Then I told her how much it had been bothering me that she hardly ever talked to me anymore and then when she did, all she could do was moon over Derek and talk like Megan and Christy: “di-viiiiine” and “truly wonderful” and all that. It felt good to tell her, and fortunately she didn’t even seem to mind. She just laughed about it and said she was sorry and that she hadn’t meant to sound so drippy and all.
But then I really blew it. I don’t know what came over my brain, but I guess I thought I could go on being one hundred percent honest, and I said, “Well, maybe I was a little jealous. Maybe I was. When Maggie told me that she saw you and Derek at the party and that you were hanging all over him and that he was sort of a j—” All of a sudden I could tell by the look on her face that I had gone too far.
Boy, did she get mad! She straightened out her little mouth so fast into this flat little line and scrunched up her eyes and jumped up and said, “God, Mary Lou! Who do you think you are, anyway?!”
I started to apologize, but she wouldn’t let me talk at all.
“I was NOT hanging all over Derek—believe me, I don’t have to do that. And Derek is NOT a jerk—don’t shake your head, I know that’s what you were going to say. You make me sick, and we’re NOT best friends, and you can take your little brat brothers and get out of my yard!” And she ran into the house and slammed the screen door and then slammed the other door and I heard the locks click.
Beth Ann is so darn touchy. Who does she think she is, anyway? It makes me mad just thinking about it now. I hate when someone yells at you and doesn’t even give you a chance to talk. I really hate that.
Grrrr.
So. Now about Carl Ray.
I just don’t believe this and apparently Dad doesn’t either, because when he got back from taking Carl Ray to see Mr. Biggers, he was shaking his head back and forth, and Carl Ray was looking sort of stunned. Everybody started jumping all over saying, “What happened? What did Mr. Biggers want? What did he say?” and Dennis said, “Is Carl Ray going to jail?” and Tommy started crying because I think he actually likes Carl Ray and he started screaming, “No jail! No jail!” and finally Dad got everybody quiet and made us sit down to dinner before he would tell us anything.
Here’s what happened: Mr. Biggers told Carl Ray that someone wanted to give Carl Ray some money!!! Mr. Biggers “was not at liberty to divulge” the name of this person who is throwing his money away.
This sounds just like Great Expectations, if you ask me. Great Expectations is a terrific book. It’s about a poor little boy who inherits some money and he thinks it’s from this weird rich lady who sits around in this cobwebby room all day, but it turns out that the money is from some spooky convict who the boy gave some bread to when the boy was little.
But back to Carl Ray. We all just about keeled over when we heard about Mr. Biggers telling Carl Ray someone wanted to give him some money. It was chaos in our house because everybody started asking Carl Ray a million questions.
MAGGIE: Gosh, Carl Ray, who could the person be?
DENNIS: How much? How much did you get?
ME: Who is the person??
DOUGIE: Is it a lot of money?
TOMMY: No jail?
MAGGIE: Who do you think it could be?
ME: Yeah, who is it?
DENNIS: How much money is he giving you?
DOUGIE: Is he a millionaire?
TOMMY: No jail?
And on and on. Ole Carl Ray hardly had a chance to get a word in, and finally Dad yelled, “QUIET! WILL YOU ALL JUST BE QUIET?”
And when we finally all shut up, Dad said, “Carl Ray does not know who the person is. We’ve been through this already. He asked Mr. Biggers to tell him the name, but Mr. Biggers can’t do that. Apparently whoever is giving Carl Ray this money wants to remain anonymous.”
Mom said, “That’s very curious, isn’t it, Sam?”
Dad just nodded.
“Boy,” Dennis said, “how lucky can a guy get? I wish this person would give me some money.”
And Dougie said, “How much, Carl Ray?”
And Dad said, “Carl Ray, you don’t have to tell them if you don’t want to. It’s none of their business.”
Boy, here we are providing a hotel for the ole prince and Dad doesn’t think it’s any of our business?
But Carl Ray just shrugged and said, “I don’t care if they know.”
And Dennis said, “How much?”
And Carl Ray said to Dad, “You tell ’em. I forget.” He forgets? Lord.
DAD: He gets five thousand dollars right now…
DENNIS: God!
MOM: Don’t say “God!”
DOUGIE: GEEZ!!
MAGGIE: Wow.
ME: Lord.
TOMMY: No jail?
DAD:…and the rest of the money…
DOUGIE: There’s more?
DENNIS: God!
MOM: Don’t say “God!”
DAD: The rest of the money is being put in a trust fund to provide for Carl Ray’s college education.
DENNIS: What college?
DOUGIE: What college?
MAGGIE: I didn’t know you wanted to go to college, Carl Ray.
(I have to admit I was thinking “What college?” myself.)
MOM: Oh, be quiet all of you. Give Carl Ray a chance to think, will you?
ME: Well, did you want to go to college, Carl Ray?
(Carl Ray just shrugged.)
DENNIS: What if he doesn’t want to go to college?
DOUGIE: Yeah, can he use that money for something else? Like a television or something?
DAD: No. It’s only for college. That’s a condition on the rest of the money. If Carl Ray doesn’t want to go to college, the money goes somewhere else, I guess.
DENNIS: Where does it go?
DOUGIE: Could I have it?
DAD: I don’t know where it goes. No, you can’t have it. It’s all rather mysterious, if you ask me. All I know is what Mr. Biggers told us, and I don’t want ANY of you repeating this to anyone. It is NO ONE’s business but Carl Ray’s, and Mr. Biggers asked that we keep this within the family.
Well, everyone was so excited. All of us kids spent the whole rest of the evening deciding what we would do if we got five thousand dollars and also we kept trying to guess who gave Carl Ray the money. We decided it was either some weird old lady who got Carl Ray mixed up with someone else, or maybe it was some long-lost uncle who had so much money he didn’t know what to do with it. Or maybe it was some strange old convict who Carl Ray met just once and maybe Carl Ray gave him some bread or something. You just never know about these things.
Carl Ray doesn’t seem too excited, but he does seem worried. I can’t imagine why, unless he thinks maybe it’s a mistake and tomorrow Mr. Biggers will call and say the person changed his mind or got the wrong Carl Ray or something.