wasnât saying much. I relaxed and started to grease.
âSo Pink,â Pink continued, âhungry for Aunt Patâs Sunday dinner, asked Pat to serve him his dinner on the floor. And you know what my wife told me? As sure as you born, Pat said, âAbsolutely not. Give in and get up.ââ
This was the cue for anybody with two cents to jump in. Aunt Ola Ray gave it a religious slant, âAnd, hallelujah, Pat said, âGive in and get up.ââ Zenobia flavored hers with self-respect: âPatsy couldnât do it. She told Pink âGive in and get up.ââ Uncle Boy-Boy said, âOff your knees, brotherman.â
Allwood muttered under his breath to me, as I showed him where the bathroom was, âYour family is so bourgie.â To me, bourgie means straining up to be bourgeois. âMy family,â I growled, âwho have all worked very hard to get what they have are, for your information, fun loving, loud, argumentative, boastful, food loving, proud, and,â as an addendum, âthey donât like to eat at restaurants. The women cook.â I donât know where that came from; they ate out on occasion.
When I got back in the room, everybody was beginning to line up next to the phone for Buddyâs call. We each got to shout at Boy-Boyâs pride, his son the doctor.
âMy son Buddy is serving in the Philippines right now,â Aunt Ola said to Allwood.
Pink corrected her without condescension. âNot the Philippines, Ola. Vietnam.â
âWell, over there,â Aunt Ola said. âOn a ship. A duty ship.â
âBoyâs not on a ship or we couldnât talk with him,â Pink said.
âWell, where is he, then?â
âDanang.â Pink repeated it, as if he saw it.
Allwood repeated the word as if it was unbelievable,
Danang, Danang
. âYour cousinâs in Danang, and you didnât tell me?â
I said, âI thought he went to Hawaii.â
Uncle Boy-Boy talked from the phone. âHeâs in the trenches.â
âI donât think so,â Allwood said, his voice low but clear in the excitement. It was the first time all evening that he didnât look uneasy. âMedical doctors canât carry weapons. Geneva Convention.â Pink had heard him.
âHowâs he going to protect himself if he donât have a weapon?â Pink said.
I began to help with the cleanup when Uncle Boy-Boy announced, âBuddy wants to speak to Ruby Boogers.â
âRuby Boogers, Ruby Boogers,â the kids began to chant. When I got my nose pierced, I bought a ruby nose ring, and my nose had gotten infected. Buddy had instructed me on what to do and named me Ruby Boogers. By the time I healed I had lost interest in wearing it. The family never let me live it down.
âRuby Boogers with rings in her nose and bells on her toes,â the kids sang louder.
I took the phone. âDr. Bud?â
âYeah. Is this the booger queen?â he said, laughing in his Bugs BunnyâBela Lugosi way. âStill raising hell, Ruby Boogers?â
Me, the hell-raiser? Buddy was wicked: âIâll pass gas on your pillow if you donât give me your Popsicle
.
â Many nights I slept without a pillow. When I took the phone, my voice cracked.
âCome back soon, you hear me, Buddy?â I said. When I handed the receiver to Uncle Al, I felt something strange and tight in my throat. I looked out the picture window. Somewhere between gets I had become a grown-up.
As I sat with the adults, I noticed the army green canvas strips on Allwoodâs combat boots from the Army-Navy store. They looked rough next to the flats, pumps, Oxfords, Florsheims, and slip-ons from Monkie Wardâs, Karlâs, and J. C. Penneyâs. All evening I had wavered, thinking Allwood wouldnât fit in and hoping he might, no way would he like my people and maybe he would. Art Linkletter settled it. I never
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