The Loves of Ruby Dee (16 page)

The two were so intent on each other that they hadn’t heard him clattering around on his crutches. Dillydallying, just like he had expected all along, by God! Furious, he was just about to go in there and put a stop to it, when the gal turned Will’s head, and Hardy realized she was working over the cut on his cheek.

The cut had looked pretty bad last night, Hardy thought, and guilt stabbed him. He’d done that.

But he hadn’t done it on purpose. It had just happened. The guilt faded as he balanced there, watching them. There was something about the two of them that struck him, as if he had seen such a scene before.

Then it came to him that he had better get back to his room before they heard him or saw him. He did not want them, or anyone else, to know that he could get around as well as he could. No, sir. He wanted them to think of him as an invalid.

Using the crutches and tiptoeing on the foot with the sprained ankle, he headed as quietly and quickly as possible to his bedroom. He caught the door frame with one of the crutches and almost went sprawling. He bit back a string of curses and got himself over to the bed. He set aside the crutches and positioned himself, reclining on the pillows, his ankle again resting on the rolled up towel.

Through the window he saw the sky getting lighter. That he had lived to see another day depressed him.

The whole day and night before, Hardy had tried his best to die. He had thought that if he told his heart long and hard enough to quit beating, it would. Sort of like throwing a leg over the fence, and the rest of the body followed. He’d kept throwing his mind into heaven, thinking his body would follow.

He considered keeping at it, but he felt like he might be fighting a losing battle.

He could, of course, take more drastic action. The option of blowing his brains out was gone, since he couldn’t get his hands on a gun, but there remained his pocket knife or drinking the drain cleaner in the bathroom.

Drain cleaner took a little while. His cousin Mason had drunk it to kill himself. The theory was that Mason had counted on his wife finding him in time to save him, but his wife had gone off to the hairdresser. Mason never had been very smart.

However, Hardy considered thinking himself dead an entirely different thing than using more violent means. Thinking was honorable and within the realm of God. The other—guns and knives and drain cleaner—Hardy considered dishonorable and weak, which was why Mason had done it. Mason had been a weasely, weak man, and Hardy didn’t want to put himself in the same category.

He considered the honorableness of starving himself. Just quit eating, passively protesting against his life. But if he did that, they would surely take him to the hospital and hook him up to tubes. He might eventually die, but not until he had undergone untold discomfort and indignities. It wouldn’t be worth it.

He heard the back door open and close, then some movement from the kitchen. Hardy found it poor on their part that neither the gal nor Will had come in to check on him. He could be dead and start stinking for all the attention they paid him.

“Hey! Gal!” he called.

He reached for a glass left on his nightstand and his pocket knife. He clanged the knife against the glass.

“Hey, gal!”

He kept up the clanging until the gal appeared in the doorway.

“Well, good mornin’, Mr. Starr...and my name is Ruby Dee, not gal.” As she came forward, her dress outlined her legs and fluttered down just above her ankles.

It suddenly came to Hardy why seeing her and Will together earlier had seemed so familiar. He had a similar image in his memory—of him and Jooney, when Jooney had cut his hair.

“How’s your ankle this mornin’?” she asked, bending over it.

“It hurts,” Hardy said. “Go get me some coffee, with sugar and cream."

“You aren’t supposed to have sugar.”

“Yeah, and what’s gonna happen—I might die?”

She laughed aloud at that, and then she did a really fool thing. She bent and kissed his cheek.

“Get the hell away from me!” Hardy stammered.

The gal laughed again. “I guess if you didn’t die from me doin’ that, you ain’t gonna. I’ll get your coffee.”

And she flounced out of the room, leaving Hardy staring after her. A second later, he realized he had been watching her swaying hips.

You’re still a man,
she had told him, and he supposed he was, after all. The thought confused him terribly.

Chapter 13

With a quick glance, Will could see that the swelling in the old man’s ankle had gone down quite a bit, but he said he couldn’t use it.

“I ought to know if I can use the dang ankle or not,” he insisted. “I’m the one grittin’ my teeth with it.”

Will brought up the idea of going down to the doctor, but the old man flatly refused.

“I ain’t goin’,” he said, and that was that. It was clear from the set of his face that he intended to make his bed the last stand at the Alamo.

Will wasn’t going to argue with him. He had better things to do. Also, he didn’t like the way the veins stood out on the old man’s neck every time the word
doctor
was mentioned.

Taking him to the doctor was postponed, but Ruby Dee said she needed groceries, or she wasn’t going to be making any more biscuits, and there was enough coffee for only one more pot. Lonnie took on about the prospect of no biscuits. Lonnie could evermore act the fool.

Will said Reeves’s Quick Stop over in Harney would have coffee and flour in small containers, and eggs and bacon, too. Ruby Dee decided to go right away, before the heat of the day.

Before she left, she instructed Will to make certain he took his daddy the snack she had prepared and left in the refrigerator. Then she handed him a sheet of paper.

“Here’s a report on Hardy’s day yesterday. I do this for all my patients. It comes in handy when we need to track down causes of symptoms and things.”

Surprised, Will took the paper. “You typed it?” It was done in columns, with events, observations and times noted.

“I have terrible handwriting. You wouldn’t be able to read it.”

Will walked her out to the car. He found himself doing it, even opening the back door for her, telling her to charge whatever she needed to the ranch account. He began to wish he didn’t have to stay with the old man. It crossed his mind to holler for Lonnie to come stay with him, so he could go with Ruby Dee.

It turned out that Lonnie was two steps ahead of him. He had brought the Galaxie over into the shade of the elm, had even put the top down. His arms folded, he leaned his hip against the driver’s door and grinned at Ruby Dee. Lonnie said, “I’ll take you in to Reeves’s, Ruby Dee. I need some Skoal, and a burrito sounds pretty good, too.”

“You just ate,” Will said. He should have known Lonnie would do this.

“Hey, that was way over an hour ago.” Lonnie opened the driver’s door for Ruby Dee.

She told him he could drive and circled the front
of
the car. Lonnie stepped around to get the passenger door for her, but Will was quicker.

Ruby Dee slid into the seat and called for Sally, who came bounding up onto her lap and over into the back seat. Will shut the door. Ruby Dee stuck her hat on her head and lifted her face, her eyes coming up to Will’s.

“Thanks,” she said. “We won’t be long.”

Will stepped back, shoving his hands into his rear pockets. “Watch my little brother.” He nodded at Lonnie. “He thinks he’s at the Indy half the time.”

Lonnie smirked at him and dropped the shift arm. The car shot ahead, leaving Will standing there, the dust spiraling around his legs.

* * * *

The yellow hood of the convertible gleamed in the bright sunlight as the car sped over the narrow two-lane blacktop highway. The road broke through hills and dipped down into flat river-bottom land. Here they could see the broken rust-colored earth, canyons cut eons ago by the river. Grassland, no trees, except for a rare, scraggly, bent nub. The river was a flat, winding trickle now at summer.

Ruby Dee liked this land the best, liked the wildness of it.

Lonnie had the same type of wildness, she thought, looking at him. He sat relaxed, high, wide and handsome. He had tossed his hat in the back seat, and the sun glimmered on his dark hair.

What she liked about Lonnie was that he liked her, and he surely didn’t hide it. His hazel eyes told her she looked good, and that he thought she was just wonderful. That he probably looked at all women that way didn’t change the way it made her feel.

“This is one great machine!” he said, raising his voice above the roar of the wind.

“Yep.” Ruby Dee smacked her hand on the top of her hat, holding it on. She was suddenly glad to be away from the ranch, riding beside a man who thought she was pretty.

Her mind went back to Will. He had looked so forlorn she’d wished he could come with them. She knew it would help with Starr a lot to get out and have fun.

She thought then that the land was like Will, too—tough and enduring.

Ruby Dee savored these thoughts. She found them profound. It had been her experience that profound thoughts might not be any more truthful than those that are not profound, such as thinking that white toilet paper was more pristine than the colored variety, but she believed profound thoughts were a lot prettier. She really enjoyed profound thinking, and she kept it up all the way to Harney.

In fact, she was thinking so hard that it was almost a surprise to pull into the gravel lot of Reeves’s Quick Stop. Blinking, Ruby Dee threw her hat in the back seat and ran her fingers through her hair, fluffing it on top. “Come on, Sally, get up here in the shade.” She motioned for Sally to lie next to the brick building.

“She can come inside,” Lonnie said. “You aren’t in the city, Ruby Dee.” He cast her that easy grin and held open the door.

Well, the first person Ruby Dee saw was Georgia Reeves behind the cash register. Ruby Dee felt really silly, because only in that moment did the name of the store and the name of the woman come together in her mind.

Georgia had on a white blouse with silver button covers. Small silver earrings dotted her lobes, and every hair was in place. She looked more ready to host a luncheon for the Friends of the Library than to clerk in a convenience store.

Ruby Dee admired Georgia’s attention to her person, but she felt no more liking for the woman than she had the day before. And she was really glad she had put on lipstick—Summer Coral, which looked much more natural than Georgia’s fiery crimson. Probably, though, Georgia was more concerned with appearing striking than appearing natural. And she succeeded.

“Hello, Georgia...this is Ruby Dee,” Lonnie said. “I think you two met yesterday, out at our place.”

Georgia nodded. “Hi.” Speculation ripe as a juicy peach shone in her eyes, which moved from Ruby Dee to Lonnie and back again.

Ruby Dee said, “Hello,” and offered a perfectly friendly smile, to be polite, and to be one up.

Georgia just looked at her. Ruby Dee suspected no one ever got to be one up on Georgia.

“Is the grill open, Georgia?” Lonnie asked, turning Ruby Dee toward the back of the store. “I’d sure like one of your burritos, and Ruby Dee will have..." He looked at her.

“I’ll just have a Coke.”

 “I’ll get your burrito, Lon,” Georgia said, following on her side of the counter.

His hand on her elbow, Lonnie guided Ruby Dee to a booth. Sally padded along beside them, tail and shoulders down, totally uncertain.

Two elderly men in overalls and ball caps sat in one of the booths. They were playing dominoes. Lonnie exchanged greetings with them, but didn’t introduce Ruby Dee. She cast them a friendly smile, and they gave her a quick, curious nod before returning to their game. They appeared intensely involved in it.

Ruby Dee slid into the booth, and Sally went under the table. Lonnie went to get the soft drinks.

When he came back, he leaned across the table and whispered, “They don’t play for pennies.” He inclined his head toward the men in the other booth. “Most of those games involve upwards of five hundred dollars. Sin City, right here in Harney.” He winked.

Ruby Dee looked at them again. Men in clean but worn overalls and thin, long-sleeve plaid shirts. Their hands were veined and weathered. She wondered if Lonnie was pulling her leg.

She cast quick glances at them while Lonnie ate his burrito and she sucked on the straw of her Coke. Once she saw the skinny one pull a wad of bills from the pocket of his overalls, peel off what she thought was a hundred-dollar bill and hand it to his opponent.

After she finished her Coke, she excused herself and went back to the rest room, where she could reapply her lipstick. Ruby Dee never applied her lipstick in public. It seemed tawdry, like adjusting a bra strap. And the whole point of wearing lipstick was to give the illusion that your lips really were that colorful and moist. If everyone saw you put it on, what was the point?

When she came out of the rest room, she almost bumped into Georgia, who was getting a roll of paper towels from one of the big cardboard boxes stored against the wall.

“How’s old Hardy doin’?” Georgia asked.

“He’s pretty depressed about hurtin’ his ankle. He can only get around with crutches.” Ruby Dee wondered why Georgia didn’t discuss this with Will. She also wondered if Georgia’s eyelashes were real.

“Will ought to put him in a home. It’d be a lot better all the way around.”

Well, that turned Ruby Dee to ice. “Oh?” she said. “A lot better for who?”

Georgia gave a little laugh. “I guess it wouldn’t be better for you. The Starrs wouldn’t need your... ah, services then...
would they?” She arched her eyebrow like a question mark, then turned and walked off before Ruby Dee could press her about what she meant.

Ruby Dee could say one thing for Georgia: the woman said what she thought.

Lonnie had already started to get the groceries he wanted: Oreos, corn chips and mixed nuts. He followed Ruby Dee while she gathered the supplies she needed. Actually, she got more than she needed, going on to canned pineapple slices and peaches in natural juices. Seeing the price on the peaches, she put them back on the shelf, but Lonnie then snatched them up. They carried all the groceries to the front, so Georgia could tally up the bill.