Pigs in Heaven - Barbara Kingsolver [79]
“Hey, Dell,” Annawake says. She sits up, clasping her arms around her blanketed knees. “Watch out, the prisoner’s lawyer is present.”
Dellon sits on the foot of the bed holding Annie’s small red sneakers like baby birds in his large hands. Dellon’s long hair is loose, his T-shirt looks like what grasshoppers do to crops, and his beefy shoulders seem slumped this morning with the weight of fatherhood. He narrows his eyes at Annawake. “Hey, that’s my shirt. I’ve been looking for that one.”
Annawake looks down innocently at the maroon flannel she’s been sleeping in. “The color’s good on me, don’t you think?” She cocks her profile.
“Why don’t you get a boyfriend, so you can steal his clothes?”
“Good idea. I knew there was some reason women sought out the company of men.”
“Listen, I was supposed to have the kids out of here by ten o’clock. Millie has to take the baby over to Claremore for his shots or something.”
“Christ, what time is it? Are you telling me I slept past ten o’clock?”
“Yeah, I think they’re going to make it a national holiday. National Annawake Slept Past Ten O’clock Day.”
“Look, I’ll stay here with the kids. It’s not even worth going into the office now.”
“You’re not going into the office? On a Saturday morning? Definitely a national holiday.” He half stands and reaches behind the aged lace curtain to snap up the shade.
Annawake shades her eyes from the light. “Get out of here,” she tells him affectionately. “Annie and I need our beauty sleep.” She flips the pillow behind her head and lies back down. The lump of Annie wildly animates the double wedding rings in the region of Annawake’s knees.
“Okay,” Dellon says. “I’m taking Baby Dellon and Raymond over to my house. You’ve got this one.” He stands up and gently swats Annie through the quilts with her red shoes. “The naked savage. Teach her some girl stuff, will you, like how to wear clothes?”
“See you later, Dell.”
“Oh, listen. Did Millie tell you about the hog fry?”
Annawake sits up. “Another one? I’m going to get fat this summer. Who’s this one for?”
“Cash Stillwater, just moved back from somewhere. It’s down at Letty Hornbuckle’s over in Heaven.”
“Miss Letty, the one that used to run everybody’s business in the grade-school cafeteria? I haven’t seen her since I got breasts.”
“You have breasts? Let me see.”
Annawake makes a frightening face at her brother.
“So, you coming?”
“Cash Stillwater,” she repeats. “I think I went to school with his son, who was it, Jesse Stillwater? Real tall?”
“No, Jesse is Cash and Letty’s youngest brother. I think there was eleven or twelve of them. Cash had a daughter—remember that Alma, she drove herself into the river a few years ago?”
“Oh, yeah. Off that bridge.”
“They’re some kin to Johnetta Hornbuckle that drives the school bus. There’s Johnetta and Quatie. She married Earl Mellowbug.”
“Quatie.” Annawake thinks. “That’s right. Her mother was Mama’s girlfriend. Remember her, the beauty queen? Mama kept that picture of her that was in a magazine. I still have that thing somewhere.”
“I’ll be back around six to pick you up. Unless you get a better date.”
“We’ll be here, Dell. You’re the best I’m ever going to do.”
Annawake smiles, watching the bear shape of her brother duck out through the doorway. Annie has made no progress with female apparel in the meantime, but has fallen back to sleep. Annawake smooths the layers of covers, remembering from her childhood the noisy aunts who made those three quilts: they lived in one house, and could never agree on anything in this world except that love is eternal.
On the stone floor of Jax’s studio Lou Ann sits cross-legged, nervously tapping the toes of her athletic shoes while Jax frowns at his new amplifier rig. He picks up a yellow electrical cord and examines it closely. “Do you think this should be plugged into something?”
“Don’t ask me. Do I look like Mozart?”
“No,” Jax says. Today he doesn’t have the energy even to