Poor Jenny, Bright As A Penny

Lud smiled gently and raised his voice. “Just passing through and stopped to say hello to Lilly here and the kids. Known them for years.”

Mama began to cry. “I only wanted to move here because—because I thought it would be better for the kids. The schools are bigger and—” She couldn’t think of anything else. She cried harder.

The music stopped suddenly. Mama’s crying filled the room.

Mr. Knutson got up. “I would like to believe you both, but I must warn you, Mr. Merton can be prosecuted for living on your welfare money. You are in enough trouble as it is. Perhaps you will—” He stopped talking and stared at Crystal, Clayhill, and Sammy who had barged through the door almost knocking him down. They looked scared. Clayhill shut the door quietly, grabbed Sammy by the arm, shoved Crystal ahead of them and made for the bedroom. They smelled strongly of pot.

Mr. Knutson studied Mama for so long that Mama began to fidget. He didn’t say another word. He turned on his heel and left.

Mama stared at the closed door.

Lud moved to the window where he could see the street. “Patrol car down there. Looks like your little girl’s got herself into something, Lilly.”

Mama sighed and went into the bedroom. They could hear her questioning Crystal, but Crystal did not answer. “What’s the matter with you?” Mama shouted. “What’s the matter? Stop looking like that!”

When Mama came out she looked shaken. She stood at the window staring down at the street. Now there were four police cars.

Jenny sneaked into the hall and down the back stairs. When Bingo tried to follow her she turned on him so fiercely that she frightened him. “You go back to that apartment and stay there,” she hissed.

But when she was out of sight, Bingo followed her.

From the back stairs Jenny could see uniformed police standing guard outside Clayhill’s door. Three officers herded out a motley crew of Clayhill’s friends; the smell of pot stunk up the whole hall. If they search the building, Jenny thought, they’re going to find Crystal. Half of her wanted Crystal to get away, and the other half said, “Leave it alone.” She didn’t know what to do. She turned, confused, and there was Bingo standing at the curve in the landing. She scowled at him and hustled him back upstairs, but she didn’t scold him. She searched his face. “What should I do? Should I try to get her out? They might search the building, looking for Clayhill.”

“You’re asking me what to do? How should I know? What if you got caught trying to sneak her out? What would they think about you? Where would that leave us?”

That decided it. Crystal had made her own bed, now she could sleep in it. But Jenny was frightened for her.

The police went up and down the halls knocking on the doors and asking questions, but they did not search the apartments. Mama covered for Crystal and the boys. After the police left the building, Jenny said pleadingly, “Mama, make Sammy and Clayhill go home.”

“They aren’t hurting anything here.”

“Well, it’s my bedroom too. They’re draped all over it.” Clayhill was out cold, stretched across Jenny’s bed. Sammy was sitting on the floor, his knees drawn to his chin and his ankles crossed, staring at dozens of colored pills that lay scattered across the rug. He was trying to arrange them in stars of blue and yellow and red, but he could not seem to make the shapes of the stars right. When he put a color in the wrong place he would frown and tug at his untied shoelaces. Crystal was slumped on her bed, her face perfectly blank. She stared glassily at the door and pawed at her breasts idly.

Jenny watched them with sick horror.

She went into the kitchen, lit the gas stove, salted and peppered a roast, and slapped it in a pan. When the oven was flaming hot she stuck the roast in and shut the door. Then she went to look at Crystal again. Crystal’s face had gone completely white, and she was shaking.

“Mama, you’d better get her a doctor.”

“Get a towel and some ice, Jenny. Maybe we can snap her out of it.”

“But—”

“Do as I say!”

When the cold towel touched Crystal’s face she began to scream. They took the towel away, but they could not stop her screaming.

“You’ve got to get a doctor,” Jenny shouted.

“And have welfare on my back?” Mama yelled.

“But Mama—” Jenny was appalled. She headed for the front door.

“Stop it, Jenny.” Mama moved ahead of her and locked the door, then dropped the key in her pocket. “That stuff isn’t dangerous. She just needs time to sleep it off.” Crystal was still screaming.

“How do you know! You don’t even know what she took!”

Mama went back into the bedroom, and pretty soon Crystal stopped screaming. When Jenny looked in, Mama was holding Crystal like a baby and trying to rock her. Sammy was asleep with his head on his knees.

Jenny turned the oven down and began to peel potatoes. No one would feel like eating. Bingo sat in the far corner of the living room on a straight chair with his feet dangling and pretended to read. He looked like he was going to be sick. Lud said, “Pretty weird bunch I got mixed up with.” He went to stand in the bedroom doorway. “She’s asleep now, Lilly. Why don’t you run down to the corner and get me a six-pack.”

Mama stared at him coldly.

They had dinner at nine-thirty. The gravy was lumpy, and no one ate much. Halfway through dinner Sammy came staggering to the kitchen and stared at them, then ambled away. When he found the front door locked he began to pace the length of the apartment like a caged animal, from the balcony doors through the living room into Mama and Lud’s bedroom, then back to the balcony. Finally Mama opened the front door and he walked out. “Where will he go?” Jenny asked.