Girls in Pants - Ann Brashares [43]
One night Tibby stayed up too late and got overly weepy. She wept bitter tears of sorrow for knowing Loretta didn’t have a job anymore, for knowing it was her fault that Loretta didn’t have a job anymore, and also for never having told Loretta how great she was.
The next morning Tibby found Loretta’s address in her mother’s book. She clipped her hair in the barrettes Loretta had given her two Christmases ago, pulled on her most cheerful yellow shirt, got into her car, and set off to the far reaches of Prince George’s County. She had nothing but a map of the greater Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and a lot of guilt to guide her.
It took her two and a half hours (one and a half spent getting lost), but the look on Loretta’s face when she saw Tibby made it worth it. Even if Tibby spent twenty-four hours getting lost on the way home.
“¡Tibby! ¡M’ija! ¿Cómo estás? ¡Dios te bendiga! ¡Ay, mira que hermosa estás! Cuéntame, ¿cómo te va?” Loretta exploded in Spanish.
Not only did Loretta not appear to harbor any resentment; she hugged Tibby like a long-lost daughter. Loretta’s eyes filled with tears as she planted several kisses on Tibby’s face.
Tibby was still blinking in surprise when Loretta pulled her into the small house and introduced her to various family members as though they knew all about her. Loretta gestured to the pale woman on the couch in her bathrobe. “She no get up. She have”—Loretta pounded her chest in demonstration—“infection.”
That was Loretta’s sister, Tibby realized. It made Tibby feel even worse.
Tibby sat at the dining room table with Loretta, who kept patting her hand and asking exactly how Katherine was doing.
“She’s getting better so fast. She’s great. She misses you, though,” Tibby added quickly. Tibby then presented Loretta a picture of beaming Katherine in her hockey helmet, which Loretta promptly kissed. Loretta wanted to know all about Nicky, and she even wanted to be sure that certain leftovers were not spoiling in the fridge. Loretta cried a lot, both out of sadness and joy, and said many things in Spanish, which Tibby could not understand.
The thing Tibby could understand was that Loretta truly loved Katherine. She loved Nicky. She even loved Tibby, for God knew what reason. How could Tibby’s parents fire someone who loved their kids this much? It was wrong.
Loretta insisted that Tibby stay for dinner, so Tibby accepted. Then Loretta and her niece and another sister buzzed around in the kitchen for the next hour preparing a feast, while Tibby sat on the sofa with the sick sister, watching a TV show. Tibby was handed a big glass of orange soda and banned from helping in the kitchen.
Tibby watched the actors motoring away in Spanish and let her mind go. She was moved by Loretta’s capacity to love, even when her employment had ended in such a bitter way. Loretta didn’t seem concerned that the whole thing was so unfair, that Tibby’s parents had lashed out vindictively.
Some people spent their lives wallowing in resentments, and other people, like Loretta, let ill fortune wash right over them.
When the table was revealed to Tibby with a great flourish, she saw how proud Loretta was. In honor of Tibby, Loretta and her niece and sister had made steak.
Tibby tried to keep the look of alarm off her face. She was moved by this gesture. Clearly this wasn’t the kind of household where they ate steak every night. And so Tibby chewed the meat with as much vigor as was possible for a girl who had been a vegetarian since she was nine.
Heard melodies are sweet, but those