A Virtuous Ruby (16 page)

He backed away fast, too soon, making her feel embarrassed at her attempts to be kind. “Yes, um. I’m glad you are home.”

She smiled a bit to see the calm doctor so ruffled. She couldn’t resist teasing him despite her humiliation. “You just said it. In Latin, no less.”

Adam stood up and smoothed down his pants legs. “I’m going to get some rest. You should too.”

“Yes,” Ruby said. “Before Solomon wakes up. Good night.”

Once again, she was aware of how tall he was as she slid past him to get to the large room where all of the girls slept. She entered and closed the door quietly, intending to be alone with her thoughts, but in the darkness, she could make out the shapes of four very curious and nosy young women. She slipped to her bed and could see Solomon sleeping peacefully in his cradle, a beautiful sight which made her heart happy. “I’m glad you are safe, Ruby.” Delie’s voice piped up in the darkness.

“Thank you, honey. Go on to sleep now.”

“We trying to sleep, but it’s mighty hard with a Latin class going on in the middle of the night,” Mags said, and they all started giggling.

“Hush up.” As Ruby slipped off her dirty torn clothes and into the nightgown at the foot of the bed, she felt brand-new. “The baby’s asleep.”

They kept giggling. Clearly, her sisters cared more for their giggles than Solomon’s sleep. “Y’all get on my nerves.”

“You know you love us,” Em said.

“We know who she loves,” Mags said, which sent them into more giggles.

Ruby didn’t respond since she didn’t want to encourage them any more—and she really didn’t want to wake Solomon. However, as she lay in bed, she remembered again and again, not the horrid jail cell, but that she had dared to kiss Adam.

How would she make up for her forwardness? She had a hard time going to sleep.

Chapter Fifteen

Ruby had been doing very well in her studies over the week, garnering A’s in nearly everything she studied, even in subjects she professed to dislike. Her mind was particularly quick in algebra. When she obtained a 100 per cent on an exam he had given her, Adam was astonished. She must surely be ready for the bigger challenge of completing this portion of her high school diploma. She only lagged behind in languages.
A true jewel, just like her name.

She worked hard and she deserved some reward. When he had marked her algebra paper, he sat back in the chair and asked her if she had ever been to a nickelodeon show.

“I have heard of them, of course. But no, I’ve never been. I would love to see one. They have a movie house over in Calhoun, but we’ve never gone before.”

Admittedly the show was an expense, but why would a couple with such an expansive view of education and the world as John and Lona, deprive their growing brood of a show? “You put on your best dress and we’ll go to Calhoun tomorrow, maybe even have a sundae at the ice cream parlor afterward.”

“Really?”

“Why not?”

“Unless I’ve heard differently, Negroes can’t go to the show or to the ice cream parlor in Calhoun.”

“They’ll let us.”

She understood the implication of his words. “If we are discovered, we can be arrested. Or worse.”

“I’m willing if you are,” Adam shrugged . “These practices are silly and stupid at best. I refuse to pay any real attention to these rules and regulations.”

“What if we see someone we know?” Ruby said.

“We can say hello.”

“I want to go, but I don’t know if I can go under those circumstances, Adam. I’m not ashamed of who I am.”

“I didn’t ask you to be. It’s just a line to cross, just a way to get you to think you are less than what they say. And we’re not.”

“Okay,” Ruby agreed but there was reluctance in her voice.

“Are you sure?”

“I want to go with you. I just don’t want to go to church tomorrow.”

Adam immediately understood. “It’ll be easier if you just let him know.”

A light came into Ruby’s eyes. “Maybe when we go to church we can show him I don’t want to marry him.”

Adam sat back. Who knew what went on in the mind of an eighteen-year-old young woman? “You want to put me on display?”

“You want me to go into a movie house and pretend I’m something I’m not to avoid the crow’s nest. I don’t see much difference.”

Adam did. Going to church as a couple would be a public declaration of their feelings for one another. A qualm of guilt went up his back. He was glad she didn’t seem to hate him so much, but just to get to Dodge? “We’ll see.”

“Yes,” Ruby said. “We will.”

The next day, Ruby dressed in the rose-trimmed white dress. She left off the pink hat. Her sisters were very pleased to see her looking nice, and she told them Adam was going to take her to the nickelodeon for doing so well on her schoolwork. “I’m almost a high school graduate.”

“I wonder what he will do when you
are
a high school graduate.” Mags’s usually graceful countenance turned sly.

Ruby made a face at her.

“I want to go to the nickelodeon with a handsome man,” Delie opined. Her sisters started to laugh, but Ruby grew serious. She understood why her parents had kept them from the show all of these years.

There was nothing but humiliation by sitting up in the crow’s nest, where the theater wasn’t as clean or kept up and the seats weren’t as nice as those on the main floor, where the whites sat. If Lona and John went, their darker brown faces would mean instant relegation to the crow’s nest. Ruby and Adam might go in and sit on the ground floor, if no one knew who they were. Georgia towns were small, and there were so few of their acquaintance who had cars who might see them, it might be all right.

“What are you going to see?” Mags asked.

“
The Birth of a Nation
.” Ruby smoothed down Delie’s braids with a hand. “I’ve heard a lot about it. Not all good.”

“What do you mean?” Nettie’s delicate features arranged themselves in concern.

“It shows our people in some bad ways. Other NAACP chapters up north have protested it. That’s why I want to go.”

“I heard it was a long movie. Maybe that’s why Adam wants to go.” Mags had her sly look again.

“Keep your opinions to yourself,” Ruby told her younger sister sharply while taking Delie’s face in her hands and kissing her little sister’s smooth forehead in farewell. Ruby’s heart, touched by the shiny brown eyes and the smooth pecan-colored skin of Delie, ached in her chest. All in all, it was best to go in anticipation for the day when she would protest such a show, and the crow’s nest, as an appropriate place for any of her sisters. Or for her son.

Calhoun was about an hour away on the rough Georgia roads, and Adam made sure to take plenty of time to make sure they didn’t get stuck in mud. There hadn’t been any recent rain in the hot month of July, but with the country road being so rough; it was hard to tell what condition the road was in. However, the ride was uneventful, the most pleasurable being his closeness to Ruby for long stretches of time.

Ruby made such sense and understood so many things with wisdom beyond her young years. She was a pleasure to talk to. It would take a while to do her nurse training, but a man could do far worse than to have such a life’s companion. Still, he hoped her desire to further her education was what she really wanted, and not because he wanted her to. It wouldn’t be right.

Adam paid their way into the nickelodeon, and Ruby held her breath. If they were to go to the crow’s nest, they would have to go back outside and enter the balcony from the side of the building. However, the ticket taker gestured over his shoulder for them to enter the front door, behind him.

With a knowing look at one another, they entered the front door and took in the beauty of the lavish decorations, the crimson deep plush carpeting and the ornate golden trim, touches that made the lobby area thrive with luxury and splendor. Ruby was awed. Could she be a doctor’s wife, used to the finer things in life?

“I want to sit in the back.”

“Good idea.”

He got them an area in the very last row of a sold-out Saturday afternoon show where all of the downstairs seats were nearly filled. As they sat downstairs, afraid to speak, there was silence and stillness in the crow’s nest. There were Negroes attending the show, dressed up as if for Sunday church, very proud and dignified. However, as he watched the movie, he could understand why they were so quiet. He was too.

Adam had been to the nickelodeon before, and some parts were wondrous with special effects which made the movie almost fit in the realm of pure fantasy.

But it wasn’t.

He squirmed at the wrong-headed portrayal of Negroes as greedy and lascivious. Being with Ruby had given him new eyes and he didn’t like what he was seeing. When the film turned to a Negro trying to rape a young white girl, Ruby began to tear up. He leaned over and whispered, “We can go whenever you want.”

She gathered herself.
Such a brave woman. Nothing like his mother.
She didn’t answer him right away. When the lights came up at intermission, Adam repeated his statement. “No, I want to see it all. I need to know the bad parts. I’m fine. I’m sure it will be better in the second half.”

The movie did not improve, but there was a resolution of the white love story. The Negroes were not as much of an issue, but the image of Negroes as lazy continued.

Had Ruby ever thought about making a change for herself? About having the vote? He had never thought much about it, but Ruby could make a strong case for women’s suffrage. All of her thoughts about an NAACP chapter could turn to something positive. She could run for office and change things without fear. Maybe some day.

When the lights came up on the second half, he shepherded Ruby toward the exit before her indignation could let loose. As he touched her arm, he was taken aback by the tightness of her muscles. Before they reached the exit, David Winslow strolled by with a young woman with blonde hair. Their eyes met across the plush space of the lobby and his brother’s mouth hung open at seeing them there. Normally, in this type of situation, he might have panicked at being discovered. However, something about the scenario, and David’s shock at seeing Ruby—and with Adam—made him smile.

It felt too good to be able to smile and nod at David Winslow, and witness his wonder at their treatment in the theatre as if they were all equal.

And they were. The little encounter proved it.

But was Ruby okay at seeing David? The look in her brown eyes was distant. “Are you okay?”

“Oh I am fine. The movie, I just…”

He escorted her out of the door before she could explode. So it was the movie. He was inclined to agree, and maybe she wanted to talk about it. They stood next to the car. “Ice cream?”

She opened the door and stepped inside. “No, thank you. Let’s go back home and eat. I don’t want to press our luck, not even for an ice cream. I’ll be fine.”

He drove them back to the Bledsoes having a little more confidence in the road than what he had before. “This was a great idea. I like spending time with you.”

Ruby seemed shy all of sudden, unsure of what to say. “It was a nice time but I’ve had enough.”

“Why?”

“It just left a bad taste in my mouth. I just can think of better ways to spend time. The revival is coming next week, for instance. I would rather go praise God. I hope you will come.”

Ruby could see the reluctance on his face. She added, “They’ll need a medical man there. It’s always very hot and people fall out almost every night.”

“I remember hearing your mother say something about it. Brother Carver and Sister Jane?”

“They’ve led the revival ever since I was a little girl. The revival is always in mixed company, white and black, where we are all equal in the sight of God. It’s a beautiful thing to see.”

“I would think Dodge wouldn’t like another Negro minister in town.”

“He hasn’t nothing to say about it. Everyone loves Brother Carver,” Ruby insisted. “Dodge wants to get married around this time because Brother Carver could do it without asking a white man to officiate.” Ruby lowered her head. “He’s going to have to be disappointed.”

Adam reached over and placed his hand on hers, relishing in the feel of her skin against his. It was only when he touched her that he understood. He longed for her touch. “If you want, we can tell him together.”

“We’ll see.”

He didn’t like how quiet she was, so he tried to make conversation. “Did you know that young woman?” Adam hated how he had to shout over the motor if he wanted to talk to Ruby, but she seemed truly stunned by the movie, or was it the sight of David with a statuesque blonde?

“What?”

“David’s young woman?”

Ruby waved a hand absently. “That may be someone Miss Mary got him set up with. She’s been trying to pair him with girls from the counties for a long time now.”

“Why?”

“She was afraid that he had what Mr. Paul had, a thing for young Negro girls I guess.”

Adam gripped the wheel that much harder. And how was it when men who had a thing for young girls who were powerless were the ones who always ended up okay?

Things had to be different this time for Ruby, they just had to be. God’s hand had directed so much of this journey to Winslow. Now, the God that his Aunt Lizzie had referred to so reverently as he was growing up set him on a path he never expected. A path that meant his life was changing in new and unexpected ways.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Ruby kept shouting over the noise of the car. “Hey.” She reached over and put her warm, small hand on top of his. Joy slipped through her fingers to his and took all of the sadness away.

“It’s okay, Ruby. I mean, I’m alright.”

“I didn’t mean to speak ill of the dead. Your mama, I mean.”

“I didn’t think you did. It’s when Paul Winslow spoke of her when I was first here, that it was hardest.”

“And now?”

Adam pulled the car over to a grassy field. They had to get home, but he wanted to try something with her first.

“What are you doing?” she asked him.

“I want you to learn how to drive. This is the perfect opportunity. Dry road, clear ahead. Come over.”

He didn’t move fast enough out of the way to open the car and run around to the passenger side of the car. She slid her rounded female body over and she was, for a too brief moment, pressed firmly against his side. And in that moment when the full length of her was next to him, stars exploded in his mind. Aunt Lizzie had been right. God made women to stand strongly by the side of men.

And Ruby’s shape, while substantially shorter than his, seemed to fit next to him like a puzzle piece.

He leaped from the car and slid in next to her, careful not to get too close.

“Here. Pull on this. Slowly now. Easy.”

“Like this?” she asked.

Such a good student. She took in everything so eagerly. “Pull out onto the road.”

And Ruby did, with almost expert efficiency. She was so smart, so worthy, just as Mattie Morson had been, but she had never been given a chance. He loved to hear the sound of her laughter as she drove the Model T ever so slowly down the red, dusty country road, thrilled that she was moving the vehicle for herself.

He moved a hand on the wheel to pull the car over and stopped it. “That’s enough now. I wanted you to try it.”

“I like it. I always thought a big man like you should drive cars, but I could do it myself.”

He slid back into the car next to her. Despite the effort it would take to get it started again, he turned the engine off. He wanted to hear every precious word she was saying. “Did you like the way that felt? To do things for yourself?”

“Hey, why you turning the car off?” Ruby’s neck craned in all directions. “We got to get home before dark.”

“We will. I just wanted to hear you answer my question. It’s an important one.”

“I liked it fine.”

“You’re capable of making your own life beyond this town.” And when he said that, silence came down like a heavy curtain, emphasizing the crickets chirping as nightfall came.