A Second Helping (20 page)

 

Just as promised, Mal showed up at two o'clock to take Bernadine kite flying. They drove out to the creek, then left the truck.

“Perfect weather,” he called out over the wind.

Bernadine begged to differ. The wind was whipping her hair like it didn't care how much time she'd spent making it look good.

He reached into the Ford's bed and after moving some stuff around, handed her a cheap plastic kite with a spindle of string attached. Batman was in the center of it and she laughed. “Batman? Isn't this more Devon's style?”

“True, but it was either that or SpongeBob.”

The wind was whipping the edges of her Batman kite so she held it and the spindle close to her body to keep it from being carried away. With her other hand she pushed her blowing hair out of her face. “What are you flying? Spider-Man?”

“Nope. This.”

He lifted out a large red dragon, complete with teeth and scales. Unlike Batman, it wasn't made of plastic but of fine gauged paper.

“Aw. I want one of those.”

He shook his head negatively. “Once you can fly Batman without losing it, we'll talk.”

As they walked out onto the open prairie, he gave her some basic instructions.

She said, surprised, “You mean I don't have to run up and down like a crazy woman to get it in the air?”

“No. For now, just give it a short line of string out and let Batman decide which way it wants to go.”

So she did that. She unrolled just enough string for it to rise a foot or so above her head and shoulder and suddenly felt the kite pull sharply.

“Give it some string. Slowly now.”

Following instructions, she let out more string and then more, and suddenly the kite was airborne and soaring.

“It's flying!” Filled with excitement, she let out more string in response to the kite's wishes. “I never knew this was so easy!”

“Keep your eye on it.”

“This is fun!' she called over the wind.

He grinned, walked a few feet away, and put his dragon in the air. Soon it was flying too.

Bernadine looked over. “Why does yours have more than one string?”

“So it can do this.”

As she watched, he tugged on the strings and made the dragon dance. The head and tail bobbed up and down as if it were alive.

“Oh my goodness!” She turned her attention back to Batman, which by then was so high up it was just a small triangular shape in the sky. “I want one of those.”

“Just don't cross your line with mine.”

She took a few steps to her left and gave her kite the rest of the string. Suddenly she was holding an empty spindle. “Mal! My string's gone!” Batman was flying away like Superman and she had no way to bring him back.

“Aw baby, I'm sorry. I forgot that sometimes those dollar store kites don't attach the string to the spindles.”

“Shoot!” She pouted. Batman was halfway to Gotham by then.

He chuckled.

The kite was soon out of sight. “Not funny.”

“I'm sorry. Here, come fly the dragon.”

She stood in front of him and he very carefully handed her the lead string but kept his arms around her so that his hands could guide hers.

“Keep it even. Don't let the head dip down or he'll crash.”

Bernadine concentrated but it was difficult with him standing so close that she could smell his cologne. She turned her head and looked back. “You smell good.”

He kissed her. “Keep your eyes on the prize, missy. I paid three hundred dollars for that kite.”

The power of the kiss made her sway a bit but she fought it off. Smiling, she kept her eyes on the dragon in the sky.

They flew the dragon until her arms tired, then she ducked out from under Mal and let him reel the beautiful kite in.

Driving home, he asked, “Did you have a good time?”

“That was marvelous. When can we do it again?”

“Whenever you like.”

Bernadine couldn't remember having so much fun. All
it had taken was a cheap piece of plastic and a line of string. “I'm getting a better kite, though.”

“My apologies again.”

“It's okay. I had a good time.”

 

On Monday morning school started. Trent considered it a blessing because it was now Jack's job to answer Amari's 24/7 questions, at least until the end of each school day. Trent loved being Amari's dad and he wouldn't change his decision to foster him for the world. He also didn't mind being mayor, most days. However, both jobs took up a lot of time, leaving him just bits and pieces to do the other thing he loved, restoring cars.

By all rights, he should be at work handling things needing his attention like approving the final blueprints for Roni's studio and her husband's clinic. But now that the kids were back in school, he looked upon the resumption as the beginning of his vacation, so he called the Power Plant and told Lily he was taking a vacation day.

He was in the garage with Black Beauty, the old Chrysler New Yorker Malachi had handed down to Trent his junior year in high school. After graduation he'd totaled it during an ice storm. Beat up and banged up, it had sat under wraps in storage until last summer, but now, it was fully restored and gorgeous.

As he slowly circled the body checking out the new paint job and how it looked outfitted with new chrome wheels and door hardware, he reminisced on high school and driving around with Lily Fontaine riding shotgun. They'd made a lot of memories; some never to be revealed,
but they'd had more fun than two kids playing in a pool on a hot day. Back then, he'd loved the car almost as much as he had her and it was ironic that his relationship with Lily and the car had both shared the same fate—totaled.

Now the three of them could be together again, and who better to share the first ride than the Fabulous Fontaine, the nickname she'd earned during her high school track days. He picked up his phone and got her on the line. “What are you doing?”

“Working, unlike you.”

He grinned. “I'm working too, and to prove it, I'll be there in a few minutes. Got something I want to show you.”

“What is it?”

“I'll call you when I get there.”

“Trenton—”

“Bye, Fontaine.” He ended the call.

When Lily got the call that Trent had arrived and was outside, she walked out to meet him. The sight of him leaning against the beautifully restored car stopped her in her tracks. “Oh my,” she whispered, hands over her mouth.

“Like it?” he asked, arms crossed, looking all of seventeen again.

“Trenton, she's beautiful.” Finally able to power herself forward, she moved closer. Memories flooded her and she looked at him with awe. “You told me she'd been totaled.”

“She was, but I took the wraps off last summer and started restoring her.”

“We had some times in this car.”

“Oh yeah.”

Lily circled the vehicle silently, her eyes darting and lingering. She peeked through the window. “You put in a CD player.”

“Yep, redid all the wiring. She may be a classic on the outside but inside she's twenty-first century.”

“Doesn't that affect the value?”

“It would if she were for sale, but she's not.”

“You're going to keep her?”

“Yep. With us back together, we need our car.”

She stopped and met his eyes. Emotion filled her. “That's so sweet.”

“Want to test her out?”

“Right now?” She felt seventeen all over again as well.

“That's why I'm here.”

She nodded excitedly. “Let me call the Boss Lady first.”

Once that was accomplished, Trent opened Beauty's door, his beauty got in, and off they went.

“You know you're not going back to work today.”

She laughed. “Yep. Told Bernadine exactly that when I talked to her.”

They grinned. She cuddled up against his side and he draped his arm around her possessively. As the Temptations sang “My Girl” on the CD, neither Trent nor Lily could imagine life being any better.

 

At lunchtime, the kids left the classroom and trooped outside to eat. The beautiful May day was a harbinger of the summer to come and the sun's warmth felt good. Preston and Amari were discussing their parade plans and the response of Mr. James to the project.

Preston said, “Mr. James giving us extra credit for doing this is great.”

“Yeah,” Amari said distantly.

“What's the matter?”

“Worried about this Spirit Quest thing this weekend.”

“When do you leave?”

“Friday after school.”

“Do you know where Tamar's taking you?”

“No.” Amari sighed. “It's not so much the where, but the what if I don't get a sign?”

“Your dad already said it won't matter.”

“But it'll matter to me.” Amari wanted to be a July in every way. Sure the original Tamar had come to him in a dream, but everybody in the July family had been given a sign and he wouldn't feel complete without one of his own.

“It'll be okay, man. You'll see.”

Amari hoped he was right.

Crystal and Eli came over and sat next to them.

“Hey,” she said, and pulled a drawing pad out of the big purple tote she carried to school instead of a backpack. “Are these sketches okay for your flags?”

Amari looked at the drawings. There were four flags. One per page.

Crystal continued, “I talked to Tamar and she looked through the old pictures and gave me the ideas. One's the American flag of course, and that one is Liberia and this one, Haiti. Why the Dusters had flags for them, I don't know.”

Amari said to Preston, “Add that to your list. We need to know the answer because you know somebody's going to ask.”

“Check.”

“Now this last one,” she said, turning the page to the final sketch, “is the original Henry Adams township flag. Not sure about the colors, so I had to guess.”

The flag was blue, and in the center was a golden sun with rays leading to the four corners. One ray had a plow, one a set of chains, the third corner had a silhouette of a family, and the last one had what appeared to be an open Bible.

Eli said to Crystal, “You did these sketches?”

“Yes. Haven't you been listening?”

“These are fresh.”

“Thanks.”

“I didn't know you could draw.”

“Why do you think I was the one setting up the art room Saturday morning?”

He shrugged. “I don't know.”

She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Amari. “So are these okay?”

“Perfect. Thank you. I owe you big time.”

“Not necessary. I owed you anyway for that ride in the O.G.'s truck last summer.”

“True.”

“So we're even now, correct?”

“Correct.”

“Okay. I'm going to have Ms. Lily see if she can find somebody to do these on silkscreen and that way if we want to use the flags again, we can.”

Preston said, “Great idea, Crystal.”

“That's why I'm the best.”

Mr. James appeared by the door and waved them back
inside, so the four kids gathered up their things and walked back to the building.

“I sculpt, you know,” Eli told her on the way.

“As in clay?”

“Yeah.”

“You any good?”

“Good enough to win a bunch of awards back at my other school.”

“Did you bring any of your pieces with you when you moved here?”

“No, broke everything after my mom died.”

She stared aghast. “Why?”

“Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

She sighed and shook her head. She knew from talking with Ms. Bernadine that people grieved differently, but she couldn't imagine destroying her art.

He said, “Pretty dumb, huh?”

“That's up to you.”

He decided that it had been.

 

On the ride home with his dad after school, Eli asked, “Did you know Crystal was an artist?”

“Marie Jefferson included it in her profile, yeah.”

“She's good too.” He told him about the flags for the parade.

“I'm looking forward to seeing them. I'm pretty impressed by Amari too. Not many kids his age willingly take on a project like this.”

“So you knew he was a car thief too?”

“Yep.”

“This town is a different kind of place.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everybody sticks together.”

“Noticed that.”

“You don't think that's different?”

“I do. Different and wonderful at the same time.”

Eli thought that over. “I don't feel so Goth anymore.”

“You've been through a lot, feeling dark inside's pretty normal. Been feeling pretty Goth myself. Being here's been good though.”

“You know, this is probably the longest, nonyelling conversation we've had since Mom died.”

“True.” And it was.

“Crystal told me that Preston and his dad are trying to learn how to be father and son. Think maybe we could do that?”

Jack could feel water forming in his eyes, emotion filling his throat, “You want to?”

“Yeah.”

“What should we do to start?”

“Think you could order me some clay?”

“Yeah, son. Just let me know what kind and we'll jump online soon as we get home.”

“Thanks.”

“You're welcome.”

As they continued the drive Eli lapsed into silence but for Jack it was okay. He sent up a prayer and a thank-you to Eva for directing them to this wonderful place, because he knew she had.

 

On her breakneck drive across the Pelican State, Eustasia Pennymaker received two speeding tickets, each a hundred miles apart courtesy of Louisiana Highway Patrol, but she didn't care. She had enough money to pay a dozen tickets so she kept the Hummer rolling at ninety as she and the big truck behind her trailering a large hog carrier burned up the road to fetch Chocolate and bring her home. She'd hired a lawyer for Riley, but had no intentions of getting involved any deeper. All she wanted was to make sure her baby was okay and head back to Texas.