Alligator Bayou - Donna Jo Napoli [58]
“Miss Clarrie gave postal cards to each of us graduates,” Patricia says.
I look in confusion at Miss Clarrie.
“Patricia, would you open this drawer, please?”
Patricia opens the little drawer in the table, and hands me a postal card.
“Hey, it’s already addressed. To you, Miss Clarrie,” I say.
“Right. I encourage my graduates to travel. To the next town. The next parish, state, country. Anywhere you go, it’s good for you. You see new ways and learn to appreciate them. Books carry you far, too. But actually experiencing somewhere, ah, that’s quite different. The world would be a better place if everyone traveled. I want all my graduates to write to me from somewhere else and tell me what they’ve seen.”
I carefully place the postal card back in the drawer.
Miss Clarrie smiles. “Do you have any questions about school for me?”
“What do I need to buy?”
“Not a thing. Show up the first day, and I’ll give you a pencil and a tablet—a copybook.”
“The school monitor will pass them out,” says Patricia. “And at the end of the day, the monitor will collect them.”
“Thank you, Patricia. Well, now, I’m in the middle of making biscuits. Would the two of you like to stay for biscuits with sausage gravy?”
twenty-one
We’re standing out front of Miss Clarrie’s house, full of biscuits and gravy. She already told us goodbye and shut the door behind us. I reach for the bundle wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. “I’ll carry that satchel if you want.”
“Nuh-uh. You drop it and you ain’t the one to suffer.” Patricia holds it close. “These aprons and white dresses going to let me and six other girls make money.”
“Doing what?”
“Working as servers in the dining room on the steamship this Sunday.”
“What steamship?”
She shakes her head. “Ain’t you heard about the tournament and the ball?”
“Sure I have. My uncles ordered all kinds of food from New Orleans for it.”
“The ball will be on a ship. I could tell Mr. Coleman you want a job in the kitchen. Washing dishes and stuff. You’d get to see everything.”
Working for Mr. Coleman. The very idea makes my jaw clench. Still… “Will Charles be working in the kitchen?”
“And Rock. And Ben.”
I can’t fight that. “Then I want to work, too. And Cirone does, too.”
“I’ll try.”
I step off the porch. Patricia doesn’t follow. “What are you waiting for?”
“Everyone going to see us,” she says.
“You dive to one side, I dive to the other. That’s your rule, right?”
“That’s easy before dawn. They’s too many folks out now. Besides, I can’t go diving without getting this package all dirty. And look at that sky. Rain, for sure.”
Charcoal gray clouds billow in from the north. “So what do you want to do?”
“Stash away till evening.” She looks up and down the path. “Wait five minutes, then follow me.”
“Five minutes? You’ll be way ahead of me. How will I find you?”
“The good Lord gave you eyes, sugar.” Patricia walks up the path, just as fast with that bundle as she was without it. I wonder what makes her that strong.
I count to sixty, five times. Then I’m off, up that path. Patricia’s out of sight. I knew it. I can’t even call for her; she’d only get mad. I walk, looking every which way. Soon the houses stop and the grasses grow tall. If there’s a path, I can’t see it. Hot wind pushes at my back, and it goes dark. Lightning. Thunder claps. Where is that girl?
Patricia steps out from a stand of woods ahead. She waves me on.
I run and now we’re running together through the forest undergrowth. A furry, stub-faced, squat creature zips across in front of us. It races at a rabbit, hugs it, bites its head, and scratches at its belly with its hind feet, shredding it.
“Don’t watch.” Patricia runs on.
“What was that?”
“A mink. The thunder must have woke him. Usually you don’t see them till dusk. But they’s a pond near here. They live near ponds.”
A shiver shoots through me. “Mean creature.”
“I reckon he’ll