Alma Mater (36 page)

He laughed. "I don't think I've ever seen you this way."

"Oh, I don't know what to say."

Gracefully, for he was so graceful, he dropped to his right knee,
took her right hand, and kissed it. "Will you do me the honor of being
my wife?"

Vic froze. The tears spilled out of her eyes. She couldn't stop them
as she struggled to speak. "Oh, Charly, let's get through your last
semester."

"Is that a yes?"

"That's a delay." She removed the ring and pressed it back in
his palm.

"Victoria, I love you. I will always love you until the day I die. The
ring is yours. You come to me when you're ready."

"Honey." She knelt down, facing him, throwing her arms around
his neck. "You are the best man in the world. You are the only man I
would ever marry. It's just well, I've gotten thrown out of school. I
need to get a job."

"I'll take care of you." He kissed her again. "I've told you that. You
just need to believe me."

"I want to take care of myself. I don't want to be a burden."
"You could never be a burden."

"Well, I want to earn my keep. I can't live the life that your mother
lived or mine even."

"I know that."

"Let me work this semester. When you graduate, then we'll do the right thing."

He placed the ring back on her finger. "I can't live without you."

"I love you. Whatever happens in our lives, just know that I love
you."

Outside a truck horn sounded.

"I'll get it," Mignon called from the kitchen, and dashed through
the hall and out the front door.

Charly and Vic got to their feet. She wrapped her arms around his
neck, pressing her body to his, and kissed him. "I will never forget this
Christmas."

"Well, since you haven't given me a clear yes, may I assume it's a clear maybe?"

"Sure." She shuddered at her own cowardice.

"Mom, Vic!" Mignon yelled from the front yard. "Hurry up!"

Vic hurried out of the living room and down the hall. Mignon had left the front door open. "Mignon, what—?"

Charly came up behind her. They both walked outside to join R. J.
and Mignon and beheld Edward Wallace behind the wheel of his
new truck. Yolanda was in the back, looking festive in a little elf hat.
She was munching on alfalfa, the best of the best, and as happy as she
could be.

Edward, at his most expansive, stepped out of his truck, handing
R. J. a very expensive bottle of brandy. "You deserve the best, R. J. A Merry Christmas to you. Oh, and a little something for the girls." He
handed. Vic and Mignon each a bar of milk soap, wrapped with a red
gingham ribbon.

"Edward, you come right on in now because we have a little some
thing for you." R. J. put her arm around his shoulder.

"Poppy will be right back," Edward called to Yolanda, who paid no
attention at all.

Piper, awake at last, dashed out, saw Yolanda, and set to barking.
"That's enough out of you," Vic told her.

The excited dog stopped barking but decided to sit there and give
Yolanda the evil eye.

Just as Vic was closing the door, she saw a pair of headlights
speeding down the driveway. "Charly, I think it's Sissy."

It was, and she was hauling ass, too. She slowed a bit at the wide curve in the driveway, then straightened out, heading directly toward the side of her father's gorgeous blue-and-silver truck.

"Sissy,
slow down!"
Vic hollered.

Sissy, eyes straight ahead, rammed the truck so hard that Yolanda fell to her knees.

"Jesus Christ." Charly sprinted to Sissy.

"I'm fine. It's that goddamned cow I want to kill." Sissy pushed Charly in the chest. "Hamburger. Do you hear me, Poppy? Hamburger."

Vic swung up on the pickup and examined Yolanda, finding only a
little scrape on her right front knee. "There, Yolanda, it's a long way
from your heart."

Edward, glass in hand, for he'd been sampling his own brandy, charged outside. "You dipshit! You hear me, Sissy? Oh, Yolanda, how
is my baby?"

"She's just fine, Mr. Wallace," Vic reassured him. "Scraped her
knee."

He climbed up pretty fast for an old man. He ran his hands over
her legs. "You're all right, sugarpie." Then he jumped off the truck like a man half his age. He pointed to Sissy, as R. J. bent down to pick up
the brandy glass he'd thrown to the side. "Out of my will. This does it!"

"Who you calling a dipshit, you old windbag? You're too god
damned mean to die. You can take your will and shove it where the
sun don't shine!" Clearly, Sissy was filled with holiday spirits of the liq
uid variety.

Edward ignored her. "R. J., do you have a place where I could leave
my Yolanda? I don't feel I should drive her home under the circum
stances. Someplace warm?"

R. J. thought. "You know, I think the girls could clear out the garden shed. There's a fence around it, Edward. She'll be tidy. I can throw
a blanket over her. Girls." R. J.'s voice had the tone of command.

"Let me help." Charly hurried off with them.

Vic dashed back in the house and grabbed a jacket and gloves. It
took them twenty minutes, but they got the garden shed in pretty
good shape, making sure there would be nothing for Yolanda to step
on, rub against, or eat.

R. J.—now helped by Frank, who had come home—kept the two
warring Wallaces apart.

With gentleness, the gentleness of Joseph leading Mary toward
the stable, Edward coaxed Yolanda toward the gardening shed. Charly
and Frank both carried her alfalfa.

Yolanda settled right in. Mignon brought an old blanket, which
they
rigged up for her with a little rope that crossed over her chest and
another one around her large middle. Yolanda might have been old,

but she was a very well-fed animal. A large bucket of fresh water was
placed in the corner.

"Now, Edward, don't you worry about a thing. We'll crack the ice
in her bucket in the morning. She'll have everything she needs," R. J.
soothed him.

"If this truck can drive, I'm dumping it at Don's door, Frank, will
you follow me?"

"I can follow you," Sissy suddenly offered.

"You can follow me to hell is what you can do." He turned his back
to his youngest. "No Cadillac for you!"

This stung more than the threat of being cut out of the will. After
.being used so many times, that one had grown stale.

"Isn't that hydraulic lift the prettiest piece of work you've ever
seen?" The old man pressed the button, and the lift miraculously slid back up in place.

Luckily, Sissy's savagery had damaged the side of the truck, not
the rear.

"Folks, you go on and eat. I'll eat when I get home." Frank kissed
R. J. on the cheek, climbed back in his car, and followed Edward down
the driveway—the Dodge ran pretty well, all things considered.

Sissy Stood in the middle of the driveway, her lower lip about to
drag the ground. "I hate him. You just don't know how much I hate
him and Georgia, too, the flaming hypocrite! Georgia has sex with
young men. She pays them. I, at least, get volunteers!"

"Now, Sissy, let's discuss this later." R. J. blushed. "Would you like
supper?"

"No, I want a new father and a new Cadillac and a handsome man
to pay attention to me. If there's no handsome man, I'll settle for an
ugly one with a big cock." She slammed her car door and backed down
the driveway.

"Did she say what I thought she said?" Mignon's mouth hung
wide open.

"You can catch flies that way." Vic laughed so hard her sides hurt.
"She did." Charly wiped his brow more out of nervousness than
overexertion.

"Well, darlings, suppertime," R. J. sang out. "Suppertime."

It wasn't until they were all seated that Mignon noticed the marquise diamond. "What a rock(

R. J. put down the serving fork and reached for her daughter's
hand. "Honey, that is beautiful, stunning. That is the most beautiful
diamond I have ever seen." Her eyes moistened. "Does this mean what
I think it means?"

Vic cleared her throat. "Not exactly. It means we'll figure all this
out when Charly graduates."

For a moment everyone was silent. Then Yolanda from the garden
shed let out a glorious, happy "Moo."

_T

he phone rang at ten-thirty on December
22.
Until then it had
been blissfully quiet .
.
. except for Yolanda. Vic and Mignon
were out on a trip to the feed store. They bought a sack of high

protein mix, some corn, molasses, other grains, and asked GooGoo (so
named because he ate GooGoo Clusters morning, noon, and night) to
drop off a round bale for Yolanda. She wouldn't be going home any
time soon with Edward fearing for her life.

When Vic rolled back down the driveway an hour later, her
mother opened the back door and said, "Vic, call Chris. She says it's
important. I've got to run over to Regina Baptista's. Lisa has been
picked up for shoplifting."

"What?" Vic was surprised, but Mignon, who remained silent,
was not.

"I don't know how long I'll be. First order of business is settling
down Regina, who is awash in an extravaganza of emotion. Then
I'll carry mother and daughter down to your father. He'll do what's necessary."

Vic and Mignon hurried through the back door.

"Anything we can do?"

"No, not really. If there's a problem, I'll call. Did you get the food
for Yolanda?"

"She'll be very happy. GooGoo's dropping off some hay later."

"When I get home we might consider fixing up the old tobacco
shed. The gardening shed is a little small for her. However, she
seems quite happy. We'll figure it out. I know what you two can do."
They looked at her expectantly. "Mark out a little pasture. We've
enough odds and ends lying about, I bet we can rig up a snake fence.
If that doesn't work, Edward can bring over some wood for a slip fence."

"Can't dig post holes if the ground is frozen." Mignon had no in
tention of digging holes.

"Only freezing at night, dear." R. J. smiled at her with exaggerated
sweetness. "All right, hold down the fort."

"Mom, if Jinx wants to come back with you, will you bring her?"
Vic, who had planned to see Jinx today, felt she shouldn't drive over to the Baptistas under the circumstances.

"Jinx needs to stay home and go through this with her family." She
kissed each daughter on the cheek and left.

Vic turned to Mignon. "You knew."

"Uh-huh."

"You
can
keep secrets."

"The shit's hit the Baptista fan." Mignon shrugged.

"Happy holidays," Vic sarcastically said.

"You know, I could wear your ring for you if your hand gets
tired."

"Get out of here
!
" Vic pushed her away. "No eavesdropping. I'm
calling my girlfriend."

"Bet she won't give you a five-carat diamond. You'll have to give him
back the ring."

"If she had one, she'd give it to me. And, smart-ass, I tried to give
him back the ring. I did."

"See, that's the real pro
blem with being gay, Vic. No engagement ring. No wedding presents. No honeymoon."

"Every day's a honeymoon. Scram. I'll find you when I'm done, so
we can mark out the pasture for Yolanda."

Mignon trudged up the stairs. She still had packages to wrap, and
she figured Vic would be on the phone for a while, especially since
R. J. wasn't around.