All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church

Author:Elizabeth J. Church
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2018-03-06T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

FOR THE NEXT five days, Ruby stayed glued to the television coverage of King’s assassination. She watched footage of the days of rioting in Baltimore, as well as other major cities across the country. The entire nation burned with outrage, grief, and indelible hatred and bigotry. She sat, cross-legged and crying, as Bobby Kennedy stood on the back of a flatbed truck in Indianapolis and encouraged forbearance. On April 9, she watched King’s funeral service at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. She ran out of Kleenex.

The Sunglow Apartment girls must have taken a vote; on the sixth day of Ruby’s isolation, they sent Rose as their emissary. When Ruby opened the door, Rose was standing there in a sleeveless flowered cotton shift, her hair tied back in the Hermès scarf Ruby had given her. She was holding a foil-covered pie tin, and she edged past Ruby without asking.

“I’m opening the blinds,” Rose said without preamble. She set the dish on Ruby’s countertop and began parting curtains. “It’s cold roast chicken. Some cheese and pickles. Make yourself a plate of food,” she ordered.

Ruby looked beneath the foil but went no further. She watched Rose find the on-off switch to the television set and silence it.

“The air is stale in here,” Rose said, crinkling her nose and cranking open a window. “And you.” She turned, put her hands on her hips, and looked at Ruby. “You need a shower. Wash your hair, for God’s sake.”

Ruby went and sat in one of her wingback chairs. She sorted through the clutter of her side table, trying to find a pack of cigarettes.

“What the fuck, Ruby?” Rose came to stand in front of her, took Ruby’s chin in her hand, and forced Ruby to look at her. “This isn’t you, this slovenliness. What the hell is going on?”

“Nothing.”

“I don’t have the patience for your bullshit. You’ve been avoiding us.”

“No one asked you to come here.”

“Someone had to.”

“Did you draw the short stick?” Ruby sneered, feeling awful that she was behaving so badly toward the sweetest human being on earth and yet not having the slightest inclination to get ahold of herself. She felt supremely irritable.

“Vivid didn’t do you any favors,” Rose said. “I know she meant well, but really, Ruby. You have to pick and choose when it comes to following her advice.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Somehow, Rose was making her feel like a petulant toddler.

“You know exactly what I mean, and don’t think for a moment that I’m that stupid. Please.”

“Yeah, well…”

“Where are they?” Rose asked, looking about the disheveled living room. “Bathroom?” She headed down the hallway. Ruby could hear the door of the medicine cabinet open and close, the sound of Rose moving bottles around on the bathroom counter. She heard Rose head into the bedroom, then the thunk of the nightstand drawer opening and closing. “Where’s your purse?” Rose said, returning to the living room. Ruby tried to kick her bag beneath her chair, but Rose spotted it and made a dive for it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.