Iva Honeysuckle Discovers the World (4 page)

Iva looked up.

Heaven was perched on the top porch step, picture-perfect in crisp white shorts and a clean white T-shirt. A basket sat on her lap.

She smiled at Iva.

I
va stood up, brushing grit from her palms and knees.

“You're all dirty.” Heaven flicked a speck of lint from her spotless shorts.

“I've been working. Unlike some people,” Iva said.

Patting back a fake yawn, Heaven said, “You should have come with me to the yard sale. Want to see what I got?”

Iva collapsed on the steps. “A basket. Big deal.”

“It's not the basket,” Heaven said archly. “It's what's
in
it.” The basket jiggled slightly.

Iva sat up.

Heaven reached in and lifted out a black, brown, and orange kitten. Half of its nose was splotched brown and the other half, orange. A patch of orange fur bristled on the kitten's forehead as if it had been sewn on at the last minute. The kitten stared at Iva with round orange eyes. Iva had never seen a cat with orange eyes before.

Wiggling all over with delight, Sweetlips pushed between Iva and Heaven, and snuffled the kitten. Indignant, the kitten batted Sweetlips's nose.

“You bought a kitten at Cazy Sparkle's yard sale?” Iva asked.

“For fifty cents,” Heaven said, as if she had scored the deal of the century. “I couldn't find any embroidered pillow slips to save my life—”

“
You bought a kitten at a yard sale?
” Iva could not believe her cousin's luck.

Heaven kissed the kitten's orange patch. It mewed in protest. “Isn't she the cutest thing? I named her Yard Sale.”

This was too much for Iva. She'd slaved in the blazing sun all day trying to find Ludwell's treasure. All she had for her trouble were blisters. Heaven had strolled over to Cazy Sparkle's sleazy yard sale and come home with a fluffy little kitten. It wasn't fair.

Iva ached to cuddle the kitten. “Can I hold her?”

Heaven swooped Yard Sale away. “No. She's mine.”

“Does Aunt Sissy Two know you got her?” Iva asked, suddenly feeling mean. “She'll make Howard sneeze.”

Heaven's younger brother, Howard, was allergic to everything but rocks. Even Sweetlips wasn't allowed in Heaven's house.

“Mama won't mind.” But Heaven's confident tone was edged with doubt. “I'll keep her in my room.”

“Aunt Sissy Two will make you get rid of her. You'll have to give her away.” Iva was enjoying this. For once, she got to needle Heaven, who drooped like an unwatered plant. “I'm sure Yard Sale will go to a nice home.”

“I won't give her back!” Heaven clutched the kitten to her chest. “And you better not tell on me!”

Iva made her eyes big and innocent. “Me? Tell on you?”

Heaven looked at her warily. “You're just jealous because my kitten is cuter than your old Sweetlips.”

There was some truth to this. Sweetlips was a good dog but kind of dull. Yard Sale was tiny and bright-eyed and playful.

“If Aunt Sissy Two says you have to get rid of Yard Sale, I'll take her,” Iva offered generously.

“You will
not
get my kitten,” Heaven stated. “And you
will
go to vacation church school.”

“What?” Iva stiffened.

“I saw Miz Compton at the yard sale. She was looking to buy a tea ball,” Heaven nattered on. “She ran over her old one, and now it's flat as a gander's foot—”

“Get to the church school part!” Heaven always dragged out her stories to infuriate Iva.

“Miz Compton told me vacation church school starts Thursday. She's the teacher, you know.”

Of course Iva knew Walser Compton taught Sunday school at the Joyful Noise Temple of Deliverance Church. And that she taught vacation church school every summer.

“What else did you talk about?” Iva hoped Miz Compton had bragged how smart Iva was, being a discoverer and all.

“Miz Compton gave me a quarter so I could buy Yard Sale,” Heaven said. “I only had twenty-five cents.”

Iva blinked. Miz Compton was
her
friend.

“
And
she made me her assistant at church school.” Heaven snorted from her left nostril, her bossy self back. “I'm in charge of the flannel board. Maybe I'll make you
my
assistant.”

Iva would rather crawl in a hole and pull it over her than be Heaven's assistant.

“I don't have time for church school. I have work to do.”

Heaven scooped up Yard Sale, who was stalking Sweetlips. Sweetlips quivered with bliss.

“I already told Aunt Sissy One. You have to go.”

Iva's mother and Heaven's mother were sisters. They called each other Sissy. Iva's mother was Sissy or sometimes Sissy One. Heaven's mother was Sissy Two. They married the Honeycutt brothers, Sonny and Buddy, which meant Heaven was Iva's double-first cousin. Their mothers did everything together and felt their children should too.

Iva was tired of being thrown on top of Heaven like they were survivors in a train wreck.

She heard the sound of her mother running water in the sink.

“Mama!” she yelled through the screen door. “I am
not
going to church school!”

“Yes, you are,” her mother said in her “that's that” tone.

Iva glared at Heaven.

Heaven's oyster-colored eyes glittered in triumph. “Told you.” She grinned like a possum in a persimmon tree.

The four o'clocks had opened their trumpet-shaped blooms on either side of Miz Compton's gate. The flowers only blossomed in the late afternoon.

As Iva unlatched the gate, she wondered if she could use four o'clocks to tell time. That would beat Heaven and her dumb old sun.

Walser Compton sat in her rocking chair on the porch. A sweating pitcher of cherry Kool-Aid and a platter of preacher cookies waited on the wicker side table.

“I thought you'd be by,” she said.

Iva flopped in the other rocking chair, nearly launching herself backward. “It's been a rough day.”

“I can see that.” Miz Compton poured Kool-Aid into a jelly glass ringed with pink elephants. It was Iva's favorite glass, even though she was too old to drink from it.

She sipped tart Kool-Aid, then reached for a preacher cookie. “Did you make these because you could see me coming?”

Miz Compton laughed. “You're sharp as a tack, Iva Honeycutt.”

Once Iva had asked why the chocolate oatmeal cookies had such a weird name. Miz Compton

told her that back when her father was a pastor, he traveled to several churches to preach the sermon.

“After church, farm wives could see Pa driving over the hill in his rickety car,” she had said. “They'd whip up a batch of these cookies, because you don't need to bake them.”

Now she asked, “Want to tell me what happened today?”

“No. Yes.” Iva decided to leave out her failed treasure hunt and start with the bothersome part.

“How come you helped Heaven buy that kitten? And how come you made her your assistant at church school? Why not me?”

“Let's go back to front, shall we?” Miz Compton said. “First, you have never—um,
flourished
in vacation church school.” She spoke as if Iva were one of her delicate orchids. “And I didn't think you would care to be my assistant.”

“I might. But you never asked.”

Miz Compton nodded once. “I should have taken your feelings into consideration. But Heaven begged me—”

“That's not the way she told it! She made it sound like you crowned her queen or something.” Iva's voice rose in a fluting imitation of her cousin. “‘I'm in charge of the flannel board.'”

“Heaven does do a fine job setting up the Pharisees scene,” Miz Compton said. “Now, about the kitten—”

Iva sat up so fast, Kool-Aid sloshed out of her glass. “You helped her buy it! I bet you wouldn't buy me anything
I
wanted.”

“Iva, Iva. You don't need anything. You're…self-sufficient.”

“Really? You mean, like a discoverer?” Iva forgave Miz Compton a tiny bit, like opening a door a slit.

“Exactly. But Heaven doesn't have your ability to make her way in this world.”

“Yes, she does. She's bossy and she tattles on me for every little thing. Heaven
always
gets her way.”

Miz Compton sighed. “I admit Heaven could steal the joy from a snow day in Florida. But I think she's insecure. Maybe even a little afraid.”

Iva wasn't swallowing this. “Afraid? Heaven? Is that why you helped her buy Yard Sale? Because you felt sorry for the big fat phony?”

“Partly. But mainly because Heaven seems lonely. She needs a friend.” Miz Compton looked pointedly at Iva.

Iva crossed her arms over her chest. “It's not my fault nobody likes Heaven. She's sneaky, and she gets people in trouble. I will
not
be her friend. And that's that.”

Her mother's words were good enough for her.

Miz Compton began gathering up the glasses and pitcher. “I'll see you Thursday,” she said.

Iva rocked angrily, making the chair judder across the floorboards. “I'm only going because Mama is making me!”

“Yes, I know.” Juggling the tray, Miz Compton pulled the front door open.

Iva got up and held the door, finally remembering her manners. “Thanks for the Kool-Aid and cookies.”

Miz Compton smiled. “Why don't you go sit by the goldfish pond? You like to do that.”

“Thanks. I will.”

Iva walked down the gravel path around to the backyard. The goldfish pond had been built by Mr. Compton, who had died long before Iva was born.

She lay on her stomach on the cool flagstones. Below, huge fan-tailed fish swam slow and deep beneath the lily pads.

Iva gazed into the pool, trying to see her future. Would she be a great discoverer? Would she find the buried treasure? A new thought niggled free. Would Miz Compton be her best friend forever?

But she saw only dark, murky water.