South of Superior - Ellen Airgood [24]
Madeline listened as Greyson explained what his plan had been. His thin face was intelligent, intense. He looked right at her as he talked, leaning forward a little and twisting his head at an awkward angle to do so, intent on his story. Madeline found herself nodding—Yes, I see how it was. He sighed with frustration about not getting any rabbits, and there was nothing cute about it, nothing to make her think, Isn’t it sweet how children think? No, she just sympathized.
She listened and wished—what? That his life was different, that his mother was different. But then he wouldn’t be himself, would he? a little voice in her head inquired. He wouldn’t be just exactly this boy with the lively green eyes in the seat beside you.
6
One sunny afternoon in May, the first day that really felt like spring, Madeline knelt on the lawn outside the open kitchen window, sprinkling fertilizer around the tulips. “Look at this!” she heard Gladys say. “The nerve! Like I’m some kind of deadbeat.”
Arbutus murmured something.
“I’m not paying it. I returned those groceries. And I’ll take my own sweet time on the rest that’s due, too. Let them wait, they can afford it. You see that new truck they’re driving?”
Arbutus answered but Madeline couldn’t make out what she said.
“I won’t!” Gladys declared.
“We’ll have to pay somehow, else there’ll be trouble.”
“Let them sue. Look at this—” Gladys’s voice became mincing. “ ‘Please pay.’ ”
“What do you want it to say?”
“Nothing! It’d be better if they’d just sent the bill and said nothing, no snotty comment needed, thank you very much.”
“There’s no sense getting all worked Up.”
“I was born here. Who are they?”
“They’re the folks who own the store you took the groceries from,” Arbutus said in a dry tone that surprised Madeline a little. “Why are you so angry? They don’t owe Us anything.”
“Well. Be that as it may. I know what you’re thinking and we’re not selling, that’s final.”
“It would make everything easier.”
“No, it’s not necessary. We’ll get by.”
“How?”
There was a pensive silence. Madeline dug in the dirt again, Unhappy to be eavesdropping but Unable to stop.
“Maybe we ought to count ourselves lucky there’s someone who wants to buy. Nathan would like me to sell, you know,” Arbutus ventured.
Madeline hoped they didn’t mean Gladys’s house or Butte’s either, which was just a few blocks away.
“Nathan.” Gladys’s voice dripped acid. “I’ll just bet he would. Like to get his hands on the money, that’s what, so he could fritter it away on investing. You know what I think? I think he’s desperate. You see it on the television all the time, people who’ve got in too deep, made bad investments, lost everything.”
There was a brief silence. Then Arbutus said, in a voice that was firm and also a little angry, “Maybe so. And maybe I’d like to help him if that’s the case.”
“Help him! When has he helped you?”
“That’s not fair. He moved Us into his place when I got so bad, then brought Us back when we asked.”
“I had to hound him, Butte. I practically had to threaten him.”
“That’s not true! He didn’t think it was a good idea, Us coming back Up here, even with help. And he still did it in the end, didn’t he?”
Gladys made a strangled noise. “You spoiled that boy, Arbutus. I hate to criticize, but it’s a fact. It’s the only thing you ever did wrong in your life, I think.”
“Except for marry his father.” The annoyance had left Arbutus’s voice. She sounded rueful but not overly concerned about such a grave error.
“Well,” Gladys said. “That’s hardly the point. The point is, we’re not selling.”
“What do you think of putting my house on the market, then? You know, Matilda’s son got close to a hundred thousand for her place, and it’s not that much bigger than mine.”
“It was the view, Butte, the location. The water, the water, that’s all anyone can think about. You don’t have that. Besides, you need your house, you love it. You’ll get back there someday. This summer even. You’re doing better.”
“I need to pay my way is what I need.”
“We’ll get by,” Gladys said again.