Vern did crisscrosses and double jumps as Lucy spoke. At the time, she’d just been glad to have her friend back. “What’s wrong with the Ascensions?” she’d asked. “Isn’t it a good thing to get cleansed?”
Lucy snorted. “Now, Vern. You are the smartest girl I know. You can’t believe that shit is real. It’s dangerous. The water could kill you.”
Vern shrugged and kept on jumping. “I like them,” she said. It was the truth. She always emerged from an Ascension feeling like new, bursting with life and adrenaline and purpose.
Shaking her head, Lucy hoisted herself up on the porch railing. “That’s cuz you’re a masochist.”
Lucy always talked about things Vern knew nothing about. She knew everything about the outside world.
“What’s that?”
Lucy grabbed the bottom of Vern’s sleeve and scooted it up to reveal the pink scars stretched laterally across Vern’s wrist. “Somebody who does shit like this.”
Vern wrenched away from Lucy and redid the button of her dress’s left cuff.
Douglass, Lucy’s daddy, popped his head outside. “Ruthanne needs some help inside. Come on.”
“Please, Daddy, five more minutes?” asked Lucy.
His finger pointed inside. “Now. And don’t talk back to me again.”
“It’s all right, Lucy. I’m coming inside anyway,” said Vern, flinging the jump rope onto the wooden flooring of the porch before jogging toward the door.
“You pick that thing up right now,” said Douglass. “I won’t have you disrespecting Reverend Sherman’s house.”
Vern retrieved it, but when Douglass was turned away, she wrapped it around her neck and pretended it was a noose. She stuck out her tongue dramatically and bugged her eyes wide. Lucy laughed, prompting her father to turn around, but by that point Vern was already wrapping the jump rope up neatly.
“Get inside, both of you,” he snapped.
Vern and Lucy grabbed each other’s hands and followed Mr. Jenkins inside, making faces behind him. Everyone else was already there, gathered on the couches and chairs.
Carmichael, eight, was reading a thick book all about the ancient civilization of the Maya. He’d been annoying everybody by sharing various facts from the book at all hours.
Vern hated Carmichael for the way he read so effortlessly. Everybody loved him. He was good at school and sweet as syrup.
Vern’s mam had made supper tonight, as Reverend Sherman didn’t have a wife and the women of Cainland took turns cooking for him on a rotation. Tonight was spicy red beans and rice, corn-and-tomato salad, grilled maple-glazed pork chops, roasted green beans, and sweet rolls with honey butter.
“Vern, baby, set the table,” said Mam.
“Lucy, go and help,” said Mr. Jenkins. Everything he said was an admonishment, like Lucy should’ve known what he was thinking long before he even barked it out.
While the adults and Carmichael talked in the living room, Vern and Lucy took their time gathering up dishes, lazily unpacking the open-shelved cabinetry.
“I’m glad you’re back,” said Vern, smiling at Lucy, who was the prettiest girl in the world, buckteeth and all.
Lucy shrugged. “I aint back really,” she said.
“What you mean, you aint back? You’re right there, goofy,” said Vern, rolling her eyes.
“Well, I’m back now, but not for much longer. Don’t tell Reverend Sherman or my daddy, but somebody’s coming to get me tonight,” she whispered, a big old grin on her face. She didn’t care she was ruining Vern’s life. “Mama said we was stupid trying to win against Cainland in the courts, so we’re just going. Getting new identities and everything.”
“That’s stupid,” said Vern.
“You’d like it out there, Vernie. You can watch TV and movies all the time. And Auntie makes the best corn pudding. She makes the best everything, actually,” Lucy said. “And have you ever heard of earrings? I can’t remember if I told you about them before. I’m getting me some of those, too. They slit a hole in your ear and you can hang jewelry off it.”
Vern carried the finished dishes from the counter to the big dining table, laying down a folded tea towel under each item. There was sweet tea and lemonade in the icebox, and Vern poured herself a glass of the two mixed together. “Sounds dumb to me,” said Vern. “I got enough holes. Too many damn holes. I don’t want another way inside me.”
“You’re just mad because you can’t come with me.”