It took a lot of there, theres and now, nows from Gloria to get Ruby to stop crying and back in her room. When Ruby came out for supper a bit later, she was dressed and quiet, but in some ways her being quiet was even sadder than her crying, ’cause she just sat at the table looking down. It was like she was too tired to eat. Too tired to care.
“Why does she do that?” I asked Ma on the way home.
“Do what?” Ma whispered, looking around the bus. “And who are we talking about?”
“Ruby,” I said. “Why does she come out all buck naked, singing?”
“Oh,” Ma said, heaving a sigh. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“It’s the third time I’ve seen it!”
“I’m up to about ten.”
“But why does she do it?”
Ma shook her head. “I don’t know.” Then she gave a little shrug and said, “Why do any of them do what they do? Like Peggy Riggs. Why does she talk to the air?”
Peggy Riggs did talk to the air. And she did it like the air was listening. Like she was sharing secrets with someone she could see. Only the secrets didn’t make any sense.
“Maybe she’s seeing ghosts?” I said. “There’s got to be lots of ghosts in that place. Especially with Mrs. White on the loose at night.”
“Lincoln, hush. I am just too tired to have you piling ghosts on top of vampires.” She sank down in her seat a little, hugging her bag. “It was a mighty long day.”
Ma turned to look out the window, so my mind wandered off. And it probably would’ve got totally lost if Ma hadn’t snapped me back a short while later. “Huh?” I asked, ’cause she was staring at me and I knew she’d said something.
“Where do you go when your eyes get like that?” she asked.
“Get like what? What are you talking about?”
“They move around like you’re watching something.”
“They do?”
“Mm-hmm. So what were you thinking just now?”
I did some blinking as I remembered, then finally told her, “You don’t want to know.”
She gave me the same look she does when I’m about to get it for sassin’. “Yes, Lincoln. Yes, I do.”
I was pretty tired, too, and sure didn’t need trouble piled on top of tired. “I was just thinkin’…,” I said, but something told me to stop.
“Don’t make me drag it out of you, boy. Just say it!”
“All right, all right!” I took a breath and started, “You know how Crazy Paula does that tapping thing?”
“Paula Barnett? At Brookside? You’re thinking about her?” Then real quick she added, “And don’t call her crazy.”
I stared at her. “Ma, if there’s such a thing as crazy, she’s it.”
She frowned. “You could call her Tapping Paula.”
“That’s worse! No one hates her for being crazy. They hate her for tapping.”
Which was a fact so solid, Ma couldn’t argue. Paula sits day after day, with eyes drooped to half-mast, doing nothing, then one hand starts tapping on the table, over and over and over and over, until you want to scream, Stop it!
“That tapping really gets to me,” Ma said, twisting around to look at me. “Why does she do it? Why won’t she stop?”
“That’s what I was thinkin’ about,” I told her. And once that busted out, the rest started flowing. “Maybe she can’t speak, but what if she can see things we can’t?”
Ma sat back again and heaved another sigh. “What are you talking about?”
I knew she was tired. Tired and testy. I knew I should probably make up something else and not tell her what I was really thinking. But I’d had this idea. I could see the whole thing! “What if she can see ghosts?” I asked, lettin’ more seep out. “What if they can tell her things?” Ma’s eyes rolled, but I kept talking. “Paula’s on the border, right? Of here and there? Of earth and after? She’s got to be, right?”
Ma’s whole head turned now, and she just stared at me. And I knew I should just hush up, but it was too late. I had that feeling I get when everything comes together in one picture that’s big and clear and bright and…amazing.
So it gushed out. “What if all that tapping Paula does is a way of communicating? Like Morse code? Everyone thinks she’s crazy, but maybe she’s not! Maybe she’s tryin’ to tell the ghosts something! Or maybe she’s tryin’ to tell us something! Like that Mrs. White is about to strike again!”
The words hung there, hovering in the dim light inside the bus. And I had to admit—the idea had seemed way better bouncing around inside my head than it did running out my mouth.
Ma closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Lincoln Jones, you have an imagination as wide as it is deep.”
And then that just hung there, actin’ like a compliment, when I’m pretty sure it wasn’t.
At our stop, Ma gave me a little scowl as she gathered her stuff. “One thing’s for sure,” she said. “I’m not taking your advice about dealing with the residents. I’m done with vampires and ghosts and Morse-coding mutes.”
Couldn’t blame her there.
The wind blasted cold and sharp when we got off the bus, and we hunkered in against it as we walked home, me half a pace behind her. Neither of us said a word until we were almost to our corner, where Ma suddenly stopped short. “I forgot the Man’s dinner,” she said, then shook her head and started walking again. “It’s sittin’ right in the fridge.”
Ever since I’d told Gloria what Ma was up to with her taking home zombie chicken, word had gotten around Brookside, and now the others helped Ma pack a dinner for “the Man.”
“Sweet of you, Maribelle,” they all said, but I suspect most of them thought I was “the Man.”
As we walked along, Ma kept kicking herself for forgetting. I tried telling her to go easy on herself, but when the Man saw us coming, it was like a light went on in his eyes.
“Oh, Lord,” Ma said under her breath.
And then, to make things worse, he did something he’d never done before.
He stood up.
“Lord, oh, Lord,” Ma whimpered.
“It’s okay,” I told her, but it was just words, and I knew it.
“I’m sorry,” she said, going up to him. “I don’t have anything today.”
But he wasn’t looking for food. “Is your name Maribelle?” he asked.
Ma’s face went a little loose.
I guess the Man knew how to read loose faces, ’cause he pointed to the pay phone and said, “You had a call. Your sister. She wants you to call her back.”
“Oh, Lord,” Ma said, then recovered with a polite nod. “Well, thank you very much.”
“It kept ringing and ringing,” the Man said, shaking his head. “At first I didn’t know what it was. It never rings.”
“I appreciate the message,” Ma said with another nod. “Sorry if it disturbed you.”
“Disturbed me?” He gave her a strange little smile. “It was no trouble.”
“Well, thank you,” Ma said.
When she started to leave, he said, “I’m Levi, by the way.”
Then he sat back down and looked away.