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    My Mother's Car
    My Mother's Car
    My Mother's Car
    Ebook88 pages1 hour

    My Mother's Car

    By Janice Daugharty

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Ten year old Doodle is in charge of his little brother and baby sister for the summer while his mother, Nina, is awaiting the arrival of her fourth baby. Nina claims that her husband's bossman's wife "gave" her a Mercedes, which Noodle knows will either have to go back or be paid for. They have no money so Doodle tries to keep the car clean, but his sister and brother make a playhouse of it.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJanice Daugharty
    Release dateOct 8, 2009
    ISBN9781102466796
    My Mother's Car
    Author

    Janice Daugharty

    Janice Daugharty is Artist-in-Residence at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, in Tifton, Georgia. She is the author of one story collection and five novels: Dark of the Moon, Necessary Lies, Pawpaw Patch, Earl in the Yellow Shirt, and Whistle.

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      Book preview

      My Mother's Car - Janice Daugharty

      MY MOTHER’S CAR

      A Young Adult Novel

      By Janice Daugharty

      Chapter 1

      The sky is falling. The sky is falling. Doodle felt like Chicken-little in the book. It was a feeling he should be getting used to, but he never did.

      This time, trouble was so close he could touch it. Trouble had a name and it was Nina—his very own mother.

      They were headed home to Fargo in Nina’s new car. Doodle, in the back seat, squirmed under the weight of his baby sister. Peepie had fallen asleep in his lap; she was wet as usual. Four years old, and still she wasn’t potty-trained. If he put her down between him and his little brother Mikey, she would ruin the creamy leather. That’s how sure Doodle was that his mother’s car would have to go back to the bossman’s wife.

      Mikey must have thought so too. He was sitting stiff with his short legs straight out, not touching the seat with his dirty feet. Neither he nor Doodle had had a bath since the week before, when they got out of school for the summer. Mikey’s wide brown eyes shifted from front to back, meeting Doodle’s eyes. He was holding the ragged bouquet of purple flowers he had picked from the bossman’s yard that evening. He was so cute and sweet that nobody had the heart to get on to him. Everybody said he looked like his mother and Doodle looked like his daddy.

      Up front, doing the driving, their daddy Will raised high in the seat, stretching his long neck and not moving his ball-shaped head. Speaking to their mother, he kept his eyes on the road through the pine woods being opened up by the headlights. My Lord! My Lord! he said. "You mean she just give this car to you, Nina?"

      Doodle sucked in his breath, waiting for her to tell the truth.

      What she said. Their pretty fat mother sat low in the seat next to him. Her black hair was slicked back in a high ponytail. Said she couldn’t let me run the risk of not making it all that way to Valdosta when my baby was born. And us with no decent way to go.

      Not the whole truth. Doodle let go of his breath.

      My Lord! My Lord! Will sounded stuck on those two words. His eyes seemed stuck on the car hood, on that three-point star sticking up, dead-center.

      It was dark in the back seat, except for the dim yellow light from the dashboard; looked like candle light on TV when rich people sit down to dinner. The car smelled clean and rich too, all but for the peculiar sulfur odor of the Westmore family.

      The sky is falling. The sky is falling.

      Night bugs rushed at the headlights of the car, and then spattered on the windshield, leaving chalky stars. It was a warm June night outside, but inside with the air conditioning running, you couldn’t tell whether it was summer or winter. You had to know the frogs in the woods slews would be cheeping to imagine hearing them. That’s how tight the car was.

      Quit worrying, said Nina. She’s got a brand new car.

      She never worried about anything, their mother. Mostly she just wagged her head and hummed when she spotted trouble. But this time she had better be worried, because Doodle had overheard what was said by his daddy’s boss’s wife. Playing under the live oaks in her big front yard that evening, Doodle had heard her say, Go ahead, take the car. We’ll work it out later.

      Even if his mother hadn’t figured it out, he knew it meant money. Money they didn’t have, not with a fourth baby coming and the third not even paid for yet. Like his daddy said, they owed everybody and his brother.

      Hey, we’re pore folks, Will spoke up. Who ever heard tell of pore folks riding around in a Mercedes-Benz?

      Chapter 2

      When they got to Fargo, about twenty minutes later, Will was still exclaiming over his boss’s wife giving Nina the car.

      "My Lord! My Lord! You mean she just give you this car?"

      Ho-humming, yawning, Nina said, Will. Whatever.

      The little town of Fargo had long been asleep, and only a few lights glowed in the windows of houses left and right of the dead-end stretch. Will braked at the intersection, flashing the yellow sign with a large black arrow pointing either or both ways, depending on how you looked at it.

      He put on a blinker, though no cars were to be seen. Turning right, then right again, up the ramp to the small frame corner house rented by the Westmores, he said, "Whatever? Nina, this is serious."

      Well, said Nina, giving him a direct but mild stare with those wide dark eyes. It’s not exactly like I stole it, now is it?

      Headlights beaming on the front of the paint-shedding white house, Will said, I never said you did. It’s just a curious thing to me how we wound up with a Mercedes-Benz.

      Nina opened her door and stepped out, closing it as if she rode in such cars every day. She waddled across the un-mowed grass and weeds toward the front door of the house. One hand lay protectively on top of her hard, round belly.

      Doodle had seen her do that many times when she was on the losing end of an argument with his daddy.

      Mikey and Peepie were both asleep in the back seat.

      Will came around to Mikey’s side and opened the door and scooped him up in his long powerful arms. Bring Peepie on in, Doodle, will you?

      Nina had switched on the porch light, and night bugs and beetles were swarming around and darting at the bare bulb.

      After Will got Mikey tucked in, in the bed he shared with Doodle, he went back out to the car.

      Doodle dumped Peepie in her bed, in the room next to his parent’s, and left her for his mother to take charge of.

      He met her in the narrow hallway, coming out of the bathroom, avoiding her eyes. Then he went back to the living room and peeped through the wide picture window over the porch.

      In the shadowy light from the porch, he could see his daddy polishing the car’s hood with his shirt sleeve, then standing back for a better view while shaking his head.

      Doodle could imagine him still saying, "You mean she just give you this car?"

      All heck was about to break loose. The sky was for sure about to fall.

      Chapter 3

      We gotta keep this car clean, Doodle explained the next morning to his little brother and sister, who were playing in the car.

      How come? Mikey in the back seat wanted to know.

      If he had it figured out last night, it was forgotten this morning. Because it’s gotta go back to the bossman’s wife.

      How come? Mikey was eight, short and chubby like Peepie, but his hair was as dark as hers was light.

      We don’t have the money to pay for it, Doodle said. That’s how come.

      Gator Jack’ll pay for it. He always does.

      What Mikey said was

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