How High the Moon Read online

  Teddy mopped up the mess, then propped the soup pot under the leak, which was running like a faucet. I liked the sound of those water drops hitting the denty bottom of the pot, plip, plop, plip, plop, but Teddy sure didn’t.

  “Hey, Teddy,” I said “You sure are cranky this morning. You worried about missing a couple days of work because you won’t make as much money on payday? Especially now that you have that bad bill?”

  “Bad bill?” Teddy asked.

  “Yeah. You know. The one you were looking at when I came back from my first Sunshine meeting. You haven’t been yourself since then, Teddy.”

  Teddy didn’t say anything, so I just hummed a little.

  “Hey, Teddy. Can you believe how good Charlie can play piano?” I said while Teddy rinsed off the mop in the sink. “He doesn’t even need a sheet of music to play. Brenda said that’s called playing by ear. Look at how good he could play ‘How High the Moon’ the first time he tried, and he’s never even heard that song on the radio, just me singing it. Lots of people tell me I sing with heart. I didn’t even know what that meant, until I heard Charlie play. Charlie plays with heart, doesn’t he, Teddy?”

  “Yes he does,” Teddy said.

  “Hey, did you like the little show we put on for you last night?” I asked, hoping to make Teddy smile, since I wasn’t having much luck making him talk.

  Teddy got the eggs out of the refrigerator so we could have breakfast. “I sure did,” he said, answering in the same tone he used when he asked me if I brushed my teeth before bed.

  “I think we sound like a real act, don’t you? Charlie can’t play fast songs as fast as they should be played, but he doesn’t miss a note.

  “Hey, Teddy. Did you hear me? I said, ‘… he doesn’t miss a note,’ instead of don’t. Can you believe it? And I’ll bet I haven’t said ain’t or gonna even once today. Well, maybe once. I sure am learning how to talk good from listening to Brenda, though, aren’t I?

  “Speaking of Brenda, she hasn’t been able to get a hold of Les Paul and Mary Ford’s agent yet, but did I tell you who we did get booked?”

  Teddy said I hadn’t, so while he cooked our eggs, my mouth started leaking like a roof fixed by a poor man. “Louis Prima and Keely Smith! They’re coming all the way from Las Vegas for a one-nighter. Can you believe it? Brenda said he’s funny as can be on stage, jumping all over the place like a wild man and making folks laugh. Brenda saw him in New York back when he had an orchestra twenty-seven people big. Course, he’s not bringing a band that size to the Starlight. But he’s bringing Keely, and everybody loves her.

  “And Mimi Hines is coming with Phil Ford. I never heard of them before, but Mrs. Bloom said that Mimi Hines is one of the most underrated singers there is today. I guess she’s funny, too. Mrs. Bloom showed Miss Hines’s eight-by-ten glossy at the big meeting we had with all the Sisters so we could tell them about the gala. Boy, did those girls go nuts when they heard we were going to be in the show! Some of them happy-nuts, like I went when I heard, but others, like Mindy Brewer, went scared-nuts.”

  Teddy set my plate on the table and told me to sit down, then he went to get the ketchup for his eggs.

  “Mindy’s a Sunshine Sister who isn’t real pretty because her top teeth stick out like this,” I said as I pulled out my chair, and I showed Teddy by poking my top teeth out and hanging them over my bottom lip. “Her hair used to be all snarly, too, but it’s not like that anymore, now that she’s learning how to be respectable. Anyway, Mindy and her Big Sister were sitting at the same table as Brenda and me. And when Mrs. Bloom held up Mimi Hines’s eight-by-ten glossy, I leaned over and said in her ear, ‘Wow, Mindy. You’ve got the same teeth as a famous lady.’ Mimi’s aren’t as pokey-outie as Mindy’s, but she’s got some big choppers on her, for sure. Mindy put her hand over her mouth like she always does when she smiles, but when Mrs. Bloom set Mimi’s picture back on the table, Mindy was still staring at it.

  “I’m going to have to get one of those eight-by-ten glossies when I become a singing sensation,” I said. “Brenda doesn’t know how much they cost.”

  Teddy didn’t eat but a few bites before he set his fork down and got up. He scraped the rest of his eggs and a triangle of toast into the garbage—even if there were kids starving in Africa—then he put his dirty plate in the sink and stood at the window.

  “Is the rain going to stop soon, Teddy?” I asked as I licked yolk from my fork. “I’ve got a Sunshine Sisters meeting at ten o’clock.”

  “Sooner or later,” Teddy said while he watched the sky.

  “Boy, Teddy, there sure is a lot to do to make a gala. By the time we’re set up, practically everybody in town will be helping. The city orchestra is going to play for the filler acts and some music while people are getting seated. Brenda has to find the local acts, have programs and posters printed up, figure out our costumes… all sorts of things. I try to keep track of it all so I can help Brenda better, but even with our to-do list, I forget. So mostly I let Brenda tell me what to do. She is my boss, after all, even if she is my Big Sister.”

  Teddy turned to me, the corners of his mouth curling up for the first time all morning. “You really like Brenda, don’t you?” he said.

  “I sure do, Teddy. She’s about the nicest person I ever met. We got all these plans to be made and she’s real busy because Mrs. Bloom delegates to her all the time because she’s trying to get that drive-in theater up and running. Can you believe it, Teddy? A drive-in theater right here in Mill Town. Busy or not, through, Brenda never gets crabby or bullheaded like I can sometimes when you ask me to do something. And it doesn’t matter how much I sing, or how much I chatter, her eyes never get twitchy at me. Not ever.”

  Teddy was sipping his coffee and trying to look like he was listening, even if he had that faraway look on his face again, like I was a game of Scrabble he couldn’t concentrate on. I couldn’t roll my eyes at him, being the respectable work in progress that I was, but I wanted to.

  “And look at this, Teddy…” I pulled my sweater off one sleeve and bent my elbow to show him. “You know how these were all cracked and grubby looking? That wasn’t even dirt, Teddy. Brenda and I were upstairs having our second meeting, and it can get hot as the blazes up there and I got all sweaty, so Brenda told me to take off my sweater. What choice did I have but to ’fess up to having an elbow affliction? After all, that’s what she’s supposed to be helping me with. My afflictions. Who would have thought it was just dry skin, huh? Brenda brought me a bottle of skin lotion to put on them.”

  I ran into my bedroom and came back with my bottle of Jergens. “See, Teddy?” I unscrewed the black cap and poured a dab on my hand, rubbing it into my elbows good. “I’m putting it on every morning and every night, and they not only look better, they don’t feel tight and sore anymore, either. Now my elbows smell just like Brenda’s hands.” I stuck my elbow under Teddy’s nose. “Here, take a whiff.”

  “Nice,” Teddy said. “And Mrs. Bloom?”

  “Oh, I doubt that a rich lady who looks like Marlene Dietrich would get scaly elbows, Teddy.”

  “No, I meant, do you like her, too?”

  “Yeah,” I said. I didn’t tell him that Mrs. Bloom was one of those people Mrs. Fry would say ran hot and cold. But she was. Sometimes she was nothing but a bossy queen, ordering everybody around and acting like she was going to chop their heads off if they didn’t move fast enough or do things right. And sometimes, that somebody was me. Like when I talked too much, or touched things I shouldn’t. But other times, she could be real nice. I hurried to think of something nice she’d done or said. “She let me pick out a candy from the case once, and she says I’ll be the best singer of all the Little Sisters.”

  Teddy took his cup from the counter and poured more coffee into it to make it hotter, then waited for it to cool—which always made me wonder why people didn’t just drink it cooled off in the first place. But that was grown-ups for you. What they did didn’t always make sense.
/>   Teddy looked out the window again. “Looks like the rain’s finally let up,” he said.

  And sure enough Charlie was at our door. “I had to wait so I wouldn’t get wet and sick,” he said when I let him in, like I didn’t know that already.

  “I got time to play a little before we have to go?” he asked, and I told him he had time for one song while I finished getting ready. Charlie held out his hands to show me they were clean. “You didn’t wash them when it was lightning, did you, Charlie?” I asked. He shook his head, then sat down at the piano while I went to find my shoes. “Hey Charlie, you know the song ‘Sisters’?” I yelled into the living room. Charlie called back that he didn’t, so I told him I’d teach it to him once I learned it better, since I’d only heard it that one time while watching the movie from the catwalk. “Did I tell you that there’s a dance teacher who lives over by the Starlight who’s going to be our music director and chorusographer? His name is Jay. Not Mr. Jay. Just Jay. Brenda said he can dance as good as Fred Astaire. We’re going to sing with real dance steps and feather fans, just like in the movie.

  “Hey, Teddy,” I yelled, extra-loud. “Did I tell you that the Starlight’s getting a grand piano? The Blooms bought that empty building right next to the Starlight, the one that used to be a furniture store, and that’s where they’re going to keep it during regular movies. They’re going to have a big warm-up room for dancers and musicians in there, and some dressing rooms.” Charlie yelled back that Teddy was in the bathroom and he didn’t think he’d heard me, so I went back to talking to Charlie. Yelling extra-loud when I shoved my head under my bed to look for my other shoe.

  “That’s the place that’s got a ramp out back, in the parking lot, Charlie. The one I like scootering down.” I finally spotted my other shoe and pulled it out. “I don’t know why I have to wait until that piano comes before I get to hear Brenda sing, though, Charlie. I asked her why she can’t just sing to the music that plays in her head, like I do, but she won’t.”

  I didn’t even know if Charlie was listening to me anymore, since he was pianoing now, but on the hunch that he was, I kept talking. “Hey, Charlie, isn’t it nice that once Brenda learned that you come with me every day, she said you can come inside when you need to use the bathroom, or get thirsty? Course, don’t go hogging too many soda pops, Charlie. That would be impolite.”

  I dug in my drawer looking for two matching socks. I never rolled my socks together even if Teddy said it was a job I should be doing, but I had good reasons not to. If they were rolled, I had to unroll them to see if they had holes in the toes. I found a pair without holes, even if they weren’t exactly the same shade of blue, then sat on the floor to put them on.

  “Hey, Charlie. Now that you can come inside, you’ll get to see the grand piano when it comes. Well, Johnny would have let you come in and take a peek anyway. He’s nice that way.”

  I was glad neither Teddy or Charlie could see me when I said Johnny’s name. Especially Teddy, since the last time I said Johnny in front of him, he slipped his hand up under my bangs to check me for a fever because he said my face was flushed.

  When Teddy got out of the bathroom, his face looked Jergens-smooth but for five little scraps of toilet paper stuck on where he’d nicked himself with the razor. Probably because he had to shave with his left hand. “Where you going, Teddy, all shaved and wearing your good shirt?” I asked.

  “I have to run to the bank,” Teddy said.

  “Why? It’s not Friday. They give you an advance since you won’t be working on Friday?”

  “Just business,” Teddy said.

  “Oh,” I said, then I dipped into the bathroom to brush my hair.

  Teddy and Charlie and me left the house at the same time, so while I wiped the rain off my scooter’s handlebars with the hem of my shirt, I whispered to Charlie we’d better cross the street like we were taking that side—at least until Teddy got out of sight—even if the cussing Taxi Stand Ladies wouldn’t be out this early. So that’s what we did. Stood in front of the Jackson house, me taking my sweet time tying my shoes to make it look good until Teddy turned the corner.

  When we got to the Starlight, I turned my scooter over to Charlie and was about to step inside when Johnny called to me to wait so him and Doug could get out the door first. They were carrying the short row of Starlight seats that used to sit up front, on the side.

  “Hey, what you doing with those?” I asked as they tilted the seats to get them through the door, Johnny cussing at Doug to tilt them more.

  “They’re going to the dump,” Johnny said.

  “Nooooooo!” I said. “Good seats like this?” I ran my hand over the red velvet cushions as Johnny glided them out and told me to watch my fingers. “Why are you taking them to the dump?”

  “Because that’s what the boss lady told us to do,” Johnny said, and Doug added, “I’d like to tell her to shove them up her ass—these suckers are heavy!”

  “I wish those seats could come to my house instead of the dump,” I said as they carried them over to the Perkins truck.

  “Now, what would you do with theater seats, Teaspoon?” Johnny asked with laugh.

  “Have a piece of the Starlight magic at my house,” I said.

  I was about to step inside to see the hole the missing seats made when Johnny called to me, “The Blooms aren’t in there, Teaspoon.”

  I headed back to the truck. “What do you mean they’re not in there? Me and Brenda have a meeting.”

  “The old bag was snooping around the stage and fell on her ass,” Doug said, and I turned around. Doug laughed as he wiped his hand across his forehead, then pulled a pack of Marlboros out of his shirt pocket. “Hey, Jackson. You like the way Perkins hurried over there to kiss her owie… probably afraid she’s going to sue his ass now.

  “Damn hysterical if you ask me, her screaming over a little twist of the ankle like that.”

  Johnny jumped off the truck and grabbed Doug’s cigarette, taking two quick puffs before handing it back. “Shut up, shit head,” he said, giving a sideways glance at me.

  Doug didn’t stop, though. “And that Brenda, getting all rattle-assed waiting for the ambulance to come.”

  Charlie’s face went white when he heard the word ambulance.

  “I didn’t hear no ambulance, did you?” I asked Charlie. “But maybe that was when it was storming bad.” He didn’t answer.

  “Course, she would get rattled. She won’t even know when to wipe her ass without her ma there to tell her.”

  “Man,” I said. “First Teddy gets hurt, now Mrs. Bloom. I hope she’s not hurt bad.”

  Mel poked his head out of the door just then and said, “The rest of these seats aren’t gonna carry themselves out, dipsticks.”

  Doug tossed his cigarette down and they headed for the door just as Mr. Morgan was coming around the corner from the alley. Johnny started telling Mr. Morgan that the Blooms weren’t around, and Mr. Morgan said he knew that, but Brenda had called and asked him to come in and lock up after they left for the day. Doug shook his head and spit on the sidewalk, then grumbled something to Johnny. Johnny didn’t say nothing, though, except, “See ya, Teaspoon.”

  I caught Mr. Morgan before he followed Johnny and Doug inside and asked him if Mrs. Bloom was hurt real bad, but he just shrugged. “Brenda didn’t say, an’ I didn’t ask. None of my business.”

  Me and Charlie didn’t have nothing to do but head back home, since Mr. Morgan said that he didn’t think it would be a good idea to let us two in again without permission.

  “Boy, Charlie,” I said after I was done blabbing about Mrs. Bloom’s ankle and how I didn’t like that Doug, “wouldn’t an Orange Crush taste good right about now? If Brenda was around, we could have gotten one, too, because I think today’s my payday. It’s been two weeks since I started my job, and I get paid every two weeks, just like Teddy. I don’t know how much money I got coming, but I’m going to buy us each a Pez dispenser.”

  Charli
e grinned.

  “Wow, Charlie,” I said as we moved down Bloom Avenue. “I’m not even having to slow way down so you can keep up. And you aren’t even sweating real bad like usual. Your shirt’s getting baggier, too.”

  Charlie looked down and shrugged. “Grandma G keeps asking me if I’m feeling sick, but Teddy told her it’s probably from all the scootering I’m doing at the Starlight.”

  “Must be,” I said. And then, “I think maybe we’re both getting rid of some of our afflictions, Charlie. You notice how I’m being nicer, and not saying ain’t and gonna as much now?”

  “Yeah,” Charlie said. “And you ain’t humming so much anymore, either.”

  “Really?” I said. “Huh. I wasn’t even trying to fix that one.”

  I looked over at Charlie, making ready to ask him if I still sang all the time like I used to, when he stopped, his face going marshmallow-white. “What’s the matter?” I asked.

  Charlie pointed down the street. There was a cop car parked at the corner, the Taxi Stand Ladies standing next to it.

  “Come on,” I said, “let’s go see what’s up.”

  Charlie looked like he needed to burp as he stood there, refusing to budge. “They taking them to jail?” he asked.

  “Now, why would a cop take them to jail, Charlie? The Taxi Stand Ladies aren’t crooks.”

  I scootered to the corner while Charlie stayed glued to the sidewalk. I reached the cross-street just as Ralph’s taxi did. I expected him to stop, but he just rolled by.

  I wasn’t afraid of high places, like Charlie, and I wasn’t afraid of police officers, either. So I butted right in front of the Taxi Stand Ladies when I reached the blue-and-white car. “Oh, I know you!” I said, as I hung my hands on the rolled-down edge of his window. “Your name is Officer Tim. You came to our school after Mr. Morgan’s little sister got hit by a car, a long time ago. You showed us how to make hand signals when we ride bikes.”