Free A Long Time Gone by Karen White

Beth.”
    Sarah Beth rolled her eyes, then tossed the large button behind her. “I’m so bored. Let’s go play with Daddy’s new radio music box.”
    As if to prove my point that Mathilda could hear just fine, she and I both stared at Sarah Beth in horror. Mr. Heathman had paid sixty-five dollars for his new radio music box—I knew because my aunt and uncle talked about it all the time—and had forbidden Sarah Beth to so much as look at it. It was kept in Mr. Heathman’s study, the same place where we’d snooped in the family Bible. I would have rather set my hair on fire than be caught anywhere near that radio box.
    We heard footsteps in the foyer. As quick as a cat on a fire-ant hill, Mathilda jumped up and gathered all those handkerchiefs in her arms before slipping behind the door just as it opened.
    Bertha stuck her head in the doorway while Mathilda shrank out of her sight. “You girls need to hush now. Miz Heathman is feelin’ poorly.”
    We both nodded, looking sorry. Bertha pursed her lips and nodded her head once, her eyes scanning the room before gently closing the door.
    We looked at Mathilda, who’d knelt on the floor and was busy shaking out the first handkerchief and refolding it along the pressed lines. I sat on the floor next to her and grabbed a handkerchief from the pile.
    â€œThank you, Mathilda. You probably just saved Sarah Beth from getting herself knocked into next Tuesday by her daddy’s belt. And me, too, most likely.” I glared at Sarah Beth, who’d flopped down on the sofa and was fanning herself with a copy of
Ladies’ Home Journal
.
    â€œIt’s hotter than hell in here,” she said. She thought cussing made her seem more mature. “I’m going to suffocate if I have to stay inside one more minute.”
    I looked up to find Mathilda watching me, but she quickly looked away as we each took another handkerchief to refold.
    After another bored sigh, Sarah Beth said, “My daddy wanted me to go Peacock’s jewelers downtown to get his pocket watch fixed, but it’s too rainy to walk. Could you call Willie on the telephone and see if he’d drive us?”
    I hadn’t noticed exactly when Sarah Beth had developed a crush on my older cousin, Willie, and she hadn’t admitted it to me, either. But ever since he turned sixteen and my uncle Joe had allowed him to drive the Ford, Sarah Beth had been looking for excuses to include Willie on our days off from school.
    I folded the last handkerchief, placed it on top of the stack, and looked up at the mantel clock. “He should be home by now. He and Uncle Joe went to talk to Mr. Elkins about hiring out some of their field hands for the planting. I guess I could call if you really want me to.”
    Sarah Beth didn’t bother to answer, but kept fanning herself silently.
    I made the phone call and was disgusted to hear the excitement in Willie’s voice. He was nice-looking enough, I supposed, and always cracking jokes, but he was like a brother to me, so I could never really understand the attraction. Still, if getting Willie to take us to the jewelry store could distract Sarah Beth from messing with her daddy’s new radio, it would be worth the annoyance of having him around.
    Willie said he could be at the Heathmans’ in twenty minutes, and I hung up the phone. Sarah Beth was sitting up on the sofa and eyeing Mathilda, who was now standing in the same corner where we’d folded the handkerchiefs, the linen squares neatly stacked between her hands.
    Sarah’s voice sounded exactly like her mother’s as she addressed the young colored girl. “I want you to go upstairs and stick those in my daddy’s drawer before he gets home and finds them missing. And don’t let my mama catch you in his dressing room or there will be hell to pay.”
    Mathilda silently slipped from the room, sending me a sidelong glance as she left.