Ivy in the Shadows (18 page)

“I knew it!” I said. “I
knew
they weren't real missionaries!”

“There are different kinds of missionaries. My parents traveled to Haiti. They do work here.”

“But I thought missionaries were good people who helped others. What kind of people are they if they don't take care of you?”

“They aren't bad people. They just didn't plan on raising another child. My parents only meant for me to stay with them for a short while.” He sighed. “They were to come back for me in a few months.”

Bang! Bang!

Caleb and I both jumped. He bolted for the stairs. I was fast on his tail.

As soon as I hit the bottom step, I saw Pastor Harold beating on the door, then cupping his hands around his eyes, looking in the front door window. I hurried to open it.

“Are you two okay?” he asked. “Where's JJ?”

“JJ's asleep. We're fine,” I told him. He looked like he'd been caught in a hurricane. “What happened to you?”

“My phone went out. I thought you guys might be here alone so I started over and drove through a flash flood. My motor died.” He stepped inside and peeled off his wet jacket. “Think you could get me a towel?”

Caleb got one while I hung his jacket over the back of a chair.

“The storm came up so quickly!” he said. “I couldn't get here fast enough to check on you guys and then my stupid car died. Thank God the worst of it missed us and you three were home safe.”

Caleb and I looked at each other. He didn't say anything but I did. “JJ ran off tonight. Something happened to my friend and I left to help her. I don't know what I was thinking, leaving like that. When I came back, he wasn't here.”

“It's my fault, too,” Caleb said. “But together we found him and he's safe now.”

I looked at Caleb and remembered him saving me with the bird's nest after Alexa's party. Here he was helping me again. It seemed to me that Caleb was behaving like the friend I wanted Ellen to be—and that Ellen wasn't.

I wrapped my arms around myself and sat down. Suddenly the bad weather and the scare with JJ made me so cold I started shaking. Pastor Harold noticed.

“I plan to spend the night here on the couch. I think you two must have done just fine if JJ's safe. I can't blame you when I thought you were here alone and I didn't come over.” He drew the afghan around my shoulders.

“You can't help it if you had plans,” I said.

“That's just it. I didn't really have plans.” He sighed. “It's a long story and we've had a rough night. You two get upstairs to bed and we'll talk in the morning.”

But I felt so cozy in the chair, all snug in the afghan. “I think I'll rest here for a while.”

And, because it was a rainy night and because I knew Caleb's parents let the boy stay in their tent, I said, “Caleb? You should bring your pillow and stay here, too.”

The last thing I saw before I fell asleep was a big smile on his face.

*   *   *

It was pitch-black in the room when I heard the front door open. I was afraid to move. Then I remembered that Pastor Harold was there and I felt safer.

“Stop being mad at me. If the phone lines weren't down, we could have called to see how they are.”

“Mama?” I said.

Mama's intake of breath sounded louder than a scream. Then Pastor Harold threw on the light just as Aunt Maureen stepped on Caleb's foot, startling him so that he yelped.

Mama and Aunt Maureen hugged each other in fright.

Pastor Harold said, “Cass! It's okay.”

“What, in heaven's name, is going on here?”
Mama yelled.

Well, all the commotion was enough to wake the dead, let alone JJ, who cried out, “Ivy!”

Mama and Aunt Maureen looked toward the stairs, but when Pastor Harold again said, “Cass,” Mama took a step toward him.

Aunt Maureen looked around. “Where is the babysitter? Why are you here, Harold?”

“There wasn't a babysitter,” he said.

“But I called one. Ivy, where's Jada?”

“I…” This was going to be hard. “I told her not to come.”

“Ivy Greer!” Mama said. “You kids were here alone?”

“Ivy.” Aunt Maureen began crying. “Oh, baby, do you resent me that much? I never meant to take over. I just … well … I love you kids so.”

And instead of yelling at me, she came and hugged me.

“I'm sorry, Aunt Maureen,” I said.

I knew I'd better get the worst part over with. “And, Mama, that's not all. JJ ran off by himself tonight. But—Caleb and I—together we found him.”

Mama lowered herself onto the edge of a chair. Her face was white. “My goodness. I can't believe this mess. I
never
would have left if I'd known all this was going to happen. I feel like the world's worst mother.”

“They're safe now, Cass,” Pastor Harold said.

JJ called my name again. Maybe it was because I was all snuggly in the afghan and chair. Maybe it was because I didn't want to miss out on what Pastor Harold and Mama talked about. But I like to think, at that moment, I realized how hard it was on Aunt Maureen not having kids of her own to look after, and that she might not have been trying to take my job away as much as trying to fill that hole in her heart.

“Aunt Maureen?” I said. “Would you please check on JJ?”

She smiled at me and was off like a shot.

“I heard there was a storm headed this way,” Mama said. “We tried to call. At first we thought Maureen's cell phone had run out of minutes. Then we tried a pay phone and learned that the phones were down. It was the longest ride home from Indianapolis! But I had to know that everyone was all right.”

“Everyone is fine,” Pastor Harold said, only he didn't look like he was “fine.” He looked downright miserable.

“Why are you here, Harold?” Mama asked.

“To check on the kids. Make sure they were okay. I'll head on home now. Sorry you had to cut your date short.”

“It wasn't a
date
,” Mama said. “I went along to keep Maureen out of trouble.”

“Yeah, well, I saw the flowers that guy sent you.
He
must have thought it was a date.”

“Flowers? Those were Maureen's.” Then Mama's eyes lit up. “Harold, did you think I had an admirer?”

“A beautiful woman like you? Yes, Cass. I'm sure you have lots of them,” he said.

Mama studied him for a moment. Then she went over and sat by him on the couch.

“I don't have a boyfriend, Harold. And I don't have any admirers. At least none that will come forward and ask me on a date.”

I was completely awake now, staying as still as a piece of furniture so I didn't miss one word. I slid my eyes to Caleb. He appeared to be asleep but I knew better. Like he'd told me before, Caleb listened.

“Maybe you have an admirer who knows he has very slim prospects,” Pastor Harold said.

Mama took his hand. “Maybe he should tell me about those prospects.”

“Oh, Cass,” he said. “I have thought about you every minute since you first came to church. But I don't make much money as a pastor. And let's not forget that I'm an
interim
one at that. I already know that, in four months, I'm being moved to a church in St. Cloud. That's forty minutes away. And, even if I could stay here, I don't have the money to woo you with fancy dates or send big bouquets of flowers.”

“Let me tell you a story,” Mama said. “I had someone who wrote love songs about me. I had someone who swept me off my feet, and do you know where it got me? Knocked off my feet is all. Harold, you're good and steady. You think about how I'm going to heat my house. You worry about my kids being alone in a storm. Those are all pretty romantic things to me.

“I know you have to move. But that's four months from now. And, as you said, St. Cloud is only forty minutes away. You'll be there at least six months, right? That adds up to ten months. I think I'd rather spend the next ten months getting to know you better than ignoring you because of where you might move next. And as far as you not making a lot of money, well, I've learned I can live without much of that, too.”

Pastor Harold's smile was brighter than the sun. “Well, then, Cass Henry, I would be honored if you would go on a date with me.”

And I'm not sure, but I think they might have kissed right then and there if not for a knock on the door that startled us all.

Mama's hand flew to her chest. “I'm not sure how much more of this I can take tonight,” she said.

Aunt Maureen came down the stairs holding JJ. The door swung open and there stood Uncle Sonny. Big, lovable, huggable Uncle Sonny calling out, “Maureen! It's time to come home!”

19

The next day I could hear Mama and Aunt Maureen giggling from her bedroom. I loved the sound of it. I heard Mama say, “Last night wasn't much different than junior high.”

Well, I was in junior high now and I was curious and tired of listening but pretending not to. I got my courage up and knocked on Mama's partially open door.

She looked up and saw me. “Come on in, honey. We're just having a little girl-talk.”

“And I'm invited?” I asked.

She laughed. “Well, sure. You're a girl, aren't you? Besides, you might appreciate this story.”

Aunt Maureen said, “It's when we were about your age.”

I curled up next to Aunt Maureen on the bed.

“And we were sworn enemies,” Mama said.

“You two? You've been best friends for
eons
!” I said.

“True,” Aunt Maureen said. “But you can't be best friends for that long and not have some humdinger fights.”

“Like last night,” Mama said. “I wanted to kill Maureen. She had no business being on that date.”

“True,” Aunt Maureen admitted.

“And I had to go along to make sure she didn't do anything stupid.”

“Which was exactly what I did to your mom in junior high.” She lowered her voice, like she was talking just to me. “She fell for a high school jock with a smooth line.”

“My mother was so strict and I just wanted some freedom,” Mama said. “Plus he was an eleven on a scale of one to ten.”

“Says you,” Aunt Maureen said. “And your taste in men hasn't improved much.”

Mama swatted at her. “Take that back.”

“Okay,” Aunt Maureen said. “I've been too hard on poor Pastor Harold.”

“Thank you for finally admitting it! Anyway, Maureen jumped in the backseat of the car and went with me and the high school jock on our date. He knew he wasn't going to get any kisses from me with my best friend watching so he took us home. I was so mad at Maureen that I didn't speak to her for weeks. I found new friends and planned to never talk to her again.”

“You fell in with the wrong crowd,” Aunt Maureen said. “Admit it. You missed me.”

“Well, duh!” Mama said. “Here we are years later, still having boy trouble, still arguing, and still being there for each other. Of course I missed you.”

“But I don't understand,” I said. “I thought you two were always close, no matter what.”

“Oh, Ivy, honey,” Aunt Maureen said. “Life is full of ups and downs. Look at me. Here I had completely given up on Sonny being there for me.”

She was sure wrong about that. When Uncle Sonny came in the night before, he explained to Aunt Maureen—right in front of all of us—that he hadn't driven his big rig to see her because he had quit his job. He had hopped on an airplane with nothing but a yearning to win her back.

“I was so lonely that I was ready to walk out on a good man,” she said. “Speaking of … I need to go give that husband of mine another kiss. Can you believe how he flew in like that? A regular knight in shining armor.”

Mama laughed and they left the room. That's when I thought of Ellen. I'd like to think that someday we'd be old and laughing and telling stories about the time she fell in with the wrong crowd, but I don't think all friendships are like Mama and Aunt Maureen's. I couldn't see Ellen jumping into a car to save me from the wrong boy. And she didn't want my help in saving her from the wrong friend.

I'd called Ellen earlier that morning, begging her to tell her mom that she had stolen her credit card. “I'll even sit with you when you talk to her. It'll be like it used to be. Ellen Waite and Ivy League, against the world,” I'd said. “She'll be mad at first, but if you apologize from your heart, she'll forgive you.”

“Alexa said to wait it out. She said the store has
miles
of surveillance tape. They'll never find it and this will all blow over.”

“But, Ellen, do you really want to steal? I mean, nothing could be worth how upset you were yesterday.”

“I'm just fine, Ivy. Besides, Alexa and I have fun. We … well, she's more like who I want to be. I don't have to beg her to get dressed up for a party or remind her to brush her hair.”

And that's when I knew that Ellen and I were probably not going to be like Mama and Aunt Maureen. But then I thought about Lindsay. I knew I would still sit with her on the bus and I'd still eat lunch with her. I knew we'd go to football games and movies together because she liked me as I was. To me, that's what makes someone a real friend.

And then there's Caleb. I had to think of him as a friend, too. I mean, who'd put up with the way I treated him and still be nice to me if he didn't want me as a friend?

Thinking about Caleb made me realize I hadn't seen him all morning. I went downstairs and saw Uncle Sonny on the front porch, his arm protectively around Aunt Maureen. They appeared to be deep in discussion with Pastor Harold and Caleb.

I opened the door and stepped out.

Caleb saw me and his face split into an ear-to-ear grin. “So that would make Ivy my cousin?”