Lily of the Springs (36 page)

Then I remembered Texas and the harlot he’d brought home to give me instructions on how to love a man. I grabbed the half-finished sloe gin fizz in front of me and downed it.

“
God
! Look at her rubbing up against him,” Jinx snarled, sounding even more indignant than I could drum up the energy to feel. “Why don’t you put a stop to it, Lily?”

“What do you suggest I do?” I asked. “Get in there and drag him out by the hair?”

Jinx took a gulp of her Mai Tai and slammed the glass back down on the table. “
My
suggestion was his balls. Much more efficient.”

I sighed. “I want to know why her husband lets her get away with it? Where
is
he, anyway?”

“In the house. He and the managers are playing Texas Hold ‘Em. Another annual tradition. Believe me, you’ve seen the last of Lute tonight.”

Not that I’d seen a lot of the company president at all. Just as we’d filled our plates from the buffet table (which, strangely enough, had been missing my fried chicken), we’d come face-to-face with the head honcho, a scrawny-looking weasel of a man whom Jake had fumblingly introduced me to. I’d had a hard time picturing him as the powerful tycoon from Ashland, Kentucky, who’d single-handedly built his iron factory into a million dollar business before he turned 25—and even more incredible—had married a woman who looked like a pin-up girl, and if Jinx could be believed, worked in a New Orleans brothel before becoming lady of the manor.

Suddenly I realized that the “lady of the manor” was getting out of the pool. Jake watched her every move as if hypnotized. Like magic, one of the house servants appeared with a large, thick towel and wrapped it around Roxanne’s elegant shoulders. She took off her bathing cap and shook her head, allowing her dark brown curls to tumble charmingly around her flawless face.

“Lily, take Jake his towel,” Jinx said in a low, firm voice. “
Hurry
!”

I did as ordered. As Jake hefted himself up out of the pool, I held out his towel, and said, “We’ve got to be getting home, Jake. The babysitter is going to cost us a fortune.”

Jake stared at me. My heart sank at the crestfallen look in his eyes.

Before he could respond, Roxanne spoke in her silky New Orleans accent, “Oh, dear. I’ve promised to show your Jake my mask collection. You will excuse us, won’t you? We won’t be more than a few minutes.”

I stared at Roxanne, dumbfounded. How stupid did this woman think I was?
A mask collection
? I looked at Jake. His cheekbones were flushed, his eyes glittering. I knew that look. He was aroused. What nasty little suggestion had Roxanne whispered into his ear as they frolicked in the pool?

“A mask collection?” Suddenly, Jinx was at my side; she gave Roxanne and Jake a brilliant smile. “From New Orleans? Oh, I’d simply
love
to see it, Roxanne. It sounds
divine
!”

Roxanne frowned, clearly put out that her little plan had back-fired.

Jake took the towel from me and began to rub it over his hair. “Some other time, Mrs. Dawson. Lily’s right. We’ve got to get going.”

I exchanged a glance with Jinx, mouthing the words, “thank you.” She gave a shrug, and although her blue eyes blazed fury, she turned to Roxanne Dawson with a big smile. “Well, I guess that leaves you and me, Mrs. D. Lonnie will be in there all night playing poker with your husband, so I’ve got all the time in the world. And I just can’t
wait
to see your mask collection.”

I watched the two women walk toward the steps leading to the terrace, and hoped with all my might that Jinx would manage to break something really expensive.

***

Jake pressed his foot down on the accelerator, and we sped through the summer night down Rt. 90 towards Glasgow.

“So, what’s got your panties in such a wad?” he finally asked. “You ain’t said more than two words to me since we got in the car.”

I stared out into the darkness, blinking back tears. I didn’t want to get into this now. What was the point, anyway? He could tell me until he was blue in the face that nothing was going on, that it was all in good fun. But I knew better. I’d seen his face. And I knew what they would’ve done if they’d gone into the house. Right there under the roof where her husband sat playing cards. How could anyone be so shameless?

“Hey, she was making eyes at
me
, Lily Rae,” Jake said, staring at the dark highway ahead. “What was I supposed to do? Be rude to her? She’s my boss’s wife, for chrissake!”

Still, I didn’t speak. But my tears burned hotter behind my eyelids. The lump in my throat grew larger.

“
Goddamn it
, Lily Rae!” He banged the palm of his hand on the steering wheel.

I flinched, but steadfastly kept my gaze out the side window.

“What did you think I was going to do? Fuck her right there in the pool?”

My resolve shattered. Wildly, I twisted in the seat to face him. “
No
!” I screamed. “You were going to take her in the
house
and
fuck
her
!”

It was the first time in my life I’d ever uttered such a foul word. But it was the only way to describe what he would’ve done if Jinx hadn’t stopped him.

The blood drained from Jake’s face. I could see that even in the darkness of the car. Slowly, he took his eyes off the road and looked at me.

I stared back, my stomach curling in fear of what he’d do. And even then, I wasn’t prepared.

His right hand released the steering wheel and curled into a fist. His punch hit me in the mouth like a slab of cement. Pain rocked through my jaw, and a gush of warm, salty blood filled my mouth. It ran down my chin and spilled onto my blouse, heedless of the hands I cupped to my lips. I spit out something sharp, and realized with a dull sense of irony that it was my right front tooth.

“Maybe
that’ll
teach you not to talk like a goddamn sailor,” Jake said.

And we drove on down the highway, heading for home.

O
n Monday afternoon, a knock came at the front door just after four o’clock. I jumped up from the couch to answer it, thinking Jake had forgotten his key. He’d left the house shortly after getting out of bed this afternoon, giving no explanation as to where he was going, and I’d asked for none. True to form, he’d been filled with remorse on Saturday morning, begging my forgiveness with his usual excuses—he’d had too much to drink, he didn’t know what he was doing—and my favorite, “you pushed my buttons and I just lost my temper.” I’d responded by ignoring him. I could barely stand to look at the man, much less accept his so-called apology for his brutal attack.

And of course, my response—or non-response—to his entreaties finally pissed him off, and he hadn’t spoken a word to me since.

The knock came at the door again, louder this time, just as I reached it. Cradling my throbbing jaw, I opened it and saw, not Jake, but a pretty young woman in a nurse’s uniform. Despite her hair color—strawberry blonde instead of the dark brown of the old days—Katydid looked just like she had in high school—cute as a bug’s ear. When she saw me, her blue eyes widened in dismay.

“Dear Lord, Lily,” she said, stepping inside. “What happened to you?”

I closed the door and spoke through still numb lips, “I told you when you called that I had a toothache.”

Katydid untied her navy cape and slipped it off her shoulders, examining me with eyes that seemed worldlier than they’d been in high school. “Honey, a blind monkey could see you’ve got more than a toothache. You look like you’ve been in a bar fight!” And then her eyes widened. “Good God! Jake hit you, didn’t he?”

My eyes filled with tears. I’d been successful at holding them in through the weekend, determined not to let Jake think he’d broken me. Even when I’d gone to the dentist this morning, giving them a rooster tale about getting hit in the mouth by a flying rock—which they didn’t believe for a second, I was sure—I’d remained strong, determined not to break down. Even the look of pity on the dental assistant’s face as I’d unfolded the square of tissue paper in which I’d wrapped my tooth hadn’t fazed me. Of course it hadn’t been salvageable. And worse, the two adjoining teeth on either side of the missing one were loose, and would have to be pulled. The dentist had shot me up with Novocain and put in a temporary cap until it could be replaced by three false teeth and a bridge.

“Oh, Lily, come here.” Katydid held out her arms.

I collapsed against my old friend, sobbing out all my pent-up emotion—the hurt and rage and helplessness. Finally, when I was all cried out, I drew back and gave her a watery smile. “Heck of a way to renew an old friendship, isn’t it?”

She just smiled. “Where’s the kitchen? I think we both could use something cold to drink. Iced tea? Or maybe a Pepsi-Cola?”

I led her into the kitchen, and opened the refrigerator to grab a couple of Coca-Colas. “Let’s go out on the patio. Debby Ann will be waking up from her nap soon, and I don’t want her hearing this.”

A few minutes later, we settled into lawn chairs, the ice clinking in our aluminum glasses of soda pop. And I told her the whole story. After I finished, Katydid crossed one white hosiery-clad leg at the knee and swung her rubber-soled white shoe back and forth, staring off toward the western sky where a line of thunderheads had gathered like an army on the march.

Finally, she spoke in her soft, matter-of-fact, Katydid way, “Lily, RJ and I were married a little over two years. And up until he had a fling with that little Vanderbilt cheerleader girl, he was a good husband. With both of us going to school, we were on crazy schedules, and there were times we didn’t lay eyes on each other for days.” She reached up, unpinned her cap from her head and laid it gently on her lap. Giving her head a shake, she ran strong-looking fingers with neatly trimmed nails through her gold-red hair, and the faraway look in her eyes disappeared as they focused on me.

“I reckon some folks would say he fell in bed with that cheerleader because he was lonely. My own mama thought I should give him another chance. And you know what? I actually considered it.”

She reached down for her drink and took a long sip. In the neighbor’s back yard, a screen door slammed, and I glanced over to see Bill Adams carrying a bag of charcoal toward a grill on his patio. He glanced at me and waved.

“Looks like a storm brewing,” he called out with a grin as I waved back. “Guess I better rustle up these hamburgers for my hungry boys pretty quick.”

“I reckon so,” I called back, wincing at the pain searing through my jaw. It was almost time for one of those painkillers the dentist had prescribed. “So, did you give RJ another chance, Katydid?”

“Sweetie, do me a favor…” Katydid placed a hand on my knee, giving me a wry smile. “Call me Kate. That old nickname just doesn’t fit me anymore. It belongs to that naïve, sunshiny, Pollyanna girl I used to be. Not who I am today. You know who that is? A smart, accomplished gal who’s done her part in saving at least a couple of lives since I got that nursing degree. A woman who demands respect, not because of my gender, but because I’m a member of the human race. A woman who said wedding vows in a Baptist church in Russell Springs, promising to love and obey a man who’d been the love of my life since I was 14.
He
was the one who broke those vows, Lily, not me. No, I couldn’t give him another chance. I knew I deserved a husband who’d love me unconditionally, through thick and thin. RJ proved he wasn’t that man. And as much as my family—and his—tried to convince me that ‘boys will be boys,’ that I should just put his ‘little mistake’ behind me and start over with him, I just couldn’t do it. And I’ve never once regretted that decision.”

I didn’t know what to say. In the silence, thunder rumbled in the distance, still too far away for concern. Katydid—Kate—lifted her glass to her lips and took a sip. Over in the Adams’s back yard, Bill had the fire going in his grill. The smell of charcoal drifted toward us, and my mouth began to water. I closed my eyes and pressed a hand to my mid-section.

“So, I guess my question for you, Lily, is…” Katydid turned and looked me square in the eye. “How long are you going to put up with this barbaric caveman who vowed to love you ‘til death do you part?”

My stomach spasmed. Bile rose in my throat. Cupping my hands over my aching mouth, I jumped up from the lawn chair and ran into the house. A moment later, I sank to my knees in front of the toilet bowl, retching. The clear chicken soup I’d had for lunch—the only thing I’d been able to eat for the past three days—came up.

I was still on my knees in the bathroom when I heard the rustle of a starched uniform, followed by the gush of water in the sink. And then I felt the blessed coolness of a wet washcloth pressed against my forehead. Katydid didn’t speak; she just stood there patiently, waiting for my nausea to pass.

Finally, it did. I lowered my body to the bathroom floor and wiped my tender mouth with the washcloth. Weakly, I lifted my head to look at Katydid. “How long will I put up with him?” I said softly. “Well, seeing as how I’m pretty sure I’m pregnant, and I ain’t got a pot to piss in without Jake, I reckon I’ll just have to put up with him for the rest of my life.” My lips twisted in an ironic smile. “Like my mother once told me …I’ve made my bed. Now, I have to lay in it.”

January 1957

Bowling Green, Kentucky

I
looked in on Debby Ann, saw that she was sleeping, and closed the door to her bedroom. With a relieved sigh, I lumbered into the living room, grabbed my library copy of
Peyton Place
, the scandalous new novel Betty had written me about, and plopped down on the couch to read a few more pages until Jake got home from work. That is, if my darn bladder would let me. It felt like the baby inside me was taking its tiny little hands and squeezing it like it was a ripe melon.