I set down my knife and fork. “Why are you here? What do you want from me?”
Prairie looked me right in the eye-something hardly anyone had ever done-and took a deep breath.
“I’m taking you with me,” she said. “You can’t stay here with Alice anymore.”
My heart did a little flip at her words. Leaving-even if it wasn’t the way I planned, even if it was with a stranger-the thought was almost irresistible. I wanted to say Okay, fine, let’s do it. To hell with school, with the stupid Cleans who’d made fun of me forever. To hell with our falling-down house, the weedy yard, the long walk to the grocery. Anywhere would be better than here. I was tempted to say “Sure, let’s go right now,” before she changed her mind.
Instead, what I said was, “I can’t leave Chub.”
Prairie didn’t look surprised. She dabbed at the corners of her mouth with her napkin and set down her fork.
“Look,” she said, “I’ll admit I hadn’t planned on Chub. I was actually hoping to leave tonight. This complicates things a bit-but we’re still leaving. We’ll just go a little later than I planned, and we’ll take him with us.”
She said that last part kind of fast as I started to protest.
“But-but what about-”
She held up a hand to stop me. “Try not to worry. I want you to let me handle the details. At least for now. Okay? Look, I know you probably aren’t sure about me yet, and you may not completely trust me, and that’s-that stands to reason. It does. I understand. But I just-I’m not doing this lightly, Hailey. After you get to know me a little more, you’ll understand that I don’t take anything lightly.”
The way she said that, it sounded like a promise, but even more than a promise. Like something she’d worked hard to convince herself of and now she’d do anything to keep it true.
“I can’t just-”
“You can.” Prairie reached across the table and patted my hand, but I pulled away from her. “I have… resources that I’ll tell you more about later. I have some money. We can stay the night at the house and you can gather up a few things-not many, just one small suitcase. And we can’t let Alice see you packing. She doesn’t know. I told her that I was moving back to Gypsum so I could be closer to you. I told her I was going to look for a house here in town.”
“You told her…?” There was no way Gram would believe that. There was no way anyone would believe a person would come back here to live if they had a choice. “I don’t have a suitcase.”
“A box, then. Whatever you and Chub need, we can buy.”
“And then what? Where would we go?” I knew it was crazy. But it was so tempting to believe in Prairie, in what she said she could do.
“I don’t want to say just yet,” she said. “I know I’m asking a lot from you, Hailey, but I promise you that soon I’ll tell you everything. Right now I just need to focus on getting us all out of here. And you need to help me make Alice believe what I told her. Do you think you can do that?”
I didn’t say yes-but I didn’t say no, either.
CHAPTER 10
WHEN WE GOT HOME, I saw that Gram had made a few plans of her own. Dun Acey’s truck was pulled up in the yard, the back fender hanging a little lower since the last time I’d seen it, the result of some accident that had probably been worse for the other guy.
Prairie pulled the Volvo into the yard about as far away from the truck as she could.
“Whose truck is that?” she asked, voice neutral, but I could hear the tension underneath her words.
“That’s Dun Acey.”
“What a surprise,” she muttered, as if it was anything but.
“You know him?”
“I knew some Aceys.” She said the name like it was poison.
She walked ahead of me. I let her, glad to have a buffer between me and whatever waited inside.
In the kitchen, Dun was tilted back in a chair across from Gram at the table. Rattler Sikes was standing at the sink, a lit cigarette in one hand. He was pouring a glass of water down his throat.
He gave me a tiny nod and then slowly lowered the glass to the sink. Leaning against the counter, he put the cigarette to his lips and drew in on it and smirked as the smoke streamed lazily out of his nostrils.
There were eight beer cans on the table, and I knew without having to be told that six were empty and Dun and Gram were working on the others.
“Hel-lo, Hailey,” Dun drawled, letting the chair legs slam down on the floor with a thud. “You’re lookin’ hotter’n August. And who’s this you got with you?”
Behind him Rattler laughed, an abrupt, rasping sound accompanied by a ghost of a smile.
Dun looked Prairie up and down the way he usually looked at me-lingering on her breasts and her legs. Dun and Rattler were both probably about Prairie’s age, but Dun had always looked old to me, with a couple of missing teeth and greasy hair falling all around his face. After he’d stared her up and down, he gave a low whistle.
“Prair-ie Tar-bell,” he said, drawing out the syllables. “I’d know you anywhere. You look even better than the day you left.”
I could feel Prairie tense up next to me. “Hello, Dunston,” she said, her voice steely. “Rattler.”
“Damn-you recognize us after all, girl. Didn’t think you would, now you gone all uptown on us. But I guess you just couldn’t stay away from us local boys forever.” Dun laughed as though that was the funniest thing he’d heard in a long time. Gram laughed with him, lighting up a fresh cigarette and ending on a hacking cough.
“I remember you.” Prairie practically chewed off the words.
“Alice tells me you’re moving back here. Ain’t that nice. Course, if you come back to try an’ git in my pants, you’re a li’l late.” Dun’s words were slurred from the beer. “I got my eye on another girl.”
Gram laughed again and they both looked at me.
“Lucky her,” Prairie said icily. “Now, if you all will excuse us, Hailey and I are tired, and I’m meeting with a realtor first thing tomorrow to look at a house, so we’re heading to bed.”
“ ‘Hailey and I are tired,’ ” Gram repeated in a high singsong voice. She did that sometimes when she was drinking, mimicking what I said.
Something told me it was a mistake to do it to Prairie, though.
I waited for her to snap back at Gram like she had earlier, but she said nothing. She put her hand on my arm and steered me toward the hall. “Come on,” she whispered.
“Goin’ to bed, are you, Prairie?” Rattler’s voice came from behind us.
I could sense Prairie tense even more, but she didn’t say anything, just practically dragged me down to my room. Once we were inside, she shut the door firmly and leaned back against it.
I went to check on Chub. He was curled up in his crib, and I was grateful Gram at least had managed to get him put down. His little fist was pressed against his cheek. He always got hot when he slept, his face taking on a rosy color. I put my hand lightly on the back of his neck and felt his heartbeat-strong and regular.
Only then did I turn back to Prairie. “If Dun and Rattler knew about you, and probably a whole lot more people knew too, how come nobody ever said anything to me?”
“Keep your voice down, Hailey,” Prairie said softly. “A lot of people are scared of Alice. Or else Alice makes it worth their while to keep their mouths shut. Besides, other than Alice’s customers, not that many people in town would remember. Alice sent us to school in Tipton because she didn’t want us mixing with the local kids. And it’s not like we ever had friends over.”
“What about Dun and Rattler? Seems like they knew you pretty well.”
“There were a few families that Alice… socialized with. The Aceys and the Sikes, a few others.”
“From Trashtown. Her customers.”