Mavis’s mother blew smoke out of the kitchen window and complained.
“And that Mrs. Simm thinks the sun comes up just to hear her crow.”
Mavis took a bag of potato chips from the top of the refrigerator and flopped onto the bed. “What does that mean?” she asked.
Her mother tossed her cigarette into the kitchen sink. “Means she’s uppity as all get-out is what it means. You should’ve seen the look on her face when she was telling those bridge ladies about how her husband’s the best this and the best that and her daughter’s the best this and the best that and she’s the best this and the best that.”
She hopped off the kitchen counter and yanked the refrigerator door open. “I swear, every one of those women are like that. Snooty, snooty, snooty.”
She slammed the refrigerator door shut. “I wish we could go out to eat once in a while. If I had a car, we could. Maybe I’ll take the bus over to the used-car lot this weekend and see what they’ve got. And maybe if Mrs. Queen of the World Tully would pay me more, I could afford to buy something.”
On and on and on she went.
Complaining, complaining, complaining.
Mavis was used to her mother complaining. She complained about Mavis’s dad, who never sent money when he was supposed to and was a mama’s boy. She complained about jealous boyfriends, nosy schoolteachers, the high cost of cigarettes, and her flabby arms. And she complained about every job she had ever had. But it seemed like this time the complaining had come sooner. They had only been in Landry a couple of weeks.
Mavis took the bag of potato chips out on the little porch at the top of the steps and sat down, looking up at the starry summer sky and thinking about Henry. She and Rose had gone back to the woods behind Amanda’s house three more times but hadn’t seen him again. Mavis decided that tomorrow they should ask Amanda if Henry was still coming to the fence for food. She knew Rose was scared that her mama would find out she’d been going back in those woods where she wasn’t supposed to go. But, dang it, Mavis was determined to carry out her plan of getting a dog for Mr. Duffy.
* * *
When Mavis saw Rose walking toward the apartment steps, she got a sinking feeling. Why was she so dressed up? A sundress? She didn’t look like somebody who was going into the woods to look for a dog.
“Where’re you going?” Mavis asked.
Rose looked surprised. “To look for Henry with you.”
“But why are you so dressed up?”
Rose looked down at her dress. “I’m not.”
“You’re gonna go in the woods like that?”
Rose blushed. “Um, yeah, I guess.”
“Well, I have an idea.”
Rose didn’t look very interested in hearing Mavis’s idea, but Mavis went on. “Let’s go ask Amanda if Henry’s still coming to get the food back by her fence,” she said. “Then we’ll at least know for sure that he’s still around.”
“Oh,” Rose said. “Well, um…”
“Please?”
Rose hesitated for a minute, but finally said, “Okay.”
Then, before Rose could change her mind, Mavis grabbed her hand, and off they ran toward Amanda’s house.