Saint Mazie: A Novel (3 page)

I have to work in the candy shop again today. Boring. Only little kids coming in there all day long, dirty change, sticky paws. The bell rings on the front door and I look up and it’s the same thing over and over. I feel like a dog when that bell rings. Waiting for someone to feed me with something interesting to look at.

I’d rather be running errands for Louis at the track. I like the track. There’s grass and trees, blue sky cracking above us, but then everyone’s smoking cigars, too. I like the way it smells clean and dirty at the same time. Plus everyone’s having a nip of something. The flasks those men have, jewels crusted in them. Whatever it takes to hide the money. But they’re generous though with sharing what they got. Makes it so I don’t even mind the horseshit.

But Louis doesn’t like it when I come. The track’s no place for a woman, that’s what Louis says. Of course he says that. He doesn’t like the way the men there look at me. I thought he wanted me to get married, but Louis doesn’t trust any of those men, at least not with me. But he’s one of those men. I like to kid him.

I said: Rosie found you at the track. How’d she find you?

I poke him with my finger.

I said: Is it cause you’re so tall, Louis?

He doesn’t answer me.

I said: Cause you stick out like a giraffe?

Nothing. Louis keeps his cards so close it’s like there’s no deck at all.

I think I’ll eat all the chocolates in the shop today. All the chocolate kisses, all the chocolate bars. I’m going to tear off their wrapper with my teeth. And I’ll eat all the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Tootsie Rolls. Chew till my jaw hurts. And all the caramel creams and butterscotch twists and peanut butter nuggets and those sweetie almond treats. I’ll suck on all the hard candies, cherry, strawberry, grape, orange mint. Lick all the lollies till they’re gone.

I’ll eat and I’ll eat and I’ll eat just so I never have to look at any of those stinking candies ever again.

Last night Rosie and I split a bottle of whiskey. This was after I came home, on time for once. I came in to say good night and the bottle was next to her in bed. I couldn’t tell how long she’d been drinking. All I knew was she was already knee-deep in it. She was mourning something, I didn’t know what. Louis was nowhere. Jeanie was sleeping. I got under the covers with Rosie, and she handed me the bottle.

I said: What are you thinking about?

She said: Our parents.

I said: Well that’ll do it.

She said: Do you remember what happened in Topsfield?

That story again. She and I had talked about it before, when Jeanie wasn’t around. Topsfield, that was right before she left us behind.

We were all out together, a real, happy family for the day. Papa holding me with one hand, Jeanie in his other arm, Rosie wedged between him and Mama. Papa was not handsome. His eyes drooped, and his skin was the color of cold, watery soup. And those lines around his mouth and eyes made him always look furious, which he was. Lines don’t lie. But he was tall and young and had so much hair, and I remember him as strong. That day, out in the world, he was our father.

We walked together like that. A ruddy-cheeked barker called us close and bragged about the world’s skinniest man and his wife, the world’s fattest woman. There was the dark-skinned rubber man, skinny as stretched taffy. His face was so calm, like turning himself inside and out was nothing to him. He was born to bend. I remember the sun was bright, and it was nearly fall, but it was still warm. I was squinting, seeing the world between tiny slits in my eyes. Men with low-slung hats waved hello to Papa. Everyone knew Horvath Phillips, for better or for worse.

But to Rosie I said: I remember that he left us that day.

Because I knew that she wanted that to be my only memory.

He told us to stay put, said he’d be back, sliding that flask from his pocket as he walked away. There were men in white face paint pretending to tug on an imaginary rope. The sun began to set. Jeanie was tired and we found a bench and Mama took her in her lap. My skin stung from the sun, my stomach was sick from sweets.

Mama said: Should we try to find him? I don’t know.

She was talking to Rosie, who was the only one of us old enough to understand that the question was not a simple one. But I can’t remember her saying anything. She was just simmering.

Mama said: Yes, we’ll wait.

Then it was dark and the mimes were gone, most of the families too. Just young people floating around, also some lonely-looking men. Mama still kept turning her head around, thinking he’d come back.

Rosie said: If you don’t go find him, I will.

They argued about Rosie wandering around at night by herself. Rosie started fighting for us to just go home already. Mama didn’t want to walk the roads by herself. She was still scared of this country, had been since the day she got here. Found the most terrifying man in town to marry, that couldn’t have helped much either.

Mama finally gave in to Rosie, and agreed we should try to find him. I remember this sigh of her shoulder, and then Jeanie nearly rolled off her lap.

She wasn’t pretty anymore then, Mama. Her hair was thin. She pulled clumps of it out, and so did he, when he was mad. She still had the knockout hips though. I walked behind her as we went to find him and I remember those hips, because I have those hips too. A little girl with her arms around her mama, her face sunk in her hips.

Rosie had known where he was all night. Mama did, too. Those two had just been playing a game with each other for hours. Because back behind the big top was an open field lit up with lanterns and white candles, and filled with people dancing in a frenzy. There was a small stage in the middle of it, packed with men playing all kinds of instruments, accordians, fiddles, guitars, a washboard and spoons. A man sang in a deep growl, French, now I know, but I didn’t then. There was a sign at the front of the stage, the Cajun Dancers is what they were called.

The audience was so caught up in the moment, moving faster and faster, laughing and grinning, they were almost hysterical. I could feel the heat coming off their bodies, and then I was nearly hysterical too. The lust of those people is a lust that I hold in my heart. They were gorgeous and free.

Mama put Jeanie down next to me, and we held hands, and then we looked at each other. While Rosie and Mama scanned the crowd, we began to dance our own dance. We were never going to sit still, Jeanie and me. Not like good girls did. I twirled her around until she fell, dizzy, and then I fell, too. The grass tickled the backs of my legs.

I looked up and there was Rosie, pulling away from Mama, and working her way through the crowd. She had found Papa. He looked happy, is what I remember thinking. His eyes were closed, bliss, and his face was relaxed, the lines erased for the moment. He embraced a young, plump, black-haired woman in a long green gown. The dress rose and crashed while they danced. I don’t know if he knew the woman or not, if she was the reason why he was so content, or if it was just the dancing. Maybe he just loved the freedom. More than once I have wondered if it would have been easier to forgive him for all that he did if he had just up and left our home, rather than stayed put and laid his cruelty upon us.

I said: I remember you grabbing his arm, and I remember you pointing to us. You shamed him. You were so bold.

Papa bowed to the woman he had been dancing with, and then walked with Rosie back through the crowd, which somehow managed to keep moving and part for them at the same time. Or at least that’s how I remember it: Everything faded into the background except for Rosie and Papa.

I said: It was a long ride home.

Rosie said: I felt like I aged ten years in that time.

I said: She tucked us in so quietly that night. She kissed every part of our face.

Rosie said: I didn’t get to go to sleep. He took me out back.

I said: I know.

Rosie said: Until I passed out from the pain.

I said: Oh, Rosie.

Rosie said: Was I wrong that day? Did I deserve it?

She was too drunk. She sounded confused.

I said: You were right, and he was wrong.

Rosie said: I’m sorry I left you there.

I said: We didn’t blame you for leaving us. I didn’t, anyway. Jeanie didn’t even know what was happening.

Rosie said: And I came back for you didn’t I?

I said: You did.

Rosie said: I was always trying to do the right thing by us even if she wouldn’t.

I said: You did.

She said: I take care of you, right?

I said: Rosie, we love you. You know we love you.

Rosie said: I’m not bad, am I?

I said: You’re not. You’re a good girl.

We drank until we slept. Rosie more than me. When I woke, there was Jeanie, sleeping between us. I don’t know if she heard us. I wouldn’t want her to hear it. I wouldn’t want her to remember any of it.

The sun was rising when I took off my shoes this morning. Rosie stood at the door and stared me down. I turned my back on her and wrapped the covers around me, put my head on the pillow, and prayed for peace. God heard me.

I don’t know much about praying. It feels like you could be trading on one thing for another, and maybe the thing you’re trading isn’t really yours in the first place.

Rosie just crawled into bed with me. No yelling. We started whispering to each other.

We curled our hands together. They were cold like always. I remember when Jeanie and I were little we used to crawl into bed with her and Louis and rub her blue-tinted fingers and toes, breathing on them with our hot breath. All I wanted was to be warm and close like that forever.

She said: What if you get a baby in there?

She rubbed my stomach. When she touched it I felt ill. The last thing I wanted was a baby to lug around all day. And I’d never fit into my pretty dresses again.

She said: Then no respectable man will ever want to marry you.

I didn’t want nothing to do with marriage with a respectable man or any other kind of man. Not once in my life did I ever dream of my wedding day, no white dresses, no goddamn diamond rings. I only ever dreamed of freedom. The love I have is with the streets of this city.

Oh, Rosie. My poor, dear Rosie.

This morning she took us girls to a dusty little gypsy parlor on Essex, empty except for a few plants and a folding table and chairs and a vase with a peacock feather in it. I didn’t want to be there, and neither did Jeanie. Golly, Jeanie’s so pretty now, skinny and pretty, with her pale skin and puffy lips and moony eyes. I swear she floats when she walks. Still she had a sour face, just like I did. After being sweet for so long, turns out she’s a Phillips girl, after all.

The gypsy pushed aside some curtains and came in from the back room. She was wearing a chain of thick gold coins around her neck, and the coins clinked together as she moved. Dark hair, dark skin, her skirts flowing around her. Some people find that glamorous. To me it’s just another gypsy, but Rosie has always had a thing for them.

At first she acted like we weren’t there. We could have been ghosts. She lit some incense on the table in front of us, watered some plants in the front window. Then I noticed the plants were dead, gray leaves, stems tipped over. I felt like I was nowhere all of a sudden.

The gypsy sat down at the table with us, told us her name was Gabriela. She smiled at Rosie, and Rosie smiled at her. There was a love there. She looked into my eyes and held them there. The long stare. Searching for something, but I didn’t give her a damn thing. Then she looked at Jeanie’s eyes, and then back into Rosie’s eyes. We were just sitting there waiting, all of us. All right already, is what I was thinking. We get it. You know how to hold a room.

She told us we were there for our sister, like I needed to be reminded Rosie existed. How can I forget?

She didn’t have an accent, like other Roma I’d met. She had thick eyebrows, and they made her look serious. She could have been old, she could have been young, I couldn’t tell.

She said: I needed to meet you in order to help your sister. You are all in the same home. You are living one life together. You are family. You are sisters. You are connected in this life, and the last one, and the next one, too.

A scam if I ever saw one, I thought. I couldn’t wait to tell Louis when I got home. I looked at Jeanie, thinking she’d be on my side. But she was drooling over everything the gypsy said. What a sucker.

Then she held out both of her hands toward me. I sighed and I groused, but finally I put my hand in hers. With her index finger, she traced a few lines on my hand.

She said: Life, money, good.

She was nodding her head.

She said: Well, money will come and go. Mostly come though.

Her hands were cool and soft. Her nails were clean. I admire a well-kept hand. She rubbed a thumb along a line across the top of my hand, and then a line beneath that.

She said: But this is no good.

She squeezed my hand tightly and released it.

She said: No love for you. You will spend your life alone.

I pulled my hands back.

I said: I got company whenever I like.

Rosie shushed me. I don’t care, I don’t need anyone telling me about my life.

Jeanie said: Now me.

She shoved her hands in the gypsy’s. Gabriela smiled at Jeanie like she loved her. The warm glow of a con artist. She told her she had a strong love line, and she pointed to something on her head. She told her she will marry well. A rich man. She asked if she liked rich men. As if she wouldn’t want a rich man! I watched Jeanie’s face. She was considering it, though she didn’t answer. But she smiled. Maybe she smiled like it was funny. I would have said, Who cares? But nobody was asking me. Nobody was telling me I was going to marry someone special.

Gabriela turned to Rosie, and Rosie slid her hand in hers so easily it was like they were husband and wife.

Rosie said: You already know what it says.

Gabriela said she did. Rosie asked her to look again. I didn’t know why it was so serious.

Rosie said: Now that you’ve met them, look again.

Gabriela said: They are strong these two, as you said, but who they are will not change what will happen to you. They love you. I don’t need to look at their palms to see that. They’re going to be who they’re going to be.

Then she brought Rosie’s hand to her lips and kissed it. It was a sweet vision.

She said: I still think it can happen, Rosie.

Rosie started crying and then Gabriela swept herself up into the back room, and came back with a handful of bottles. She smacked each bottle down in front of Rosie.

She said: I’ve asked everyone I know, and they’ve asked everyone they know too. I went uptown, I went downtown, I went across the river, and I gathered these for you.

She handed Rosie a piece of paper.

She said: I wrote down instructions. How much, how often. And there’s an address on there, a Chinaman. He sticks needles in you and they say it lights a fire within your womb.

She held Rosie’s hand again.

She said: I lit candles for you, my friend.

Now Rosie was sobbing, and then we held her. So our poor Rosie can’t have babies. I never knew, but how could I? We were her babies all along, I thought we were enough for her. I didn’t know she wanted anyone but us. She watched over us better than our own mother ever did. She’s our sister and our mother. Oh, all this time her heart was breaking and we didn’t even know.