Susan Pfeffer - Shade of the Moon

Jon was standing at his window, staring at the faint outline of the moon, when Ruby walked in.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, painfully aware that he had nothing but pajama bottoms on.

“I can’t sleep in that room,” Ruby said. She was wearing a cotton nightgown, flimsy enough that Jon could see the outline of her body. “It’s so quiet. Can I sit down, Mr. Jon?”

Jon nodded, expecting her to sit on the chair. Instead she crawled into his bed, her knees propped up, her head resting against his pillow.

“I get so lonely down there,” she said. “All alone and all you folks up here. I’d love to sleep with little Gaby, but Mrs. Evans says that’s where the new grubber girl will stay. She says I should like it, having my own room, but I never was so alone. Always had lots of people to share my room with me.”

“Are you from White Birch, Ruby?” Jon asked. “Did you always live there?”

“No, Mr. Jon, I did not,” Ruby said. “We worked a chicken farm back in West Virginia, but they stopped bringing us food, so we ate all the chickens and had to get going. We tried for Oklahoma, since Momma has family there, but then Daddy heard there was work in Tennessee. He and Momma work in the greenhouses. Me and my sisters live with them and Mrs. Duncan’s daughters. Mrs. Duncan’s a domestic, same as me now, so she’s only in the apartment on weekends. We’re all in the room together, me and my sisters and the two Duncan girls.”

“How many sisters?” Jon asked.

“There’s four of us,” Ruby said. “Me and my twin, Opal, and Jasmine and Cheyenne. I had two little brothers, but they’re gone. I had a teacher named Mrs. Evans. That’s your name, isn’t it, Mr. Jon? Like Gaby’s momma?”

“Yes,” Jon said.

“The guards killed her,” Ruby said. “I never saw anyone killed like that. Then the guards made us walk all the way to the bus terminal. I was so scared they were going to kill us, too, but all they did was put us on buses and bring us here. I never saw Sexton before. It’s so pretty. We stayed in a dormitory, and they tried to teach us girls how to cook food like clavers eat, and how to clean, and be polite. It wasn’t so bad because Opal was with me, and I knew the other girls from school. Then Sunday, they took us to our houses. They said we had to stay in Sexton for a whole year and not go back to White Birch once. I don’t even know if my family knows what happened to us.”

“I’m sure they know,” Jon said.

“Mrs. Evans, my teacher, she was real nice,” Ruby said. “We all knew we was going to be grubs. We didn’t have a chance to be nothing else, and there’s nothing wrong with grubber work. But Mrs. Evans said we should be proud of the work we did. She said everybody’s good at something. She said she was good at telling stories and raising her kids, but she wasn’t any good at being married. That made me feel better about things, because my parents love each other so much. They’re always hugging and kissing, and Momma says they never go to bed mad at each other. So maybe they’re grubs, but they’re still better than Mrs. Evans at being married. Aren’t you tired, Mr. Jon? You could get in bed with me.”

Jon thought about all the grubber girls he’d had. He’d known nothing about them. They might have heard his name, Tyler or one of his other friends calling out to him, but that was it. The girls’ names hadn’t been important. The girls hadn’t been important. For all he knew, Ruby had been one of them.

“How old are you, Ruby?” he asked. Not a question he’d ever bothered to ask a grub before.

“Fifteen,” she said. “Almost.”

It would be so easy, Jon thought. Lisa wouldn’t know, or if she did, she wouldn’t care. She never asked him what he did in White Birch, but she was no fool. She had to know. She’d be angry if Ruby didn’t do the cleaning, but that was it. She probably expected Ruby to end up in Jon’s bed or, more likely, Jon to end up in Ruby’s.

“Go to your room,” Jon said. “That’s where you should be sleeping, Ruby. You’ll get used to the quiet soon enough.”

“Don’t you like me, Mr. Jon?” Ruby asked. “I like you.”

“I do like you, Ruby,” Jon said. “That’s why I want you to go to your room and get a good night’s sleep. Mrs. Evans expects you to work very hard. She’ll be angry if you don’t. Now get out of my bed and go where you belong.”

Ruby got out of the bed. “If I do all the cleaning Mrs. Evans wants tomorrow, can I come in here again, like tonight?”

Jon shook his head. “I have a girlfriend, Ruby,” he said. “She wouldn’t like it if you came in here.”

“You sure you’re a claver boy?” she asked. “I never knew a claver boy to care about his girlfriend before.”

Jon laughed. “I’m a slip,” he said. “Go to bed, Ruby. I’ll teach you how to make scrambled eggs in the morning.”

“What do I do now, Mr. Jon?” Ruby asked.

“We put the vegetables in the pot,” Jon replied. “Gabe, watch where you’re going.”

Ruby giggled. “Don’t pay him no mind, Gaby,” she said. “You drive your trucks wherever you want.”

Gabe rammed his toy truck into Jon’s leg and laughed in triumph.

Jon shook his head. “Ruby, you can’t let him get away with things,” he said.

“Why not?” Ruby asked. “You and his momma surely do. All right, the vegetables are in the pot. Never saw so many vegetables at once. And a whole chicken. All that for just the three of you. It’s a marvel how you claver folk eat.”

“We’ll get a lot of meals out of this chicken,” Jon said. “And it wouldn’t surprise me if Mrs. Evans let you have some of it, if you do all your work.”

“She’s a good woman,” Ruby said. “I hope Opal’s with as nice a family. Though I do say you could be a little kinder to me, Mr. Jon. Especially late at night.”

“Are you mean to Ruby?” Gabe yelled.

Jon ignored him. “Make sure there’s enough water in the pot so it doesn’t burn,” he said to Ruby. “Now put the pot on the stove. That’s right. Low flame. Keep an eye on it.” He cut a carrot in half, gave part to Gabe and offered the other part to Ruby.

“You sure?” she asked.

Jon grinned. “I’m sure,” he said. “You’ve worked hard all day, Ruby.”

Ruby nibbled at the carrot. “I love being in such a clean house,” she said. “Back in West Virginia, Momma and us girls cleaned whenever we could. But in White Birch, no matter how hard you clean, it stays dirty. I can’t wait until I go home and tell them all about how clean things are in Sexton. Bet they won’t believe me.” She took another bite. “One year minus a week,” she said. “I wonder if they’ll even recognize me.”

Jon laughed. “You’re pretty memorable, Ruby,” he said. “Nobody’s going to forget you.”

“I don’t know,” Ruby said. “Half the time my daddy can’t remember which one’s me and which one’s Opal. Momma can always tell us apart, but we’d confuse Daddy something fierce. I think I miss Opal most of all.”

“I have an older brother,” Jon said. “I don’t see him very often.”

“I figured your daddy was dead,” Ruby said. “Gaby, keep away from the stove. What with you living with Mrs. Evans and all. What about your momma? Is she dead, too?”

Jon nodded. It was better if Ruby didn’t realize her teacher had been Jon’s mother. By the standards of Sexton, Mom had been a dangerous revolutionary. The fewer people who made the connection between her and Jon the better.

“What did you do for fun back in West Virginia?” Jon asked. “Besides playing with Opal and your sisters.”