Chapter Thirteen
Curtis
The next morning over a breakfast of bagels, pork beans, leftover green beans, fried eggs, sausage, and hash browns, Mama gave me her assessment of Allie.
“She’s a smart girl,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “But she doesn’t let it go to her head. It’s obvious she comes from money, went to a good school, but you wouldn’t know it from the way she acts around people. Most kids, they go away to a fancy college and come back strutting around like they own the world. I didn’t sense any of that from her.”
“She’s humble,” said Dad from behind his morning paper. The president was returning from the Middle East and had promised to visit Galveston, which he had declared a federal disaster area. “Humble and level-headed.”
I poured myself a glass of Mama’s celebrated blue lemonade. “Yeah, I guess I hadn’t really thought about it,” I said as I stirred the glass thoughtfully with a long spoon. “But that’s one of the things I really like about her. She’s smart, but I don’t feel like an idiot when I talk to her. Or at least, no more than usual. Like, I can have a conversation with her, and it doesn’t feel like she’s talking down to me.”
“It seems like she really wants to fit in here,” said Mama. “Not just with us, but around here, in general. Did you notice how much she talks like a Texan?”
“I did.” I took a sip of my drink. It was way too sugary and yet somehow just right. “I wonder what she sounded like before.”
“You ought to get on Facebook and see,” said Mama. “I bet there are old videos.”
“I wouldn’t want to do that. Besides, she hasn’t even friended me yet. But it sure seems like you both liked her.”
Dad nodded, which was as close to an endorsement as I was going to get. Mama said, “I don’t have any complaints. When you told me you had met a girl, I admit to being a little worried, but she’s so charming, and she fit into our family perfectly. I’m actually looking forward to having her in our back yard, coming over for breakfast every couple of days, maybe dinner a few nights a week, maybe staying in and watching a movie.”
“Almost sounds like you’re the one going out with her,” I said with a smile.
“You could do a lot worse than her,” said Mama quietly. “A lot worse. Anyway, whatever happened to that girl who used to come around here every so often?”
“Who, Lizzie?” I shrugged. “We ain’t seen each other in a while. I think that relationship is pretty much DOA.” I didn’t want to have to think about the conversation we’d had the other night, about the dejected tone in her voice.
Just then the front door flew open, and Darren walked in wearing long cargo shorts and a sleeveless Pink Floyd t-shirt with a rainbow on it. “So where’s this girl?” he yelled as he strode into the kitchen. “When do I get to meet her?”
“Whenever you promise me you’re not gonna steal her away,” I said. Darren gave me a puzzled look and reared his head back. “I’m joking, but also, I’m completely serious!”
“Sounds like someone’s getting a little paranoid,” said Darren, loading a couple of slabs of leftover pork roast onto his plate and sitting down next to Mama.
“Do you want me to repeat the conversation we had the other day?”
“Nah, I’m good,” said Darren, reaching for the lemonade pitcher. “How about we cut a deal: I’ll stay away from your girl if you stay away from mine.”
“Soon as you get yourself a girl, I am prepared to honor that agreement,” I replied.
“So you’re saying she’s fair game in the meantime?”
I threw him a deadly glare, which shut him up right quick.
“Now boys,” said Mama, rising from the table and picking up her plate and Dad’s, “women come and go, but you two still have to be brothers for the rest of your lives. I don’t want to get a call from the police in the middle of the night saying two of my boys have been tryin’ to murder each other. I’ll know which two boys it is, too, without them having to tell me.”
“Let ‘em kill each other if they want to,” said Dad, pulling out his churchwarden pipe and reaching into his shirt pocket for his matches. “Just means I get second helpings at breakfast.”
“Then you can pay for the funeral out of your own pocket,” said Mama. “I, for one, plan to die before any of my children. So, Darren, you had better stay away from Curtis’ girl.”
Darren raised his hands in mock surrender. “Seems like y’all are jumping the gun here. I ain’t even met her yet!”
“No, and you’re not going to today,” said Dad, as he slowly rose from the table. “One of the fence-posts is still damaged from where the hogs rushed it last week, trying to bring it down. So today, you and your brother and I are gonna repair it and hope they don’t murder us in the meantime.”
I accepted my fate with a resigned shrug, but Darren didn’t seem too happy about it. “Is this really what I’m doing with the rest of my day? What if I had plans?”
“Do you?” asked Dad, raising his right brow shrewdly.
“Well, no,” said Darren slowly. “But I could have! Why does it always seem like there are chores to be done whenever I come around?”
Instead of answering, Dad came around the table and went out the back door. Darren swore under his breath and followed him outside. I walked over to the sink for a glass of water; Mama’s lemonade was great, but it dried up my mouth like nothing else.
We spent the rest of the morning digging up and repairing the fence-post. The hogs’ assault had been remarkably vicious, as if they had charged the fence together in fear for their lives. There was still a gap in it just big enough that one of the smaller hogs could have snuck out—and in fact, when we rounded them up and counted them at the end of the day, there was one missing.
“Want me to go out and look for ‘im?” I asked Dad.
Dad made a dismissive motion with his arm. “Forget it,” he said angrily. “If they want to get out that bad, there’s no point in trying to keep ‘em holed up.”
Meanwhile, to fill the silence, Darren was still going on about how much he wanted to meet Allie.
“Well, you probably won’t get to tomorrow,” I said as I planted the shovel firmly into the ground. “Zach’s getting here in the morning, and the parents are probably gonna want us to spend all day with him. And then tomorrow night, we’re going camping.”
“You ought to invite her along,” said Darren. “I bet she loves the outdoors.”
“She probably does,” I said. “I’ll think about it.” Really the only reason I was hesitant to invite her was because Darren seemed a little too eager. “Are you coming?”
Darren shook his head irritably. “I can’t. I’m supposed to go bowling with the little league team tomorrow.” I stared at him in disbelief. “As part of my community service, I got drafted into helping out with the Brensley-Dunkins Elementary Little League team three times a week, so that’s where I’ve been lately. Don’t tell your girlfriend.”
“What, that you went to jail for getting in a bar fight and now you have to do community service with fourth-graders? I’ll try to remember not to bring it up at dinner.”
“Good, because she’s coming up the road right now.” He motioned to the driveway. Allie’s green Honda was lurching through the potholes, Allie gritting her teeth and looking stressed.
“Hey, you,” I said, coming over and giving her a side hug as she came through the fence. “Sorry, I’m all sweaty and covered in dirt. This is my brother, Darren.”
“Pleasure,” said Darren gruffly. He shook her hand. “I don’t usually look this nasty; it’s just, the hogs have been tearin’ down the fence and diggin’ up the garden.”
“It’s alright,” said Allie. “I don’t look so great myself today.”
“Look better’n me, that’s for damn sure,” mumbled Darren.
“Hey, my brother Zach is flying in tomorrow and we’re probably gonna go camping.” I rested my head on the handle of the shovel. “You wanna come with us?”
I half-expected her to make up some B.S. excuse, but to my surprise, she said, “Yes, I would love that. Where are we goin’ camping?”
“Shadow Creek Park? Have you heard of it?” She shook her head. “Okay, well it’s tremendous. Some of the biggest and oldest trees in Texas, limbs the size of my pickup. Last Christmas, a girl got lost there, and it took ‘em three days to find her.”
“Gosh, you make it sound so appealing,” said Allie. I couldn’t tell whether she was joking or not. “Should I bring my own sleeping bag?”
“Unless you wanna head back early, but Zach and I were planning on spending the night. He’s been emailing me about it all week. He’s excited.”
“I’m excited,” said Allie. “It’s been ages since I last went camping. It was in the forests of Vermont during the summer, and it was freezing. I’ve never been camping in Texas.”
I smiled, trying to ignore the feel of my heart pounding, my insides doing the conga. “It’s a hundred times better than Vermont camping, trust me. I wouldn’t lie to you about this.”