I headed back to Andy El’s. I washed the glasses, and then made more lemonade, filling the jug with ice cubes and then refilling the ice cube tray. I took the jug out to the stand, and then ran back for the glasses.
I set them out and waited for my customers, trying to tell myself that it wasn’t the end of the world. But I couldn’t help feeling real blue.
That afternoon, Esther and her daughters, Agnes and Linda, came over with three more really big salmon for Andy El. They were really proud that their older brother Edgar had caught the salmon and was doing well with his first season working as a fisherman.
The twins came over to the stand shyly and asked how much the lemonade was. I told them they could have a glass each on the house, as they were Andy El’s granddaughters, and she’d done so much to get me started in business.
“But just this once,” I cautioned. “I gotta make money from this stand,” I explained.
They sat on the grass, sipping their lemonade. Agnes got up and looked through the stack of books.
“Hey,” she said, “these are all Agatha Christie books. I love these books!”
“You know about Agatha Christie books?” I was surprised. I had never heard of them before Mrs. Williams had brought them to my table.
“Well, sure, everybody knows these books,” she said. She saw my face and then quickly added, “Well, I just assumed everybody has, just ’cause I have. Silly of me, I guess, huh?”
Linda grinned and said, “Agnes always has her nose in a book!” She laughed and shoved Agnes in a friendly, teasing way.
Agnes retorted with, “Oh yeah? Well, not everybody is happy chasing around after a soccer ball, either!”
Watching them tease each other that way that made me feel like a real outsider. I wondered, not for the first time, what it must be like to have a sister or a brother. I bet they never get lonely, I thought.
It was funny: as close as I was to Andy El, and I knew Esther and Raymond pretty well, I didn’t really know Agnes and Linda very well at all.
They attended the tribal school right on the reserve, and I went by bus to the local school in town. All of a sudden, I felt shy around them. Crazy, even though I’d known them for most of my life. But I had never really spent a lot of time with them. I just saw them casually when they came over to visit Andy El, and when they did, I usually made myself scarce. After all, they really were Andy El’s granddaughters, and I was just an outsider.
We sat quietly for a few moments, until Agnes asked, “So, are you going to the parade next Saturday?” I had forgotten that the Newman Bay Days parade and town festival would be happening so soon.
“I guess so,” I said. “I hadn’t really given it much thought. I probably have to go and help Mrs. Bateman hand out batons and stuff to all of the majorettes. She lets them use really special ones with streamers just for the parade and competitions.”
“We’re going!” Linda said excitedly. “Uncle Raymond is taking us to town for the parade, and we might get to go over to the fair after for a while!”
“Maybe we could all go together,” said Agnes.
“Sure, that would be great,” I said. But I didn’t really mean it. I knew there would be no money from Clarice for me to go to the fair, and I sure wasn’t going to part with any of my hard-earned lemonade stand money for a ride or cotton candy, no matter how fun it sounded. I had to save all of my money to go Vancouver and meet my dad and tell him that Elvis was living at the trailer park.
Just then, Andy El came out of her trailer with a salmon wrapped up in newspaper. She handed it to me, saying, “I want you to take this over to Mrs. Wyman at the farm. I owe her for all those extra berries she gave to me.”
She said to Agnes and Linda, “Why don’t you girls go too? You can see them puppies. And you can see the one that Truly’s gonna buy.”
The twins got all excited when they heard about the puppies, so then I had to explain about my plan to save money from my lemonade stand for the puppy. I wasn’t too comfortable with Andy El spilling the beans like that, especially as it wasn’t really true.
“Don’t you worry, I can watch the stand,” said Andy El. “Me and Esther can sit out here and take a break from cleanin’ fish!”
We got up, the twins still all excited to see the puppies, and we headed down the road to the Wymans’ farm.
When we got there, I knocked on the farmhouse back door, and then waited. After a few moments, Mrs. Wyman opened it. When she saw the big salmon Andy El had sent us with, she got a huge smile on her face.
“Well, this is great!” she said. “I wasn’t expecting another one so soon!” Then she looked past me at the twins, who hung back shyly on the driveway, and said in a really kind voice, “Hello there, you’re Esther’s girls, aren’t you?”
They nodded politely, keeping their eyes lowered.
“Truly, why don’t you take the girls into the barn to see the puppies?” she suggested. “I’ll be right out as soon as I put this in the fridge.”
The door closed behind her, and the three of us headed into the barn, me leading the way. I felt important as I explained to them how to slowly approach Lady and let her sniff their hands.
Then I knelt down, stroked the little brown puppy on the head, and then picked him up gently.
“Oh,” breathed Agnes. “They’re so cute!”
The puppy had already grown since I had seen him last. I snuggled him close. If only I really could be saving to buy him, like I was telling everyone. It would be so nice to have a dog. But I knew it could never happen.
“You’re so lucky, Truly,” said Linda. I felt a pang of guilt. But, I told myself, I was lucky in another way. When I found my dad and told him all about Elvis, he would want to come back to us and stay at Eagle Shores. And maybe we could really get a dog.
The twins sat and gently petted all of the scrambling puppies, and laughed delightedly at their puppy antics.
After a few moments, Mrs. Wyman came into the barn, and the twins stood up quietly and moved back from the puppies. I could tell that they were nervous being in the barn, seeing as the Wymans were white folks and all. I saw that Agnes and Linda were braced and waiting to see how they would be treated before they could relax. They just slipped into it, like putting on a protective jacket.
I reluctantly put my pup down, after whispering quietly to him, “Sorry, puppy, you can’t really go home with me! But I know the Wymans will find you a good home.” I stood up too, and we all thanked Mrs. Wyman politely for letting us see the puppies.
She smiled at us kindly and said, “Well, you girls thank Andy El for that lovely salmon!” Then she added, “How’s the lemonade stand going, Truly?”
“Things are going great! I’ve saved five dollars and forty cents so far!” I said proudly.
She nodded at me and seemed pleased. “Well, that’s just great, Truly. I really mean that.”
Then she picked up another big basket of berries from the table, saying, “You girls take these to Andy El, will you please? That salmon is much larger than I expected, and I feel I owe her more berries in exchange.”
Then she picked up a small pint basket and handed it to Agnes, smiling kindly.
“And here’s one you girls can snack on on the way back to Eagle Shores. That way, I know Andy El’s strawberries will get to her safely!”
We all thanked her and headed back to the trailer park, eating the sweet berries as we went.
“She sure is nice for a white lady,” said Linda. “And you sure are lucky to be getting a dog.” I said hesitantly, “Look, I want to ask you a favor. Please don’t tell anyone about my dog plan.” They stopped and looked at me in surprise.
“How come?” asked Agnes. “If it was me, I’d be yelling it out all over the place!”
“Well, I haven’t told Clarice about it yet,” I said. “I haven’t figured out the best way to tell her. But I know it’ll be okay. I’m going to earn the money for his food and everything else. She won’t have to worry about it costing extra money.” I looked down at the ground, sort of ashamed. “It’s just — well, you know how Clarice can get.” They both nodded, understanding, and I felt much better. But as nice as they both were, I knew that I couldn’t tell them that I wasn’t really going to buy the puppy or that I was secretly saving my lemonade stand money for my trip to Vancouver to find my dad. That had to stay a secret from everyone, even Andy El.
“Come on,” said Linda, “we better get these berries to Andy El before we eat all of hers too!”
We raced each other back to Eagle Shores, laughing, trying not to spill the berries down the sun-filled road.
We arrived back on the reserve and got to the lemonade stand at the same time as a man pulled up in a big red car with the radio blaring some awful disco song. He swept right by us, and pulled up at Clarice’s trailer. We watched as Clarice came out and climbed in beside him.
The car turned around and headed up the driveway towards us again. Clarice sat snuggled up tight to the driver, who had his arm draped around her shoulders. So this must be her new conquest, I thought to myself. And my heart dropped to the earth again.