The Promise of Jesse Woods (30 page)

“There you are, Elden,” I said, sitting across from him.

“You can’t sit here, Plumley.”

“I have a question. I’m new and there’s a lot I don’t know. And I heard you had experience.”

“Experience with what?”

I leaned forward and lowered my voice. “Head lice.”

He pulled his head back. “You got it?”

“No, but I have an English research paper to write. I was thinking about showing what people do to fix it.”

He scowled. “You want information, you’re going to have to pony up.”

“Excuse me?”

“You going to eat that pizza?”

I looked at the tray. It held a square piece of pizza, a fruit cup, cut corn, a snack cake, and a small carton of whole milk.

“I’m not that hungry. Go ahead.”

He grabbed it with a dirty hand and plopped it on his tray. “What about the cake?”

I pushed the whole tray to him.

Looking like he’d just won the lottery, he opened the cake and ate it in one bite, then talked around it. “Way we done it was my mama took us all outside and shaved our heads. Them nits hang on to the hair. It’s better just to cut ’em off.”

“What about your sisters?”

“She lined us all up. Didn’t make no difference. Then we slept outside. Them things die in about a day. She washed the bedding in hot water and shook out the mattresses and we were good.”

“You didn’t use anything on your hair to kill them?”

He shook his head. “You can douse your hair in kerosene. That’s what my grandma did. That’ll kill the little buggers. But I heard about this kid who got too close to the stove.”

I nodded, hoping he wouldn’t provide any more details. It sounded like a story Dickie would tell.

He used his spoon once for the fruit cup, then tipped it back and slurped. “You live over near Jesse, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

He grinned. “You get her yet?”

I understood what he meant but pretended I didn’t.

He wiped his chin. “Last time she come over, we got her cornered at the corncrib. She put up a real fight.”

I swallowed hard and stood. “Thanks for the information, Elden.”

I went back to the office and heard Jesse talking with the nurse. I called my mother and father, but there was no answer. When the nurse left, I ducked inside and told Jesse what Elden had said about the lice. She got a far-off look. She had the prettiest hair I had ever seen. Soft and silky. For a country girl, she kept it clean.

“Okay,” she said. “I got my daddy’s clippers and it’s not that cold at night. By Sunday we can move back in.”

“You’re going to sleep outside?”

“It’s either that or the kerosene. But you got to get to Daisy if I don’t make it in time.”

“I’ll get her. Don’t worry.”

“You’d better keep clear of us after today,” Jesse said, opening a window. “I don’t want them jumping on you.”

“What are you doing?”

“Close this when I’m outside. And watch for me on the road when you go home. If I’m still walking when you pass, get Daisy.”

I closed the window after she jumped down, feeling like I was watching Steve McQueen jumping the barbed wire in
The Great Escape
. I spent the entire ride home looking for her. We got to the Halfway Market and I hoped someone had given her a ride. Then I saw her, by the Buckner farm, swinging her arms and walking fast, her hair swirling in the exhaust and dust from the bus as we passed.

The bus driver did a double take, leaned out and looked in the side mirror, but kept driving. When we reached the stop by the gas station, I got off in a gaggle of kids so the driver wouldn’t notice and headed to pick up Daisy.

The woman who cared for her lived in a small white house with a chain-link fence surrounding it, Jesse’s bike propped against the fence. There were toys in the overgrown front yard and a swing set in back. A rusty tricycle lay on its side by the front door. I rang the bell. When no one answered, I knocked and the door opened.

“Matty!” Daisy Grace said from somewhere inside. The room was dark and there were gates up to block the kids from getting into the kitchen.

“Can I help you?” a woman said. She had a round face and a black tooth on the left side.

“Jesse Woods had to stay late at school and asked if I’d bring Daisy Grace home.” I tried to sound authoritative.

“Well, I don’t have the okay from her mother. I can’t just let you take her.”

I resisted the urge to ask if she’d ever seen Daisy’s mother. “I understand. I’d feel the same way. I’m Matt Plumley. My father is the new pastor in town.”

This news seemed to calm her somewhat.

“Jesse comes to my house to use the phone and we try to help her family out as much as we can.”

“That’s nice of you. If her mama had a phone, I’d call her, but she don’t.”

“Right. Well, I guess I could just wait here and make sure Jesse shows up.”

The woman looked back at Daisy and seemed to have no big attachment. “If Jesse asked you to pick her up, I’m all right with it. You wait.”

She got Daisy’s things, which consisted of Daisy’s coat and a metal lunch box with a picture of Charlie Brown raring back on the pitcher’s mound.

“You tell her not to do this again. I need her mama to come in and set some things straight. And she needs to pay by the end of the week.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I retrieved Jesse’s bike while Daisy Grace stood on the porch and waited. I figured this was their routine.

“Where’s Jesse?”

“She had to stay at school. She asked me to get you. Do you want to stop at the gas station and get a pop?”

The girl’s eyes widened and I put my books in the front basket and we rode to the gas station. Daisy made the grape Nehi last a lot longer than I did. I’d returned the bottles and was trying to figure out what to do next when a car drove up and parked at one of the pumps. Jesse got out, thanked the woman driving, and ran to us.

“Matty got me a grape!” Daisy said.

“That’s good,” Jesse said. Then, to me, “So you got her all right?”

“The woman wasn’t happy, but she let us go.”

“You have a good day, Daisy Grace?” Jesse said, her face right next to her sister’s.

“Yeah,” Daisy said, scratching the top of her head.

“Come on, let’s go home.”

Jesse pushed the bike with Daisy in it and I walked beside them, asking what she was going to do.

“Today’s Thursday. If we sleep outside tonight and tomorrow night, they should be dead by Saturday. Sunday at the latest.”

“You’re just going to wait ’em out?”

“I’ll need to get our sheets and pillows to the Laundromat. That’s what that woman was saying who picked me up. Wash everything in hot water.”

“I’m surprised she didn’t kick you out of her car.”

“I told her it was my cousins. People are a lot more helpful when they’re trying to solve other people’s problems.”

“You can sleep back on our hill,” I said. “Dickie’s tent’s still up.”

“He don’t talk to you anymore, does he?”

I shook my head.

“I’m sorry about that. I was plumb put out with you.”

“I know. I’ve got a couple of sleeping bags you can use.”

She looked at me, realizing I had forgiven her without even saying it. “I wouldn’t want you to have to delouse them.”

We passed my grandmother’s place, but I kept walking. Jesse seemed to like the company. When we arrived, Daisy jumped down and ran to Carl and hugged the dusty old dog.

“I thank you for what you done,” Jesse said. “You didn’t have to.”

“I wish I could do more.”

“Would you wait a minute?”

Jesse ran into the house and returned with a round blue tin and an extension cord she snaked out the front door. She rummaged through the tin and came up with hair clippers. The trimmer clacked and she banged it against her hand and adjusted something with what was left of her thumbnail.

“There. I can get most of it, but not the back. Would you do the honors?”

“I’ve never cut hair.”

“First time for everything.”

“Don’t you want to put a thing on the end? You know, so you don’t look like you just got drafted?”

“I need it as close as you can get it. Not taking chances. But don’t let them jump on you.”

I took the clippers and gingerly cut a two-inch section from the back of her hair.

“No, not like that,” she said, grabbing the clippers. “Like this.” She ran the shears through the front of her hair and took off a deep row all the way to the scalp. “Don’t be bashful. Cut and let it fall.”

Daisy came out and pointed, laughing at her sister.

“Don’t you laugh. You’re next.”

“Why are you cuttin’ it, Jesse?” Daisy said.

“So’s I can go to the Dollar Store and get a bandanna. You can’t wear a bandanna unless you have your hair short.”

Jesse’s hair fell in big clumps and I sidestepped it. Her hair was clean and soft. When I finished the back, she took the clippers and did the front and sides herself, then saluted me. “Private First Class Jesse Woods reporting for duty.” She looked cute without hair, though it made her look even thinner. Jesse’s hair was down her neck and I felt bad that she couldn’t take a shower.

She struggled to get Daisy to sit still but finally cut her hair as well. Then she took a can of gas and poured it on the clumps and set it ablaze. The stink was awful, but Jesse said she just wanted to know those things were dead.

I wanted to help more, but she said they were off to the Laundromat.

“Let my mom drive you.”

“If she drives us, there’ll just be more questions. I got to do this myself. But if you could, get some kindling and firewood at the campsite. I’ll be obliged.”

“You’re going to sleep there?”

“I think Daisy will do better in a tent than out in the open.”

I had the fire going by dark and watched the two trudge up the hill. They had bought a loaf of bread and some ham from the grocery store and eaten half of it while they did laundry. The other half was for breakfast. Jesse had rinsed her and Daisy’s hair out in the sink at the Laundromat. I found old covers in my grandmother’s basement, and they used them for beds. Jesse brought their clean sheets and two pillows, which weren’t much more than two lumps of cotton with covers on them.

“My mom made a pound cake yesterday,” I said, holding out a paper bag with two pieces wrapped in wax paper. Daisy Grace squealed and ate hers quickly and licked her fingers.

I tended to the fire while Jesse got Daisy settled. The air was cool and made me think of football and the turning leaves. The grass was showing black on top. Jesse sat on a rock by the fire and wiped at her neck.

“I can get some marshmallows for tomorrow night,” I said.

“Daisy will like that.” She ran a hand through the stubble of her hair and yawned. “Matt, why are you doing all this?”

“I want to help.”

“But why?”

“I’m like you. When I make a promise, I keep it. You remember your promise, right?”

She scowled. “You mean the one about not telling anyone about your brother?”

“No, the other one.”

She put her head down. When she looked up, there were tears in her eyes. “I didn’t know it was going to be this hard.”

“You didn’t know what was?”

“Everything.” She wiped at her face and sniffed hard.

I tried to think of something to say but nothing came. Finally I smiled. “I can’t wait to see the look on Dickie’s face when he sees you.”

She put her head in her hands and groaned. “Man, I bet I look awful.”

“No,” I said, swallowing hard. I had been thinking of a way to say something nice, to show her how I felt. But I kept holding it in. Now I let it go, not worrying how it sounded. “You could never look awful. You’re beautiful, Jesse.”

She stared at me a moment. “You need to get your eyes checked, PB.”

I was glad I had finally said something, glad she knew what I felt, even if her response wasn’t exactly warm. “Get some sleep,” I said. “There are a couple potatoes in the fire for in the morning.” I handed her another covered container. “And some salt and cow butter in here.”

I took a long shower that night and felt itchy, but I told myself it was in my head. As I did my homework, I thought I felt something crawling but ignored it. I fell asleep reading
Great Expectations
for English and woke up too late to check on Jesse and Daisy.

In the morning, my father said there was a curious smoke smell in the air. I shrugged. “Maybe somebody’s burning their plant bed.”

“In September?” he said. He stopped me as I reached the door and folded his newspaper in front of him. “Did you hear about last night?”

I heard our bus rumble in the distance. “What?”

“Blass won his eighteenth. Pirates clinched against the Mets.”

My mouth dropped. I’d been so involved with Jesse and Daisy I had missed it.

“Reds can clinch today against Houston if they win. Cincy and Pittsburgh for the National League crown.”

“I can’t wait for the Pirates to beat them and show you who’s best.”

My dad smiled. “Be careful what you wish for.”

I ran down the driveway just in time to catch the bus. School dragged all day and I looked at my watch a million times, thinking of Jesse and what I had said. That afternoon I ran up the hill but they were gone. The fire had burned down to ashes and the potatoes weren’t there.

I stayed at the house, excited for the weekend, and hurriedly ate dinner and told my parents I was heading for the hill. I grabbed my transistor radio and sneaked a bag of marshmallows.

“What are you doing back there, Matt?” my grandmother said. “Digging a hole to China?”

“He’s excited about his favorite team,” my mother said.

When I had enough wood for the fire, I sat by the tent.
Darkness came but no Jesse and Daisy. Then I saw a light coming up the hill. It turned out to be my father.

“Better come home,” he said when he reached me, out of breath. “Storm’s headed this way.”

As the words left his mouth, the wind kicked up a gale and blew through the trees. The moon went behind a cloud and thunder clapped.

“You waiting on someone?”

I fiddled with the radio. “Just trying to pull in the Pirates game.”