The Easy Way Out

24

Dressed in their Sunday best, Faye and her pretty little daughter, Ashley sat in a yellow leatherette booth in Elkins Ice Cream Parlor. So enthralled with her mother's story, Ashley stopped scooping the chocolate sauce from the bottom of her bowl.

"Once a year, we'd ride the train all the way up to New York City to spend the day," said Faye.

"Ain't it awful big and--"

Her mother cut her short with a cross look.

Ashley corrected her grammar. "Isn't it awful big and crowded with folks pushin' and shovin'?"

A man in a nearby booth winked at Faye when his wife wasn't paying attention.

"When you step out of Grand Central Station...," Faye continued with wide eyes. "You come through those grand doors and there it is! New York City! Big as life. It takes your breath away. Folks working in skyscrapers. And blocks and blocks of the finest shopping a woman could ever imagine. You'll see."

"I wish we could go right now." Ashley licked the chocolate from the corners of her mouth.

A tan, dapper man with a thick crop of hair slid into the booth beside Ashley. "Afternoon, Miss Faye."

She huffed. "It's impolite to invite yourself unannounced and startle my little one half out of her wits."

"Where are my manners? I was just wondering if maybe you'd enjoy taking a picnic lunch out on the lake. I mean the three of us."

"Gordon, I can't just pick up like that at the drop of a hat. My goodness."

"Maybe next weekend then if the sunshine holds out."

Faye batted her eyelashes.

He slipped out of the booth. "Good day, ladies. Sorry to have intruded. Let me buy those ice creams for you."

As he exited, Faye said, "I do appreciate the kindness."

Ashley leaned forward whispering, "Momma, he's handsome. Did you see that watch he was wearing?"

"I'm still a married woman. I'm not in the hunt for another husband." She winked back at the man in the next booth.

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That evening, in the Chavers' kitchen, sporting a satin and lace dress, Faye twirled before her daughter. She was gift-wrapped curves on high heels. "Like it?"

"You look like Cinderella."

The compliment inspired another twirl.

"Who brung them peaches?" Ashley gestured toward a basket of golden fruit on the kitchen table.

"Who brought those peaches," said Faye.

"Well, who did?"

"Gordon." Faye giggled. "He said in case I was to get the urge to bake a peach pie."

"Momma, I never seen you bake a pie."

"It's hotter than hootie-hoot. Wouldn't I be the fool turnin' on the oven in this god awful heat? Faye chuckled, opening the lid of a large gold box of assorted chocolates. "Would you care for a piece, baby? The mint creams are divine."

Ashley popped a chocolate into her mouth, overwhelmed by the expensive confection.

"Go on. Treat yourself to another before they melt away."

The doorbell chimed.

"Who in the world?" Faye checked the kitchen clock. She opened the front door to find a grim-faced woman standing on the porch.

"Faye? Faye Chavers?" the woman said without a hint of expression on her face or in her voice.

"Do I know you?" Faye's brow furrowed.

The woman raised a pistol and fired a single shot. Shock flooded Faye's pretty face as a bloodstain widened across her abdomen. BANG! Another shot rang out. Faye's legs folded like a wounded deer. She toppled against the table then collapsed.

With the basket upset, peaches fell from the table, rolling across the floor.

"Momma!" Ashley cried out. She rushed to her mother in horror, clutching her hand as Faye fought for air like a sunfish on the shore, eyes bulging, life draining away.

The executioner stood emotionless on the porch. With eyes as dead as stones, she watched the devastated little girl writhing in anguish, her mother lying dead among the peaches on the kitchen floor.

########

Aunt Dina, a frumpy woman in a frayed house dress looked like she had just gotten off a twelve-hour shift emptying bedpans and changing catheters, conversed with a social worker who stood with her hand on Ashley's shoulder. Ashley recognized traces of her father in Dina's hard features.

Dina shook her head in resignation when the social worker passed Ashley's suitcase to the woman, turned, and walked away. Dina lugged the suitcase up the metal stairs of a double-wide trailer that leaned like a creaky old fishing boat. "What're you doin' standing there like a lump?" she said. "C'mon."

Once inside, Ashley was horrified at the prospect of being confined to the rundown excuse for a home with her resentful aunt. ​​Dina hoisted the suitcase onto her sunken mattress with a grunt then led Ashley down the narrow hallway into the kitchen area.

"So, where am I supposed to sleep?" Ashley moaned.

"This here table comes down and the seat opens up into a bed."

Ashley crossed her arms tightly over her chest. She wasn't going to break down in front of the woman. She wouldn't give her the satisfaction.

"You don't wanna stay here?" Dina raised her voice. "Well, where in God's green earth do you think you're gonna go?"

The little girl plopped down on the stained seat, tears welling in her eyes. "I made up my mind," she said with conviction. "I'm never gonna be poor."

"You made up your mind at nine years old?"

"I'm gonna have fine things." Her voice cracked. "I'm gonna have a good life."

"Maybe you will and then again maybe you won't," Dina huffed. "But let me tell you something, princess. Your daddy worked hard for everything he got. He made his way in this world. But that just wasn't good enough for your momma. And you saw where that got her."

"You're a mean old witch to say something like that to me." Rage caught in her throat like a ball of aluminum foil that was too big to swallow and lodged too far down to spit out. How dare this miserable old woman criticize Faye Chavers who had lived every moment with more vitality, passion and elegance than this hag had known in her entire insignificant ash heap of a life?

"Don't you sass me. Maybe this ain't the Taj Mahal, but you'll have a roof over your head and food in your belly."

Ashley turned toward the window to hide the hot, angry tears that pain pushed from her eyes.

Without an ounce of compassion, Dina bleated, "You're gonna learn it takes more than a pretty face to make it in this world."