“The one my mama worked for?”
“That’s her. Well, you know I worked for her too.”
“Yes.”
“You know how churches have bake sales to raise money?”
“Yes.”
“Well some of the people who hurt me, hurt my children, they had sales too, ’cept they didn’t sell cakes.”
“Tell me who this child is Ruby.”
“I’m telling. But it’s hard to grab ahold of where to start.”
Ruby felt Ephram slide closer and pet her tenderly on the forehead, then along the turn of her neck. “I ain’t goin’ nowhere, Ruby. You spin it how you see fit.”
SHE MADE several stops and starts, then, since there was no nice way to start, she just told him. About the place in Neches. About where she went when she left town. About Miss Barbara’s Friends’ Club and the change she collected in the candy dish. She told him about the first man, she told him about the last and the many in between. She told him what a quarter could buy.
She told him about when the little blond girl had run off and Miss Barbara had had a fit. How they had each of them been questioned until the rumor spread she’d run off with one of her “friends,” the one who liked to hit, hard. How Tanny and Ruby had talked about it and how they feared for her life. The two girls talked about a lot of things during the morning when they were supposed to be sleeping. Tanny would sneak into Ruby’s room and paint the world on the white of the ceiling. They talked about what they would do when they left, where they would go. Tanny said Albuquerque because she liked the way it sounded and she had seen a picture postcard of it once. Ruby said New York because that’s where she knew her mama had gone. Then Tanny said if that’s where Ruby was going she supposed she’d have to go with her.
In the four years Ruby had been taken to Miss Barbara’s, the girls had become something more than friends. Ruby was ten now, Tanny eleven. Some lucky days Miss Barbara put them together as a team. Those were the best because it wasn’t so bad to have company when face-to-face with a friend. Tanny would wink to her during the worst of it and make it pass all the better. The thing Ruby loved most about Tanny was that no one had taken the time to break her spirit before she got there. After four years she still stuck out her chin, still giggled with Ruby about the funny frog men.
“We lucky they keep us together sometimes,” Tanny said one evening after a man with a bad cold had left.
Ruby nodded, putting her tip in her dish, then handing Tanny hers.
Tanny smiled. “Ole Mr. Fart Face so ugly his mama slapped herself when he was born!”
Ruby laughed. “You really do remind me a’ my cousin Maggie. Maggie fights all the time.”
“Mama usta say I come out her with my dukes up.” Tanny smiled softly to Ruby. “It ain’t so bad, though, least these men got a time limit. Ain’t like we livin’ in they house.” Tanny leaned into her, eyes flashing. “But I tell you what. They send in another one sneezin’ all over me I’ma knock!” Tanny played like she was a boxer. “Him!” Fake punch in the air. “Out!” She held up her hands in victory. They laughed, leaned against the wallpaper.
“Damn, they’s a hole in the window in my room. Can’t tell shit time in here, day or night.”
“Seem like night.”
Tanny looked over at Ruby. “You know what? You sure pretty, girl.”
“Ugh ugh.” Ruby shook her head no. “You is,” Ruby answered back.
They were quiet for a moment.
“Sometimes I wonder if that’s why they pick us. Cuz a’ how we look.”
The girls were quiet for a while. They heard footsteps. The door opened and a man looked into their room, paused, whispered to Miss Barbara, then walked ahead and stopped.
Miss Barbara poked her head into the room, and smiled especially wide and sweet. Ruby noted that she had taken to doing so ever since she’d gotten what seemed to be new perfect white teeth. She spoke to them slow, as if they were cats, “Well, we got ourselves a very special friend who done paid extra for y’all two. So do exactly what he say and two big scoops of chocolate ice cream after, all right?”
Ruby nodded dutifully. Tanny just grinned. When Miss Barbara walked away Tanny turned, crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue.
Ruby laughed. The man poked his head into the room, “What’s so funny?” He was tall with round features. He wore a smooth brown hat. His eyes were soft and kind. Different. So different that Ruby wondered if he was a spy sent by her lost mama.
“Hmmm? What’s so funny, girls?” He walked into the room, took off his hat and hung it on the coatrack. Ruby still looked at him hopefully. He knelt down in front of them, face open and smiling, his eyes bright water blue, the black in the center of his eyes big.
“Hmmm?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Tanny finally answered.
“I don’t believe it!” He tickled Tanny. Ruby’s hope cracked like a sour egg.
Tanny didn’t giggle like he wanted her to. She sensed his strangeness too. So he reached out and tickled Ruby. She laughed dutifully. He pinched her cheek. “Aren’t you a sweet little thing.” The strangest thing was that he did not avert his eyes. Ruby realized what it was that made him unlike the others. He didn’t have shame.
Then the man started patting his pockets and smiling until he reached into his back pocket and retrieved a Hershey bar. Ruby couldn’t help but beam. The man grinned back at her, unwrapped the bar and broke it right down the middle, handing half to Ruby and half to Tanny.
“My name’s Peter Green. You can call me Peter,” he volunteered. Ruby and Tanny chewed in quiet. They weren’t used to men at the Friends’ Club giving over their names.
Then the oddest thing of all happened. Mr. Green started asking them questions, normal questions that regular folks might ask. What games did they like to play? What was their favorite color and why? Tanny answered quick and short, but Ruby talked about freeze tag and fishing, bluebells and yellow sun.
He told them about other little girls he’d met in his travels, in places just like Miss Barbara’s. How they told him their favorite game was “Queimada” in a place called Brazil, and “I-Wen Hu” in Taiwan and “Eun Suk Ji” in Korea. He said there was a game like hide-and-seek in Germany that sounded like a fish, “Sardines.” He said it so funny it made Ruby laugh. How there was “Ampe” in Ghana that was something like playing Simon Says. He named other towns and games and talked about all the pretty, good little girls he had met and how nice they had made him feel. He smiled so big and sweet while he talked. He said how of all those girls Ruby and Tanny were the prettiest. Ruby liked him talking about playing and faraway places. She liked thinking about how there were girls playing all over the world even if they had to do what she was about to do, what she had been made to do for four years now. Still she liked talking before best, anything to stretch out the candy-eating time. When the man looked away for a moment Tanny snuck a wink to Ruby.
“Now,” Mr. Green smiled broadly, “which one of you is in this room originally? Is in it most of the time?”
He looked at Ruby. “Is it you?” She nodded. He smiled warmly at her. “Good for you, sweetheart.” He rubbed her back and whispered, “There’s my good girl.” It was the first time Ruby had been called a good girl since Papa Bell died. Then he turned to Tanny. “And that means you are usually in room number twelve?” Tanny nodded yes.
Then Mr. Green walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. He motioned to Ruby. “Come here, sweetheart.” And Ruby did. “My good little girl sits on my right, like Jesus.” He pulled Ruby beside him. Then he looked at Tanny. His face twisted as he said, “And the other one on my left.” Tanny cut her eyes to Ruby for a millisecond. His voice shook, “Don’t look at my good girl.” And he pushed Tanny down between his legs, unzipped his trousers and forced her mouth onto him.