Roseborough: A Novel

Chapter 8

135 Chapter Eight 1 It came late. It came after a Christmas that Mary Lou wouldn’t let herself notice. Closing herself off from the garlands and trees and Christmas carols and bells and shoppers, she kept her head down and worked sixty hours a week at the Dairy Queen. She cleaned out closets and rotated the tires on the pickup. She paid off her bills and got her telephone reconnected. And somehow she got through a Christmas without Echo. Then it came. Mary Lou had known it would come. Aunt Labelle had said she’d hear. And she’d felt it in her heart. She reads the card again: Dear Mama, I miss you. I have a friend named Jamie. He is just like Daddy about the road. He likes being on it. Take good care of Sugar. Echo On the front of the card two lambs frolic in a meadow strewn with wildflowers. It is postmarked Geraldine, Montana, January 136 Jane Roberts Wood 2. She gets a road map from the pickup, finds Montana. Then Geraldine. Montana is a long way off but still it is a place, and she can put her finger on it. He is just like Daddy. She reads that again. Like Gundren. Something like Gundren, she amends. There was just one Gundren. She thinks about the name. Jamie is a good name for a man. Sitting on the back steps with Stitch, she looks up at the sky. A row of clouds puffs across it like a train. She has heard from Echo! Her mind touches the thought, veers away from so much happiness. The leaves of the pecan trees, stirred by a brisk wind, shake themselves free of their drabness. An old crow sings a scratchy song from the highest branch of a tree. She knows where Echo is! The thought touches her heart again and again until finally it rests there. She sits quietly, reading the card over and over until even her bones believe it. Overcome, she jumps up from the steps. She has to tell somebody . She will tell Anne! But Anne will not be in her office. The college is closed for the holidays and Anne is probably on a trip somewhere. Anne is better than anybody at listening to a person’s heart. She would know how lost somebody can feel one minute and then how a postcard—a little thing like that!—can make everything seem all right. She will drive by Anne’s house and see if she’s there. She won’t go in if she’s there. She will just stop long enough to tell her. Hurrying to collect her car keys and purse, she almost forgets her earrings. She opens her earring box, sees the frisky silver rabbits, and puts them on. Forty-five minutes later here she is at Anne’s house, and here is Anne walking out the door. Wearing a blue skirt swinging from side to side and her blouse unfastened a little at the top and tendrils of her hair falling out of a bun, Anne looks like a Lone Oak college student. There are plenty a lot older. When they have settled themselves in Anne’s kitchen (“You must come in,” she had said), and Anne has read the card, “Think of it!” Mary Lou says. “Echo in Montana traveling and seeing the 137 Roseborough world. No telling where she’ll be next. I’m glad she’s getting all this out of her system. Then she’ll be ready to settle down.” Anne smiles. “Mary Lou, I’m so glad you’ve heard from her. And chances are, since she’s written once, she’ll write again.” She’s almost maniacally happy, Anne thinks. But the wide smile does nothing to mask the dark circles under her eyes. And she’s thinner. “Mary Lou, you look tired. Are you sleeping well?” “Not lately. But I will now that I’ve heard from Echo.” “Of course. And you will hear again soon.” “I know I will. And asking about Sugar. You can tell she misses her cat.” “That is her way of saying she misses you, too. But she is so young,” Anne says, frowning. “I wish we knew more about Jamie.” “She says he’s just like Gundren.” “But she is a minor and he has taken her across state lines.” “But not for the purpose of. . . of that! Echo’s a good girl. And she...