When Good Bras Go Bad (Myrtle Crumb Series) (11 page)

             
I hadn’t dressed up for Halloween in years
.
It’s kinda funny
.
Here Sunny is thinkin’ she’s too grown up and sophisticated for Halloween now, and I’m actin’ like a girl again.

             
Right off the bat
(no pun intended!)
, I spotted a flapper costume
.
It was one of them purple fringy dresses, and it had a headband with a feather stuck in it
.
It was my size, it was in my budget (you know I’m havin’ to be more careful with it this month since the brownie incident), and it’d knock Coop’s socks off
.
I headed to the register.

             
“Hey, Ms. Crumb!”

             
I turned around
.
“Hi, Lenny.”  He was standing in the aisle looking at rubber masks
.
“It’s good to see that at least some young folks don’t think they’re too grown up for Halloween.”

             
He glanced down at the mask he held
.
It was a werewolf
.
“M
e
and some buddies decided to dress up as old movie monsters and go to this party.”  He held up the werewolf mask and plucked a Frankenstein’s monster off the rack
.
“So what do you think?  Wolfie or Frankie?”

             
“I believe I’m partial to the wolf man
.
Michael Landon played a teenage werewolf in one of his first movie roles.”

             
“Who’s Michael Landon?”

             
Young ‘uns sure do know how to make you feel old
.
“Never mind
.
I’d better get this paid for and get home
.
It’s almost time for Matlock to go to bed.”

             
“What’re you dressin’ up as?”

             
I grinned and held up my costume
.
“I’m goin’ as a flapper.”

             
He bobbed his head up and down
.
I didn’t have the slightest misconception that he knew what a flapper was, but I don’t think he cared enough to ask about it.

             
“Cool,” he said
.
“And, hey, I’m sorry Granny called and fussed at you
.
I had no idea she’d go off like that.”

             
“Oh, that’s all right.”

             
“I just might use that idea of yours!”

             
“Well, if you do, I wish you all the success in the world.”  I looked at my watch
.
“I really had better get out of here
.
Do you have a ride home?”

             
“Yeah
.
Granny’s up there in one of them beauty shops gettin’ her hair done.”

             
“Okay
.
You have a good night, sweetie.”

             
“You, too.”

             
I paid for my costume and left before Delphine barged in reeking of perm solution and accused me of talkin’ dirty to Lenny again
.
Wonder what she’s wearin’ to the party?  A nun’s habit?

             
When I got home, I let Matlock in, and we went upstairs
.
I started my bathwater, and he went ahead and jumped up on the bed
.
I thought about puttin’ the television on that animal station for him while I was takin’ my bath, but I decided against it
.
Sometimes they show animals that’ve got hurt or been abused
.
That stuff tears my nerves all to pieces, and it can’t be good for Matlock to see
.
With him coming from a shelter and everything, there’s no tellin’ what tragedies litter his past
.
So we didn’t turn the television on until after I’d had my bath.

             
I slid under the covers all nice and cozy and smelling good, and Matlock came and put his head on my lap.

             
“You’re beginnin’ to need a bath yourself, young man.”

             
He rolled his eyes around the room like he was lookin’ to see who I was talkin’ to.

             
I scratched behind his ears and reached for the remote
.
Wouldn’t you know it?  The batteries were dead, and I didn’t have any upstairs
.
I looked at Matlock and sighed
.
He sighed, too
.
We were both disgusted
.
Here we were snug in the bed, and now we had to decide whether to get back up and go downstairs for batteries or else forget about it.

             
I was fixing to ask Matlock what he thought we should do when I heard a car door slam
.
Then I heard yelling and another car door slammed
.
Amidst the next round of yelling, I slipped out of bed
and crept over to the window
.
I peeped out the side of the curtain and saw it was Lenny and Delphine doin’ the yelling—mainly Lenny.

             
“I sure hope that fight ain’t my
fault,” I told Matlock
.
“I reckon I’ll have to go over to Delphine’s tomorrow and see.”

Chapter
Seven

             
I was still upset about Lenny and Delphine when I woke up that morning
.
I was so upset I called
Jane
Krenshaw and told her I couldn’t work in the lunchroom
.
I told her not to worry, though, that I’d be back tomorrow
.
‘Course, she didn’t see too awful concerned, and I knew I had to talk to Delphine while Lenny was at school.

             
I waited ‘til after the school bus
had come and gone
, and then I went over there
.
I started to pretend I was there about the Halloween party, but I decided to play it straight instead.

             
When Delphine came to the door, I said, “I heard you and Lenny arguin’ last night
.
I wanted to make sure it wasn’t my fault.”

             
She stood there squinting at me a second, and then she told me to come on in
.
She was dressed in jeans, a blue and white
striped sweater and pink house shoes
.
She still smelled like permanent wave, and her hair was curled tighter than Dick’s hatband
.
I thought about tellin’ her it looked nice, but
I really
didn’t
think it did
so I kept my mouth shut.

             
“Would you like some coffee?” she asked.

             
“No, thanks
.
I finished a cup right before I came over.”

             
She nodded and went into the kitchen
.
I took it she wanted me to go, too, so I did.

             
She sat down at the table and closed her eyes
.
“I thought raisin’ a teenager was tough the first go-round.”

             
I pulled out a chair and sat down
.
“Lenny seems like an awful
ly
good boy.”

             
“He is,” she said, opening her eyes
.
“Maybe even better than his daddy was at that age
.
I don’t know
.
Maybe it’s me
.
Maybe it’s because I’m so much older now.”

             
“I think teenagers are hard no matter how old you are
.
Maybe it’s worse when it’s a grandchild ‘cause you don’t ever expect them to treat you bad.”

             
“What do you mean?”

             
“Well, when Faye was growin’ up, she’d sass me and say she hated me, and I’d ground her and be done with it.”  I shrugged
.
“It was what parents and young ‘uns did
.
But it’s different with Sunny.”

             
“Yeah, but you and that girl are as close as a rabbit’s front teeth
.
You don’t have to worry ‘bout her.”

             
“I didn’t ‘til here lately.” I told her
about
the whole Alicia Granger mess.

             
“That’s the same kinda thing me and Lenny got into it over last night
.
I went to the mall yesterday evenin’ to get a perm.”

             
“Really?  Looks nice.”
God forgive me for that lie.

             
“Thank you.”  She patted her curls
.
“Anyhow, I went upstairs to get Lenny
.
He was where he said he’d be, but he was standin’ with a group of boys that looked like thugs…nothin’ but thugs.”

             
“I believe I will have that coffee now, if you don’t care.”

             
“I don’t care a bit.”  She got up and got me some coffee and topped off her own cup
.

“Where was I?” she asked when she sat back down.

“The thugs.”

“Oh, yeah
.
I recognized one of them be
cause he looks exactly like his daddy. And his daddy ain’t nothin’ but trouble…or, at least, that’s how he used to be
.
Used to lay around the pool hall drunk all the time.”

I did one of them open-mouth hisses so she’d know how much I disapproved
.
“What did Lenny say?”

“Said they’re his friends, and I ought not judge ‘em.”

I stirred sugar and creamer into my coffee
.
“I reckon he’s got a point, but you don’t know these boys
.
He ain’t never invited any of ‘em over here, has he?”

“No.”

“Not that you’d want him to
.
It ain’t safe to have a house full of thugs.”

“That’s what I said.”

“He’s give you a tough row to hoe,” I said
.
“Maybe Lenny’d consider
you all
takin’ one of the boys to get a pizza or a cheeseburger or somethin’
.
That way, if the boy turns out to be a thug,
you all
ain’t alone in the house with him.”

“Why, that’s a good idea, Myrtle!  I’ll talk to Lenny about it when he comes home.”  She smiled and patted my hand.

I remembered somebody on one of them mornin’ shows talking about setting up play da
te
s for your kids
.
Reckon that counts if the young ‘un is
sixteen and the play date’s with a thug?  I didn’t know, but Delphine appeared to be in better spirits so I didn’t ask her.

DIVIDER HERE

Along about suppertime, Sunny called.

“Mimi,” she said, “I saw you weren’t in the cafeteria today
.
Are you sick?”

“No, I just had some other things to attend to.”

“Oh
.
I guess they must’ve been important.”

“I thought so.”

She was quiet for a second
.
I knew she wanted me to tell her why I stayed home
.
Last month I probably would have
.
But with the distance that’s been between us lately, I didn’t feel confident tellin’ Sunny about Delphine’s and Lenny’s business…especially when that business was about Lenny maybe takin’ up with the wrong crowd
.
Sunny might’ve even thought I was makin’ it up just so I could caution her about Alicia Granger some more.

“Well,” Sunny said, “I just wanted to call and make sure everything’s okay.”

“I appreciate it, sweetie
.
I ought to
be back at the school tomorrow, so I reckon I’ll see you then.”

“Okay.”

“By the way,” I said, “there weren’t any thefts today, were there?”

“Not that I know of.”