Tammy out of Time Page 26

  Pete leaned forward, looking from one to the other, as if he were about to speak. Then a car came into the driveway. He looked around and his face lighted up. “There’s Barbara now.”

  Ernie and Barbara came up the garden walk together, Ernie talking with excitement in his tones, Barbara interrupting, “But Ernie, you old dope, why do you have to be so mysterious about it? Why wait till tonight? Tell me now, for heaven’s sake.”

  Pete went down the steps to meet them. “Hi, Ernie,” he said giving him an affectionate slap on the shoulder. “Come on, Barb. I want to show you what I’ve been doing in the south woods.”

  “Oh, Pete—in these shoes? In this——” She looked down at her high-heeled red slippers, her peppermint-striped dress of’ silk.

  “I don’t care whether you have on shoes or not,” Pete said.

  Barbara looked at him in amazement. She said, “Okay, Pete,” put her hand on his arm and called out in the direction of the porch, “Hey there, I’ll see you all later.” Then they went off arm in arm by the garden path, toward the lower gate.

  Ernie called, “Hurry back, Barb. I’ve got to be in Jackson before five o’clock.” They paid him no mind and he came onto the porch, grumbling. “I like that.”

  Miss Renie said, “Have some dinner, Ernie. We’ve just finished, but Osia can bring you a plate.”

  “Thanks, Miss Renie, but Barb and I stopped at Freddie’s joint on the way down. I haven’t got much time,” he added, looking after Barbara and Pete resentfully. “Barb wanted to pick up her costume and stuff—she’s going to have a picture taken next week for that Pilgrimage-calendar thing Mr. Bissle dreamed up. So, as usual I’m just a chauffeur.” He sat down on the steps with a sigh. “You all going back to town soon, Mrs. Brent?”

  “Yes, Wednesday perhaps. I’ve so much to catch up with there—a club paper on Trends in American Literature on Friday, and two committee meetings Saturday. It’ll be nice to get back into things.”

  Tammy let the talk flow unheeded around her. She could not have listened if she had tried. She knew now what Pete had made up his mind to—Barbara. It had always been Barbara. Mr. Bissle came down and joined them, sitting at the cleared table in Pete’s place. He was talking, but Tammy did not listen till she heard Pete’s name.

  “Yes, I’ve got a hunch about that young man. Had a good long talk with him last night—about other things, of course. Always sleep on a hunch, that’s my motto. But I may as well tell you now, I can use him in my business. He can get his training in the New York office; then there’ll probably be an opening in the Atlanta branch by the time he’s ready.”

  Mrs. Brent could only say, “Oh, Mr. Bissle!” on a long breath. Professor Brent said, “Well, if it’s what Pete wants—I’ve said all I am going to say to him.”

  “Of course,” Mr. Bissle went on, beaming like a premature Santa Claus, “I must admit that I have it in mind to be helping my little cousin Barbara at the same time. Smart girl, Barbara. She’ll fit in all right.”

  “Yes, yes,” Mrs. Brent breathed. “Oh, sometimes, the way things work out—though I shall miss him terribly—it does seem as if there is a design after all. I——”

  Miss Renie got up and left the table abruptly, with a kind of snort.

  Tammy stood uncertainly, and nobody noticed her. She walked slowly down the steps, and when Ernie caught at her skirt, she struck it free from his hand and went on. She stopped once on the garden path and looked back at the house, Pete’s house. Pete’s and Barbara’s it would be. She might as well go on down to the road and set out now for Forestville and the jail and Grandpa. No use waiting to see them come back from their walk, all shining with happiness. She could not bear that. Walking like someone in a daze, she turned into the driveway, passed Ernie’s car and went on under the great oak trees.

  Ernie caught up with her, halfway to the gate. “Say, wait a minute.” He turned her around and looked at her. “Knocked for a loop! Well, there’s two of us. Where you going?”

  “To the jail. To Grandpa,” she said. The gay light was all gone from Ernie’s eyes, he had a stricken look. She marked it in the midst of her own dazed hurt.

  “Listen, kid. There’s no place for you at the jail.” He stood a moment in thought. Then he said, “I’ve got to go to Jackson. Lord know’s I don’t want to be here at the rejoicing, not any more than you do. You wait here. I’ll step back and pick up my car and tell them you’re coming along for the ride.” He did not wait for an answer but hurried back toward the house.

  Tammy walked slowly on. Ernie, too, she thought. Well, he would take her away for a ride. Maybe when she got away, she could think. Maybe in Ernie’s car the wind would blow this haze, this fogginess from her brain. Then she could take it in, that Pete was lost to her forever.

  The wind blew faster than any she had ever felt, even when a tempest blew along the river. Black clouds piled up, rain poured down. But she stayed in her hopeless blur. Ernie was sunk in his own thoughts. The rain-drenched fields and the woods flew by, the towns too, without her turning her head to see. They had no interest for her any more.

  Then Ernie began to talk. “Damn it all,” he said. “Just when I’m onto something big. Just when things for once were all going my way....I never gave up till now.”

  Tammy felt his despair that was like her own. “I saw you look at Barbara one day. I knew.”

  He laughed a short laugh, and his voice was bitter. “I’ve been in love with Barbara since we were in grammar school together. I’d have got her too, in spite of everything. Only Pete—he had to come into the picture, just before he left for overseas. Pete—tall, dark and handsome. So she ditched me for him. Hell, I said, and went on into the Army.”

  They rode in silence, Tammy feeling it a comfort to have Ernie. It was better than being alone. Without a flicker of interest, she saw they were coming into a city, weaving in and out of traffic. Ernie said, “Of course, you were licked from the start, poor kid. But that doesn’t make it any easier.”

  “Licked from the start,” Tammy repeated, hands twisting and turning in her lap as if they itched to be doing something about it, as if they upbraided her for being so still and beaten.

  The rain had stopped when Ernie turned the car into a sloping space along the edge of a sidewalk. “Now you just sit here, Tammy. I’ll be back in a little while. Then we’ll know whether to go jump in the lake or——You wait, hear me?”

  “Yes, Ernie, I’ll wait.”

  After he had gone, she began to look around, her wits working slowly. This was Jackson. Where they made the laws. Where they made the law that had put Grandpa in jail and sent her to Pete’s house. It was a horrible city. She hated all the people in it, hurrying along the walks, looking in the fine store windows, all dressed up in fancy clothes and hat and gloves, with the big buildings going up to the sky. It wearied her to see them.

  Then the car door jerked open and Ernie got in beside her. He looked as if lightning had struck him. He looked all on fire and shaken to pieces, too. When he took out a cigarette and lighted it, his hands were shaking. “What is it, Ernie? What on earth——”

  He leaned back and laughed. It looked as if he would never get done laughing. He wiped his eyes and blew his nose and said, “Well, it’s happened. Now of all times. A day earlier and it might have done some good.”

  “What are you talking about, Ernie? What’s the matter?”

  “That little piece of stumpy no-count land, that godforsaken hole down in the country, that place I’ve been trying to sell for the last ten years to keep from paying the taxes on it.” He turned to her. “Oil, baby. That’s what. Oil. The well’s come in. Black gold. Money, that’s what I’ve got. More money than you ever heard tell of. Ernie’s. Too late, but money just the same. And maybe it’s never too late for money. How about it? Shall we start celebrating? Drown our sorrow in riotous living?”

  “What—what do you mean?”

  “Come on, honey child, let’s go to it. Here’s the
town. Let’s eat, drink and be merry! Come on.” He caught her by the hand and pulled her toward him across the seat, flinging his door wide.

  Tammy pulled back, remembering her faded blue dress, her bare feet. “I can’t go nowhere, Ernie. I ain’t got my shoes, and my hair’s all blown.”

  Ernie looked at her. “True, little one.” He seemed to have got his spirits back all in one swoop. “But money! There’s nothing money can’t do. Say, this is going to be fun. Come on.”

  He pulled her out of the car and across the walk with people staring at them, stopping to look and point. He walked her through the big glass doors and into a store so large and fine that one could easily get lost in it. He led her quickly to the back, to where there was a wide door in the wall, and a man standing in a little room. Some people were coming out, others going in. Ernie pushed her ahead of him into the room. “Ladies’ clothes, please,” he said in an ordering tone.

  The door closed and they began to move—straight up! Tammy clung to Ernie, feeling her stomach drop down to her toes. No one showed any dismay, so Tammy clamped her lips together and let out no sound after the first gasp. They stopped, the door opened and some got out, some stayed. Again there was the terrible swoop of upward motion. Again they stopped and Ernie led her out to where she could stand on a solid floor. She swallowed and caught her breath. “What are you going to do with me now, Ernie?” She held tight to his arm, waiting for her stomach to get back into place.

  “You’ll see.” He led her across a carpeted open space.

  A beautiful lady with gold hair piled high came to meet them. She had on a silky black dress that fitted her shape so that anyone could see where everything was and no doubt about it. “Something for you, sir?” Her eyes were going over Tammy, startled and scornful, long-lashed, blue eyes.

  “Yes,” Ernie said. “I’d like to sit down and talk.”

  “This way, please.” She led them to some elegant seats and a long velvety sofa.

  Ernie sat down and lighted a cigarette, taking his time to it, while Tammy sat on the edge of the seat, tucking her bare feet back as far as she could and looking around in wonder. Beautiful dresses hung in long racks against the wall. False ladies, like the one she had seen when Ernie showed her Fairville, stood motionless, with dresses on them. Real ladies walked about in the wide spaces, all elegant with hats on and gloves, and other ladies, bareheaded, met them and said, “Something for you, madam?”

  Ernie tapped his ash on the velvet carpet. “Will you get me the head of the department, please?” he said, cool and commanding.

  The tall blonde lady stood a moment, as if she didn’t know what to do, looking from Ernie to Tammy and back again. “Certainly.” She went off with her nose in the air.

  After a while another lady came. She had white hair done in braids on top of her head. “Yes, sir?” she said, her eyes going to Tammy, sweeping over her, down to her bare toes.

  Ernie said, “Strip her and start all over. Everything. Give her the works.”

  “No, Ernie. Ain’t nobody going to strip me,” Tammy said.

  “Then strip yourself, sugar. We’re going to outfit you from-the skin out. Can you see to it for me?” he asked the lady.

  “Certainly, sir. I will send to the other departments for what’s needed.”

  “Ernie,” Tammy said, sitting straight and proud. “It ain’t decent. I won’t do it. All these people around! Your money’s put you out of your mind.” She shook her head at the tall lady. “I won’t do it. It ain’t decent.”

  The lady said, with a wondering look that covered them both and left her still wondering, “I will take you to a little private room where you can undress without being seen.”

  Ernie gave her a push. “Run on, baby. We can’t take all day to this. I’m getting thirsty.”

  Tammy looked from one to the other. “You mean you want to get me new drawers and...and everything?”

  “At last you get me.” Ernie grinned. “Lord, I thought I was past enjoying life. I thought sorrow’s cold hand had chilled my blood beyond all warming. But there’s life in the old boy yet. Beat it now, both of you.” He leaned back half smiling, drawing on his cigarette.

  Tammy followed the lady across the room, the carpet soft under her bare feet. They went through an open doorway and down a narrow passage, past curtained rooms. Tammy peeked into one as they passed and saw a woman nigh onto being plumb naked. They went on till they came to an empty room, curtained off and having many mirrors.

  “Here we are,” the lady said. “Now let’s get that dress off so I can take your size.” She measured Tammy with a long tape measure, trying it round her in several places. “You have a nice figure, a perfect fourteen. Now I’ll be a few minutes collecting things for you. Just sit down and wait.”

  But Tammy could not sit down yet. She stood before the center mirror and saw herself three times, coming and going and straight ahead. Then she walked around the little room. There was only one chair and a little shelf in the corner with pins and a small white comb. There was a window, too, looking out on a bare, blank, brick wall. Tammy pressed her face against the pane. It was about a mile down to the ground. She got dizzy, looking so far down. Then she took the comb from the shelf, hoping nobody would mind, and combed the tangles from her hair, standing in front of the looking glasses, seeing how her flour-sack petticoat hung limp around her legs, seeing herself three times over. It would be enough to drive a body crazy, she thought, if she had to look at herself multiplied like this all the time.

  Then the lady came back with boxes and, over her arms, a pile of white silky stuff. “Let’s get our clothes off now, dearie.”

  “You going to take yours off, too?”

  “Me? Certainly not. What are you talking about?”

  “You said our clothes.”

  “No, no. Here, let me help you.” She took hold of the petticoat.

  “I can do it.”

  “Now the...er...the other garment....Now just step into this little number. One of our newest. It’s a panty girdle.”

  “It ain’t got any opening,” Tammy said, turning it about. “Here, put your foot in. Now the other. Pull it up.”

  “Hell’s bells!” Tammy wriggled from side to side. “If I get in here, I ain’t ever going to come out again, that’s sure.”

  “Oh, you’ll get used to it. There. It’s a lovely fit.”

  “B-but supposing I have to go to the——”

  “You can just pull it down,” the lady said with impatience. “Now let’s try this bra.”

  “Whereabouts do I put it?”

  “I’ll show you. Hold out your arms. Now this slip.”

  “Slip? It’s a petticoat, a pretty petticoat for sure.” It slithered on like water against her skin, white silk with lace at the top and all around the bottom.

  “Now sit down and we’ll get our stockings on.”

  “You already got yours on,” Tammy said, and then realized that was just the way the lady talked. Maybe she figgered they were still her stockings till Ernie paid for them. “These-here things are going to cost a sight of money,” she said, troubled.

  “The gentleman does not wish the cost to enter into our choice. Easy, now. These are our fifty-one gauge, best quality—Night Mist.”

  “Don’t seem much point in putting on anything you can’t see. I’m as naked with as without.”

  “That’s why we recommend them so highly.” She fastened them up with the snappers that dangled from the girdle. “Now, try these shoes. I think they are the right size. I’ll get the other things.”

  Tammy sat down by the hardest. She was bound round her middle and her hips like a sore finger. She studied the shoes and thought they were mostly heels. “Can’t get my foot into any such foolishment as that,” she said. But somehow it went in. When she stood she nearly fell over. “Like that pair of stilts Grandpa made me one time. I reckon I can get around on them if I go easy, but I can’t go far, that’s sure.”

  Th
e lady was standing there watching, a dress and a bunch of pink flowers in her hand. “Your gentleman friend suggests this little ensemble.” She held it up. “It looks better on. Just lift your arms. That’s it.”

  Tammy moved her hands down over her sides, feeling the softness of silk. She looked at herself in the slim, straight gray dress and she shook her head. Pete would not see her. What was the use?

  “Don’t you like it?”

  “Ain’t it kind of bare in front?” She pointed to the deep V.

  “There’s a short cape.” The lady put it around her shoulders, a gray silk cape lined with rose just the color of the buttons down the front. It fastened at her throat and fell in graceful folds that rippled when she moved. “And now the hat.” She set it on Tammy’s head and then stepped back, clapping her hands and smiling for the first time. “I wouldn’t know you for the same! It’s the most amazing thing. Just shows what clothes will do.”

  Tammy studied herself in the looking glasses, equally amazed. The hat was little more than a circle of pink roses, but beautiful. She was dressed as fine as Barbara ever was, and she looked just as nice—only what good, now, to be so fine? Still, there was no denying that even in the midst of her grief it was a comfort to see how she looked. “I wouldn’t know myself, for a fact,” she said.

  When she got out into the open part of the store, Ernie did not know her either, for a minute. “Jeepers!” He stood blinking at her. “A slick chick, if I ever saw one.” He whistled.

  “Do you like it?”