The Desert Rose (23 page)

Maybe Pepper just didn’t realize how depressing it was to have your own child give you sarcastic looks when you were in a low mood anyway. Harmony knew she probably didn’t, after all Pepper was a teenager, not a mother. It wasn’t hate, it was just that Pepper had been a loving little girl but she wasn’t a loving teenager, she treated her as if she were some tacky person who had barely had the right to even be in her life. She was getting married and she hadn’t said two words about the groom.

It turned out Pepper had just been going to get a Coke, she stopped in the door for a second on her way back and Harmony thought she might as well ask a question or two, it was better than just being ignored.

“Why can’t I know a little bit about your fiance?” she asked. “I know he’s older but I don’t care. I think it’s usually good if you have an older person if you’re getting married young.”

“He’s not like any of your men, Mother,” Pepper said. “He’s very intellectual and he has extremely good taste. He doesn’t go around asking people if they give blow jobs, that’s for sure.”

Harmony just gave up, it was not a day when there was any use trying, Pepper was just going to hold it against her that she had made a big mistake falling for Denny. Giving up was about all she could do, she had definitely made the mistake, she just got up and shut her door and put the scrapbooks back in the closet, then she put on the sleep goggles and tried to sleep. If only he hadn’t made that terrible remark, the truth was he was very brash. At first it
had been part of his charm, but it definitely wasn’t charming if he did it to your daughter. She kept clenching her fists as she was trying to sleep, thinking that if he ever said one more word to Pepper she would kill him.

4.

W
HEN SHE
woke up Pepper was gone. Harmony snooped a little in her dresser drawer, not disturbing the clothes. Pepper kept her clothes laid out very neatly, she just snooped a little hoping to find a picture of Mel. She was curious to know if he was grayheaded or good-looking or what, if Pepper wasn’t going to tell she felt it was her prerogative to snoop a little, but it was a waste of time, there were no pictures of Mel, although stuck in one of Pepper’s dance magazines was a Polaroid of Pepper and Buddy and some kids at the lake. They were all skinny-dipping, maybe that wasn’t really so bad but it was still a shock to see Pepper with several naked boys. Pepper was in the water so it was hard to say if she was really totally naked but she was definitely topless.

While she was having her yogurt she decided to put in a call to Martin, Ross’s friend. She didn’t mention that she was fired, she just asked him to have Ross call, there were big changes going on down in Las Vegas. Then Harmony went out to discover that Myrtle had just sold the three brown goats to a man with a little tiny pickup. It was a Datsun like Gary’s car, only a pickup, and the three goats just fit perfectly in the back end, the man was just driving away with them when she came out.

“Is he a goat trainer?” she asked, remembering that the goats had been going to have a career.

Myrtle had already forgotten the three goats, actually
had forgotten them long ago. She asked Harmony if she was feeling rich.

“Myrtle, are you kidding?” Harmony said. “First Denny stole the check, then I got fired last night, why would I be feeling rich?”

“Because you’re about to have a rich son-in-law,” Myrtle said.

“Maybe so, but I haven’t met him. Have you?” she asked.

“No, but he’s got a Jap chauffeur, he must be pretty stinking rich,” Myrtle said. “I thought we’d go in together and put in a swimming pool if you was already feeling rich.”

Harmony just got her sun hat and walked down to get the mail. There was no way she would ever be rich enough to go in on a swimming pool. The walk was mainly for nothing, the mailbox just had a couple more circulars for the tire sale. Harmony had been hoping somehow magically the insurance company would have sent a new check but that was only wishful thinking.

When she got back Myrtle was hosing down the driveway so Maude would have a cool place to lie for a little while, that was actually about as close to a swimming pool as they were going to get, in Harmony’s opinion.

Still, she was feeling better. She had expected to have bad dreams but she hadn’t, she’d just sort of had dull dreams about spending a lot of time in the Safeway looking for Francois’ brand of liver-flavored dogfood. Monroe was in the dream for a few seconds, maybe it meant he was going to try to be a little more positive about Francois. Anyway, a good sleep always improved her mood no matter how bad her mood had been. The sun was still shining and the world hadn’t ended yet, so she decided to go find Gary and see if he knew of any auditions. What she really wanted to do was turn the tables on Bonventre by getting
a new job in one day. Maybe a showgirl would have just quit at one of the other shows and she would be lucky.

“So how’s Wendell?” Harmony asked, she was sort of curious if there had been new developments.

“I guess he’s fine, all he has to do is look at tits all day,” Myrtle said.

That was hardly fair, one of Wendell’s problems was that he only got three hours sleep in the late afternoon and another three in the early morning. Only getting to sleep between jobs might have been one of the reasons he didn’t talk more, Harmony thought. Maybe he was just too tired.

Then Harmony heard the phone ringing and dashed in to get it, she thought it might be a producer who had heard she was fired and wanted to put her right to work. She was afraid it would stop ringing before she got there, her heart was beating fast, but she got it and it was Ross, he was so loyal he called the minute Martin told him things were going on.

“Oh, Ross, how are you? I had to run to get the phone, just let me catch my breath,” Harmony said.

“You sound like you ran a mile,” he said. “Where were you, down at the highway?”

One of the things she and Ross had in common was that he was from Wichita, Kansas, which was not that far from Tulsa. He had a soft voice, like the people she had known when she was growing up, it was very reassuring to her for some reason. His voice always sounded a little sad, mainly because Ross usually
was
a little sad. He was one of those men who never felt their lives were working out, though he was a perfectly good light man and could find work anywhere. Except for when he got his worst depressions he was always working—then he might quit for a while and go fishing in Idaho.

Once or twice they had discussed what they might do if they were still together when they got old and it was Ross’s
idea to go to Idaho and run a little motel. Harmony thought that might be boring but Ross didn’t. He said there would be new people coming by every night, at least in the summer season—how could it be boring?

“Ross, I got fired,” Harmony said, she made a quick decision not to say anything about the insurance check. In all the years they had been separated she had never mentioned boyfriends. After all, he was still her husband, maybe he even still had a crush on her despite leaving and not coming back. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings and take the chance that he would stop sounding loyal. Besides, he had never mentioned girlfriends either, if he had them he was discreet about it.

“Uh-oh,” Ross said.

“It just happened last night, you won’t believe all the things that have happened just in the last two days,” she said.

“Try me,” Ross said, so she tried him, she told him about Jessie breaking her ankle and about Myrtle supposedly having a new boyfriend, which didn’t interest him too much, after all he had never even met Wendell. But what interested him was the news about Pepper, he always took quite an interest in his little girl. Once in a while when Pepper applied herself and got a good report card Harmony would Xerox it and send Ross a copy. Once she even Xeroxed a theme Pepper had written called “My Ambition,” that was the topic they had been assigned and Pepper wrote that it was her ambition to be a great ballerina. She even named several roles she hoped to dance. Ross had been glad to get the theme and had written Pepper a note saying that her old Dad wished her a lot of success.

So when Ross found out that Pepper was going to understudy for the lead at the Stardust he was quite amazed. “Is that so?” he said, several times. Then Harmony got up her nerve and told him Pepper was also planning to marry,
which amazed him so that there was total silence on the line.

Harmony was nervous about having to admit she didn’t know much about the groom. She was afraid Ross would think she hadn’t been a good mother if she had let things go that far without checking on the groom. But Ross was too amazed to criticize, he had almost never criticized anyway except once when she had been inexperienced and had put the water on hot at a laundromat, causing his socks to run all over his shirts. That upset him enough that they had a little fight, Harmony felt the laundromat should have printed better instructions. Ross kept saying his mother would never have done it until Harmony got a little annoyed, so what if she wasn’t the most experienced person in a laundromat?

Ross was calling from a pay phone. Harmony kept trying to get him just to make the operator reverse the charges so he wouldn’t have to keep putting in $1.65 every three minutes, but Ross wouldn’t hear of it. He pointed out that she might have trouble making ends meet unless she got another job right away. Fortunately he had lots of change and just kept putting in the $1.65.

“Pepper wants you to come to the wedding,” Harmony said, she felt her heart beating fast again when she said it because it was a big gamble, there was no guarantee Pepper would want either one of them at the wedding.

It definitely made Ross nervous too, Harmony could tell he regarded it as a demand on his time. The truth was it made her nervous also, they were both silent for awhile, during which time Ross had to feed the phone $1.65. Harmony felt dishonest, the truth was she wanted him to come for her sake, not because of the wedding. She was very curious if he was any more bald, she knew she didn’t have any right to make a demand but she didn’t have anyone else to turn to, either. She thought she would just try and see if Ross had enough of a crush to do it.

Then Ross surprised her. He said maybe to the wedding, the thought made him pretty nervous, but to Harmony’s total surprise he said, “I don’t guess you’d want to try and get on with a show up here?”

“Do you think I could?” Harmony asked, it had never crossed her mind for one minute that she would ever leave Las Vegas, much less that Ross would ever want her to come to the same town he was in. She had only been to Reno once, that was when she did a little tour as Miss Las Vegas Showgirl and then Ross had been in Idaho fishing.

“I don’t know, I could ask the producer, he might get you on,” Ross said, sounding a little nervous. He was probably not totally sure about the suggestion but at least he had been loyal enough to make it. Harmony was touched.

“I bet you’re still as beautiful as ever,” Ross said, it was sweet the way he said it.

“I don’t think I’m too ugly if I get my sleep,” Harmony said, being modest. “If I don’t get my sleep I definitely get dark circles.”

There was some more silence, not $1.65 worth but some. Harmony didn’t know if she was imagining things but she had an inkling maybe Ross was beginning to want to try and get back together, after all they had never got divorced. As for her she would try it in a minute—she didn’t know if she should be bold and say something or not. She wished Ross would have reversed the charges so they wouldn’t always have to be expecting the operator to break in.

Finally she couldn’t stand it, she just wanted to say what her heart felt. “Oh, Ross,” she said, “I want to see you, don’t you think it’s been too long?”

Ross didn’t seem scared off, he said it had been too long all right. He said he would look around and see if any of the producers he knew in Reno had an opening for a showgirl. He said he would have to think about the wedding, it might be hard for him to get off. He could hardly
believe their little girl was getting married, he thought of her as a child. It was lucky he hadn’t seen the Polaroid with the naked boys in that case, Harmony thought.

The call cheered her up a lot. When things looked blackest there was nothing better than having someone loyal who might want to get back together—at least it was something to take her mind off the fact of being fired.

Then she saw what time it was, Jessie was going to think she was a terrible friend. She freshened up in about two minutes and headed on to the hospital, wondering what Jessie would think about the news that she and Ross might be going to give it another try. On the way she stopped and bought some mums, in case Monroe or Gary hadn’t thought of flowers.

It was a good thing she hurried, too. Jessie was there alone looking scared, she was trying to read a teen romance but said she couldn’t concentrate on it. Monroe had had a crisis, one of his mechanics quit, then Gary had come but the pills had worn off and he was totally exhausted so Jessie took pity on him and made him go on home.

“I didn’t know you had to have so many shots just for a broken limb,” Jessie said, she was a coward about shots.

“It isn’t a limb, it’s your ankle,” Harmony pointed out, although she didn’t know why that would mean shots.

There was actually a wonderful flower arrangement already there, all the people in the cast had taken up a collection. Jessie was very proud of it. The card from the cast said “Get well and hurry back!” It made Harmony feel a little confused, maybe Jessie wasn’t fired.

But it turned out Jessie already knew about Cherri’s sister coming, plus she knew Harmony had been fired. Gary had picked up both items on the grapevine before he came to the hospital.

“Maybe Bonventre means to put you on the line when you get well,” Harmony said, but Jessie was too pessimistic
to believe anything like that, she was of the opinion they were two fired showgirls.

Jessie said Monroe wanted her to take an accounting course so she could keep books for the muffler shop. He had promised to try and be more patient with Francois, maybe it was time just to give up and marry him.