Signed, Skye Harper (17 page)

“I got it! I got it!”

Momma filled the doorway. She cast a shadow in on all of us, like something had covered the sun. Thelma growled but didn’t try to get to her feet.

“I got the part on
General Hospital
!”

It took me a moment to understand what Momma had said. She’d gotten a job at the hospital? The vet clinic?

“The call came. I have a one year contract! They want me in California tomorrow! If the world loves me, my character won’t be killed off.”

All five of us looked at Momma.

“Wait,” I said, getting to my feet. “Wait. You’re not coming with us?”

“I’m not,” Momma said, shaking her head. “But did you hear my news?”
{ 263 }

Nanny didn’t say anything for one whole minute, then stood and went to her daughter. She caught Momma in a hug and held her close. “Congratulations, Skye,” she said. I almost didn’t hear her.

“Wait,” I said again. I felt like a broken record. “Wait. We drove all the way out here to get you. Our dog almost got killed because of this trip. Denny’s losing feathers.”

Momma, hand clasped with Nanny’s, went to sit. My grandmother’s face looked flat.

“They’ll have a ticket waiting for me at the airport.”

“We talked about this,” I said. “You and me, we talked. Just last night.”

“I know, Winston,” Momma said, “but this is my dream come true.”

What about Nanny? What about her dreams? I couldn’t swallow.

Momma turned, facing Nanny. “Do you think you could stay one more day and drop me off at the airport?”
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160

Results

When it was all over

when Momma had gotten all her stuff back into her apartment and

worried over what to pack and

what to wear and

the flight and

if she would be able to memorize her lines

we left her at her apartment where Amber Dawn just couldn’t believe it and

I watched my nanny walk the slowest I have ever seen her go, right back to the motor home, where Thelma and Denny waited.
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161

The Ache

Nanny didn’t say a word after we dropped Momma off at the airport.

She drove until the sun set and then changed places with Steve

who didn’t try to kiss me once

and if he had, I would have only kissed him back a little.
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162

And More Results

There was no word about the Alamo, about the Gulf of Mexico, about Mark Spitz, about the loss of eleven athletes, about Leon’s restaurant, about the chickens at home, about our having stolen a vehicle to pick up a momma who had decided to stay out west, about our dog in a cast, about anything.

I bet me and Steve could have rolled all over the floor kissing and smacking and saying “I love you,” and Nanny still woulda kept her mouth shut.
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163

One Change

“You stopped smoking,” I said to Nanny as the sun set on us in Alabama. We were hours from home.

Nanny glanced at me, her eyes full of tears, and said, “Thanks for noticing, Winston.”
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164

How Did I Feel?

How did I feel about Momma doing what I, somehow, knew she would do?

How did I feel about Nanny being so heartbroken?

How did I feel about me?

Losing my momma again?

Well, I felt awful for my grandmother. And achy at what I had lost.
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165

Real Friends

In Daytona, Nanny and me and Steve cleaned the motor home from tip-top to bottom.

We vacuumed, washed, and sanitized. We threw away garbage, got dog hair and rooster feathers out of corners, and buffed all the windows till they shone.

“Listen, Miss Jimmie,” Steve said when we got back up on the road, “my dad and mom don’t take this vehicle anywhere. And you know I’m covering for you if they even notice.”

Nanny smiled with her mouth, but not a bit of happiness leaked upward toward her eyes. She looked like she was in pain. “I’m gonna tell your daddy what I did,” she said. Nanny sucked in air. “Then I am quitting Leon’s.”

“What?”

I wasn’t sure who had said the word, me, Steve, or Thelma.

“What do you mean, Nanny?”

My grandmother didn’t answer for a good half mile, and I knew better than to ask again. New Smyrna was getting closer and closer.

“I mean,” Nanny said, slowing down as we drove the
{ 270 }

old canal road, “that I am tired of living a lie. I thought your momma would come home with us, Winston, and I was wrong.” Nanny swallowed so loud Thelma looked at her. “I have loved your daddy, Stevie, for I don’t know how many years. I’m not putting myself through it a minute more. I’m getting me a job in Orlando.”

I was speechless.

Steve seemed to be too.

Only Denny had something to say, and I think it was that he wanted to get back to his chickens. He seemed a little wilted. He even had a few bald spots.

Truth be told, we all looked a little worse for wear. Traveling all over the United States of America, even with the foxiest boy in all of Florida with you, and doing it in just a few days, sure was draining. Add a stupid mother into the mix, and a traitor dog with a broken leg and horrible world events and the end of summer and us coming into school a few days late, and the whole thing seemed like a wasted trip.
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166

One Thing to Be Thankful For

Thank goodness there had been plenty of kissing.
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167

Advice

“Talk to him when he gets home, Miss Jimmie,” Steve said. “I got a feeling my dad’s trip to Europe didn’t work out that good.”
{ 273 }

168

Results

Mark Spitz won seven gold medals. Shane Gould got three golds, a silver, and a bronze.

I couldn’t get the blurry photo image of the man in a black ski mask out of my head.

Thelma’s leg healed so she only had a limp.

Denny stayed bald in a few spots.

And Nanny went to talk to Leon, who came home from overseas, where he had watched the Olympics and Mark Spitz swim to victory, without his wife.
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169

Moving On

My first real day to high school my sophomore year, I came into the halls long before anyone else and a week late. I’d been to check out the swimming pool (they wouldn’t let me in, not even to practice on my own, because swimmers take priority, but I was thinking of maybe
becoming
a swimmer and if I didn’t, I still knew that secret way in) and now I stood at my locker, spinning the dial on the lock.

Patty Bailey nearly knocked me off my feet when she ran up and hugged me. “Hey, girl,” she said, “we got math and physical science together. I am so glad you are home. Man, do I ever have things to tell you.”

She smelled all vanilla-y and wore fat bell-bottoms that covered clunky clogs.

I grinned right in her face. “Me too,” I said. “I got some things to tell you.”

Not a bit of it had to do with Nanny, but I would, for sure, mention Steve
and
my momma. No need to tell her the felony part of things, though.

“Catch you third hour,” she said, and clomped off in a crowd of kids she was at least one head taller than.

I opened my locker and slipped my old notebook in.
{ 275 }

Nanny had come home late the night before. Too late. And then I’d heard her crying in her room. Thelma stood outside Nanny’s door, whining, but Nanny never opened to either of us, even though I whispered to her that everything would be all right.

“It’s okay, Winston,” Nanny had said, and her voice could have broken my heart right in half. “I promise it’s okay. We’re not going to Orlando after all. This is me missing your momma, that’s all.”

Now, I turned to head to class.

The halls crawled with students, but there was Benjy Aufhammer and a couple other football players—wearing lettermen jackets despite the heat.

Steve came up to me, appearing from behind his friends like an angel (where
was
Angel?) and looking so nice my heart didn’t beat. Or maybe it overbeat. Is that even a word? I hadn’t seen him in two days, since we’d pulled the motor home in his driveway, and then he’d dropped me and Nanny off back at our place. And even though the hall was crowded with more kids than should have been allowed in one place, seeing Steve was like a movie. A slow-motion, blurred-at-the-edges love story where only the two of us existed.

“Hey, Stevie,” I said. Everything on my body felt awkward, even my ankles. I touched my hair. Since when did
I
care about the way I looked?

“Winston,” he said. He dropped his books, grabbed me
{ 276 }

so tight I didn’t even try to breathe, and kissed me in the biology wing of New Smyrna High.

“Get a room,” someone called when the kiss went on as long as a real movie kiss, and someone else let out a wolf whistle.

“I been waiting to do that since I drove away Wednesday,” he said, his breath hot on my neck. Then he kissed me again, before I had the chance to say,
Well, I’m glad you did.
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170

Being Related to Someone Famous

Momma, it turned out, was
General Hospital’s
new star. And everybody who knew Nanny at Leon’s had something to say about it.

Busing tables, I heard Mr. Wilson say, “That daughter of yours looks like a mirror image of you, Jimmie. Can you believe she’s made it big? What do you say you and me go to the Dew Drop Inn for a nightcap.”

“I cannot, Randy,” Nanny said, and I wasn’t sure if she meant no to Momma’s stardom or no to the offer of a drink. “You need your ice tea topped off?”

Doris said, “Maybe your trip out to Vegas turned out to be the good-luck piece that girl needed.”

“Maybe,” Nanny said.

Miss Clealand said, “Jimmie, Judith Lee has become such a looker. I always wondered if she would grow into those buckteeth of hers and she more than did.”

“Skye,” Nanny said, and Miss Clealand looked at Nanny like she had lost a few marbles.

It seemed everyone talked to Nanny about the one thing she didn’t want to hear.

At home, Nanny refused to speak to me about anything
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that was important. Including Momma. And her late evening with Steve’s daddy. Or how I was doing in school and whether I had made the swim team and how me and Thelma were doing in general.

It was like we had left the most important part of Nanny back in Vegas on the Strip—her heart.
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171

Another Letter

Nanny was at work when I pulled the letter out of the mailbox .

Misses Momma and Winston Fletcher
, the envelope said,
605 East Lake Drive
.

And there in the corner,
Skye Harper, your momma and daughter
.

I’m not kidding. That’s how she addressed the envelope.

I stepped out of my school clothes and put on my busing uniform (no bra, shorts, T-shirt, apron). I tucked the letter into the big pocket and started on foot and in a hurry to Leon’s restaurant.
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172

And What . . . ?

Steve met me halfway to work.

“Something’s getting ready to happen,” he said, after he’d pulled to the side of the road to pick me up. Led Zeppelin screamed from the eight-track. Steve turned the music down a little. “And why didn’t you call me to give you a ride?”

“Are you kidding? And what?” I touched Momma’s correspondence. What was she writing so soon for? We hadn’t been gone from Vegas even two weeks. I climbed into the car.

The sky was overcast, heavy with clouds. A September storm was on its way. A hurricane maybe? Or a tornado?

“Huh?” Steve said.

“I mean, of course I wouldn’t ask you for a ride. I’ve always gotten to Leon’s on my own or with Nanny.”

Steve looked at me, eyebrows raised. “Why not? Aren’t we . . . You know.”

Now I stared at him. “Aren’t we what?”

“You know.” He stopped at a red light, then shrugged. Someone behind us beeped when the light changed and we still sat there. “You know.” Steve drove on.
{ 281 }

I’d run out of spit. “What are you saying?”

“Some people are meant to be together, Winston. Like you and me. So next time, call me.” He took my hand, lacing his fingers through mine. “Now listen.”

I smiled at him. Fingered the letter with my free hand.

“My dad called and told me to make sure Miss Jimmie was going to be at the restaurant.”

We were almost to Leon’s.

I gasped. “Why?”

“I don’t know. That’s what I told you when you got in the car. Something’s going to happen.”

“What? Do you think he’ll try and buy her out?”

Maybe we were moving to Orlando after all. My nose holes closed up and I became a mouth breather right then and there.

Far out over the ocean, lightning splayed like limbs on a tree. The water and sky were a smudge of gray on the horizon.

“I don’t know,” Steve said. “But my father has never asked me to do anything like this before, not even with my mother.”
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173

Will . . .

Nanny was there already. The old Blue Goose was parked under a streetlight.

And as we pulled into the lot, Leon Simmons drove in too. He didn’t see me and Steve. He ran inside the restaurant.

And me and Steve, we followed his father, fast as we could.
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174

Happen?

Leon caught Nanny in the Deepfreeze.

Shut the door when he saw me and Steve standing there, waiting. Nanny’s eyes were huge. The last thing I heard her say was, “You know we can get locked in here, Leon.”