Carry Me Home Page 20

  Ma is all busy baking cinnamon rolls and pies for the baking contest, and me and Jimmy and LJ, we is in the garage making a kite for LJ to fly in the little kids’ kite-flying contest. The kid with the kite that flies the highest wins. LJ is all happy ’cause Jimmy’s making him an army kite, just like he wants. Jimmy says it’s gonna be the biggest goddamn kite there, but Jimmy don’t say “goddamn” in front of LJ, ’cause LJ’s got a cussing problem, so Eva Leigh says nobody can cuss around him no more.

  Jimmy makes the kite shaped like a Stuart tank ’cause LJ likes army tanks. He don’t paint the tank with the sides falled off, though. I cut the sticks first, right where Jimmy telled me to, and now I am ripping up stuff for the tail while Jimmy paints the kite. He paints a big-ass red V right over the tank, then he starts painting words inside that V. I know what the words say too, ’cause while he’s painting ’em, he reads ’em out loud. That kite, it says, Remember the Janesville 99 in blue paint, and under that, it says, The Battling Bastards of Bataan. He writes them words in red, and he says that’s for Red Lawson.

  “This kite here is gonna be the best goddamn kite at that picnic, LJ. You’re gonna win a blue ribbon, for sure!”

  The next day, Dad’s eyes are rolling in his head when Ma gets to harping while he’s trying to put them pies and rolls she baked for the contest in the backseat just right.

  “Hank, that apple pie is going to slip right off the seat if you leave it there! Tuck it over alongside the rolls. No, not like that! Oh, for crying out loud. Move, Hank, I’ll do it myself.” All her fussing makes me damn glad I’m gonna ride to the picnic with Jimmy, Eva Leigh, and LJ.

  “Those pies and rolls look and smell delicious, Mrs. Gunderman,” Eva Leigh says, after Ma gets everything lined up perfect-like on the seat. “You’ll win first prize in both categories, I’ll bet.”

  Ma, she’s got the nerves. “Well, I can only hope, but Edna Pritchard has won both categories for as long as I can remember.”

  That picnic is right at the park that sits smack-dab alongside of Spring Lake. When we get there the road is already lined up with cars and there is folks all over the place, carrying blankets and baskets and stuff.

  “Hey, Earwig,” Jimmy says. “How about you and me signing up for the three-legged race?”

  I think my eyes is gonna pop right outta my head when Jimmy says that. “You ain’t gonna run it with Dad like you used to, Jimmy?”

  Dad laughs. “I think this old fart better stick to contests he can win. Like the pie-eating contest.” I tell him maybe that’s a good idea.

  That three-legged race, that’s when two guys tie their inside legs with a rope so it looks like they has got three legs altogether, instead of four. Then they gotta run like hell to that finish line. I ain’t never runned the three-legged race before, but I’m gonna now, and Ma and Dad and Eva Leigh and LJ and Eddie and a whole buncha other folks is gonna watch.

  Jimmy, he’s shorter than me, so our knees ain’t in the same place, but Jimmy says that don’t matter. As Jimmy ties the rope tight around our legs, Eddie tells us to watch out for the Banks boys, ’cause they run like the wind.

  When Jimmy gets our legs tied up so tight that the rope is pinching, we hop on over to the start line. We is stuck together so tight that we gotta hold each other around the waist or we can’t move. Sam from the barber shop, he’s the guy who’s gonna tell us when to go.

  “Don’t pay attention to the guys behind us or on the side of us, Earwig,” Jimmy says, talking real fast so he can finish saying what he’s gotta say before Sam starts the race. “Just keep your eyes on the finish line and run like a jackrabbit.”

  Sam, he steps up to where us guys is standing on the line, and he shouts, “Okay, gentlemen, good luck! On your mark. Get ready . . .” Then Sam, he lifts a pistol from his side, and, pow! That gun goes off, and so does the crowd, hooting and hollering like we’s got a pack of coyotes on our asses.

  I move my legs soon as I hear the shot, but Jimmy don’t. That leg of his, it just stands straight like a fence post stuck in the ground.

  I look down at Jimmy as I’m dragging him along, but I can’t see nothing but the top of his head. I don’t need to see his face, though, to know that his legs got the freezes. The rest of his body don’t, though. I can feel it shaking like it’s a freeze-your-ass-off winter day, instead of a hot summer one.

  “Jimmy!” I yell, but it’s like he ain’t hearing me. I’m moving best I can, but I can tell Jimmy’s loose leg is just scuffing across the ground, slowing us down.

  There ain’t nothing I can do then ’cept take the arm I got wrapped around his waist and yank so that his leg that’s dragging behind comes up offa the ground. I lean all tipped to the side, my hip poked out like Eva Leigh’s used to be when she carried LJ, and I run like a jackrabbit, just like Jimmy telled me to.

  There is five pairs of racers ahead of us. Two of ’em is Skeeter Banks and his brother, Charlie, and they is way out in front of the rest of us guys. That Skeeter, he turns his head around, sees me and Jimmy lagging behind, and he gives me a grin. That little bastard. I know he’s gonna tease the shit outta me at work if he wins, so I run all the harder.

  Out the corner of my eye I can see Eddie and LJ running right alongside us, egging us on. “Faster, Earwig! Faster!” So I run faster.

  Jimmy, he’s still freezed up, and he’s still shaking. I yell down to him, “Run, Jimmy, run!” I get us right up next to Skeeter and Charlie when I feel Jimmy start to thaw. Then I lean up straighter so his other foot can get back on the ground, and Jimmy, he starts running hard too.

  Skeeter and Charlie Banks cuss up a storm when we pass ’em. That crowd is just going nuts. I see Ruby Leigh standing there in her tight red dress, and I know damn well she’s gonna give me a hug if we win, squishing her pointy titties right up against me. I grunt real loud and that grunt goes right down into my legs, making them move even faster. When that happens, me and Jimmy, we get across that finish line first!

  I am panting and laughing at the same time when people start swarming us like bees, banging on our backs and buzzing about how damn good I runned. And just like I thought, Ruby Leigh, she gives me a big-titty squeeze.

  I’m so goddamn happy it takes me a little while to figure out that Jimmy is leaned over, grabbing at the rope that is strung around our legs like that rope is on fire and he’s gonna fry if he don’t get it off.

  Not paying any mind to the guys who is slapping my back now, I brush Jimmy’s fumbly-jumbly fingers out of the way and untie the rope. Jimmy shakes his leg out of the loops and disappears into the crowd. Eva Leigh, who’s standing nearby, she sees Jimmy leave and she disappears too.

  Jimmy ain’t around when Sam starts handing out the ribbons. Sam takes the blue ribbon first and hands it to me, and I know that means me and Jimmy are the number-one guys.

  I’m showing Ma and Dad the ribbon when I see Jimmy and Eva Leigh disappear into a clump of trees at the end of the park. “You did a damn fine job,” Dad says, but Ma, she don’t say nothing ’cept, “Earl, is your brother okay?”

  I wait by the quilt stand ’til Jimmy and Eva Leigh step out into the park. Jimmy’s got his arm wrapped around Eva Leigh’s waist and she’s resting her head on his shoulder.

  I hold up the ribbon and wave it as I run it over to Jimmy.

  Jimmy takes the ribbon and looks down at it, then he looks at me and smiles a bit. “Well, you did it, Earwig. You won yourself a blue ribbon.”

  “We won it, Jimmy. Not just me. Our two legs, they was tied together like two halfa legs put together to make one whole leg. We was a team, Jimmy, and we winned it together.”

  I don’t hardly even get them words out when a thought pops into my head. That’s what me and Jimmy is! We is half brothers, tied together so tight that we make whole brothers. And ain’t that something!

  “That ribbon sure is going to look fine hanging in your room,” Jimmy says, and I tell him I’ll hang it in my room for a time, then he can hang it
in his. “We’ll take turns keeping it, Jimmy, ’cause this ribbon is for both of us.”

  Jimmy, he pats me on the back then and he laughs and says, “Who’s stronger, Captain Midnight or Superman?”

  “You are, Jimmy,” I say.

  And Jimmy says, “No, Earwig. You are.”

  We don’t even get to where all the people are when LJ and Eddie come running up. “It’s time for the kite contest, Jimmy! Hurry, get my kite. The kids are lining up already!”

  “Then we’d better get our butts moving,” Jimmy says. Jimmy and Eva Leigh give each other a little smile, then Jimmy drops his arm from her and runs off with LJ and Eddie to get the kite out of his car.

  Me and Eddie and Jimmy and Eva Leigh, we go right over to where the people is lined up along the rope and we wait for Dieter Pritchard, who is judging the kite-flying contest, to tell the kids they can start.

  Some of them little kids, they can’t even get their kites off the ground, even though the wind is kicking up plenty good. They run and jerk their strings, but them kites just hop across the grass and plop over like they is drunk. There is mas and dads screaming all over the place, telling the little kids what to do, but lots of them littler ones can’t do much of anything but bawl and stomp. But not LJ and the bigger kids. Their kites take off like rockets, filling the sky.

  LJ, he is doing real good—leastways ’til that kite gets up real, real high. Then you can see he’s got a problem. His feet are popping right off the ground, ’til only the toes of his sneakers is skimming the grass. “Whoa!” LJ yells.

  “Holy shit,” I say, “LJ’s gonna get sucked right up into the sky!” And Eddie, he starts to laughing so hard he doubles over.

  “Hang on there, LJ!” Jimmy shouts. “I’m coming!”

  Them people, they are all laughing ’til they sound like a flock of geese when Jimmy kneels down and takes ahold of LJ’s ankles. Jimmy holds on ’til that kite is flying so high that there ain’t nobody but God who can read them words Jimmy wrote.

  After a long time, Dieter Pritchard, he looks at his pocket watch and yells, “Time’s up!” Me and Eddie and Ruby Leigh, we start cheering good ’cause we know that LJ’s kite is flying the highest.

  Dieter Pritchard, he goes out to where the kids are and he holds his hand up against the sun and gawks and gawks, ’cause it’s him who’s gotta say who won first and second and third. It takes him so long that after a while some other guys go out to help him gawk. I think it’s a whole lotta fuss for nothing, ’cause anybody who ain’t blind from starving can see that LJ’s kite is flying the highest—and I’m pretty damn sure that Dieter Pritchard ain’t starving.

  We all think LJ’s won that kite-flying contest, sure as shit, but that ain’t what Dieter Pritchard thinks. When he gives out them ribbons he gives the blue one to Sally Banks, even though her goddamn kite didn’t get nearly as high as LJ’s. Then he gives them other two ribbons to two boys who is big as men.

  “Hey!” Ruby Leigh shouts out. “LJ Leigh’s kite flew the highest, you asshole!”

  Mr. Pritchard, he is wearing a grin that don’t look nice at all. “LJ here was disqualified, miss. The rules say the children have to fly their kites themselves, and LJ here, well, he had a little help.”

  “But LJ flied that kite fair and square, Mr. Pritchard,” I shout. “And that blue ribbon oughta be his. Jimmy didn’t even touch the string. He just kept ahold of LJ’s feet so he wouldn’t get sucked up into the sky!” This makes everybody snicker louder.

  Ma comes over to me and she pinches my arm, and that means I gotta shut up.

  LJ sure is bawling up a storm when them kids that won ribbons run past him, their ribbons flapping like flags. Pritchard is yammering about what time this starts and what time that starts. He is so busy flapping his gums that he don’t seem to notice that LJ has breaked out of Eva Leigh’s hold and is charging at him. “You dirty, lying son of a bitch! I won first place fair and square!” LJ starts kicking Mr. Pritchard in the shin. “Where’s my blue ribbon? I want my goddamn ribbon!”

  “LJ, you get back here!” Eva Leigh yells.

  Mr. Pritchard plunks his hand down on LJ’s head, trying to hold him back, but it ain’t helping much ’cause LJ’s legs is stretching like rubber bands. Before Jimmy can get through the people to get a hold of LJ, LJ hauls off and kicks Pritchard right in the nut sack. Dieter Pritchard grabs his balls and flops on the ground, moaning and groaning like he’s dying.

  “Oh, grab him, Jimmy,” Eva Leigh yells.

  Most of the ladies gasp, but some of them guys drinking beers, they start to laughing ’til they’re howling. LJ gets one good kick to Pritchard’s ass before Jimmy picks LJ up and slings him up over his shoulder. Eva Leigh and me follow Jimmy, and poor Eva Leigh looks like she wants to cry, with everybody staring at her boy like they is.

  We walk over by the trees where there ain’t no people. LJ ain’t kicking no more, so Jimmy sets him down. He rubs the top of LJ’s head. “It’ll be okay, little buddy. We know you won.” LJ grinds his fists into his eyes.

  Eva Leigh leans over and yanks LJ by the arm so he’s gotta look at her when she yells at him for swearing and for what he done to Mr. Pritchard. “I don’t care what happened, you can’t go kicking people like that, LJ.” Then she hugs him.

  I feel bad for LJ. Even if he does got the orneries like his daddy, he did win that contest fair and square, and he oughta have a blue ribbon to show for it. I look down at the blue ribbon that is flapping against my shirt. I unwind the cord I got strung around my button, and I hand me and Jimmy’s blue ribbon to LJ. “Here, LJ,” I say. “You winned a blue ribbon fair and square.”

  LJ looks up at me and sniffles his snot back up his nose.

  “Go on, LJ,” I say. “You winned it, fair and square.”

  Eva Leigh looks like she’s gonna cry when LJ snatches that ribbon and holds it right to his nose to look at how shiny and pretty it is. She reaches up and gives me a kiss, right on the cheek, and whispers a thank you in my ear. Jimmy, he slaps me on the back, and he looks so proud that I don’t hardly care that I ain’t got a blue ribbon no more.

  Chapter 26

  It ain’t more than a night later when Molly Franks comes into the Ten Pin before the teams start bowling. I can’t hardly believe my eyes when I see it’s her everybody is staring at, ’cause she’s dressed up like a movie star.

  She stands just inside the door, takes off her hat, and looks around like she’s looking for somebody. It don’t take no smart guy to figure out who she’s looking for.

  Eva Leigh looks over at the door to see what I’m gawking at.

  “It’s Molly Franks,” I say. At first that name don’t seem to clank no bell in Eva Leigh’s head, but then must be it does, ’cause all of a sudden her face droops. She looks over at the bar where she thinks Jimmy is, but he ain’t there.

  Molly goes up to Bottoms Conner and asks him something. Bottoms looks around a bit, shrugs, then points over to where I’m standing.

  I get the nerves when Molly starts walking over to me. She is still tiny and cute like a piece of candy.

  “Hi, Earl,” she says, and when she smiles a little I can see that her teeth is still lined up in a neat row like buttons. Eva Leigh, she is busy renting out shoes to the Texaco team, but I can see she’s watching us outta the corner of her eye. I want to say hi to Molly, but I don’t want Eva Leigh thinking I’m a two-timey friend.

  “My, I just can’t get over how much you’ve grown. You were a boy when I moved to Chicago, but now look at you. How are you, Earl?”

  I don’t wanna say nothing, but Molly, she just stands there waiting for me to answer, so finally I say, “I’m okay.”

  Molly looks around a bit. She’s biting her pink lip. “Earl, I was hoping Jimmy would be here. Do you know where he is?”

  I ain’t even got time to think up a lie, ’cause Jimmy, he steps out of the shitter right then. Molly sees him too, and her breath sucks in like a wind has caught her in the face.
Jimmy goes straight to the counter and picks up the three pop bottles Ruby Leigh’s set out for him. He starts heading our way, then stops all of a sudden and goes back to the bar.

  “Excuse me, Earl,” Molly says. And then that two-timer, she marches right over to the bar and puts her hand on Jimmy’s arm.

  I wanna say something to Eva Leigh, ’cause she’s standing there looking at me like she don’t know what to do next, but I don’t know what to say, so I don’t say nothing. I go over to the bar and I sit myself right down on the stool next to Jimmy’s. Ruby Leigh, she is looking like maybe she wants to dig Molly’s eyes right out of her head.

  Jimmy is fumbling in his shirt pocket. He pulls out his Camels and matches and calls to Ruby Leigh to bring him a beer. Ruby Leigh, she pours Jimmy a beer and plops it down so hard that some slops down the outside of the glass. She looks at Molly and says, “You want something?” Molly shakes her head and says no.

  “I’ll bet,” Ruby Leigh says. She goes to the other side of the bar and lights a cigarette. She watches Molly and Jimmy through squinty eyes.

  “You look good, Jimmy,” Molly says. But Jimmy, he don’t look so good to me. His face is turning red, and you can see his heart beating in his neck.

  Molly is holding a tiny purse that’s got beads stuck all over it. She starts picking at ’em while she waits for Jimmy to say something.

  “What are you doing here, Molly?” Jimmy finally says.

  “I came back to help my mother with my father. You heard he had a stroke, didn’t you?”

  “No, I mean, what are you doing here?”

  Molly looks ready to cry ’cause Jimmy’s voice sounds mad. I can’t help feeling a little sorry for her, even if she is a two-timer.

  “Is there someplace we can talk?”

  “Isn’t that what we’re doing?”