He glanced at me and she caught it. She was just as keen as ever. I thought happily.
"Go on, tell me what you"ve been doing.
Burning candles, throwing salt? What are you doing to remedy this situation?" she demanded, "None of your business." he told her, and she laughed.
The nurse entered. "The doctor wanted us to keep her visiting hours restricted for the first few days," she said.
"Days?" Mrs. Westington cried. "I"m not here for days."
"We have to go anyway," I said. "We have lots to do."
"You don"t worry none," Trevor said.
"Oh, no. I"ll just lay here hunky-dory. The cook puts glue in the mash potatoes and the meat they expect you to eat must first be beaten for hours on a rock."
"I"ll bring you something," I said.
"She has to watch her salt intake," the nurse said. "That"s very important right now."
"Sneak it in." Mrs. Westington said loud enough for the nurse to hear. She turned to Echo and told her to be a good girl while she was away and listen to both Trevor and me. They kissed good night.
I put my arm around Echo and we all left the room.
Trevor"s face made me nervous. He looked so worried.
"She"ll be all right," I said, trying to rea.s.sure myself as much as him.
"For now." he said. "But there comes a time when time ain"t on your side no more. You start to hate clocks and calendars and the only birthdays you like are the birthdays other people have. My mama used to say you can dam up water, you can shut out the wind, and you could get out of the rain, but you can"t hold back that minute hand. No. sir. Don"t try.
Just hang on and hope for the best.
"Now you got me doin" it." he said. laughing.
"You got me talkie" doom and gloom."
He joked about it. but I was beginning to believe that was all I was capable of doing.
"Let"s treat Echo to an ice cream," he suggested.
"Get her mind off doom and gloom."
"Okay. but I"m not having any." I said firmly.
Later. when we drove up the driveway, we were surprised to see two other cars beside the ugly van in front of the house.
"What"s this now?" Trevor wondered aloud.
When we stopped and got out, we could hear loud music coming from the house.
"I don"t like the sound of this," Trevor said. "I"ll go in with you two."
When we entered, we realized all the noise was coming from the living room. There were five other people there, all drinking and smoking. I recognized cocaine on the coffee table. A short, dark-haired woman was just about to snort it when we appeared.
Rhona was sprawled on the sofa, her head against Skeeter. who had a bottle of whiskey in his hand.
There was another young woman on the other side of him, her blouse open down to her navel and her b.r.e.a.s.t.s quite visible. She was smoking a joint. Two men, one with hair as long as Skeeter"s. were sprawled on the floor. A rather heavy balding man was in Mrs.
Westington"s chair, his bare feet on the side of the coffee table. There were open beer bottles, gla.s.ses, pizza boxes with pieces still in them, and a container of melting ice cream that was leaking off the table and onto the floor. No one seemed to notice or care.
"Well, look who"s here, everyone, the Lonely Ranger and her trusty companion. Trevor. Trevor"s been here since the first gape was discovered," Rhona said. The fat balding man laughed, but the others just held their smiles.
Skeeter kept his eyes fixed on Trevor as if he was anxious to see exactly what he would do.
"These happen to be some of my old friends,""
Rhona added. "Maybe you remember Billy Roche and Gretta Lockheart, Trevor. They were often here.""
"I remember them." he said. nodding. "You"re making some mess for Mrs. Westinton," he said.
"Oh, she won"t care and besides, she"s not coming home tomorrow, is she? We have extra domestic help. Everyone, that girl standing there gaping at me is my daughter. Echo. Echo is deaf, so just smile at her. please.
"Besides, Trevor," she continued. "April Fool will clean up after us, won"t you. April Fool? That"s how she earns her room and board, cleaning up. Oh,"
she said, nodding at something on the other side of the coffee table, "I"m sorry, but that cup with your face on it just fell apart. You watch out when you pick up the pieces. I don"t want you to cut your fingers or anything.""
She laughed, but everyone else just looked at us, waiting for the response. Skeeter took another swig of his whiskey.
"Mrs. Westington asked me to look after things while she"s away." Trevor said slowly. He took a step forward, "She don"t like there being strangers in her home while she"s away and she don"t want no parties and messes either. You tell these people to go and take their drugs and c.r.a.p with them," he said.
Rhona started to sit up, but failed. Skeeter laughed and then pushed her.
"Don"t tell me what to do in my own house," she said.
"This ain"t your house. It"s Mrs. Westington"s house. Now you people leave quickly or I call the police, and I got no reason not to tell them what"s on that table there," he said. nodding at the cocaine.
"s.h.i.t. Rhona," Billy Roche said, sitting up quickly. "You said we"d have no trouble crashing here tonight"
"Don"t listen to him." Rhona said.
"Yeah, right. I"m about to explain myself to the Highway Patrol." Roche stood up.
The woman at the table started to brush the cocaine into a sheet of paper.
"What are you doing? Don"t let him frighten you!" Rhona cried.
Trevor stepped up to the heavy man in Mrs.
Westington"s chair and glared down at him. ""That"s Mrs. Westington"s chair you"re in, boy, and she don"t like no one else sitting in it, much less putting his dirty feet on her table.- The heavy, balding man pulled himself up quickly. "Hey, I"m getting the h.e.l.l outta here. I"m on probation." he said, quickly slipping on his shoes.
"Tommy!" Rhona shouted. "Don"t let him tell you what to do. He"s an employee."
"You comin". Martha?" he asked the woman at the table instead of responding to Rhona. The woman got up quickly, carefully folding the paper with the cocaine in it and putting it into her purse.
The others moved toward the living room doorway. One man wobbled a bit, but put one leg in front of the other.
"You"re all just a bunch of wimps!" Rhona shouted after them.
I stood back. holding Echo"s hand. Rhona looked at Trevor and then groaned and fell back against Skeeter. He took another swig on his bottle.
We heard them all leave.
"You"re going to be sorry you did that," Rhona threatened. "I"ve already met with my attorney. Things are going to change very quickly here. Start thinking about leaving."
"I better not hear you made any more trouble tonight," Trevor replied.
Skeeter looked at him, but couldn"t stare him down and shifted his eves quickly.
I told Echo we should go up to bed. She nodded, looked at the mess and at her mother, and then moved quickly to the stairway. I knew she was very frightened and I decided to invite her to sleep with me.
"I hate leaving you two in here with them,"
Trevor said. "We"ll be all right, Trevor," I told him.
"You come get me if you"re nota" he said. He glared at Skeeter and Rhona and then he left the house.
"Good riddance!" Rhona yelled after him.
As we went up the stairs. I heard her mumbling and crying to Skeeter.
"Relax," he said, loud enough for me to hear.
"Time"s on our side."
When we got to the top of the stairway, I heard the phone ringing and hurried into Mrs. Westington"s bedroom to pick up the receiver. Echo followed me. It was Tyler.
"I"m just calling to see what happened with her," he said when I said h.e.l.lo.
I told him about Mrs. Westington and then about Rhona and the mess they had made with the friends they had over.
"That"s a bad situation there," Tyler said. "My advice to you is to get out."
"Get out? But how can I do that? I can"t leave them like this. with Mrs. Westineton in the hospital.
We"ll talk about it tomorrow. okay?"
"I"m not coming back tomorrow or the day after or the day after that," he said. "I promised my mother.
I"m finished up there. April."
"But I thought you were going to wait until we had Echo established at least. I thought-""
"Rhona stopped in our store today."
"What?"
"Rhona stopped in our store today. She told my mother what she saw you and I doing. My mother thinks that"s the only reason I wanted to go there."
"Oh. my G.o.d. Rhona"s such a lowlife."
"Yeah, well, she did it. She only wants to make trouble and get rid of you. My mother was very upset.
so I told her it wasn"t true."
"I know. Put it out of mind. Like it never happened."
"I"m sorry, but she was too upset. I told her Rhona was lying. I convinced her when I told her that you..."
"What?" I demanded when he hesitated.
"Don"t like to be with boys. I had to do it," he added quickly. "I told her what happened to you with your sister"s girlfriend and I said you liked it."
"You said what?"
"I had to do it," he repeated.
He had to do it? I couldn"t speak.
"You don"t need me to help you anymore anyway. Just contact any school about the equivalency exam and get yourself scheduled, if you want. You should pa.s.s."
"How could you do that, say that? What I told you about Celia was something I hadn"t told anyone.
Not even Mrs. Westington knew those sort of details about my feelings."
"I"m sorry. It was a way to get my mother to believe me. It doesn"t matter anyway what she believes about you."
"But how can you just stop coming here?"
"I"m sorry," he said. I began to hate the sound of the word.
"But what am I going to tell Echo? Tyler, you can"t just not come."
"Just tell her I have to help my mother."
"Why can"t you tell her?"
"I can"t." he cried. "Just do it!" he said, and hung up.
I held the receiver in my hand and against my ear as if his words were still reverberating. I knew Echo was standing right behind me and I didn"t want her to see the tears streaking down my cheeks. I sucked in my breath and with my back to her. I wiped my tears away. Then I hung up the phone and slowly turned to her. smiling.