Read Dorothy Garlock - [Route 66] for Free Online

mother.”
    “Foley said two years. He married this one a few months ago.”
    When they were out of sight, Margie handed Grace a square of newspaper that she had softened by crushing and rubbing. She smiled at the woman’s quizzical look.
    “It’s better than nothing. My granny taught me how to do that. She used to cut the paper in squares, crush and rub it to soften it, fold it and put it in the outhouse. It works with pages from a catalog if it’s not slick paper.”
    Grace laughed. “Wait until I tell Alvin and Rusty—”
    “Don’t you dare! If you do, I’ll not be able to face either one of them.”
    “I was funnin’ you.”
    Later Grace clicked her tongue when she saw Mona Luker coming up the road. “I’d of give a pretty penny to have a girl, but the good Lord didn’t see fit to give us one. He must have figured he gave us the best he had when he gave us Rusty, and saved the girl for someone else.”
    “What a sweet thing to say. Rusty is lucky the Lord gave him to you.”
    Grace laughed. “We’d of loved him if he’d been dumb as a pile of rocks.”
    Jody Luker was talking to Rusty, who leaned against the side of the Putman truck, Blackie beside him. The hood of the Luker car was up, and Alvin, Foley and Elmer were huddled around it. Alvin went to his truck, returned with a bucket of water and poured it into the radiator.
    Margie climbed into Elmer’s truck and made sandwiches from the bacon and eggs she had cooked that morning. She took her sandwich, along with a fruit jar of water, and went to sit on the grass beside the road, leaving Elmer’s meal on the tailgate. She wasn’t in a mood to talk and was glad Grace was busy making the noon meal for her family.
    When Jody passed on his way back to the Luker car, Margie smiled and lifted a hand in greeting. Sugar Luker, who was sitting in the car, said something to him as he came even with it. He didn’t pause or answer, but continued on to where his sister was at the back of the trailer.
    Was Foley Luker so blind that he couldn’t see how unhappy his wife was making his children? Or was he so fascinated with his Sugar that he didn’t care?
    Margie’s mind was still in a turmoil over the conversation she’d had with her father. She had opened a dialogue with her questions and was determined to know why he considered her mother a whore.
    When it came time to pull out again, they fell in behind the Putmans. The highway was smooth. Margie waited until after Elmer had lit his pipe before she spoke.
    “I want to know why you called my mother a whore.”
    He was silent for a moment, then said, “You don’t want to know.”
    “I do,” she replied staunchly. “Do you think that I’m not your daughter? Is that the reason you have ignored me all these years and why you can’t bring yourself to introduce me to your friends?”
    “Drop it, girl. What’s done is done. No sense dragging up the past.”
    “I can’t drop something as important as this is to me. All my life I’ve wondered why you didn’t like me. I turned myself inside out trying to please you and get you to notice me. I
wanted
a father.”
    “No fault of mine. I provided for you till you were grown. I gave the old woman money every month.”
    “Why did you say my mother was a whore?” she insisted. “Why do you have such a low opinion of me? Tell me.”
    “Goddammit!” he shouted. “Let it go or I’ll pull over and put you out.”
    Margie burst into tears. She cried softly for miles. When the scalding tears abated, she wiped her eyes on the hem of her dress and rested her head against the back of the seat. One thought sustained her: She was on her way to California and Hollywood. Tonight she would get out her movie magazines. Looking through them always gave her something new to dream about. As far as Elmer was concerned, she vowed not to say another word to him until they reached California. And that word would be “good-bye.”
    Margie was staring out the window when