Chapter Sixteen

I was very nervous on my way over to Betty Ann’s the next morning. I figured she’d think that I was the one that had kept Tommy from showing up at her house for a good time, but I sure did get the surprise of my life when I rang the doorbell. She was humming and singing sweet as a morning bird. She even blushed when she saw me, and stepped back a few feet, and a little gasp came out of her.

“Why, I declare, Miss Place!”

“This is my day to work, isn’t it? You did say I was to come today?” I thought I might have confused my schedule; she’d looked so startled to see me.

“Why, of course, honey.” She giggled. “Do come in, now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said and walked inside. The place was a goddamn mess. There were piles of cigarettes in the ashtrays and beer cans all over the kitchen. Little Starfish was sleeping in her bed like she was too tired to lift that silly head of hers—like she’d been partying all night right alongside of her mistress. I let out a big sigh as I stepped further into the room ’cause little Tabby was messing up the walls with crayons. Usually, that made Betty Ann furious, but now, she just laughed and hung her head.

“You’ll use Borax on that wall, honey. It will come off real easy.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I told her and went to get baby Tabby away from those crayons before she marked up the whole goddamn house. I had enough to do without having to wash crayons off every goddamn wall in sight.

“I’m going to take my bath now, honey,” Betty Ann told me as she took to the stairs.

I couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t yelling and screaming at me and blaming me ’cause Tommy never showed up to put it to her the night before. I was so damn curious that I couldn’t help myself from asking.

“Miss Betty Ann,” I hollered. She turned to me, looking like she was up to no good and giving me the feeling she was wrapped as loose as Lenny’s mama.

“Yes, Grace?” She leaned against the staircase railing, and she was smiling in a funny way, like she had just had a bodily function she didn’t want me to know about.

“I’m sorry about Tommy, but I really had nothing to do with it. You see, someone saw you two together, and told Scarlet Paradise about it, and she got madder than a stirred up hornet’s nest. Tommy had to stay with his girlfriend, Miss Betty Ann. He had to calm her down. So, you see, he couldn’t come over here to be with you.”

“Really?”

“Yes, ma’am.” I nodded and watched her expression closely. She seemed momentarily puzzled, but then she looked at me and started giggling like little Sandi Duckworth over one of granddaddy’s sugar jelly doughnuts.

“Oh, honey, now I don’t mean anything by this, but your brother isn’t really my type. I got me a secret love now and he’s going to keep me real happy. I can just tell. He’s going to be my superstar.”

“Oh?” I said. “Why, that’s so nice. That’s real nice. You going to tell me all about him, Miss Betty Ann?”

“No, honey, I ain’t going to tell you a thing.” She laughed nervously.

“Oh, that’s okay. I don’t mind. I do respect your privacy, Miss Betty Ann.”

 

I was so goddamn euphoric not to know the details of Betty Ann’s love life that I hummed my way through my cleaning chores. I was having myself a gay old time playing with the baby, when Betty Ann finally came skipping down the stairs a couple of hours later. She was dressed to turn heads. She had on high-heel shoes and skintight pants. Her pants had a leopard-print design, and she had a big gold belt on around her waist. She also wore a low-cut blouse that made her boobs look bigger than they really were. Her hair was brushed back off her face and her lips were a real bright red. You could see the color on her two front teeth, as well, and I wondered if I should tell her to just brush her tongue over those little bunny teeth she had hanging out.

“You look like a million dollars, Miss Betty Ann,” I said and picked the baby up in my arms. I thought better about telling her to brush her tongue over her two front teeth, though.

“I’m giving you a grocery list, Grace. Take the Cadillac and go on over to the Piggly Wiggly. I don’t want to go out in this rain.”

“The Cadillac?” I said and stood up on my feet.

“Yes, Grace, but don’t put the top down. I don’t want rain in my car.”

I turned and looked over my shoulder. I hadn’t noticed that it had started to rain. Well, it wasn’t really rain. It was just a tiny little drizzle, hardly worth mentioning. It didn’t matter none to me, though. I liked getting out, and she’d never let me drive the Cadillac before. She must have been in a hell of a good mood.

“I drove over today, Miss Betty Ann. I could take my own car.” I thought I should say that, ’cause it did make me a bit nervous to set myself behind the wheel of that fancy Cadillac.

“Don’t you like the Cadillac, honey?”

“Sure do, but I don’t want to put any dents in it.”

“Then don’t, darling girl. Just be careful, you hear?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I feel like doing something special for you, honey.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t drive her past thirty-five miles an hour, you hear?”

“Oh, I won’t, Miss Betty Ann,” I told her. Then I blushed a bit. I couldn’t help it. I suddenly had the sweetest image of myself turning a corner on two wheels, with the top down and the radio up high.

“Should I put little Tabby down for her nap now, before I head into town?” I asked and wiped that image right out of my mind.

“You do that, Grace, and by the time you get back and put the food away, the baby will be up.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said and wondered why she was all dolled up in the middle of the day. I decided that it was her business, and I had better things to think about, like my wedding to Lenny Bean, even if it was two years away.

After I tucked the baby in, I went skipping on out to the driveway and started up that beautiful automobile. I just couldn’t wait to drive that car, and I was awfully glad that little Tabby had fallen right off to sleep. I could smell the leather, and I could see my reflection in the recent wax shine. I wished I could put the top down, though, and I kept checking out the sky, just to see if it looked to be clearing. It felt good to get out and have my own private thoughts. I was dying to tell Betty Ann that Lenny and me were engaged, but he was so damn adamant about keeping it secret, but I sure did have me an itch to tell someone. I decided, as I made my turn up Cloverdale Drive, watching the speedometer pop on up to forty-five, that before I got to Betty Ann’s grocery list, I’d make a stop at Carson’s Jewelry, just to get an idea of the engagement ring I wanted. I figured I’d tell old man Carson to guide Lenny in the right direction when he came looking for it.

I was right at the corner of Hixson Pike, sitting at a red light, and I just happened to look over at this fancy restaurant where the waiter’s tips are higher than a Tennessee mountain, and who comes walking out of the place but Jeb Oates. Why, my mouth fell open. He looked like someone had picked him up and dropped him on a pitchfork. He was a mess. His face was all cut up and both his eyes were so black and blue that he looked like a spotted dog. I gasped out loud, and all these horns started honking at me ’cause the light had changed and I wasn’t moving. Jeb looked right over at where I was and he gave me the strangest look. He started walking over to the Caddie—and I put my foot on that gas pedal and tore on out of there. I certainly wasn’t going to stop to talk to Jeb Oates, but he sure did look like he had something to say to me.

All the way over to Carson’s Jewelry, I kept thinking about what an odd coincidence it was that both he and Lenny were so beat up, and I wondered if they’d been in the same fight with the same roughnecks, but that was too unlikely. Then I remembered that the moon might have been full and that’s what I attributed it to, the damn moon. It does make people a bit crazy. Look how strange Betty Ann had been acting.

 

Mr. Carson directed me right over to the engagement rings, and I picked myself up a little beauty right away. The ring sparkled back at me. It was the most beautiful diamond in the store, and I fell in love with it.

“You fixing to get hitched, Miss Place?” Mr. Carson asked me with a big shit-eating grin on his face.

“It’s a secret, Mr. Carson. Don’t go telling anyone, you hear?” I said as I put the ring on my finger. I held it up to the light and giggled. “It looks good on me.”

“Yes, yes it does.” He smiled. “Why, it couldn’t look better on anyone else,” he said.

I slipped the ring off slowly and handed it back to him. “Remember, it’s a secret, Mr. Carson. We’re not getting married tomorrow.”

“Oh, no, no, no. Your secret is safe with me, Miss Place.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said and watched as he put the ring back behind the case.

“That ring is a little expensive, Grace. You sure have fine taste.”

“How much is that ring, Mr. Carson?” I asked. It would have just broken my heart if it were way out of line.

“It’s eight hundred and fifty dollars. Is your young man a workingman, Grace?”

“Oh, yes,” I said. “He’s saving every dime for this ring.” I felt my heart sink just a little. Eight hundred and fifty dollars sure sounded like a lot of money, but then I remembered Lenny telling me about all the money he was going to be coming into. Well, I didn’t know exactly how much that was going to be, but I figured it was a lot. He said that he and Billy had a plan, and I guess, being that Billy was a schoolteacher and all, that he might have been smarter than I thought he was.

“Why, that’s good, Grace.” Mr. Carson smiled. “I’ll tell you what, being that your daddy always fixes my car for such a good price—I’ll give your young man a break, Grace. You tell him that, okay?”

I smiled back and reached out to shake his hand. “Thank you, Mr. Carson. I sure will tell him that.”

“Congratulations, Grace. Why, I’ve known you since you were this high,” he said, and held his hand down way to the ground.

“Make him think the ring is his idea, okay? Make him think he picked it out all by himself, if you can, and if he starts to pick out another one, you lead him back to this one, okay?”

“Why, of course, Miss Place. I have become expert in doing that.”

“I just love that ring, Mr. Carson. Make sure he gets me that one, will you?”

“I promise, Miss Place. I’m going to try my best. A beautiful ring for a beautiful girl,” he said as he stood back and grinned at me. “When will your young man be in to purchase it?”

“Soon, Mr. Carson. Soon as he has some money put aside.” I smiled back over my shoulder as I started toward the door. “You won’t forget to show him the one I picked out, will you? But be discreet. Don’t forget, now.”

“Yes, of course.”

I giggled and stood there trying to tell if I could see the ring from where I was standing. I just wanted one more glance.

“I will not forget the ring you want, Miss Place,” Mr. Carson said. He came out from behind the counter and walked over to me. “It is kind of expensive, though, even with the break I’ll be giving him. You sure you don’t want to come back to the case and look at some other rings? I have some pretty rings at half the price.”

“Oh, that’s all right. He’ll be getting money. He told me that. I think he’s going to be investing in something big.”

“What is your gentleman’s name?”

“Leonard Bean, sir.”

“Leonard Bean? Well, I’ll keep my eyes peeled for Mr. Leonard Bean, Miss Place.”

I felt my heart sink just a little as I walked out of there. I don’t know why, but I think I had some horrible foreboding in that moment that I’d never see that sparkling little ring on my finger. I couldn’t shake the feeling, and all through the Piggly Wiggly, I kept thinking that the world was just about to swallow me whole. I always thought that getting engaged was supposed to make a girl happy. I wasn’t exactly unhappy, but I sure was perplexed and for no reason that I could clearly ascertain.

 

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was returning from the Piggly Wiggly, a bit distracted by my own dark thoughts, and I was driving the Caddie carefully up Miss Betty Ann’s driveway, and right out between the garage and her front door was Lenny Bean’s supercharged old black Bel Air. He came sauntering outside just as I stopped the car. He wasn’t grinning, at first, but when he saw me he stopped in his tracks and smiled so wide he almost looked as silly as his brother, Billy.

“Hello, little darlin’,” he said as he walked right over and kissed my cheek.

“What are you doing here, Lenny?” I asked.

He reached around in his back pocket and out he came with his goddamn Zippo.

“Well, I couldn’t count on you to get my Zippo, darlin’, so I had to come on over here and get it myself.”

“Where was it, Lenny Bean? I did look for it and I never found it.”

“Betty Ann had it in her kitchen drawer. She was saving it for me. Look, honey, my daddy’s initials are right here on the back.”

I took the lighter from him and stared at the initials. “EBB? What was your daddy’s name, Lenny?” I asked him, and as I looked up I saw Betty Ann standing out on the front steps with the baby in her arms. She must have followed Lenny out, either that or she saw me drive on up.

“Ezra Buckley Bean,” he told me and took the lighter back.

“The baby is up, Grace. Why don’t you come in here, now, and do your job?” Betty Ann called to me, and it was the first damn time I felt she was treating me like a servant. I assumed she was still pretty angry with me for trying to talk her out of screwing my brother. But then again, she’d just let me drive the Caddie. Betty Ann wasn’t making any sense to me at all.

I nodded over in her direction. “Will I see you later?” I asked Lenny as I turned back and went to kiss him.

“Ah, no, honey,” he stammered, as he pulled back from me quickly.

“Why not, Lenny?”

“You coming, Grace?” Betty Ann hollered and started tapping her foot.

“Yes, ma’am,” I called out. “Well, why not, Lenny?” I asked.

“I got a job.”

“What?”

“You coming, Grace? I don’t want to have to ask you again, now.”

“What kind of job?” I asked as I started taking the groceries out of the car.

“’Bye, sweet girl. I’ll call you when I get back. Got to save up for us now.”

“Back, back from where?” I whispered.

“Right in Chattanooga, honey. That’s all, not far. Now, bye-bye.”

He got into his car and sped off so fast I didn’t have time to ask him if it was okay to tell Betty Ann about our engagement. Hell, I had to tell someone. I couldn’t tell Mama ’cause that would break her heart. I wouldn’t ever be living in New York City being an actress, if I married Lenny Bean. I couldn’t tell Daddy because he thought Lenny was a jerk, and I don’t even think he’d change his mind if Lenny had a million dollars in the bank. Why, Daddy might even refuse to give me away. What a horrible thought. And I just knew I couldn’t tell Tommy ’cause he hated Lenny Bean and had been calling him the loser from Lubbock ever since he first laid eyes on him. I guess I could tell Ginny Jo, maybe even Betty Ann Houseman. Shit, I had to tell someone.