rinsed it, and put it into the dishwasher.

  “Thanks,” Noah said. “I’ve got work to do in my office, so like Miss Janie said, make yourself at home.”

  “Why don’t you call her Aunt Janie?” Kayla asked. “I always wondered about that when you came here to visit that time.”

  “I have no idea why,” he answered. “Everyone else, including my dad, called her Miss Janie instead of Aunt Janie, so I did, too.”

  Sam finished off his soup and went for another bowlful. “Y’all girls realize she’s very serious about you calling her Mama, don’t you? And I can feel the chill between the two of you. You’ve got to at least pretend to get along to make her happy. You owe her that.”

  “For a place to stay until Christmas, I’ll try,” Kayla told him, and then locked eyes wi
th her foster sister. “How about you? Stayin’ until the end?”

  “Yes, I am,” Teresa answered. “I’m not so sure we’re that good at pretending, Sam.”

  “Then learn.” Sam shook his finger at both of them. “Miss Janie deserves to die in peace.”

  Chapter Six

  Evidently, she was supposed to act like she was at home rather than a guest, so Kayla dumped her dirty clothing out onto the floor. She sorted it by color and fabric, like Miss Janie had taught her when she was fourteen. To do laundry without plugging money into the machine to start it seemed strange. Kayla hadn’t had that privilege since she ran away with Denver. What she couldn’t wash out in the kitchen sink by hand had to be taken to a Laundromat.

  She put several pairs of underwear, half a dozen T-shirts, and a couple of pairs of khaki shorts that she’d gotten at a church clothes closet into the washer and started it. While that ran, she headed upstairs to take a long bath. When the claw-foot bathtub was nearly full, she sank down into the warm water and sighed. To have a bath in a deep tub was something she’d never take for granted again. In her tiny room above the garage, she’d had a shower stall so small that she could barely turn around in it. When she’d moved in, she’d thought she’d died and gone to heaven. Living on the street for six months, she’d been lucky to get washed up in a service station bathroom. She ducked her mass of curly black hair under the water and then worked sweet-smelling shampoo that Miss Janie had always bought special for her type of hair into it. This was nothing short of pure heaven.

  Dusk was settling when she finished her bath, found the hair product that Miss Janie kept for her in the cabinet, and worked it into her hair. The Mimosa Hair Honey shine pomade was ten years old, but it still did wonders. She checked her reflection in the mirror and then got dressed in clean jeans and a T-shirt and went back downstairs, where Teresa sat in the kitchen having a slice of pecan pie with ice cream.

  “Do I really have to act like you’re my sister? Anything else I need to lie about?” Kayla asked.