Free A Soft Place to Land by Susan Rebecca White Page B

humor.
    “Sweetheart,” said Mimi, ignoring Ruthie’s joke and placing her manicured hand on Julia’s forearm. “If your father was not around to care for you, of course you could come live with us. That would be optimal, wouldn’t it, for you and Ruthie to stay together? I hope you know that even though you are going to be moving to Virden at the end of the school year, we want you to come visit us as often as possible in San Francisco. Maybe we can even talk Peggy and Matt into letting us have you over the summer.”
    “Really?” asked Ruthie.
    “If it’s okay with Peggy and Matt, it’s okay with Robert and me.”
    Ruthie turned to beam at Julia—this, finally, was good news—but Julia was staring straight ahead, her forehead wrinkled, as if in anger. Or concentration.
    Julia took off in her Saab early that evening, so it was just Mimi and Ruthie at dinner, which was not unusual. They each ate a Lean Cuisine—Mimi apologizing for not cooking, saying that in San Francisco it was usually Robert who fixed all of the meals. Mimi had another glass of wine while Ruthie drank milk. Afterwards Ruthie went up to her room to finish her homework, which she had already started on the car ride home with Julia.
    She sat on her bed, her books spread about her, reading
The Wizard of Oz
. They were reading it for history class, because it had something to do with American politics and populism. According to their teacher, the Cowardly Lion stood for William Jennings Bryan, whom they had just discussed that day in class. Ruthie kept forgetting that she was supposed to be reading the book symbolically. She just found it thrilling to read an interesting book for history, especially one whose story she already knewso well from having watched the movie starring Judy Garland countless times.
    Ruthie heard a light tapping on the door frame. She looked up and there was her sister, back from wherever she’d been. Julia walked into the room and closed the door behind her. “We need to talk,” Julia said.
    When she sat beside Ruthie on the bed—after pushing her books out of the way—Ruthie was overwhelmed by the smell of cigarette smoke. Though Julia hadn’t told anyone where she was going for dinner, Ruthie guessed that she had been with Jake Robinson. Jake smoked Marlboro Reds, a habit Ruthie had declared disgusting, though Julia justified it by saying, “Hey, if you’re going to smoke, you might as well go full throttle.”
    “You want me to come with you to California, right? And not just for the summer?”
    Ruthie looked quizzically at her sister. Did Julia even have to ask?
    “Of course,” she said.
    “I think we’re going to be able to do it, then. Mimi convinced me this afternoon. I wasn’t sure if she and Robert would really be up for having the two of us move in with her, but I don’t think she was bullshitting when she said she’d take me if she could.”
    “Yeah, but she also knows that you have to go with your dad, because—you know—he’s still alive and he loves you.”
    He was still alive. Ruthie’s parents were not. How long before that knowledge would seem real to her? Before it would seem normal to think of them as dead?
    Never, Ruthie hoped. She hoped the knowledge of their death would always seem wrong.
    “Look, Dad loves me, I’m not doubting that, but what you said last night was right. I haven’t been a part of his life for fourteen years. And I can guaran-damn-tee you that Peggy is not thrilled about me moving in with her.”
    “You don’t know that,” said Ruthie, feeling protective of her sister. “She kept hugging you at the funeral. Throwing her arms around you, telling you not to forget that
you are loved
.”
    Ruthie said those words in Peggy’s accent, deeply southern and concerned.
    “Peggy loves her some drama,” said Julia. “Did you see her clutch that cross she wears around her neck when they got to the part in the will about me living with them? That was a clutch of