Carrying Mason by Joyce Magnin Page B

turnedaround and let her foxes slip from her shoulders. I had no choice but to catch them like I was the maid or a fur trapper or something. I tossed the articles on a chair, and I think Sapphire would have exploded if Ruby Day hadn’t found her voice in time.
    “How come you came here?” Ruby Day said. “I never told you to come.”
    “Oh dear, where are your manners? Aren’t you going to invite me to sit?”
    Ruby Day flopped down. Sapphire chose the overstuffed armchair. She grimaced when her hands touched the fabric.
    “May I get you a drink?” I asked, not wanting to be pegged for not having any class.
    “That would be fine, dear.”
    “I can make coffee.”
    “I’m certain you can.”
    I headed for the kitchen wondering if I had just been complimented or insulted. And I didn’t know if I should make coffee or get a glass of water. The truth was I smelled a rat. A dirty, stinking, high-society rat, and I wanted to get to the kitchen to call Mama.
    After I got coffee percolating, I set out three cups and saucers on a tray. I looked at the telephone on the wall and thought about calling Mama. I dialed home. One ring, two, three, but I hung up quickly. I had told Mama I could handle it and that meant everything—even Aunt Sapphire.
    I returned to the living room and stood next to Ruby Day. “My name is Luna Gleason,” I said. “I’ve been helping out Ruby Day since the funeral and all.”
    “How nice,” Sapphire said. “Fortunately you won’t be needing to … to help any longer. I’ve come to take Ruby Day home.”
    Now I really wished Mama was home, and I sailed a silent wish that she would get one of her worry thoughts and come banging on the front door.
    “Home?” I said. “But Ruby Day is home. Right here. In this house.”
    I watched Ruby Day’s bottom lip start to quiver, and I worried that she’d throw off her glasses and start that shrieking thing she did. But instead I only saw three tears roll down her cheek. Sapphire wiped them with her high-society hanky.
    “There, there, Ruby Day. It’s for the best.”
    Ruby Day grabbed my hand and pulled me down onto the sofa next to her.
    “I ain’t goin’, Aunt Sapphire. I got Luna here to help me and I got a job and—”
    Sapphire clicked her mouth like it was a chicken beak. That was it. She looked like an overgrown chicken. I suppressed a smile. “Now, now, Ruby Day. That’s just it. Now that Mason is … well, no longer with us … there’s no reason for you to work and … keep this bright young woman with you. I’m sure she’s got future plans. Don’t you, dear?”
    I nodded my head something fierce. “Yes, Ma’am, I’m planning on going to college and becoming a teacher. But that don’t mean I can’t still live here with Ruby Day. We’re fine—honest we are.”
    That was when the doorbell rang, and I hoped with all my heart it was Mama.
    Nope, just the paperboy. “Whose fancy car is that?” he asked.
    “Just a visitor, Tom.” I reached into a cleaned-out peanut butter jar on the mantel that we dropped coins in every now and again and paid Tom a nickel for the paper.
    “Thank you, Luna.” He craned his neck trying to get a good look into the living room, but I shooed him out the door. Rumors had a way of firestorming through Makeshift County, and I figured by the end of the day there’d be a story floating around about some visiting princess from a faraway land who drove a fancy car and wore dead foxes on her shoulders.
    I got back to the sofa in time to hear Sapphire say, “Now you don’t have to leave today. Take two or three days, if you like, to pack and say your good-byes. I’ll be back Tuesday to take you home.”
    “Where you going?” Ruby Day asked.
    “Back to Bryn Mawr, of course. I’d return sooner but I have a … well, a thing at the Cricket Club.”
    “Cricket Club,” I said. “You mean real crickets? The kind that chirp when they rub their legs together?”
    Aunt Sapphire laughed like a fat