A Life for a Life, Lynda McDaniel [best books to read for students txt] 📗

Mama baked my favorite cake—apple nut—for my sixteenth birthday. She made the icing by boiling brown sugar and butter and evaporated milk and poured it on the day before so it could soak down into the cake. Usually, she had to hide the leftovers from me, but that year it was pretty well picked over. I didn’t mind because instead of a sorry little celebration with just the three of us, we all got together like a big family, including Della, Cousin Ned, and even Cleva. She knew Mama from way back. Actually, everybody in town knew each other, except for Alex, who came back just for my birthday!

Mama and Daddy gave me a watch, and Della slipped fifty bucks inside a funny card. Cleva handed me a card with a note about how she was gonna coach me through the driving rule book. (Cousin Ned had already gave me one, and I’d started studying on my own, but I sure needed help.) And the best surprise was driving lessons from Alex. In the Merc! He’d checked with Mama and Daddy first, and they said sure. I bet they did, so happy they wouldn’t have to keep telling me no.

We didn’t waste any time getting started. The next day, Alex knocked on our door, and said howdy to Mama and Daddy and thanked them for last night. He was real polite like that. Then we headed out.

“So where do you want to drive to?” Alex asked, handing me the keys.

“I’ve been thinking about that, and I want to go back to the Rollin’ Store route, the one I showed you. I want folks to see me driving, and besides, it’s out of all the traffic.” He snorted for some reason; maybe he was allergic to what was bloomin’ now. I got that sometimes.

Anyways, I sat behind the wheel and turned the key. The feeling was hard to describe—powerful, grownup, fun, all at the same time. As I slowly pulled out of the driveway, I noticed the curtain in our big front window moved. I did all right with the gears, and Alex didn’t even seem to mind when I ground ‘em a time or two. “I’ve done that before,” was all he said.

I gave a toot-toot as we passed the Ledford’ place, where Mrs. Ledford was working on some flower beds out front. I could tell she couldn’t figure out who we were, but then Roy saw me and started laughing. I bet I looked a sight driving that Merc. I waved and laughed right along with him. Then Mrs. Ledford came a running, so I pulled over at a turnout and rolled down the window.

“Honey, just look at you. All growed up and driving. Ms. Kincaid said you were having your sixteenth.”

It felt good to know that Della had bothered to tell anyone about my birthday. I put the car in park and jumped out and hugged her. I don’t know what came over me; I just felt so damned happy. I introduced them all to Alex, though they might’ve met already at the store. Everyone was smiling and nodding.

“V.J. is getting his first driving lesson,” Alex said, patting me on the back. They looked at each other, puzzled by that name, but then they seemed to get it. I figured Mrs. Ledford would be calling me that from then on. We said our goodbyes and got back in the car. Alex showed me about the emergency brake, which was a good idea, he said, when parked on a slope. I eased the car back on to the road, and we traveled the rest of my route, waving at more of the customers, but not stopping. I loved being behind the wheel.

Just as we rounded a bend outside of Beaverdam, I shouted, “Whoa! Hold on a minute. I’ve got to see this.” I pulled ahead into a wide spot next to some rhododendron and cut that noisy engine. I loved that car, but it was a rattletrap. “I don’t want them to hear us.”

“Who?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute,” I whispered. I got out, real quiet-like, and crept along the bushes. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Kitt, that woman who owned the art store, and Blanche Scoggins, the nasty laundromat woman, were hugging. It looked as though Kitt had been crying, and Blanche was patting her on the back. I knew that hug was about more than Kitt losing her favorite sock in the washer. They sure didn’t seem like strangers to one another.

I couldn’t imagine what was going on. Not that I get out much, but if they’d knowed each other, seemed to me word would’ve got round. I went back to the car, started it up, and got the hell out of there. I couldn’t wait to tell Della about this. I explained everything to Alex on the ride back.

“Well, maybe Kitt got to know Blanche through the laundromat.”

“Trust me, that wouldn’t make them friends. That woman Blanche is a terror to her customers.”

“Okay, maybe they met through church, or somewhere.”

“Do them two look like they go to church?”

“Those two. Did you say anything to them?”

I looked at him like he was crazy. “I wasn’t born yesterday.”

“Yes, you were,” he said. It took me a minute to get that one, and then we both had a good laugh. But that was all Alex said the rest of the way home, except when he pointed out that I was following someone too close.

When we pulled into the store’s driveway, Alex told me I was a natural behind the wheel. I parked, got out of the car, and handed him the keys. I stuck out my hand and said, “Thanks for the lesson, Alex.” He smiled real big and shook my hand before heading upstairs to let Jake out. I ran inside to talk with Della, who looked surprised, too, when I told her my news.

“I never heard Blanche or Kitt say—or even intimate—they knew each other,” Della said.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Maybe Blanche befriended Kitt.” We both looked at each and shook our heads.

“I just got