The Sand Castle Page 6

  When I next looked around Leroy had fallen asleep on Mother’s breasts, her blouse soaked by his tears. She held the towel over his part but it didn’t have ice in it. She smiled at me but put her finger to her lips. I smiled back.

  I stayed awake, which I usually did in the car because I lived in fear that I’d miss something. I loved to look at fields full of cattle and see if I could count them before they were out of sight. Houses, churches, stores, road signs, colors, big trees, it all fascinated me. Sometimes I could even identify birds in flight or see a big Red-tailed Hawk perched in a tree waiting for supper. I didn’t say a word until Louise dropped us off at our house and Leroy woke up.

  Mother kissed him, pulled his pants up as he woke. “You’ll be okay.”

  He hugged her.

  “Leroy, come on up here with me,” Louise said.

  He opened the car door and walked around but he walked funny, keeping his legs apart. I kissed him, too.

  As we walked toward the back door I remembered the crab claw in my pocket so as Mother moved ahead—she always walked so fast—I dumped out the claw.

  Dad came into the kitchen when he heard the back door open. He gave Mother a big kiss and one to me, too. Dad was a hugger and kisser but he especially liked kissing Mother.

  “How was your day?”

  “Chessy, I don’t even know where to start.”

  I did. “Daddy, a crab bit Leroy’s pecker!”

  Dad’s beautiful blue eyes widened. He turned to Mother. “I hope it was a female crab.”

  * * *

  As I write this I am fourteen years older than Mother and Dad were back then. They’re all gone. Louise made it to one hundred if you believed her birthday. Chances were she had tipped over the century mark.

  Leroy and I kept our promise. Neither of us did marry. He became a marine just like his father. He was killed in Vietnam.

  Louise kept the flag the marines gave her at the funeral. I have it now, folded in a triangle, on my bookshelf. I put a plastic crab on it.