Poor Jenny, Bright As A Penny

*

On Tuesday afternoon Mama came for them. The judge had let her out on her own recognizance, which meant he trusted her to stay in the city until her trial came up. She was waiting for them at the admittance desk, her hair straggly and her coat wrinkled. The red trunk was brought out, and the iron door unlocked for them. A little breeze touched them, the air fresh and cold. The day was incredibly bright.

Lud sat smoking at the wheel of the old Plymouth. He scowled at the trunk. “What’d you take that thing for?”

Jenny stared at him until he lowered his eyes. Mama said, “Shut up, Lud, you got no right to tell other people what to do when you couldn’t even bail me out of that hole.”

“How could I, Lilly, baby. Where d’you think I would’a got a hundred bucks for them no-good bail bondsmen?”

Mama got into the front seat and slammed the door hard.

Crystal leaned forward over the back of the front seat, her head stuck between Mama and Lud. “It was just like the Hilton in there, Mama. They even laid out clean clothes for us at our door every morning. There were red curtains on the windows. Did you have curtains in jail, Mama?”

But Mama wasn’t having any. She snapped at Crystal, then was silent. Crystal sulked for a minute, then began kidding with Lud. Mama’s shoulders took on a straight, stiff look. She didn’t say another word until they were two blocks from the apartment. Then she said, “Stop at that store, Lud. I need some stuff to cook supper.”

Jenny and Bingo exchanged a look of surprise. Maybe Mama had turned over a new leaf. Mama did that sometimes.

The blackened brick apartment house stood with the sun on it as if it were welcoming them. They carried the grocery bags and the trunk through the dark hall. Clayhill’s door was open, some frantic music played faintly, as if his mother had passed through the room and turned it down. The dead rooster poster bled opposite the door, and the shadow of a figure moved somewhere back in the apartment. Crystal paused and looked in, but Mama shoved her on up the stairs. Yes, Jenny thought, Mama’s turned over a new leaf. I wonder how long that will last.

Mama unlocked the door and pushed it open.

The apartment smelled of dirty ashtrays and stale beer. Empty beer cans and dirty clothes were scattered across the furniture, and in the kitchen the counter and table were piled with dirty dishes. Wavering lines of black ants crawled across them.

Mama stood looking at it all. Then she turned on Lud. “You dirty, sloppy bastard. You dirty, no-good, free-loading bastard. What kind of a way is this for me to come home after what I’ve been through. Get out of here. Get out!”

Jenny held her breath. Bingo stood staring with amazement.

Lud looked Mama up and down, sauntered into the kitchen and got himself a beer. He slouched in the kitchen doorway with the can in his hand and regarded Mama with amusement. “It won’t take you long to pick up, Lilly. You’ve been sitting on your can for a week.”

“Get out,” Mama yelled. “Get the hell out of here!”

Lud stayed where he was. Bingo glanced at Jenny. Crystal kicked some of Lud’s underwear off the couch and sat down.

All four of them stared at Lud as if he were something slimy. Jenny thought, It takes something like this to pull us all together. Lud’s the odd one out now.

Lud saw it; slowly his expression began to change. Where it had been belligerent, it worked itself into innocence. Finally he said, “I guess you’re right, Lilly, baby. I guess I didn’t think, did I?” He stepped over to Mama and put his arm around her. “Well, we’ll just clean this place up a little, then we’ll feel all better, now won’t we?”

He began picking up beer cans, emptying ash trays. He left his dirty clothes for Mama, like a challenge. If Mama picked them up, Lud still had the upper hand.

The children waited.

Mama stood for a long time watching Lud. Then she began picking up his dirty shorts and socks.

Crystal gave a snort of disgust and went out. Jenny and Bingo went onto the balcony and stood with the cold air washing over them. “Isn’t he a bastard,” Jenny said.

“My very words. A dirty lousy bastard.”

“And Mama lets him get away with it.”

After a while Jenny said, “People are what they are.” She twisted a lock of hair. “Spring is coming, Bingo.”

He looked down at the yard. The bare trees had swollen buds, the spaded garden showed a green mist over the brown earth. When did it start? Even the air was different, even the rooftops looked sharper, washed and bright.

From the kitchen came the sound of running water, and the low murmur of voices as if Mama and Lud had made up.

They stood shivering in the bright air and thinking of spring. “Even when things are bad,” Jenny said finally, “there’s more in the world than our problems.” She let her dark hair fall over her face so it made a curtain with sparks of sunlight coming through. Then she raised her head and looked at Bingo. “Sometimes I think that whatever we call God is watching to see how strong we are.” She stood perfectly still in the sunlight. “And to see if we are willing to think about happiness, even when things are lousy.”