Page 10 of The Night the Lights Went Out
“Can I drive you?”
She held up her arm to display a black wristband, a soul-stealing device he’d given her last Christmas despite her well-publicized disdain for most new technology. It was one of those newfangled ones that displayed everything right there on the screen. Wade was always telling her about all sorts of things it could do if she’d learn how to really use it, but she figured she already knew all she needed to. She’d pace the house each night just to get in her recommended number of steps, despite how much her hip hurt or how tired she was. It was evil, pure evil. “I need to get my steps in. But if you see me face-first in the road on your way back, I give you permission to lift me into your truck and take me home.”
Lily, who was almost hopping up and down with her impatience to get working on the router, stilled for a moment as if trying to figure out if she was being serious.
“Hopefully I’ll see you before I run over you.” He winked. “And thanks for the tomatoes.”
The furrow between the girl’s brows deepened with concern as he moved in front of Sugar to open the door. Sugar put her hand on his arm and spoke quietly. “Don’t go digging where you’re not wanted. Most people have secrets. And most of them should be allowed to stay hidden. No good has ever come from poking a stick down a hole. Sometimes you get a garter snake, but sometimes you get a rattler.”
He narrowed his eyes. “How would you know anything about secrets?”
She stepped carefully out onto the porch. “Good night, Wade. Don’t forget to pick up your tomatoes.”
She moved down the steps in the twilight, then headed down the drive, sensing him watching her until she heard the snap of the screen door closing out the approaching night.
Four
THE PLAYING FIELDS BLOG
Observations of Suburban Life from Sweet Apple, Georgia
Written by: Your Neighbor
Installment #2: Where Is General Sherman Now That We Need Him?
I saw a chicken hawk yesterday (that’s a red-tailed hawk for my neighbors who aren’t from around here). I haven’t seen one in years, not since all the building started up here in Sweet Apple. The thwacking of hammers and the constant roar of earthmoving equipment is deafening to me, and I can only imagine what it does to a hawk.
I heard its raspy scream from my car while I was stopped on the road behind a long line of SUVs in front of the elementary school (is there a shortage of buses? I don’t understand why there were so many cars clogging the road at pickup time) and opened the window just in time to see the large bird swoop down and pick up a small brown bunny innocently chewing grass by the side of the road.
A young mother behind the wheel of her SUV actually dropped her cell phone from her ear so she could throw her hand protectively in front of the eyes of the little boy sitting next to her. I wanted to tell her that she should let him see it because this is the natural world and the circle of life and all that. And it’s bound to be a lot more G-rated than what he probably sees every day on the Internet.
I was admiring the bird’s proud profile and spread of red-stained tail feathers as it soared away with its prey, continuing to watch it until it ran smack-dab into the side of an oncoming moving truck approaching the intersection from the opposite direction. It dropped the rabbit, which had the good sense to scurry away, but the poor hawk lay in the middle of the road like a sacrifice, his talons lifted in silent supplication.
A woman in a Lexus convertible jumped out, jabbering loudly on her phone and probably calling some rescue group, while a young man wearing overalls and a John Deere hat climbed from a pickup truck and approached the bird with an eye out to eat it, I suspect. The moving van had long since left the scene. I wanted to stay longer to see who’d win that fight, but the woman in the SUV behind me had begun honking. She looked as if she needed that Starbucks grande latte with double whip more than I needed to see the argument, so I moved forward.
It was then that I noticed the cow pasture on the corner was devoid of cows, and a large backhoe sat in the middle of the empty field, along with a big sign announcing a new swim/tennis community. I think I preferred the cows. They don’t drive on our roads or send their children to our already-overcrowded schools.
Speaking of moving trucks, there have been quite a few on the streets of Sweet Apple these last few months as families do their best to get settled into new homes before school starts. In one neighborhood, a family moved down from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, bringing with them an impressive assortment of snow shovels and other snow-removal equipment. A mutual friend said that they’d heard about the ice storm in Atlanta a few Januaries ago and wanted to be prepared. I hope somebody told them that the only thing they should be prepared for is to watch those shovels collect dust and go unused for at least a decade, since that’s when the next storm will hit.
Another new resident has come all the way from Fullerton, California, and was overheard at the Pilates studio saying how excited she was to experience the real South. Honey, Atlanta isn’t the real South. It’s a hodgepodge of people from all over the place living in houses that have been built in the last twenty years. If you want to see the real South, watchDriving Miss DaisyorSteel Magnolias. Better yet, head to Rabun County. That’s where that Burt Reynolds movieDeliverancewas filmed. And if you hear banjos, keep driving.
I met another of our new neighbors recently—a young divorcée with two children. She’s not new to the area, but she’s moved from one side of town to the other for a change of scenery, I suspect.
Her children are enrolled in a local private academy (I’ll let you guess which one), and from what I know of the other moms there, this could be interesting, as this young mother seems very unaffected so far, and not all that interested in the politics of parenting as so many of us practice it here. But it’s only the first week of school, and a lot can happen in the span of a nine-month school year. A lot of time for surprises. A lot of time for things to happen.
This blog is coming to you late, as you are probably aware, because of the power outage we had last night due to one of our powerful summer lightning storms. I opened up all the windows and put towels on the windowsills just so I could smell the rain and catch the breeze, which smelled of summer nights. I sat on my front porch and watched the lightning zig and zag across the sky before leaving us all in complete darkness, smelling the burnt ions and the steam from the hot earth and cut grass, enjoying the earthy scent of the wet red clay.
The storm brought back so many memories of my childhood that I found myself wishing the electricity would stay off a little longer. I remained outside until the storm moved away with the clouds and the stars came out. And then the electricity came back on in all the houses nearby, flooding the sky and streets and yards with so much light that I couldn’t see the stars anymore.
• • •
MERILEE
Merilee had just finished throwing on a T-shirt and a pair of shorts and was trying to hang up the dress she’d worn to work when Sugar knocked on the front door. It figured she’d be early. She heard Colin racing toward the door to throw it open, giving Merilee a few extra minutes to stash the dress in the closet carefully so it wouldn’t get wrinkled. She’d accidentally put the iron in the box of things for Michael to take and she refused to ask for it back. She’d also drag her feet on buying a replacement, knowing that as soon as she did, Michael would show up at her door with the iron, since it was more than possible that Tammy Garvey didn’t know what an iron was and entirely likely that she sent out all Michael’s shirts and anything else that looked like it might wrinkle. Including the silk underwear Merilee imagined that Tammy wore.
She hurried into the hallway, realizing too late that she was barefoot. She usually did go barefoot inside in the summertime, but there was something about Sugar Prescott that made her think that adults would be expected to wear shoes. Merilee was about to turn around when Colin ran into the hallway.
“Mom! Miss Sugar’s here!”
