Dirty Faces - Book 2

Chapter 39: Threes

Chapter 39: Threes

The thing about time was that it kept moving forward, whether you were ready to do so or not. Kody certainly didn't want to stay in those days of watching Mama suffer and laying her to rest, but he was surprised at how fast it seemed so long ago.

The tobacco harvest had come and gone, and Kody had loathed Jack for his absence every moment of it. A few days later, they awoke to find most of Ralph's things, Ralph's truck, and Ralph, gone. Ginny immediately laid claim to Mama's room.

School started back, and with it had come expenses. It was nice Ralph had left them with no rent or mortgage, but there was still food, and new shoes for Adam, and a new coat for Ginny. There were school supplies and books, and when classes let out in the spring, there would be another mouth to feed. Leslie expected, and he intended, to marry her when she graduated.

The service station was the same as it had always been. Every day was pump gas, wash windows, change oil, repeat, repeat, repeat. The pay was the same as it'd always been, too. Mr. Grant probably knew he was up to something because in all the time he had worked there, he'd never left the station during his lunch break.

He sat in the truck, parked outside the company store, turned up the bottle he'd bought inside, and chugged the last bit, but there wasn't enough Coke-a-Cola in the world to wash down that dry, sort of crunchy biscuit thing Ginny had made. He tried to clear his throat, and then dug through his pocket for change. He definitely had enough for another Coke, but no, better not. Might need it for something more important. Instead, he withdrew a pocket watch that had stopped working and started again. He stuck his other hand in the other pocket and dug until he found the pocket watch that hadn't worked as long as it had been in his possession.

A whistle blew outside the mines; he guessed it was announcing a lunch break, but he wasn't sure. He looked at Daddy's and Pap's pocket watches. He'd grown up in a mining town, the son of a miner, the great-grandson of a foreman, and yet he really didn't know how things worked down in the mines. Mama had probably made sure of that. She'd die if she knew what he had in mind, if she hadn't already.

He glanced up at the tipple, that morose skyscraper looming over the town, and then turned the key in the ignition. He wasn't sure who he needed to talk to about a job, but he bet whoever it was would know him.

***

It sure was a fast old cat. Ginny struggled to keep up, barely able make out the matted gray and black tail as it zipped up the sidewalk. It turned abruptly and disappeared into the high, dead grass. She managed to trail it close enough to see the disturbance in the grass and the reemergence of the ratty critter as it flew up the porch steps and through the crack in the door of the old, gray house. She skidded to a stop. The vines climbing up the siding, the windows too filthy to see through, it seemed neither inhabited nor welcoming.

It must have been curiosity that coaxed her on. She stepped gingerly up the porch steps and to the door. It remained open a crack. Still, courtesy and better judgement said to knock, so she did. She waited. There was no answer, so she knocked once more. Again, no answer.

Perhaps it would be best if she just left, but she didn't. "Hello?" she said, peeking through the open crack. "Is anybody there?" When there was still no reply, she slowly pushed the door open. It creaked eerily.

She walked in and looked around the single room. There was a rough table and chairs made of upturned logs near the door. A bed, more like a cot, was against one wall. Another wall was nothing but a shelf, lined with jars and bowls of various mixtures. A horseshoe hung over the door, and the floor was dirt. Ginny had been here before.

She looked to the top of the shelf, but the old cat wasn't there. Then, she spied movement out the corner of her eye. There it sat, whipping its tail back and forth on the window sill. "There you are." She took one step in its direction and it leaped out the window. She was alone now. Aunt Virgie should be there, but she wasn't.

***

Ginny shut off the alarm clock clanging on Mama and Ralph's nightstand, and then rolled over onto her back. She had the whole bed to herself, but she only ever slept on Mama's side; she had convinced herself she could still smell her scent, even after all these months. She lay there a few moments, staring at the ceiling, thinking. It wouldn't hurt anything for Kody and Adam to sleep a few more minutes.

For once, she knew what the dream meant when she awoke from it. Aunt Virgie was gone. Whatever magic or healing power or whatever one wanted to call it that she had possessed had left this world, Ginny could feel it. It crossed her mind that maybe she should tell someone, Kody perhaps, since he had a truck; or simply insist they go check on her. It didn't seem right to leave her out there on the mountain without a proper burial, but the more she thought about it, the surer she was that was exactly the way Aunt Virgie would have it.

She thought back to the dream she'd had in Cleveland, to what Granny had said there on the porch swing of the old, gray house: Death comes in threes. And she thought back to that day at the breakfast table. Kody had been right: Sure it did, if you waited long enough.

She hadn't known her and she wasn't sure she'd really liked her, but she'd agreed to help with few questions. It was the invitation for Ginny to come back and learn Aunt Virgie's healing ways, the one she'd never get to accept, that was a little sad. It was sad in the kind of way she'd never know Granny in her right mind, or the way Mama wouldn't see her finish school or maybe get married one day.

Hot tears welled up in her eyes and she knew she couldn't think about it anymore. Couldn't start the day crying. Mama was gone, had been gone, and wasn't coming back. She put a hand over her eyes, took a few deep breaths, let the tears dissipate, and then got out of bed. She opened the bedroom door and crossed the hall to where Kody and Adam still slept. She told them it was time to get up, dodged a pair of balled-up, dirty socks chucked at her head by Adam, and then returned to Mama's room to get dressed.

Since Ginny's last attempt at biscuits, they'd had cold cereal for breakfast. As she was finishing her bowl, the front door open and closed; Kody was going out to warm up the truck. Across the table, Adam was picking at his soggy corn flakes. The truck ignition turned over and the front door opened and closed again. "Y'all better hurry if you want a ride into town," Kody called from the front room.

Ginny eyed Adam's soggy corn flakes. "You're lollygagging on purpose, aren't you?"

He shrugged. "Maybe if I make us late, he'll tell us and stop assuming we're so dumb. Besides, you're not gonna sit there and tell me you care about missing the bus to school."

She stood at the sink washing her bowl and spoon. "I care about hearing him gripe at us about missing it."

He put down his spoon. "The bus loads at 7. The service station opens at 8. It's not even 6 yet. Don't you find it at least a little bit offensive he thinks we're so dumb?"

"Nah. I'm pretty used to it."

Adam snorted and took a bite of mushy cereal. "What does he think it is to us he got a job in the mines?"

Before Adam put the pieces together over the sudden rush to leave so early, Ginny already knew. Kody had washed his face and changed clothes before he picked them up from the bus stop last week, but she'd smelled the coal dust on him.

A few minutes later, she headed out the door wearing her new gray coat. Kody followed behind her, and Adam still lingered in the kitchen, swearing he was coming. She crunched through the frosty grass and around to the passenger's side. "What the--hey!" Kody shouted, looking into the bed of the truck. "Get outta there! Shew! Git!" There was a pitter-patter and then a rather vicious hiss. Kody took a step back.

Ginny peeked over the rear panel, and looking back at her with one yellow eye was a scraggly-looking cat with matted gray and black fur. She smiled. "Hello, Sherman. What are you doing here?"

***