South of Superior - Ellen Airgood [122]
Madeline told herself that this was not news, there was no Use dwelling on it. “So why was I born here and not in Crosscut?”
“She wouldn’t go home, at first. She just wouldn’t. She moved in with a girlfriend of hers, Cindy Tate. Cindy and her mother lived here just for a short time. Her mother worked at the tavern. She was a sloppy kind of woman, she never cared what Cindy did. Anyway. You were born while Jackie was staying with them. Then Cindy’s mother quit the tavern and they moved and I suppose Jackie didn’t have anywhere to go but home.”
Madeline nodded.
“She left when you weren’t very old—only two, I think. I suppose she just couldn’t stick it any longer—living at home, having to go by Joe’s rules, having a little one—” Gladys shook her head. “I never liked Jackie, Madeline. I hate to say it so plain, but it’s the truth. I didn’t like her and I hated what she did to you. But she was young, and she was full of life, and—well, I can feel for her, in a way.”
Madeline nodded. So could she. She didn’t want to, she never had wanted to, but—maybe a little, now, she could. Maybe she didn’t have any choice.
Gladys took a swallow of coffee. “I ran into Joe at the fiddle jamboree that summer, and I suppose he was lonely. I was too. I always felt for him, trying to raise a girl alone.” She looked lost in memory. “My land, he could play that fiddle.”
“Where was Walter all this time?”
Gladys came out of her reverie. “He moved into the AFC when his mother died. That was a year or so before you were born. Joe was off working too much to take care of him the way she had, and it would have been just awfully lonely for Walter.”
“So what happened to everything? The place out on Stone Lake, the house on Pine Street?”
“Joe sold it all, every last bit of it, when he moved in with me. He didn’t need the house anymore, and then too I think there were so many memories there. I think he wanted a clean slate.” Gladys swallowed more coffee, cut off another bite of pie and ate it. As if the story was told, and that was the end, and a pretty satisfying end at that.
“A clean slate.”
“A person can want that anytime in life, you know.” Gladys frowned and got Up from the table. She began rinsing the plates in the sink.
The dark feeling she’d been pushing away overtook Madeline. “So what happened to the money? Did he ever think how hard it was for Emmy to make ends meet with me to take care of? She never had anything. She could only afford our apartment because she’d been there forever and it was in such bad shape when she got it, and it was hard. And he was what—living off his girlfriend? That’s not right.”
Gladys spun around. “He put everything in a trust for Walter. Walter didn’t have anyone else. Who on earth was going to look after him when Joe was gone? That worried him more than anything. And he was proud. He didn’t want Walter dependent on the State for everything.”
Gladys’s fists were clenched and her eyes were bright and Madeline was sorry in a distant way to have caused this Upset, but more than that she felt a stubborn mutiny. Gladys shook a crooked finger at Madeline. “Joe took care of Walter. That’s what he did with the money. From the house and the land and everything else he could set aside! He never lived off me, and it’s a lucky thing he’s not around to hear you say that. He worked hard all his life, Madeline Stone, harder than most people ever will. He had less than most people today can even imagine, and he still took care of Walter.”
Madeline said nothing. There had been a surge of rage in her gut, in her soul, it seemed, to hear those words, Joe took care of Walter. None of the Stones had ever looked after her. At last she said, with tears that she resented brimming in her eyes, “Walter’s a really special person. I’m glad he was taken care of. And I’m glad I get to know him.” It was the truth, and it was the best she could do.
Gladys gradually relaxed, but she didn’t look happy. Eventually