Authors: Diane Munier
Darnay Road (25 page)
“Easy,”
I say. I walk up to him, all the way up. I drop my books, my bag.
He
steps forward and lifts me off my feet.
I
make a sound, a sob, just one and I stop it. My eyes open then and kids take a
look and start to move off. It’s too real to ridicule. It’s too real.
He
is strong and he smells like clean and starch and Easy. I close my eyes and
just feel.
Easy.
Darnay
Road 45
Easy
sets me down and I can’t look at him. I’ve been flying, and now I land kind of
hard. It’s all I can do not to jump back in his arms. But I don’t do that. I
have never thrown myself on someone who wasn’t Abigail May or my Granma. Except
for Easy. Just him.
I
know their eyes are on us—students still straggling about to catch rides or
hurry to practice, but Easy’s eyes are the ones that matter most. He’s looking
at me, and I see it plain. He’s real glad to see me.
I
go to my books, squat there, try to keep my legs together so I don’t flash him
my underwear, push that whole horrible thought aside, and start to stack
everything again. He’s right there helping me, putting one thing on top of the
other, his hands, still twice as big, strong. He’s real. He takes the stack and
stands.
I
can barely get my bag. I struggle to get that on my shoulder cause I’m awkward
now, all thumbs, and I’m looking at him and then away while I untwist the strap
and he watches me with that half a smile and eyes so green, green. It makes me
smile, too. He’s…older but he’s young. And handsome. I was right. Even at ten…I
was right about Easy.
He
takes my bag, slips it off my arm and works it onto his own shoulder and smiles
at me.
I
can’t believe he’s here. A soldier and he’s real.
I
pull up my knee socks. “I have to tell my bus driver Fred I have a ride home.
But…you don’t have a car, do you?”
“I
don’t,” he says, loudest on ‘I.’
“I
can ask Fred if you can get on…with me,” I say.
“I
ain’t getting on that,” he laughs. His voice is still kind, still deep. Full.
I
wouldn’t get on without him.
He
says he’s got us a ride. He shifts my books to one arm and holds out his hand
like I should take it and of course I do, in front of everybody and I will
follow him just like the song Little Peggy March sang.
We
don’t speak, and mostly I just feel how tightly he holds my hand. I even sneak
a look at it, our hands together like all those years back. We’ve practically
arrived at a big rumbling truck that I’ve never seen or heard in our lot
before, but I know it all right. Disbro Peak? That’s his ride.
“Oh
not him,” I say soft. I never even speak to Disbro anymore, well not since he’s
never on the street, just riding that dumb rumbling truck up and down Darnay
Road so fast it makes the picture on our new colored television set do
cartwheels. And he’s not alone. Sitting in the passenger’s seat is another. Dr.
Kildare. But not hardly.
“He
don’t bite,” Easy says. He pulls me around to the passenger’s door and lets go
of my hand and lifts my bag and sets it in the bed, and sets my books back
there too. But the passenger opens the door and hops out, long hair, tall and
skinny and pretty cute all right. Old jeans and t-shirt, jacket doesn’t look
nearly warm enough. Beaucap Caghan.
“Hi
Georgia,” Cap says and he’s grinning and he’s just…likeable. I think of Abigail
May when she gets a load of this one. Heaven help us.
I
tell Cap hi and we do a loose hug, or we pantomime one. It’s embarrassing.
I
hardly know where I’m going to fit in that awful truck. I’m trying to look like
I don’t have a care, but it’s too much. “I…,” I say, but that sentence is
doomed by a lump of self-consciousness that sticks in my throat.
“She
can sit on my lap,” Easy says to Cap and Cap turns to get in.
“I
don’t know,” I say cause I just do not.
Easy
sees my not knowing right away. “Get in back,” he says to Cap knocking him on
his shoulder.
Cap
looks at me and grins again. I want to apologize, but he doesn’t seem to mind,
stepping onto the rear wheel and hopping over the side and he was always like
that, I remember, moved like that.
Next
I know Easy is holding the door for me and I climb in but here’s the deal, I
don’t get close to Disbro. I barely give Easy enough room and he laughs, and he
squeezes in and he gets the door closed, and I don’t mean to force him into
squeezing next to me, but I can’t go any further.
But
Easy keeps his hands to himself and Disbro says, “Told you she was too good.”
Then he takes off and he says dumb stuff like usual, under his breath, “She’s
just too good for us boys, just too good. Too good.”
“Hey,”
Easy says to Disbro and he moves his cramped arm enough to put it along the
seat behind me and for a minute I get so nervous I feel a little swimmy.
“Watch
what you’re doing wild man,” Easy says. He puts his arm more around me then and
squeezes a little like it will be okay. “Sorry,” he says and I snatch my hand
off of him.
Leave
it to Disbro to nearly kill us right after I’m finally with Easy again. But
still I’m not as aware as a normal girl might be. Even near death hasn’t
brought me down to earth.
I
can’t even speak. I’m sitting bird dog straight and looking out the window then
watching the speedometer. Easy moves his arm back onto the top of the seat. I
know it’s all wrong, but all I can think is I’m sitting beside Easy and my
heart is taking off so hard I can barely breathe and behind me, other side of
the glass sits Cap Caghan in a too thin jacket in dead of winter and I have no
memory of how I left “The Quill’s,” office and got here, but I am…we are here,
and it’s now, and I have entered a new phase of my life on what was supposed to
be a very ordinary day and I am no less surprised than the apostles probably
were when Jesus called them away from their nets.
A
new door has opened to take me from the ordinary and it’s got heaven on the
other side. That’s if Disbro Peak doesn’t kill me before I can get my Bloody
Heart regulation loafer over the threshold.
Cap
knocks on the window then and Easy shifts and looks back at him and says,
“Shit. You got a pig on your tail asshole. Pull over.”
I
just think of my granma then, she flashes in my mind. I hope I’m not going to
jail. One of the school buses passes again, maybe the one Disbro pulled out in
front of, or maybe my own. Yep, I see that forty-nine on the back. That’s me.
Faces gawk at us out the back window as they go on down the road and we sit
pulled over, red lights flashing as we await our fate.
Disbro
practically lays over my lap as he rummages in the open glove box and grabs a
Baggie of green crumbs, frantically pulls the cover off the middle of his
steering wheel and shoves the baggie in there and fumbles to get the cover back
on.
“You
kidding me, son?” Easy says to him, slamming that glove box closed, the old
anger I’ve seen before in his face and heard before in his voice that maybe
replaces the punch there’s no time to give.
I
hear Cap saying something to the cop and Cap hops out street-side and the cop
knocks hard on Disbro’s window and looks in and we’re told to get out of the
truck.
Darnay
Road 46
“It’s
okay,” Easy says to me and I know it’s surely not okay but I smile at him and I
don’t think anything bad can happen to me with him around anyway which is
probably why we didn’t die when Disbro nearly killed us in front of the bus.
Disbro
is mumbling dumb stuff and the cop is mad. He has Disbro put his hands on the
side of the truck and he walks back to the three of us.
“Where
you headed?” he says to Easy.
“I
just got home,” Easy says going for his wallet.
“Keep
your hands where I can see them,” Cop says. “Put them up here on the truck. Not
you young lady, but these two.” He means the Hardy Boys should put their hands
on the top of the tailgate. I just stand there. I want to say they didn’t do
anything, none of us did, but I can’t talk again.
Easy
is telling his name and Cap’s name and they just got in town to see the folks
before he has to go back to Fort Ord, Callifornia. I am thinking what in the
world? California is as far away as you can get. Last I heard from him he was
telling me he wasn’t going back to school but he was going in the army like he
planned. I wrote back and told him all I was reading and hearing about the war
and I said maybe he should wait, but he never replied.
The
cop asks if he’s going to ‘Nam and Easy says not directly. Not yet but soon as
he hits seventeen he figures they’ll send him.
I
can’t believe it. I figured as soon as I saw the uniform that Easy would end up
there but until I hear these words I guess I just pretend I don’t know. So now
I’m staring at him. He looks at me and smiles and winks and it makes me gulp.
“I
can see you’re from the school up there. Your parents know you are with these
fellas?” The cop says this to me and it pulls me out of my worry about Easy.
I
clear my throat hoping to scare up some voice. I know I have to do my own
talking. “Yes…um Easy is my friend. And Cap.” I point to Disbro who is almost
glaring right about now. “And he’s my neighbor. Giving us a ride home.”
“Well
I can see this young man is headed for duty,” he nods at Easy, “but I’ll bet
you’re supposed to be on a bus and not in the truck with these boys.”
I
swallow. But then I’m kind of mad. Well I think of Stanley, and that’s what I
call him, Stanley or Officer Stanley or a couple of times in my mind, Pig
Stanley. I am a free American and I can choose to ride with anyone I please.
“We,” I have to change my pronoun because what I’m about to say doesn’t include
Disbro, “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
The
officer shifts a little. “How old are you?”
“Fourteen,”
I say and I have to clear my throat again.
“What’s
your name?”
“Georgia
Green,” I say. Strangely, I am not afraid.
“I
could take you to the station right now and call your parents and we’ll see how
you haven’t done anything.”
“You’ll
have to call the cops in Chicago if you want to talk to my dad.”
“Why’s
that?” he says, hands going to his hips.
“My
dad’s a cop,” I answer like what does he think.
“That
right? What’s he doing in Chicago?” Cop says.
“Maybe
harassing people, I don’t know,” I say.
I
hear Cap snicker, but he’s keeping his head down.
“Something funny young
man?” Cop says.
“No,”
Cap says laughing, then I hear Easy from behind me clearing his throat and I
think he wants my attention, but I don’t look. I’m standing pretty much between
them, and they both have their hands on the truck but I’m facing the cop who is
standing on the side of the bed beside Disbro. He is almost a dead-ringer for
Stanley, not in looks but attitude, and he’s making me mad.
“Where
do you live?” he says to me more firmly, just like Stanley would.
“Darnay
Road,” I say, and I think to myself, calm down. He likes uniforms, mine and
Easy’s, and I can get us out of this, I know I can.
“With?”
“My
Granma.” I admit that doesn’t sound very fierce. It’s not like saying I belong
to the Students for a Democratic Society or something. He wants me to be
innocent, and I am, but he still makes me mad.
“I
wonder what Granma will think when she has to come to the station to pick up
her granddaughter who should be on that bus and not running with this lot,” he
says and I have this wild urge to laugh but I stay quiet.
“Look
it’s my fault, Sir,” Easy says.
Cop
turns his buggy eyes on Easy.
“She
wanted to get on her bus but I haven’t seen her in four years and I talked her
into going with us,” he says.
I
look back at him like shut up. I was raised to do my own talking and I admit
he’d about stolen my words ever since I laid eyes on him but my words are back
now and I think I’m doing fine with this nit-wit.
“She’s
an old friend and I know her granma. I’m just going home is all. They’re like
my family,” he says nodding at me and I’m thinking, we are? You could have
written more then or heard me out about Vietnam before you signed up, but I
don’t say all that of course.
“Is
it against the law to ride home with people I’ve known all my life Officer?” I
say.
I
look at Easy and he’s not smiling at me now, but come on.
“Is
it prudent for a fourteen year old girl not to be where her Granma expects her
to be?” Barney says. “Maybe a ride to the station is what you need.”
“Don’t
get in his car,” Disbro says to me or to Easy.
“Sir
she don’t need…,” Easy starts to say.
“I
ask you, Soldier?” Then to Disbro, “And you keep your mouth shut.”
“I
mean I can’t let you…,” Easy says.
“You
can’t let me, Soldier?”
“I can’t let her go off alone when I’m
responsible….”
“Let
me tell you this, Soldier, I can do whatever I decide needs doing.”
“Yes
Sir. But I’ll ask you to take me too cause she is my responsibility,” Easy
says. “She didn’t do….”
“I’m
my own responsibility,” I say just so we’re all clear. I don’t need Easy
getting in more trouble for me, and I am not going to go along with being taken
to the station either.
“Just
let us take her home,” Easy says. “Please Sir. We’ll take her right home.”
We
all wait and try not to fidget, I try. I’m trying to give Barney the wide eyes
because I do not want Easy to get in trouble over me.
“Well
you get in and get this girl home. Fourteen year old girl ain’t got no business
with you boys.”
Then he turns from them
and reads Disbro the riot act. He seems to know Disbro quite well.
Disbro
pretends to be some kind of choir boy and I just hope and pray he’ll shut up
and get in this truck and drive us home in one piece.
So
I follow Easy to the passenger’s door and he opens it for me and I look at him
and he is looking at me, just a sober expression, but last minute he winks, and
I almost smile and I climb in and he is behind me and Cap gets in back and we
wait while the cop warns Disbro and hits him between his shoulder blades with
his stick, then pokes at Easy’s big green dufflebag and what I guess is Cap’s
knapsack, and then my bag and books and all the while he’s telling Disbro off.
So
finally Disbro yanks the door and gets in and the cop is walking back to the
police car.
“I
was ready to kill that mother-fu…,” Disbro nearly says but Easy says, “Hey,”
before he can get it out.
Disbro
puts the keys in the ignition and starts the truck. “He’s always up my ass.
Always up my ass. He’ll beat the shit out of you. He beat the shit out of me
before.”
“Can’t
imagine why,” Easy says.
“You
got a mouth,” Disbro says to me.
“Me?”
“You
better watch it now. You better look back. He’s gonna be up your ass now.”
“Hey,”
Easy says. “Shut-up.”
“He
don’t like it when you talk back. Don’t ever get in his car. You get in his car
he won’t take you to the station. No sir.”
“Hey,”
Easy says again.
Once
Disbro pulls into the road we ride in silence cause the cop is following us and
he stays pretty much on our tail all the way to Darnay and I wouldn’t want to
be Cap sitting back there having to face that car and look like he doesn’t have
a care in the world.
Once
that cop goes left and we go straight onto Darnay we all let out a breath.
“He
ain’t gonna bother you,” Easy says to me, but he leans forward, “What you doing
with weed in the car, man? You get pulled over all the time and you got
contraband in here?”
“A
friend left that,” he says. “He don’t ever look in the steering wheel.”
I
knew it was wrong, that baggie, but I hadn’t seen it before—marijuana. But this
is just a day of firsts.
We
get to my granma’s and I can’t wait to get away from Disbro. He pulls up there,
stops in the middle of the road and Easy gets out, then me and he slams the
door then Cap hands Easy my stuff, then he jumps out and goes around me and
grabs the door. He gives me a big smile. “Power to the people,” he says.
“Right
on,” I answer. We laugh a little.
“Hey,”
Easy says, and Cap is already in and he slams the door and Easy kicks the door
cause his hands are full and Cap opens it again. “Hey…behave.”
There’s
some words from Cap but I don’t hear and Cap slams the door and Disbro pulls
off.
Easy
smiles at me, kind of shy. “Did you have…plans or something? I mean…I wanted
to…is your Granma…?”
He’s
looking up at big white. “There it is,” he says. “Ain’t changed too much.”
I
look with him. It aged some. No one has been around to care for it like he did.
“Still
got that pink room?”
I
laugh a little. “No. Purple now.”
“Purple
Haze,” he says grinning.
I
laugh a little. We’d better get out of the street so I lead the way.
He
walks behind me and I ask, “Where are you staying?”
“Disbro’s,”
he says.
“Really?”
I hope he’s joking, but he’s not.
I
don’t say anything more. Disbro’s granma is not well, but there are always kids
there. It’s a hang-out.
At
the door Easy puts his hand on my arm and I turn. When he looks at you, it’s
like he isn’t looking anywhere else or even thinking about anything else. He
knows how to pay attention and you feel like you’re the most important person
he ever met.
I
forgot that. I forgot how it felt.
“You
know she’ll make supper,” I say like we’ve been talking about Granma all along.
I
hope she will anyway. Some nights she doesn’t, but there are always leftovers.
She doesn’t eat all the time. She says she does, but not like she used to. She
tells me she’s on a diet, but it’s not that. She has gone to the doctor but
they say she is doing fine and maybe she is, but it’s different.
“Georgia…you
glad to see me?”
I
have my hand on the door but it falls away now and I step back from him a
little and I didn’t mean to, it just happened, like I’m afraid of that
question, but I’m not. “Yes,” I say. “I’m glad to see you, Easy.”