Rubyfruit Jungle Read Online Free Page A

just the same. Carrie rigged me in a horrible dress full of itchy crinolines and patent leather shoes. At least Jennifer was beyond being tormented by itchy dresses. I thought I was worse off than the corpse. The service went on and on, the preacher got carried away with himself over the casket as he talked about the joys of heaven. When they lowered the gleaming box into the ground, Florence swooned and gasped, “My baby.” Carl grabbed her and held her up. Ep had Ted and Leroy by the hand, and he never moved a muscle. He stared straight into that hole and never said a word. Leroy was trying hard not to start bawling again,and I stared at the cowlick on back of his slicked-down hair so as not to start crying myself and show up for a big sissy. The dress didn’t help none, it’s easier to cry in a dress anyway.
    After the casket was in the ground we all went back to the house. Neighbors and relatives from as far away as Harrisburg had come and they brought food. I don’t know why, because no one felt like eating. Ep received people with a pained dignity and Florence almost enjoyed the attention she was getting as mother of the deceased but it was mixed with sorrow. So much of what Florence did was mixed that way.
    Once it got dark, people started to clear out and finally we were left to ourselves. Carrie set the table to try to get us kids to eat. Carl passed the fruit bread and put a hunk on my plate. “The candied cherries are cut up in little red pieces. Take a bite, it’s real good.”
    “I don’t wanna eat, Daddy. I’m not hungry.” I pushed the food around on my plate to make it look as though I’d had some. After a proper amount of time the table was cleared and we went off to bed.
    Before going to my room I went into Leroy and Ted’s room. Between their two beds, on the wall, hung an embroidered fancy piece of satin from the casket. “Mother” it said with red roses embroidered on it. Leroy was under the covers, his enormous eyes were all that showed. Ted was sitting up in bed.
    “Hey, you guys, hey, I came on in to say goodnight. Your sign is pretty up there. Maybe tomorrow we can go down to the pond or something. Maybe the three of us can do something.”
    Ted looked at me like an old man. “Sure. They said I don’t have to go to the Esso station tomorrow. I’ll go down to the pond with you.”
    Leroy didn’t say anything and started crying again. “I want my mother. They said God took her away. That’s a crock of shit. God don’t do evil things like that and if he does then I don’t like him. If he’s so good then let him bring my mother back.” He screeched on like that and Carrie came hustling into the room. She sat down on the bed and held Leroy to soothe him. She gave him that line of crap about God and how we don’t know what his plans are because we are only people and people are morons compared to God Almighty. Leroy stopped crying. Carrie rose and told me to “come on to bed and leave the boys alone.” Leroy gave me a look, but I could only hold up my hands because she was dead set against me staying there. Ted slouched down on his bed, closed his eyes and looked one hundred years old. Carrie switched off the naked light bulb and there wasn’t another sound.
    I didn’t stay in bed too long. I couldn’t sleep thinking about Aunt Jenna there under the ground. What would happen if she’d open her eyes and see only dark and feel satin from the coffin? That’d scare her enough to kill her all over again. How do they know dead people don’t open their eyes and see? They don’t know nothing about being dead. Maybe they should have sat her in a chair along with other dead people. But I’d seen a very dead cow once and that made my thoughts worse. Was Aunt Jenna gonna swell up like that cow and turn black and smell and get full of maggots? I couldn’t think about that, it tore mystomach right off its moorings. That’s animals, same thing doesn’t happen to people does it?