Blue by Joyce Moyer Hostetter

Author:Joyce Moyer Hostetter [Hostetter, Joyce Moyer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Calkins Creek
Published: 2006-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

15

The Escape

August 1944

I talked Junior into going to Peggy Sue’s to call Mamaw Honeycutt for me. “You can’t use Pauline Hinkle’s telephone for this,” I said. “She’d lay awake nights thinking she should turn us in to the police.”

“And what makes you think Peggy Sue’s mother is gonna let us get by with it?”

“She don’t have to know. Just tell Peggy Sue and she’ll call as soon as she gets a minute to herself. She’ll love pulling off a secret like that.”

Junior finally agreed. To save gas for the trip, he walked the four miles to Peggy Sue’s house.

“Tell her we’re not under quarantine now,” I said. “Just in case her momma decides to take us to the movies again.” I didn’t expect Mrs. Rhinehart to get brave about polio now, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try.

I had got a letter from Peggy Sue right after Bobby died. She said her momma wouldn’t have let her come to Bobby’s burial even if she had found out in time. Some people was more scared of the epidemic than others was. Mrs. Rhinehart was one of the scared ones.

I went home to tell the twins they was going to Georgia. I listed off the good things about visiting Mamaw Honeycutt. “You can play dress-up in her attic,” I said. “And she’ll make you banana pudding and read Bible stories to you at night. And Papaw will take you along to the feed mill and give you one of them lollipops he hands out.”

I reckon them things sounded like more fun than trailing after Momma. All of a sudden Ida jumped up and started pulling her Sunday dress and panties out of the bureau drawer.

For once, I was glad Momma was in one of her faraway moods. When I told her I was taking the girls to Mamaw Honeycutt, she just nodded and wandered outside toward the mimosa tree.

When it got dark, Junior brought Bessie over to stay with Momma. I give Junior my daddy’s map with the roads to South Carolina marked.

Junior had loaded the truck with hay. He piled the bales in the truck so that there was a hollow space right behind the cab. We spread a blanket on the floor of the hollow space and climbed in.

Bessie handed me a brown paper sack. “I don’t want y’all going hungry. Here’s some cornbread with blackberry jelly.” Then she give us two bottles of root beer. “Just in case you get thirsty,” she said. “But there’s only two, so you’ll have to share.”

“What if I have to pee?” asked Ida.

Junior said, “Just reach up and knock on the back window. I’ll stop just as quick as I can.” Then he pulled a canvas over the load of hay and tied it down with some rope. We pulled in our heads just in time for him to tie the last of the canvas.

It was dark in there and stuffy too, but at least it was soft. Ida and Ellie wanted to drink the root beer and eat the cornbread before we was even off the dirt road.

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