Family Blessings (18 page)

"We've got to learn to say it."

"I know, I know. The thing is I have been saying it. I don't know why I pulled back this time." She put on a cheerful voice. "Well, listen . . . good luck tonight, huh?"

"Thanks. Same to Joey."

"See you on the Fourth."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Eleven o'clock?"

"We'll be there."

He called Judd and said, "Hi, what's doing?"

"Nada."

"Wanna go to my game tonight? I'll pick you up at the usual spot.

Six-thirty."

"Sure. Why not."

At six-thirty that evening Judd was holding up the front wall of the 7-Eleven as usual. Chris wheeled up and the kid got in.

"Heya," Chris said.

"Heya."

"Got a deal for you."

"I don't do deals."

"You'll do this one. It's a Fourth of July picnic with these friends of mine."

The kid couldn't quite maintain his indifference in the face of the news. His head made an eighth turn left and his eyes did the rest.

"Picnic?"

"Yeah. Steak fry. Backyard volleyball. A few pops. Fireworks afterwards over at Sand Creek Park. What do you say?"

"Shit, man, why not?"

"You're gonna have to can the talk like that though. These are nice people."

Judd shrugged. "It's cool. I can do that."

"All right." From the front seat Chris picked up a white bill cap with the maroon letter A. "This is for you."

"For me?"

"Yeah. It was my friend Greg's. His mother said I could give it to you. It's her house we're going to on the Fourth."

Hesitantly, Judd took the cap.

"I'll tell you something," Chris said, "you wear that, you wear it with respect. He was a good cop. He stood for something. When you've got that cap on your head I don't want you stealing bicycles or selling parts or doing any of that crap. Deal?"

Judd considered the cap for a long moment before agreeing.

"Deal."

"And one more thing."

"What's that?"

"We've got to get you a new pair of tennies. If you're going to be on my volleyball team I don't want you stumbling over those tongues. Cost us points, you know?"

Judd looked down at his fried tennis shoes, then over at Chris.

Realizing he was in danger of showing some emotion here, he settled his shoulders against the back of the seat with his usual unimpressibility.

"New tennies I can handle."

They were almost at the ballpark before he spoke again. "Air pumps?" he asked, cocking a glance at Christopher.

"Air pumps!" Chris exploded. "Gimme a break, kid! You know how much those things cost?"

The kid gave his shoulders a little sliNg-n-shimmy then let them droop as if to say, Air pumps, hell, 7who needs Air pumps.

When they reached the ball field and were leaving the truck, Judd hooked the Anoka cap on his curly head with the bill cantilevered over his left ear.

Fourth of july came on the way a Fourth of july ought to. Fair, dry, hot. By the time Christopher pulled up at the curb in front of Lee Reston's house the driveway was full of cars, and music was blaring from the backyard. There was red, white and blue bunting hung above the open garage door and twisted around all the trees in the front yard, where a croquet field was set up.

The American flag was waving from its standard on the front stoop post, while below it smaller flags were stuck into the dirt between the geraniums.

Christopher and Judd slammed the truck doors and headed for the backyard. Christopher was wearing a white T-shirt and a horrendous pair of shorts in blinding neon colors. Judd was wearing cutoff jeans, a saggy body shirt, Greg's white cap with the bill sticking out over his left ear and a pair of one-hundred-dollar Air pumps.

For the first time since Christopher had known the kid, his heels weren't dragging.

They stepped into a backyard stippled by maple shade extending clear across the rear of the house and deck where Lee's dad, Orrin Hillier, was dumping charcoal briquettes into a number of portable barbecue grills. From the speaker that had been propped in an open window of the house, band music blasted--raucous marches that made an ex-tuba player itch to have fifteen pounds of brass coiled over his shoulder.

Just below the deck in the scattered shade, Janice, Kim, Sandy Adolphson and Jane Retting were wiping off the lawn chairs while Lloyd Reston and Joey unwound a volleyball net in the sunny rear yard between the U-shaped flower beds. Lee's mother, Peg, was out in the flower bed on the left, snipping flowers with a scissors. Sylvia Eid turned from flipping a plastic cloth over a picnic table and hollered, "Get one of those delphiniums, too, will you, Mom? That'll make it red, white and blue." There were some people Chris had met only briefly at the i funeral, neighbors, cousins and in-laws. One woman was filling a vase from the garden hose. A man came along and stepped on it, intentionally stopping the water flow, and she took off chasing him, laughing, calling him names, slinging water from the vase that caught him on his left ankle and got his sock soaked. Lee slid open the screen and stepped from the kitchen with a can of lighter fluid.

"Here it is, Dad. And some matches." She was dressed in white Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt printed with a waving American flag.

Handing the matches to Orrin, she caught sight of the new arrivals and her face broke into a smile. "Christopher, you made it!" She came down the deck steps.

Hearing Christopher's name, Janice swung around, dropped her rag in a bucket and abandoned the job to come over and welcome him with obvious enthusiasm.

Lee pecked Christopher on the jaw and said, "Glad you came." She stuck out a hand and said, "Hi, Judd. I'm Lee Reston."

Janice said, "Hi, Chris. Hi, Judd, I'm Janice." After shaking his hand she gave Christopher's clothing the once-over. "Cow-a-bunga!

Would you look at those shorts! What circus did you get them from?"

"You covet them, I'm sure." He put his hands on his waist and looked down. "Judd here's been telling me I need a little color in my wardrobe. Bought em specially for today."

Lee said, "I'd introduce you around, Judd, but everybody will do that themselves. Pop's over there in the coolers. Doritos and Mexican dip on the table over there to hold you over till steak time. Be careful of the one with the little flag sticking out of the middle. It's extra hot. Christopher, you can put your steaks in the cooler till the coals are hot, then would you two mind giving Lloyd and Joey a hand with the volleyball net?"

"Be happy to."

Across the yard Kim called, "Hi, Chris! Who you got there?"

"This is Judd, and he's going to be on my volleyball team!"

Everyone offered hellos as they moved toward the volleyball net, which by this time was stretched out to its full length on the grass while Joey shook a bunch of aluminum poles out of a cardboard box.

Lloyd came to meet them. "Well, this must be Judd. Nice to meet you.

Joey . . . Look here."

Joey quit chiming the poles together and approached the new boy with the diffidence of a fourteen-year-old.

"Hi," he said, hanging back a little. "I'm Joey."

"I'm Judd."

After a second of hesitation the two shook hands. Joey said, "Wanna help with these poles?"

"Sure," Judd said.

And so the picnic began.

Orrin touched a match to the briquettes, sending the smell of hot charcoal across the yard. "The Stars and Stripes Forever" came from the speaker, and Janice's friends started an impromptu parade.

Lee found an old baton in Janice's room and everybody took turns trying to twirl it. Peg Hillier did surprisingly well and admitted she'd been a majorette in her youth. While she was twirling, dressed in pedal pushers and a loose shirt that covered her slight potbelly, Orrin's eyes got quite avid and he whispered to Joey, "You know, when your grandma was a senior in high school every boy in the class wanted to date her. I was the lucky one."

Judd overheard and took a second look at Peg. She threw the baton into the air and missed it. "Try it again, Peg!"

"Go for it, Grandma!" everyone shouted. On the third try she succeeded in catching it and the entire crowd cheered. When the song ended she laughed at herself, pressed a palm to her chest and fanned her face with the other hand. Orrin took her by both shoulders and whispered something into her ear, after which she laughed again and gave the baton back to the younger girls.

Joey lugged a box of bocce balls out of the garage and a game started up, going from front yard to back to front again with nobody paying attention to court rules.

Lee came out of the garage with a baseball bat, shouting, "All right, everybody! Time to choose sides for the volleyball game!

Christopher and I will be captains!"

She marched toward Christopher and sent the bat on a vertical ride through the air. He caught it low on the barrel, just beneath the trademark, still surprised by her announcement.

"You count knobs?" she asked, slapping a right-handed grip just above his while firing him a mischievous look of challenge.

"Darn right." He gripped it with a right.

Left.

Right.

Left.

Right.

Clear up the bat till only the knob was left. She put a cat claw on it and said smugly, "Me first. I choose Judd."

"Oh, you are really underhanded," he murmured with mock scorn, then shot back, "Joey!"

"Dad."

"Mrs. Hillier." Everybody did a woo-woo number because there were still lots of guys left. "Well, we can't have a husband and wife on the same team!" Christopher claimed. "Too much scrapping!

Besides, she twirls a mean baton. I'll bet she's going to be good."

"For heaven's sake, call me Peg," she said, joining his squad.

"Barry."

"Janice."

"Sylvia."

"Hey, I thought we couldn't have a husband and wife on the same team!"

They had a pleasant time haranguing back and forth during the remainder of the choosing up. They had just finished when Nolan Steeg sauntered into the backyard, tall, lean and muscular.

"Hey, we get Nolan!"

"No, we get Nolan!"

Nolan puffed out his chest and spread his arms wide. "Am I wanted?"

he hammed. "Take me . . . take me!"

It turned out his cousin, a redheaded kid named Ruffy, was up for the week, and stepped into the backyard right behind Nolan, so each side took one of the power players.

They played a stupendously bad game, with lots of people letting the ball drop two feet in front of their faces. They got into arguments about the out-of-bounds markers and finally laid out four tennis shoes to represent the corners of the court. Lee yelled "Oh, noooo, not the flowers!" the first time the ball headed that way. Then they all watched the ball snap off a yellow lily. Lloyd retrieved the ball, high-stepping into the flower bed and putting the lily behind his left ear with a "Sorry, honey" as he returned to the game. The next time the ball headed for the gardens about four voices chorused Oh, noooo, not the flowers!" After that it became the battle call that inevitably raised laughter as the gardens took a battering and Lee, shrugging good-naturedly, turned her palms up to the sky.

Judd could leap like a pogo stick and every time he got on the front line Lee's team would score. Joey was pretty good at spiking too, and the game picked up momentum. Peg Hillier made a save on the sideline and garnered high fives from her teammates when the point had been made. And twice while Lee and Christopher were playing on their front lines directly opposite each other, they banged chests while going for the ball at the same time. The second time, he knocked her down and stepped on her left ankle when he landed.

Immediately he came under the net. "Sorry. You okay?" He offered her a hand up.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Hopping on one foot, she added, "You big lug."

"You sure?" He brushed some dry grass off her back.

"I'm gonna get you for this," she threatened in the best of humor. "So get back over to your own side of the net."

The game ended when the redheaded cousin named Ruffy accidentally broke wind--very loudly--while going after a tough return on game point, making everyone laugh.

"It's time we put the steaks on," Lee said, heading for the deck, wiping her brow. Someone turned on the garden hose and it got passed from hand to hand for drinks. Beer and soda cans popped.

"Who'll take care of the sweet corn?"

Barry and Sylvia did. From a tub of saltwater they fished ears of corn, still in their husks, and slapped them, sizzling, onto one of the grills. They turned them wearing asbestos mitts, while Orrin and Lloyd took over the grilling of the steaks, raising an aroma that made everyone's mouth water. A parade of helpers carried bowls of food from the kitchen. The sun had shifted and tables needed moving into the shade.

Orrin announced, "I think some of this steak is done."

Sylvia stripped the corn husks off the first perfect yellow ear and swabbed it with a paintbrush from the butter kettle. "Corn's ready!"

The slow procession started around the buffet table, past the corn station and over to the grills where the steaks were raising curls of L fragrant smoke.

"Anyone want iced tea?"

"Here, Mom, I'll do that." Janice came to take the cold pitcher out of Lee's hands and distribute paper cups.

Lee was nearly the last one to fill her plastic plate with potato salad, baked beans, pickles and steak. She carried it to one of the two long picnic tables where Chris sat with Joey, Judd and some others.

"Hey, skootch over," she said, nudging him with her hip. He pulled his plate over and she slid onto the bench beside him.

"How's the corn?" she inquired.

"Mmm . .." He was butter from dimple to dimple. He grinned at her and chewed another mouthful with his elbows propped on the tabletop.

She took up the same pose and went to work, nibbling along a row of buttery yellow kernels. He reached for a salt shaker, sprinkled his corn, and as he settled back into place, his warm bare arm slid down along hers.

They both pulled apart, concentrated on their corn and tried to pretend it hadn't happened.