Lucy Doesn't Wear Pink (29 page)

The Gigglers ran out to squeal over Carla. Oscar gave several long whistles between his teeth. Even J.J. was clapping, and Gabe wasn’t doing anything obnoxious. The only person making an unhappy noise was Januarie.

“It isn’t fair!” she wailed, round cheeks red as candy apples.

“It
is
fair, Januarie,” Lucy said. She pulled her away from the rest of the team. “If you can’t get the ball from Carla Rosa, how do you think you’re ever going to get it from another team?”

“There isn’t ever gonna be another team! My dad says it’s never gonna happen. He says Mr. Auggy is full of hot air. He hates Mr. Auggy — ”

“He hates everybody.” J.J. was suddenly there. He even tried to put his hand on Januarie’s shoulder, and Lucy had never seen him touch her before.

But Januarie wrenched away and doubled her fists and looked as if she were going to pop like a red balloon. “You know what?” she said, right at Lucy. “I hate
you
!”

She tried to run, but that wasn’t happening, not as hard as she was breathing. Lucy watched her march until she disappeared on the other side of the fence.

“She shouldn’t cross the highway by herself,” Lucy said.

“I got it.” Sheriff Navarra waved his arm at them. “Time’s up anyway. You all okay on your bikes?”

They all nodded, and he left in his car. Lucy was sure Januarie was going to wet her pants when he pulled up beside her. She felt herself wilt.

“It’s not your fault, Lucy,” Dusty said. “That was totally fair.”

Carla Rosa’s face pleated. “Was I supposed to let her get the ball?”

“No!” they all said together.

“This should be a celebration for Carla Rosa,” Veronica said. “I brought granola bars.”

“Wow,” Gabe said sarcastically.

But Veronica smacked him playfully, and all was well.

Lucy felt a little better when she got home. It was a good thing to finally have it settled that Januarie wasn’t ready to play with the older kids on a real team. She’d get over it. J.J. even said he would talk to her. Lucy made him promise not to lock her in the garage.

“I don’t do that stuff anymore,” he said.

Lucy was sure Mr. Auggy had something to do with that.

It was 1:00. She hoped Inez had lunch ready, and as she opened the back door, she started to holler — “Can we have guacamole-that-looks- like-baby-food?” But she stopped when she heard a familiar voice — a voice that was not pleased.

“Look, this is none of your business,” Aunt Karen said.

“It is my business when I take care of Senor Ted’s home,” Inez answered her.

Lucy felt a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth. It might be fun to hide here in the kitchen and listen to Inez stand up to Aunt Karen. If anybody could —

But the next sentence bolted her right into the hall where the two women stood face-to-face.

18

“That book belonged to my sister, and I’m not going to have Lucy messing it up!”

“No!”

Both faces whipped toward Lucy. Aunt Karen immediately licked her lips like she was going to take a bite out of her.

“Where is it, Lucy?”

“You told her?” Lucy said to Inez. “You told her about my book?”

“It’s not
your
book.” Aunt Karen had shifted to her you’re-just-a-kid voice. “It was your mother’s, and it’s not a toy.”

“I’m not playing with it!”

“Quite frankly, I wouldn’t doubt if you were using it for a soccer ball. Now tell me where it is, or I’ll find it for myself.”

“No,” Lucy said.

“Fine.”

Aunt Karen turned on her heel and headed for Lucy’s bedroom. In a rush of air, Inez got between her and the doorway.

“So sorry,” Inez said. “When I am in charge of Lucy, no one will touch touch what is hers.”

“You are not serious,” Aunt Karen said. Lucy could only see her from the back, though she could imagine her slathering up her lips but good. “Get out of the way.”

“You get the permission from Senor Ted, I let you in. Simple.”

Aunt Karen raked her fingers through her hair and left her hand suspended. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“My job.”

“Really. Well, enjoy it while you can because you aren’t going to have it much longer.”

She turned on her heel and narrowed her icy eyes at Lucy. “This is so not over.” She brought up a finger and pointed it right into Lucy’s face. “So help me, if you put one mark on that book — it belonged to my sister, and we don’t have that much left of her.”

“She wasn’t just your sister,” Lucy said through the knot in her throat. “She was my mother.”

“Oh, don’t I know it.” Aunt Karen brought the finger down. “You’re just exactly like her — and that’s what I’m trying to save you from.”

“No!”

Everything stopped moving. Even the air.

“Don’t save me from being like my mom,” Lucy said into that stillness. “Save me from ever being like you.”

Aunt Karen didn’t take her eyes from Lucy’s as she slowly shook her head. “You have no idea who your mother was. No idea at all.”

She stalked past Lucy, heels clicking angrily across the f loor to the front door, which she slammed. Lucy turned to go after her, to make her take that back, but she felt warm arms come around her from behind.

“Let God untie these knots,” Inez said. “You cannot.”

The knot in Lucy’s throat dissolved into hot tears. “You didn’t tell her about my book, did you?”

“No.”

“Then who did?”

“I do not know. But I hope you have hidden it well.”

Lucy didn’t think anyplace was safe from Aunt Karen. But, swiping at the tears with the back of her hand, Lucy went to the underwear drawer and moved the Book of Lists to the last place Aunt Karen would stick her hand — in the bottom of the toy chest where Lollipop was even now meowing forlornly.

“She’s gone,” Lucy told her. “But I don’t think it’s for long.”

But when Dad came home early from the station so Inez could go to Alamogordo for Mora’s conference, Aunt Karen wasn’t with him. He seemed surprised that she wasn’t there waiting to take them out for sushi or something.

“She didn’t come find you?” Lucy said.

“No, last time I saw her, she was coming here after the conference — which went very well, by the way.” Dad poured sunshine on her with his smile. “Mr. Auggy had already told me you were doing better, but I had no idea how much better. He read us some of your papers.” Dad touched her face, his hand cupped under her chin. “You’re a writer like your mom, who, by the way, couldn’t spell either. So — did Aunt Karen go shopping or what?”

Lucy looked at Inez, but she was paying more attention to buttoning her coat than she needed to.

“We will talk later Senor Ted,” Inez said.

“I’m completely confused,” Dad said. “But, then, I’m surrounded by women.”

Not for long. Mr. Auggy came by later with chips and a jar of salsa, apologizing that they weren’t homemade like Inez’s. He also brought news.

“Sheriff Navarra says he has plenty of offenders who need to do community ser vice. He promises he’ll have the bleachers and the concession stand in shape before we even need them.”

“You really are a miracle worker,” Dad said.

Mr. Auggy shook his head. “It wasn’t me. It was Miss Lucy.”

“Me?”

“The sheriff was so impressed with the way you handled the team today — especially Gabe and Carla Rosa — he said he’s on board to help any way he can.”

“No way,” Lucy said.

“Way.”

There was one knot untied. But there was another one.

“What do we do about Januarie? I never saw her mad like that.”

“She comes by it honestly,” Dad said.

Mr. Auggy nodded sadly. “I’m working on Miss Januarie.”

But the next morning only J.J. showed up at the back gate to go to soccer practice, and Januarie didn’t come to soccer at recess. Lucy guessed Mr. Auggy hadn’t had a chance to work a miracle yet.

And Lucy was still worried about Aunt Karen. She wanted to tell Dad about what happened, but it seemed like Inez wanted to handle that one. Wow. Strange. She was actually happy to let her do it. And she was sure Inez could.

Until that night when Dad answered the phone and said, “Karen! What happened to you yesterday?”

Lucy considered hiding in the toy chest with Lollipop, but Dad said, “Oh — okay — she’s right here — ” and handed her the phone. Where was Inez to help with
this
double square knot? She hoped God was there.

Lucy took the phone, but before she could even say hello, Aunt Karen said, “Mr. Augustalientes said you needed a team to play.”

Lucy almost said, “Who?”

“Well, I have one.”

“One what?”

Aunt Karen sighed. “A team. The one my company sponsors. We have two, actually, and one of them is the same age group as yours. They can play you Saturday, March seven. Mark it on your calendar.”

They didn’t have a calendar, but Lucy didn’t say that. She could only stammer, “Okay — um — I’ll tell Mr. Auggy.”

“Who?” Aunt Karen said.

Lucy smiled.

“Let me talk to your dad again, and we’ll make all the arrangements.”

Silence. Lucy wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say.

“Um, thanks,” she said finally. “That’s cool, it really is. We need to show our town that we need a soccer field — ”

“No. You need to see what being in a real program could be like for you. By the way — do you have a good pair of cleats, some shin guards? They told me you need those.”

“No,” Lucy said.

“Hello! Is no one concerned about safety — never mind, I’m not going there. I’ll take care of it.”

“You don’t have to,” Lucy said.

“Who else is going to?” Lucy could almost see her pulling her fingers through her hair like a rake. “No, this is good. You’re just going to see, that’s all. Let me talk to your dad.”

Lucy handed him the phone and listened for signs that Aunt Karen was telling him about the Book of Lists, but it all seemed to be about dates and times and phone numbers. She was evidently going to call Mr. Auggy herself. Like Dad couldn’t handle it. Maybe she should make a list of reasons why Aunt Karen should move to Mars. Australia was too close.

But at least she had gotten them a team to play, and the news of that was, to Lucy’s amazement, like Dad’s smile: it spread sunshine all over town.

On Monday, Dad made the announcement on the radio. Lucy, Mora, and Inez listened and cheered in the kitchen and had special lavender tea to celebrate. Lucy decided her mom would have liked that. Mora put milk in hers and said it was like the Chai she’d had at Starbucks. Whatever.

When the team went to soccer practice the next Saturday, they could only stare in awe. The bleachers were sturdy and strong and had a fresh coat of blue paint. The concession stand was painted to match, with red letters above the window proclaiming REFRESHMENTS, with colorful drawings all over the walls of it. Some of those same drawings appeared on the repaired soccer field sign.

“They look like the pottery in Mr. Esparza’s museum,” Lucy said.

“Who do you think painted them up there?” Mr. Auggy said. “Evidently old Mr. Esparza ran up a big tab at Pasco’s, and Pasco was about to have the sheriff arrest him. This is how he paid it off.”

“There’s gonna be real refreshments in there?” Oscar said.

“I’m still working on that,” Mr. Auggy said.

So — he had his knots to untie too. Lucy decided it couldn’t hurt to ask God to untie his as well as hers.

She’d never seen him work so fast.

The next day at church, Reverend Servidio preached a sermon about the upcoming game — how people needed to support the youth. He read a story from the Bible about Jesus letting the kids sit on his lap when the disciples were telling them to go away.

“He said the children were important,” the reverend said, “and so they are. Let us follow the gospel!”

For once, Lucy didn’t mind Jesus so much.

Even though Pasco didn’t go to church, he somehow seemed to have gotten the message. When Lucy and Dad and Mr. Auggy went to the café for lunch, he pulled up a chair at their table, said the chicken nachos were on the house, and announced that he was going to provide all the refreshments to sell at the game. The money would go to support the team’s future needs.

Evidently Mr. Benitez couldn’t let Felix Pasco look better than him. Wednesday, he called the radio station and told Dad to announce that he was paying for uniforms for the team. And could he announce it three times a day?

“What color do you want?” Mr. Auggy asked the team Thursday.

“Anything but pink,” Lucy said.

“Ya think?” Gabe said.

Veronica raised a lanky arm. “Let us girls design them.”

“No way,” Oscar said. “I ain’t wearin’ no ruff les.”

“Oscar, are you new?” Lucy pointed both thumbs to her chest. “You think I’m gonna put myself in ruff les?”