Swan Place (15 page)

“Sheets get dried on the clothesline,” I said. And then I looked at her, at that pretty girl, and I wondered how on earth I could ever—in a million years—think of her as my new mama. But she must have been able to see what I was thinking, because she said, “I won’t try to take your mama’s place. I know how much you all loved her. And still do. But I’ll tell you this: All my life, what I wanted most in this world was sisters and brothers, and I never had any. Until now. So maybe if you all just think of me as a big sister, it will feel better.”

“Thanks, Crystal,” I managed to mumble. “We all just need some time, I guess.” But what she said about being a big sister certainly did make me feel better. I glanced once again into those lovely eyes. “It’ll be okay.”

Several times during
that night, I heard Crystal giggle, far down the hall and behind the closed door of Roy-Ellis’s room. After awhile, I decided that Crystal must be the most ticklish person who ever lived.

And I smiled and went back to sleep.

“I’m wondering if I should wake Crystal up,” I said.

“Why, I really don’t know what to tell you, Dove,” she said finally. “Does Crystal have a job?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Maybe I should wake her up and ask.”

“Roy-Ellis has already gone to work, and she’s still in bed?” I could hear a slight note of disapproval in Aunt Bett’s question.

“Yes’m.”

“Well, since we don’t really know what to do, let’s just stick with how we’ve been doing things before
she
ever came around.” Again, a note of disapproval.

“Yes’m.”

“Besides,” she added. “The children don’t even know her, so I wouldn’t be in a hurry to wake her up.” Aunt Bett added a little
humph
. Definitely disapproval this time.

“Yes’m.”

“Why don’t you get Molly and Little Ellis and come on down to my house for a little while?”

“Yes’m.”

“But leave her a note so she’ll know you all are all right.”

“Yes’m.”

While Molly and Little Ellis ate their cereal, I wrote a note to Crystal.

“Dear Crystal,” I started, in my very best handwriting. “I don’t know if you work, so I hope it’s okay for you to sleep late. I have taken Molly and Little Ellis down to visit with Aunt Bett.” I added the phone number and started to sign it, “Love, Dove.” But I didn’t. For one thing, I hate the way those words rhyme. Makes it sound like a silly joke. And too, I didn’t love Crystal. I didn’t even know her, even though she seemed to be nice. But no matter how nice she turned out to be, I wasn’t going to love her—ever! Finally, I just signed my name. While Molly and Little Ellis got themselves dressed, I washed the dishes and wiped off the table. Still no Crystal. So if she did have a job to go to, she was going to be late, sure enough. Still, I didn’t think it was my place to wake her up.

When we came walking up to Aunt Bett’s, she was standing out on the porch, waiting for us.

“Take the children inside and then you come back out here,” she ordered. I wondered if maybe she was going to tell me she was sorry for blaming the mess in her kitchen last night on her own children like she did in front of Roy-Ellis and Crystal. But when I came back out on the porch, she was leaning against the porch post, looking out across the empty field and with her arms crossed over each other. Nothing in that to say she was sorry.

“You learn anything else about
her
?” she asked. I thought for a long moment.

“She’s going to put the clothes in the dryer this morning,” I said. “And she says she wants to be more like a big sister than a mama.”

“Humph!” Aunt Bett muttered. “Might as well be, since she’s only a few years older than you all.” I didn’t say anything, but I was thinking that Crystal was about fifteen or so years older than Little Ellis, and I didn’t think that was just “a few.”

“And I hope to Heavens she doesn’t dry those clothes on high heat,” Aunt Bett added. “That will wear them out faster than anything.”

“Oh,” I suddenly remembered. “She’s awful ticklish.”

“Ticklish?” Aunt Bett asked, surprised.

“Yes’m.”

“How do you know that? Did she tell you?”

“No ma’am. Just I heard her doing a lot of giggling. After we all went to bed.”

“Lord have mercy!” Aunt Bett put her hand over her heart.

Then, “Lord have mercy!” she said again.

It was almost eleven o’clock
when Crystal finally called.

With a frosty voice, Aunt Bett told her how to find her house, and Crystal said she would come down just as soon as she had a shower. When Aunt Bett hung up the phone, she muttered “Sleeping half the day away!” under her breath.

When Crystal finally came, she was wearing a pink T-shirt and the shortest shorts I’ve ever seen anybody wear. She was all pink and good-smelling, and she had her long, blond hair in a ponytail and tied with a ribbon. Aunt Bett surveyed the short shorts, and her nostrils flared out a bit, but she held her tongue.

After Crystal had been introduced to all Aunt Bett’s children, we went into the kitchen and Aunt Bett poured coffee for herself and Crystal. She didn’t pour anything for me, so I took that to mean Aunt Bett wanted some private time with Crystal. I hoped Aunt Bett would try to be polite, because I was thinking about how Crystal hadn’t tried to coax Molly out from behind me and how she had cupped Little Ellis’s chin, and her little, warm hand.

After a long, long time, they came out of the kitchen, and Aunt Bett’s mouth looked a little more relaxed, or something like that. When Crystal was ready to leave, she said to Molly and Little Ellis, “You all want to come on home with me?” Molly and Little Ellis looked at me.

“It’s okay,” I assured them. Then Aunt Bett said, “Dove, honey, why don’t you stay here for a while and help me and Darlene with some big loads of laundry?”

I saw Aunt Bett and Crystal glance at each other. “Give Crystal here a chance to get to know the children.”

“Yes’m.”

“And give you a chance to do something other than taking care of them all the time,” Aunt Bett added. And I thought that was funny, because I’d whole lot rather take care of Molly and Little Ellis than to help Aunt Bett and Darlene with laundry. But I didn’t say anything. Maybe it was a good idea to let Crystal and Molly and Little Ellis get to know each other.

So I stayed at Aunt Bett’s house almost the whole day, and after we got all that laundry done, Aunt Bett gave me and Darlene some change, and we walked all the way into town and bought us some Popsicles. It was late in the afternoon when we came back, and I went on home to see how things had gone with Crystal and the little ones.

I didn’t even get into our front yard when I could hear Molly and Little Ellis shrieking from inside the house. I raced across the yard, leaped up the steps, and threw open the door. Crystal was on the couch, with Little Ellis and Molly sitting on her stomach, and she was tickling and tickling them, while they shrieked and yelped and laughed and gasped for air.

When Crystal saw me, she stopped tickling them and lifted first Little Ellis and then Molly off her stomach and stood them on the floor. Crystal’s hair was hanging in her face and her cheeks were bright pink.

“Oh, Dove,” she started out, and I was surprised to see that she was close to crying.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m so glad you’re home! I didn’t know how hard it is to take care of children!” She swept her hand around the room. Toys and books were everywhere, and soft drink cans on the coffee table—one of them spilled—and the slipcovers on the chair halfway pulled off. Molly and Little Ellis stared up at me. Their cheeks were as red as Crystal’s.

“What happened?” I asked.

“We played,” Crystal answered simply.

“You played?”

“We played,” she repeated. “All day long, we played.”

“All day long?”

“Yes. This whole long day,” Crystal said, and there was a tone in her voice that added,
Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do with children
? “And I haven’t gotten the laundry done or the lunch dishes washed or tried to fix anything for supper. And Roy-Ellis will be home soon! How on earth did you do it, Dove?”

“Do what?”

“Everything. Do just everything
and
take care of the children?”

“I don’t know, Crystal,” I answered honestly. “I just did it.” Then I got to thinking about Crystal believing she was supposed to play with them all day long, so I asked, “What did you all do today? Can you tell me every little bit?”

Crystal heaved a sigh and started counting on her fingers: “Well, we got home from Aunt Bett’s; we played hide-and-seek; we played dolls
 . . .
” Crystal glanced at Molly. “And then we played trucks.” Molly and Little Ellis climbed up in the wrecked-slipcover chair and sat quietly, watching us and listening to Crystal.

“Then we played tea-party, and we ate lunch, and we played hide-and-seek some more, and then we played ‘tickle,’ and then you came home.” Crystal sniffed and rubbed her forehead.

“What about naps?”

“Naps?”

We looked over at Molly and Little Ellis. They were sound asleep in the chair, flung over each other like poor, dead kittens

“Oh, Crystal,” I breathed. “What a day you’ve had!” She sighed and nodded, picking up the soft drink cans and trying to push the hair out of her face

“I’ll help you,” I whispered, so as not to wake up the children. I picked up toys while Crystal washed the lunch dishes. Together, Crystal and I carried Little Ellis and Molly into their room and put them on the bed. Then we straightened the slipcovers.

The living room looked right nice, and so did the kitchen. I looked at the clock. Almost time for Roy-Ellis. So I said to Crystal, “You go fix yourself up a little. I’ll get supper started.” She gave me a look of complete gratitude, and when she had gone into the bedroom, I smiled as I started making grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Poor Crystal. Poor Molly and Little Ellis. Well, I would have to write down their schedule for her; that’s all it would take to fix things. Just write it all down, including nap-time and television time and reading time. And I would make sure Crystal knew Molly and Little Ellis were content to play in their own room and not have somebody entertain or play with them all the time. And that she could tell them what they were to do, and they would do it.