The Book of Bright Ideas (9 page)

Aunt Verdella let out a whoop and jumped up fast. She grabbed Freeda's hand and led her to the grass. The two of them sang along, loud, as they danced that funny dance where you move your top part one way and your bottom part the other way. They looked silly with their butts poked out, the heels of their feet swishing from side to side as they twisted their middles side to side. June, who didn't seem to do much more than laugh, got up then too, dancing with her baby, whose head was bobbling all over the place. Her little boy, whose striped shirt was wet with spilled lemonade and watermelon juice, ran in circles around the dancers.

“Come on, Button! Twist!” Winnalee shouted, as she headed to join the ladies. I looked over at Ma, wondering if she'd dance, but one look at her face told me that the only thing Ma was going to twist was the wire tie around the hamburger-bun bag.

“Look at Freeda!” Winnalee yelled. I glanced up and saw everybody watching Freeda, who was twisting herself down so low that her butt was swishing across her heels. Mike Thompson joined her then, twisting just like her, while everyone laughed and clapped.

I never heard Daddy play guitar before, though I'd heard him sing along with the radio in the garage a few times. As his pick banged against the strings, the muscles in his arm rose and fell, making that tattooed red heart look like it was pumping. He sang and played so good that I felt proud that he was my daddy.

“‘Jailhouse Rock'!” Freeda called out when “The Twist” was over. “Yeah!” Winnalee and Aunt Verdella yelled at the same time. Daddy paused to take a long swig from his beer, then he started playing the Elvis song they wanted.

I didn't know how to dance. Not like Aunt Verdella and Freeda, who had stopped doing the Twist and were doing some other kind of dance now where they held hands and moved their feet fancy while they moved apart, then came back together. Winnalee didn't know how to do that dance either, but she didn't care. She just hopped and kicked and waved her arms wherever they wanted to go, while Uncle Rudy grinned at her from his lawn chair, as Elroy Smithy leaned over to yack in his ear. I didn't think I could do what Winnalee was doing, so I just started stacking the forks together, one dirty fork on top of the other.

“Come on, Button!” Winnalee ran to me and started yanking my arm, just as the song ended. “Play it again, Uncle Reece! Again!” Daddy laughed. He took another gulp of beer, then lit a cigarette. He took two puffs from it, then wedged it between the guitar and strings, up at the top part where the tuning knobs were. He sat down on the edge of the picnic table and propped one leg on the bench part, then started the Elvis song all over again.

“Come on!” Winnalee's hands were gripped around my wrists, squeezing so hard that they were pinching my skin. I leaned back and dug my feet hard into the ground, but they just slid across the grass when Winnalee pulled. When she got me as far as where the women were, Aunt Verdella grabbed my arm and pulled me into their circle. “Come on, honey!” she shouted, while swinging my arm.
“‘Everybody in the whole cell block was dancin' to the jailhouse rock!'”
Even her singing sounded like yelling.

I watched Aunt Verdella, who was doing her own sort of dance now, her feet going, her bent arms rocking from side to side. Freeda was dancing her own kind of dance too. Her butt going this way and that, her arms lifted above her head. A clump of her hair had come down, but she was too busy leaning forward to shake her bumps at Mike Thompson to notice. She didn't stop moving her feet as she tipped herself back and lifted her beer bottle, and she only laughed when two yellow streams poured out both sides of her mouth and sloshed over the front of her dress. I looked for Ma, but she was gone, along with half the bowls that had been on the table and Mrs. Tilman. I glanced toward the house and saw a shadow in the window above the sink. That shadow was not only skinny but tall too, so I knew it was Ma. Ada Smithy danced over to me, her shoulders shrugging, her fingers snapping, like she was showing me how to dance.

I started moving a little, this way and that. “Like this!” Winnalee shouted, as she waved her arms above her head and hopped in circles. She grabbed my hand and started running in a circle around me, so that I had to run too. With her hurt hand held out to the side, and her other hand clutching mine, she stopped running, and spun in one place, twirling me and twirling me until my belly got the giggles, and the little Thompson kid begged her to twirl him too. After that, I was like a windup toy, and dancing was a bit easier.

“I'm gonna die of heatstroke, dancin' like that in this weather!” Aunt Verdella said when the song ended. She went over to a lawn chair and sat down with a plop. She told Tommy to hand her a clean paper plate and started fanning her neck, where frizzy strands were glued to her skin with sweat. “Reece, what's that slow Elvis song I told you I like? You know, that pretty one that came out last winter.”

Freeda headed to the tub where the beer sat in melting ice. She grabbed one and Mike hurried to open it for her. Ma and Fanny Tilman came out of the house then, both of them quietly watching as Freeda giggled, with one hand on the Thompson man's chest.

Daddy's fingers fumbled around, then he sang just one line of a song and asked Aunt Verdella if that was it. Freeda pulled the cap off of her beer and said, “That's ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?'”

Aunt Verdella clapped her hands. “Yeah, that's it!”

“I've never played it before, but here goes,” Daddy said.

The minute Daddy started singing that slow, sad song, Knucklehead, who was laying next to Uncle Rudy's chair, started howling, so Uncle Rudy had to rap him a bit on the top of his head so he'd shut up, and the Smithys and June Thompson and her husband got up to dance. Mike Thompson asked Freeda to dance. “You couldn't wedge the ace of spades between those two if you tried,” I heard Fanny Tilman say to Ma, while Tommy gawked at the dancers with the same look on his face as Knucklehead wore when he watched Uncle Rudy eat his steak.

Daddy played a couple more songs, then set the guitar down. He grabbed another beer, then reached for another piece of the cake Freeda had brought. “Damn, this is good. Homemade, right?” Freeda nodded. “Hell, I never thought I'd taste homemade cake again.”

“Oh, stop!” Aunt Verdella said. “I make one boxed cake mix in my entire life, because I was busy getting things ready for next week's sale, and this guy's never gonna let me live it down.”

Ma stood with her hands behind her back, watching everybody laugh.

“I wasn't talking about you, Verdella,” Daddy said. “I was talking about Jewel. If she hadn't made friends with Betty Crocker, me and the kid would never get a piece of cake, period.”

Freeda looked up at Ma, whose face had turned blotchy, then Freeda wrinkled her forehead at Daddy. “Too bad you can't buy a carpenter in a box,” she said.

“What's
that
supposed to mean?” Daddy asked, as he crammed half of his cake into this mouth, then wiped the chocolate from his lips with the back of his hand.

“Sit down, Jewel. Sit down!” Aunt Verdella said, patting the lawn chair between her and Ada. “Tommy, bring that chair over here, will you? Come on, Fanny, you come sit too. Lord, it's hot.” Aunt Verdella grabbed a plastic cup and asked Freeda to pour a little beer from her bottle into it. “I never drink, but, oh, what the hell.” She clamped her hand over her mouth, because she said a bad word, and then she ha-ha-ed.

“It means what it sounds like it means,” Freeda said to Daddy. She poured the rest of her beer into Aunt Verdella's cup, then grabbed another bottle from the tub. She came back to the table, sat down, and reached for the opener. Daddy grabbed it first and held it above his head. Freeda pretended she didn't notice.

“You guys, get a load of this one…” she said, while she bumped her side against Daddy. “Reece was supposed to fix the toilet so it wouldn't keep running after it was flushed.”

“I fixed it!” Daddy said.

“Yeah. So you said.” Freeda laughed, then went back to telling her story. “Anyway, he must have been in there a good hour, then came out and said it was fixed. I flushed it after he left, and it started making these gurgling noises in the tank, so I took the lid off, and a goddamn geyser shot out of the tank! I'm not kidding. A goddamn geyser!”

Daddy started to say something, but Freeda clamped her hand over his mouth. “Soaked the ceiling, my nylons hanging over the shower pole. Everything! Even the curtains were soaked!” Everybody laughed, especially Aunt Verdella, whose cheeks were pink from the beer she drained from her Styrofoam cup.

Daddy pulled his head away from Freeda's hand. “She's bullshittin',” Daddy said with a laugh. “I went over there to check it out, and it flushes just fine.”

“Yeah, now and then, but just this morning, it geysered again.”

“It did!” Winnalee said. “That's why I had to take a stupid bath. Because it geysered me! I was dressed already too!” Freeda reached for the can opener Daddy was holding again, and again Daddy lifted it out of her reach.

“Sounds to me like maybe I'd better stop in and take a look at it,” Mike Thompson added.

Freeda must have been looking out the corner of her eye, because the second Daddy's hand started coming down, Freeda reached for the can opener. Daddy was too quick, though, and he jerked his arm back, the can opener going out of Freeda's reach again. “You don't talk nice about me, then you can't drink my beer.”

“I'll get it!” Winnalee said. She dived at Daddy, her knee coming right down on his lap. Daddy's arms came in, and his back curled, as he let out one of those noises that is a mix of a gasp and a groan. The men really laughed then.

Winnalee grabbed the can opener and handed it to Freeda. “That'll teach ya,” Freeda said to Daddy with a giggle. Winnalee jumped off of Daddy's lap, distracted by a blue butterfly bouncing across the grass.

Ma didn't wait for the laughing to stop. She stood up and said, “Reece, I think we should get going. It's going on nine, and I have to work tomorrow.”

“You can't go yet, Jewel!” Aunt Verdella said. “We haven't even had our dessert!” Aunt Verdella hurried to the picnic table and started cutting more slices of cake. “Tommy, could you run in the shed and get the ice cream out of the freezer, please?”

“You heard Verdella,” Daddy said to Ma. “We haven't had our ice cream yet.”

“I think we had enough sweets for today,” Ma said, propping her hands on her hips.

Daddy got up and grabbed two more beers from the tub. “One for the road?” he asked Ma.

“Since when do I drink?” Ma said.

“Since now?” Daddy said, tilting his head to the side. The way he said it made me suddenly able to see him as that “cute-as-a-bug's-ear” little boy Aunt Verdella said he once was.

“I'll have one,” Aunt Verdella said. “That went down pretty good.” June giggled right along with Aunt Verdella.

Ma picked up her purse, ignoring Daddy. “Thanks for everything, Verdella,” she said. “Fanny, Ada, June, nice seeing you all again. Elroy, John, Melvin, Mike.” Fanny stood up too and jabbed John in the knee, waking him from his nap, his head sagged down against his chest. “I'm ready to go too,” she said.

“Oh, Jewel, don't leave yet. Reece wants to stay a bit longer, and Button is having so much fun. It's not even dark yet!” Ma acted like she didn't hear Aunt Verdella, even though Aunt Verdella was talking so loud that even the crows circling the top of the trees probably heard her.

Daddy didn't make a move to get up. He just sat there as Winnalee jumped on his knee, her arm going around his neck. He patted her on the head.

Ma walked to the car and slipped in the driver's side. “Come on, Button,” she said, her hand on the door, making ready to close it.

“Hey!” Daddy shouted. “You expect me to walk home or what?”

“I'm sure somebody would be more than willing to give you a ride,” Ma said. “Of course, you'll probably have to take the back roads home.”

Aunt Verdella ha-ha-ed. “Oh, I couldn't drive him home if I tried, because I think I might be drunk!”

“I wasn't talking about you, Verdella,” Ma said, her voice as sharp as broken glass. “Button?” Ma said again.

“I think we should go too, Mel,” June Thompson said, as she bounced her fussy baby, who was digging at her eyes with her fists.

Winnalee opened her mouth to start begging for me to be able to stay, but Freeda leaned over and gave her a big kiss on her cheek. “You're a pain in the ass. You know that, kid? Now tell Button you'll see her tomorrow.”

“Here, wait,” Aunt Verdella said. “I'll cut you two each a piece of cake to bring home. You gotta wait for Fanny and John to pull out, anyway.”

Aunt Verdella gave me a hug, then handed me the plate. Uncle Rudy came to pat me on the head and walk me to the car.

I watched Ma out of the corner of my eye as we drove home, the cake plate on my legs. She looked extra saggy inside her gray and green dress. There was a little flinch jumping at that bony part right below her ear. She didn't say a word until we pulled into our driveway, then she told me to go take my bath.

The bathroom wasn't far from the kitchen, and with my big ears, I could hear Ma on the phone with Bernice. “It was downright humiliating,” she said. “The two of them carrying on without an ounce of shame. And right in front of half the neighborhood too! Yes, yes! She brought over a guitar that one of her one-night-stands left there, and he played it for her. She danced like a hussy too, of course, and giggled at everything Reece said. Even Fanny thought it was terrible the way that woman carried on!” There were tears in Ma's voice that I didn't want to hear, so I started singing, just like Winnalee did in the tub.

I don't know who brought Daddy home. It was after dark, and all I saw was two headlights bounce down the drive. Daddy's eyes were shining like glass, and he was walking a little topsy-turvy. He looked around for Ma, but she was in the bathroom soaking in the tub. He didn't ask me where she was, or why I was still up, even though it was so late.