Wish (13 page)

Everybody agreed they couldn't imagine that.

“But she left me a twenty-dollar tip for a four-dollar waffle, so I'm not complaining,” Jackie said.

Howard and Dwight bugged their eyes out and said, “Wow!”

She told us how she and the other waitresses called it the Awful House, and those boys all hooted and hollered like that was the funniest thing they'd ever heard.

Then she told everybody about Raleigh. How big it is and all the malls and tanning salons and even an indoor miniature golf course.

“Y'all should come visit some time,” she said. “I have my driver's license and Carol Lee has a car.”

They grinned and nodded and said how much they'd like to go to Raleigh, and I felt jealousy poking at me so hard it made me squirm as I sat there on the porch steps.

Late that afternoon, me and Howard took Jackie down to the creek with Wishbone, and she didn't waste a minute taking her shoes off and wading into the cold mountain water, her laughter echoing through the trees. She answered all Howard's nosy questions without a single eye roll and acted like she hung out with up-down boys every day of her life.

“What's it like when you visit your daddy in jail?” he said.

I like to died when he asked that, but Jackie wasn't one bit bothered.

“Not as cool as it looks on TV, I can tell you that,” she said. “We just sit at a table and talk about school and stuff. He tells me how bad the food is there and how the first thing he's gonna do when he gets out is eat about fourteen hamburgers.”

I wanted to ask her if they ever talked about me, but I was scared the answer would be no and I would look like a loser in front of Howard.

I started to remind him that Scrappy is in a correctional facility, not a jail, but he and Jackie had already moved on to talking about that Bible Detective game at Sunday school.

“I bet Charlie's terrible at that game,” she said, giving me a poke. “Reading the Bible was not exactly a popular activity at our house, right, Charlie?” She poked me again.

That night, Mrs. Odom invited me and Jackie to have supper with them. Burl and Lenny brought aluminum lawn chairs in from the yard for us and nearly knocked each other over trying to sit next to Jackie. She helped Mrs. Odom put plates of ham and bowls of cole slaw and baked beans on the table and didn't even blink an eye when everyone held hands and Dwight said the blessing and thanked the Lord for baked beans and new friends.

I swear, I felt invisible while everybody jibber-jabbered at that table. Jackie told them about being a majorette in tenth grade and marching in the Memorial Day parade in the rain.

“Talk about a bad hair day!” she said, and everyone laughed. Then she asked Mr. Odom about his job driving a lumber truck. When he described driving from Colby to Charlotte to Greenville and everywhere in between, she said, “It must be so fun to go to all those different places.” Then she went on to tell him about her friend Loretta, who worked the night shift at a truck stop on the interstate and, boy, oh, boy, did she have some stories to tell about some of those truckers.

Mr. Odom blushed a little at that, and Mrs. Odom jumped in real quick to tell us about Howard being the Bible Detective champion at church.

“No way!” Jackie said. “He didn't tell me that!” And then it was Howard's turn to blush.

Wishbone laid on the floor next to Cotton 'cause he knew there would be food down there before long. Sure enough, he gobbled up a couple of pieces of ham and some cornbread crumbs, and Jackie said, “Wishbone! Stop that!”

But Mrs. Odom said, “That's okay. Shoot, helps me keep the floor clean.”

Jackie laughed her sparkly laugh, and in that very minute I wanted to be her. I wanted her easy way of making people love her. I wanted her knack for seeing the good in things. I even wanted her shiny black hair with blue streaks. But no matter how bad I wanted it, I was still going to be just plain old me.

 

Twenty–Two

That Sunday, we piled into Gus's car and headed down the mountain to church. Jackie had french braided my hair like she used to back in Raleigh, and Bertha made a fuss over it.

“I just
love
Charlie's hair like that!” she said. “Jackie, you should get a job in a beauty parlor. You have real talent.”

Jackie thwacked her forehead and said she couldn't believe she'd never thought of that before. “I might look into that when I get home,” she said.

So then Bertha told us a story about her friend Denise who flunked out of beauty school.

“Just flunked right out after three weeks and ended up marrying some rich guy. But not two months later, she ran off to Atlanta with that rich guy's brother.”

Jackie loved Bertha's stories and always laughed or said “No way” or “I can't believe that” while me and Gus just sat in silence, pretending to be interested.

After church, Jackie snatched cookies off the food table in the fellowship hall and then went to hang out with the teenagers in the parking lot like she'd known them her whole life. How had Jackie and I turned out so different? I was sure she never worried one little bit whether or not anybody liked her. But then, of course, everybody
did
like her, so what was there to worry about?

That afternoon, the Odoms came over to Gus and Bertha's for dinner. Bertha always made a big deal out of Sunday dinner, but with the Odoms coming it was a regular feast.

Jackie and I helped her set up some card tables out in the yard. We pushed them together and then put a sheet over them for a tablecloth, and Jackie set out mason jars filled with wildflowers.

“Looks like the Queen of England is coming for dinner,” Gus said.

Bertha bustled around the kitchen, and before long the house was filled with all kinds of good smells and the countertops were covered with bowls of black-eyed peas and turnip greens. Squash casseroles and sliced tomatoes. Fried okra and succotash. Biscuits and gravy. Brownies and peach cobbler. Then she took a big roast chicken out of the oven and said, “There! Now if I can keep the cats out of here, we're all set.”

Of course, Wishbone sat by the kitchen door with his nose twitching in the air and his tail wagging a mile a minute.

“Not yet, boy,” I told him. “Maybe later.”

Then we heard Burl's truck on the gravel driveway, and me and Wishbone ran out to greet the Odoms.

All those redheaded boys spilled out of the back of the truck, and the front yard that was usually so quiet except for the birds on the fence post or the sputter of the sprinkler in the garden turned into a flurry of commotion. Dwight and Lenny running and punching and climbing on the fence. Cotton chasing after the cats. Mrs. Odom hurrying inside to help Bertha with the food. Mr. Odom and Gus out in the lawn chairs talking about the NASCAR race over in Charlotte last week. Howard and me tossing a tennis ball for Wishbone to catch.

Then Jackie came outside looking like Miss America, and I thought Burl was going to faint right there in the red dirt. Everybody else had changed out of their church clothes except Jackie. When she came strutting across the yard in her white sundress and bare feet, I don't think I'd ever seen her look so pretty. I still had that french braid in my hair, so maybe I looked pretty, too, even in my shorts and ratty T-shirt. I hoped so. But I knew I could never look as pretty as Jackie.

Before long, Bertha told everybody to go inside and load up their plates, and those boys like to busted the door down racing to the kitchen. Then we sat at the card tables in the yard and held hands while Mr. Odom said the blessing. Gus and Bertha weren't the blessing type, but I guess they did it to be nice to their company. Mr. Odom sure had a lot of stuff to be thankful for, everything from this beautiful day to those turnip greens. Then he said, “And thank you for sending these two fine young ladies to shine their light on us here in Colby.”

I knew I was supposed to have my eyes closed, but I took a peek and there was Jackie grinning and winking at me.

As soon as we all said a loud “Amen,” everybody dove into their food like there was no tomorrow. Mrs. Odom and Bertha kept running back into the kitchen to bring out more tomatoes or succotash while Jackie poured sweet tea and Gus shooed cats away. Wishbone sat by Cotton hoping he'd drop a chicken leg.

By the time Bertha brought out dessert, everybody was rubbing their stomachs and saying how they couldn't possibly eat another bite, except, well, maybe just a little of that peach cobbler.

Cotton leaned across the table to grab a brownie and said, “Hey, look! The wishbone!”

Sure enough, right there on that greasy platter was the chicken wishbone.

Of course, my
dog
, Wishbone, heard his name and ran over to Cotton, probably thinking he was about to get something good to eat.

“Who wants to pull the wishbone with me?” Cotton said.

Dwight jumped up. “Me!” he said.

“No!” I hollered, pushing Dwight out of the way. “It has to be me!”

Cotton held the bone behind his back when Dwight tried to grab it.

“I called it first, Charlie,” Dwight said.

I stamped my foot. “No! It's mine!” I could feel anger flooding over me and it was all I could do to keep myself from shoving Dwight.

Then Howard hurried over and whispered “Pineapple” in my ear just as I was stamping my foot again.

Jackie shook my shoulder and snapped, “Good grief, Charlie, quit making such a fuss over a silly ole bone.”

But Howard piped up and said, “Come on, Dwight, let Charlie pull the wishbone.”

Uh-oh. Was Howard going to tell everybody about me making a wish every day? I hadn't told him not to tell anybody and now I bet he was and everybody was going to think I was crazy.

But he didn't.

He told Dwight he'd give him some of his Bible bucks if he'd let me pull the wishbone with Cotton.

“How many?” Dwight asked.

“Three.”

“Make it five.”

“Okay.”

So Dwight ran off to grab another brownie and Cotton held the wishbone out to me. We each took a side and closed our eyes. I made my wish and then I pulled.

Snap!

That bone broke in two and guess what? I got the big side! The side that's supposed to make your wish come true.

“Dang it!” Cotton said, tossing his piece of the bone onto the table.

Before I had a chance to thank Howard for helping me like that, Mr. Odom announced that it was time for them to go, and they piled back into Burl's truck.

I knew I should've joined Jackie and helped Bertha clean up in the kitchen, but instead, I sat out in the yard with my arm around Wishbone and watched that truck bounce up the gravel driveway, loaded with all those good-hearted Odoms. When they turned onto the road, I hollered, “Thank you!” I figured Howard probably wouldn't hear me, but then I saw him give me a thumbs-up before the truck disappeared from sight.

 

Twenty–Three

On Jackie's last day in Colby, she and Bertha sat together at the sewing machine in my room and talked about boys and clothes and movie stars while they worked on a zipper. I took Wishbone out in the yard and pulled weeds from between the marigolds beside the garden shed while he slept in the sun.

I hated thinking about Jackie getting on that bus to Raleigh, going back to her happy life, painting her fingernails with Carol Lee, dating Scooter the paintball champion, maybe even going to beauty school. Each yank of a weed was like a jab in my heart as I thought about her leaving me behind. By the time Jackie and Bertha finished that zipper, there wasn't a single weed left in that yard and my heart ached so bad I wanted to cry.

Later that day, me and Jackie and Wishbone went down to the Odoms' so Jackie could say goodbye. The boys sat on the porch steps looking like they were going to a funeral.

“Y'all better come visit me in Raleigh,” Jackie said. She threw her arms out wide. “Everybody. We'll have us the best time ever.”

They nodded solemnly and Cotton swiped at tears.

“If I'm still working at that ole Waffle House, y'all come by and I'll throw in a couple of chocolate chip waffles for free.”

Cotton perked up. “Chocolate chip waffles?”

Jackie nodded. “Yep. And I'll make sure they put extra chips in yours, okay?”

He grinned.

“I bet Charlie's gonna miss you,” Howard said.

Jackie put her arm around my shoulder. “Well, I'm gonna miss her, too. But she can come visit.”

“Visit?” I said. “I'll be going back there to
live
.” I rubbed my hand down Wishbone's back. “You know, when Mama gets her feet on the ground,” I added.

Jackie looked down at her lap. Wishbone's tail swished back and forth in the dry red dirt.

“Well, then,” Jackie said. “I reckon it's time for me to get my hugs in.” She held her arms out.

Each of those boys gave her a quick, awkward hug.

Then Mrs. Odom ran out of the house and said, “It was just a joy and a blessing having you here in Colby, Jackie.”

Then she and Jackie hugged, and we headed back home.

That night, Bertha made a special supper of meat loaf and lima beans, fried green tomatoes, and sweet potato pie. Wishbone laid beside my chair waiting for somebody to toss him a piece of meat loaf every now and then. I have to admit that we'd spoiled him rotten and turned him into a world-class beggar.

After we sat out on the porch for a while, me and Jackie went back to my room. I brushed Wishbone while Jackie packed, stuffing her shorts and things into her duffel bag and telling me again how lucky I was to have such a nice place to live.

I watched her gather her nail polish and toss it into the duffel bag, and I started to feel more pitiful by the minute.

“What's going to happen to me?” I wanted to ask her. But I didn't.

After we turned the lights out, I stared up at the ceiling, watching the shadows of the dogwood tree dance in the moonlight. Then I took a deep breath and said, “Can I go back to Raleigh with you?”