Read Online Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain - Free Book Online
Authors: Diane Chamberlain
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front of other shoppers and Nonnie grabbed my arm and pinched it so hard I had a bruise for a month.
“Don’t you talk to that boy,” she snapped in my ear, like me and Mary Ella didn’t talk to him every single day. Eli understood. Didn’t even look at us. Pretended he didn’t hear nothin’. He’d already learned what we was only learning: colored and white didn’t mix in public. Especially not colored boys and white girls. We got the message that day. We could be friends at home, but out in the world, we didn’t know each other.
I watched Lita while she worked. She looked out at the field the same way we all did, and I wondered if one of the men out there was someone she knew well. Real well. Maybe Rodney’s daddy? People said every one of her children had a different daddy. “They can’t help themselves,” Nonnie told us. “They’re still like animals in the jungle.” But Lita didn’t make me think of no animal. I was jealous of all them boys having a mama they could count on.
* * *
After dinner it was so hot that Baby William was as cranky as the mules. He sat crying in the dirt or he wobbled around, hitting us on our arms to get us to pay him some attention. By then, every one of us was pretty wrung out and thirsty, and I couldn’t wait for Mr. Gardiner to bring out the drinks. Baby William headed for the water bucket next to the barn. He reached for the green gourd ladle leaning up against it and Nonnie ran after him quicker than I thought she could move and swatted his hand. “That’s the colored gourd!” she said, handing him the yellow gourd we used. He started hollering and no one could hear themselves sing, so we all went quiet for a while and Nonnie said, “That’s enough. I’m taking him home,” and she set off down the dusty road with him yanking on her arm and kicking his feet at the air.
After a while, Mr. Gardiner came around the side of the barn and up to me. “I ain’t got enough Nabs for everybody,” he said. “You go on over to the store and get a box full.”
He hardly ever asked one of us to go to the store for him because he couldn’t spare us, so I was surprised. I thought he was staring at me right hard, and I looked down at my hands, pretending to peel the tar off them. When he looked at me like that, I was afraid he knew about me and Henry Allen.
“Why’re you going red in the face, girl?” he asked me now. “You ain’t gonna have no heatstroke on me, are you?”
“No, sir,” I said, “I’m fine. I’ll be back right quick.”
The bike was tossed in the dirt a ways from the barn and I climbed on and took off for the store. I wasn’t sure what Mr. Gardiner’d do if he knew about me and his one and only son. Henry Allen said his parents told him, “No girlfriends till you’re done with school,” but what boy pays attention to that kind of thing?
I rode the bike down Deaf Mule Road to where the store stood on the corner of Deaf Mule and Gardiner Store Lane. The store wasn’t much, just an old wooden place with GARDINER’S CORNER STORE painted on a board, the “Gar” near worn off the wood. Inside, the fan was going strong in the window and there was a colored woman and a white boy in there, most likely doing the same thing I was: getting afternoon snacks for the farmworkers. From behind the counter, Mrs. Gardiner waved to me. “Hey there, Ivy,” she said. “Ain’t you working at the barn?”
“Mr. Gardiner asked me to get some Nabs,” I said.
“He probably wants a whole box, don’t he?”
“Yes, ma’am. That’s what he said.”
“I’ll get that for you. You pick yourself out a drink. Too hot to ride out here today.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said, heading for the icebox. I opened it up and took out a bottle of Pepsi Cola. I wished I could of stood in front of that icebox the rest of the day, the cool air felt so good, but I closed it quick. Didn’t want to get yelled at for leaving it open too long, although there was
“Don’t you talk to that boy,” she snapped in my ear, like me and Mary Ella didn’t talk to him every single day. Eli understood. Didn’t even look at us. Pretended he didn’t hear nothin’. He’d already learned what we was only learning: colored and white didn’t mix in public. Especially not colored boys and white girls. We got the message that day. We could be friends at home, but out in the world, we didn’t know each other.
I watched Lita while she worked. She looked out at the field the same way we all did, and I wondered if one of the men out there was someone she knew well. Real well. Maybe Rodney’s daddy? People said every one of her children had a different daddy. “They can’t help themselves,” Nonnie told us. “They’re still like animals in the jungle.” But Lita didn’t make me think of no animal. I was jealous of all them boys having a mama they could count on.
* * *
After dinner it was so hot that Baby William was as cranky as the mules. He sat crying in the dirt or he wobbled around, hitting us on our arms to get us to pay him some attention. By then, every one of us was pretty wrung out and thirsty, and I couldn’t wait for Mr. Gardiner to bring out the drinks. Baby William headed for the water bucket next to the barn. He reached for the green gourd ladle leaning up against it and Nonnie ran after him quicker than I thought she could move and swatted his hand. “That’s the colored gourd!” she said, handing him the yellow gourd we used. He started hollering and no one could hear themselves sing, so we all went quiet for a while and Nonnie said, “That’s enough. I’m taking him home,” and she set off down the dusty road with him yanking on her arm and kicking his feet at the air.
After a while, Mr. Gardiner came around the side of the barn and up to me. “I ain’t got enough Nabs for everybody,” he said. “You go on over to the store and get a box full.”
He hardly ever asked one of us to go to the store for him because he couldn’t spare us, so I was surprised. I thought he was staring at me right hard, and I looked down at my hands, pretending to peel the tar off them. When he looked at me like that, I was afraid he knew about me and Henry Allen.
“Why’re you going red in the face, girl?” he asked me now. “You ain’t gonna have no heatstroke on me, are you?”
“No, sir,” I said, “I’m fine. I’ll be back right quick.”
The bike was tossed in the dirt a ways from the barn and I climbed on and took off for the store. I wasn’t sure what Mr. Gardiner’d do if he knew about me and his one and only son. Henry Allen said his parents told him, “No girlfriends till you’re done with school,” but what boy pays attention to that kind of thing?
I rode the bike down Deaf Mule Road to where the store stood on the corner of Deaf Mule and Gardiner Store Lane. The store wasn’t much, just an old wooden place with GARDINER’S CORNER STORE painted on a board, the “Gar” near worn off the wood. Inside, the fan was going strong in the window and there was a colored woman and a white boy in there, most likely doing the same thing I was: getting afternoon snacks for the farmworkers. From behind the counter, Mrs. Gardiner waved to me. “Hey there, Ivy,” she said. “Ain’t you working at the barn?”
“Mr. Gardiner asked me to get some Nabs,” I said.
“He probably wants a whole box, don’t he?”
“Yes, ma’am. That’s what he said.”
“I’ll get that for you. You pick yourself out a drink. Too hot to ride out here today.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said, heading for the icebox. I opened it up and took out a bottle of Pepsi Cola. I wished I could of stood in front of that icebox the rest of the day, the cool air felt so good, but I closed it quick. Didn’t want to get yelled at for leaving it open too long, although there was
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