Cynthia Bond: Ruby

Margaret slipped a bobby pin from the other girl’s hair and bit off the tip. The girl’s two plaits fell past her shoulders.

“What you using for bait?”

Ephram handed her more salt pork.

She took one look at it and rolled her eyes, “No wonder.” She walked straight to the lake’s edge, dug her hand into the soft earth until she retrieved a long earthworm. She walked over to the pole, fastened the black pin to the string and bent it back. Then she pierced the moving worm with the sharp end of the pin and cast it easily in the water. Ephram and the little girl winced.

“Ruby ain’t never had no catfish. This here’s Ruby.”

Ruby nodded at him. Ephram nodded back.

Margaret continued, “Ruby stay up in Neches most the year with a White lady. They ain’t got no catfish where she from.”

Ephram ventured, “Ain’t they got catfish ever where?”

“What I just say?” said Margaret. The three of them fell silent.

They sat on the lake’s shore, Ephram to the left, Margaret in the center and Ruby to the right of her. Out of the corner of his eye, Ephram saw Ruby’s sleeve barely touching Maggie’s coveralls. Then Ruby leaned back and let her head rest against the soft moss grass. Ephram did the same and they looked into the identical swatch of sky. He hadn’t noticed it before but the blue had blown away and a dark flannel had taken its place. Maggie took a cigarette from her left ear and struck a kitchen match against the wedge of her belt.

“Ain’t your mama up at Dearing?” Maggie asked out of the corner of her mouth, her eye squinting against the smoke.

Ephram didn’t make a sound. Maggie went right on.

“Thought that was you.”

Ephram saw Ruby nudge Maggie as if to stop her.

“Naw, I ain’t sayin’ nothin’ bad. Papa Bell usta say some of the best people he know be up there. Say world be better off if them inside come out, and them out go in. How long she been there?”

Ephram cleared his throat. “Three years.”

“See then? She not bad off as some. I know a lady who mama been there fifteen years. Ain’t no reason to be shamed.” She sucked her teeth. “So, why they send her up there anyway?”

Ruby finally spoke, “It’s gonna rain.”

Maggie slipped off her overshirt and handed it to her. Ruby covered her shoulders with it.

“What she do?” Maggie repeated, flicking an ash without removing the cigarette from her mouth.

“Nothing.”

“She had to do something big else she wouldn’t be there. I ain’t gone tell nobody, and Ruby going back to Neches this afternoon. I’ll tell you what I hear and you tell me if it’s right. Say your mama come out naked to the church Easter picnic. That so?”

Ephram just stared ahead at the water. He didn’t want to talk about his mama, and he surely didn’t want to talk about her to this rusty butt girl.

“Say all them church ladies near wet theyselves. Samella was there for the free food and said they was trippin’ over theyselves to throw some clothes on her back and she just took off running, titties flappin’ ’til the Rev, your daddy, catch up with her and knocked her cold. Next day she up at Dearing. You was there, huh? When it happen?”

Ruby parted her lips and there was a scream at the edge of her words, “Mag, stop! ”

“Hush now, s’all right. I’m just sayin’ what happened is all. Just tryin’ to find out why the boy’s mama done that. Seem like if anybody know it be him.”

Ephram was standing now. Some flood of courage nearly drowned him, and he found his hands pushing up his sleeves and knotting into two tight fists. “Don’t talk about my mama no more.”

Maggie started laughing. “Boy, don’t make me hurt you. Sit your scrawny butt down. I ain’t mean no harm.” Just then a fish tugged at the line. Small at first, and then harder. Maggie stood up and just when it seemed it was about to escape she jerked hard and fast on the line. The fish came up wriggling with the black pin sticking through its nose. “Y’all ’bout to make me lose my supper.”

Maggie swung the wriggling fish to the earth and popped its head on a smooth stone. Of all the fish in that lake, luck brought Maggie a catfish. She flicked out her jackknife and split him down the center and ripped out his insides.

Ruby turned away, “Maggie … what you do that for?”

“You say you want catfish. So I catch you some catfish.” Then she turned to Ephram. “You, go get us some twigs so we can make us a fire.”

“It’s gonna rain,” said Ruby.

“Not before I cook me some fish. Go on.” Maggie scaled the small fish and chopped off its head and tail as Ruby started to cry. Maggie stood up and looked into her eyes. “There, there, gal. I ain’t did it to hurt him. That fish know what he gettin’ into, swimmin’ in that lake. He ain’t the first fish been caught and fried, and won’t be the last. That’s how he live. That be his life. Swimming and knowin’ that any day, whoosh , he gone be on somebody plate.” Ruby cried harder and Maggie wrapped her in her arms. “All right now. See up there? See that wind moving at the top a’ those trees?” Ruby looked up. “That fish be swimming up there now. He ain’t got to stay stuck in some ole lake size of a dime. See? That’s how it be. He come to us. He wants us to make a nice fire and eat him so all his memories of that lake be inside us. See Ruby? You see that fish up there?”

Ruby looked back at Maggie. “You just saying that.”

“I am not. I swear to it. And your Mag-pie don’t lie. Not ’bout catfish anyway.” Maggie winked and grinned.

Ruby smiled back and showed perfect white teeth. Ephram had never thought of the life of a fish like that. He picked up the bits of wood just around them, then gathered a few more behind a wall of thick trunks. He brought them back and Maggie made a fire with her great match sticks. She took out a jackknife and whittled a sharp point on a stick and pierced it through the fish. Then she roasted it, turning it this way and that until its fat sizzled into the fire. When it was done they all sat around that small fire and munched on that fatty, crunchy fish, careful to avoid the bones.

“See what I tell you? It’s good, huh?” Ruby nodded and winked at Maggie. Ephram chewed. He wished he had something to offer up as grand and soulful as that catfish. His heart sank when he thought about that slice of cake he’d gobbled in the woods. Celia’s cake stood up to Maggie’s fish any day. He guessed Celia was right about that gluttony sin after all. When they were done eating, just as Maggie had promised, the wind picked up and it started to sprinkle.

Ruby stood to go but Maggie said, “We got to do one thing first.” Then she took the fish head and dug a small hole beside the water. She placed the head so that it was straight up and she covered it over. The rain was misting the tops of their heads, their noses and shoulders.

“Now we got to make a wish on this good fish we just ate. But you got to make it quick so it’ll come fast.” So they all closed their eyes and wished. Ephram opened his and watched Ruby’s lips say very softly, “Tanny.” Ephram couldn’t imagine what that Maggie would be wishing for, but he cast his for his mama.

Ruby slipped on her shoes, then Maggie took her by the hand and the two walked quickly into the woods. Maggie turned back, “Hope your mama on the mend.”

“Uh-huh.”

Ruby half waved, but Maggie pulled her along and they were gone. Ephram stared after them. He put his dinner pail into the Radio Flyer, thought to leave but got snagged by the rain on the lake instead. By the blue and the gray. It looked like the drops were falling up, catapulted from a thousand tiny explosions. He thought about Ruby Bell. He had heard about her plenty too, but he’d never seen her before today, the Colored girl being raised by White folks up in Neches. Where did she get those eyelashes and that beauty spot on her left cheek? Ephram let himself get bone wet as the rain found the parts on his scalp and trickled down his face. A piece of thunder broke off and rolled about on the forest floor.