Read Online Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani - Free Book Online Page B

me?”
    “Honey, my mama died when she was fifty-five. I’m fifty-six. The clock is ticking. I want a life before mine’s over. I will miss the money, though.”
    “I’ll give you a raise.”
    “Too late for that. Come on, Ave. You got a lot ahead of you. You’re gonna get murried to that Tipton fella.”
    “What?”
    “His car was parked over to your house till all hours Saturday night, and Nellie Goodloe done spread it all over town that you and he was swapping slobbers on the dance floor over to the Drama. Now that’s public. Don’t hold back on me, youngun, I know you too well.”
    “He doesn’t want me, Fleeta. We’re just friends.”
    “No way. Shoot-fire, y’all do everything together. Y’all are each other’s destinies.” I start to argue with Fleeta, and she stops me. “Even when you put two rats in a box they might chew each other up at first, but give it time and they’ll make baby rats.”
    “Fleeta, I’m eating.”
    “He’s a fine-looking man. And he’s clean. I like me a clean man. And he’s got nice thick hair, and honey, after thirty you gotta put that in the plus column. He’s got them nice Irish looks and features. The rusty hair, the blue eyes. The purty smile. Law me! What more do you want in a man?”
    I don’t answer her.
Nothing!
There’s no one but Theodore for me. Why won’t she stop this?
    “Or do you even want a man?” Fleeta looks at me over her bifocals.
    “Not just any man,” I say defensively, with my mouth full of food.
    “I want you to git a good man like I got. You know, Portly and I still have intimate relations. Of course, it takes a lot longer than it used to to warm up my toaster. I done gone through The Change. And that’s a good word for it because everything done changed on me. I have to prepare for when he gets that look. But I’ll tell you one thing—Portly has him some big clubby forearms and man-hands, you know what I’m saying, he could palm my head—really, just like a basketball. And if I didn’t have those gigantic arms wrapped around me of the night, I would be one cantankerous old woman. So I know what you mean.”
    “How’d you and Portly meet?”
    Fleeta exhales and her eyes fill with a faraway memory. She squints to make out the details of this old picture.
    “Up to the school. When East Stone Gap High School was closed down, they transferred all them kids over to Powell Valley and Portly was in the bunch. First day of school, I seen him and knew he was the one. I was feeling old, though, like I’d never find nobody.”
    “How old were you?”
    “Sixteen. And never been kissed. My mama was so proud of ’at. But let me tell you, when I snagged Portly, I made up for lost time. I remember the very first kiss he done give me. Up behind the bleachers up to the school. Hit was around five o’clock in the afternoon, after Portly’s baseball practice. He looked at me. I looked at him. Course we had to take the snuff out of our mouths first—Portly and I both love our chewing tobacky. Well, we spit it out, and then we kissed, and the rest is history.”
    I’m so wrapped up in Fleeta’s love life, I don’t hear the persistent bang of the bell on the store counter. I come to and get up to answer it. The majorettes stand at the counter, some reading the
National Enquirer
, others thumbing through
People
. Tayloe waits at the prescription-pickup window.
    “I’m here for my prescription.”
    “I’ll be right with you, honey.”
    “It’s not ready yet?” The annoyance underscores each of Tayloe’s words, and she rolls her eyes. God, she’s impatient. I remember that she’s just a kid, and that keeps me from biting her head off.
    “No, not yet,” I reply gaily.
    Pearl Grimes enters the store and, upon seeing the majorettes, instantly skulks behind the hair-care rack.
    “Look how fat she got!” Glenda the majorette says with authority. That’s all it takes for all the majorettes to gather round
People
magazine and gloat