S is for Silence

Violet drove into Santa Maria, where the three of them had lunch in the tea room at the Savoy Hotel. Liza and Violet both had shrimp cocktails for a first course and then this tiny cup of chicken soup and a plate of finger sandwiches-brown bread with cream cheese and chopped nuts, egg salad, ham salad, even one with watercress and thinly sliced radishes. She and Violet ate with their little fingers crooked up, pretending to be oh so lah-di-dah. Daisy had buttered noodles, which was just about the only thing she’d eat except for Welch’s grape jelly on bread. They had layer cake for dessert, and Liza’s arrived with a candle in it, which she blew out, blushing with pleasure as the waiters and waitresses stood around and sang to her. Just when she thought life couldn’t be any more perfect, Violet handed her a small box wrapped in beautiful lavender paper. Liza opened the gift with trembling fingers. Inside there was a silver heart-shaped locket about the size of fifty-cent piece. Inside there was a tiny photograph of Violet. “And look at this,” she said.

She pulled the photo aside to reveal a second heart-shaped compartment behind the first. “That’s for your true love,” Violet said, pointing to the blank space. “I predict within a year, you’ll know exactly who it is.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh, Sweetie, don’t cry. It’s your birthday.”

“This is the best day of my life.”

“You’ll have others much better, but enjoy. Here, let’s put it on.”

Liza turned around and lifted her hair while Violet fixed the clasp. Liza put her hand against the locket that was nestled in the hollow of her throat. The silver was already warm from contact with her skin. Her lucky charm. She could hardly quit touching it.

Violet paid for lunch out of a thick wad of bills, making sure everybody noticed. She seemed pleased as Punch and more than once remarked that life was soon going to be one hundred percent improved. Liza thought if that were really true, she wouldn’t have to repeat it four times during the meal, but Violet was like that.

“Oh geez Louise, I almost forgot,” she said. “I need a babysitter tomorrow night. Are you free?”

Liza’s smile faded. “Not really. Kathy and I are going to the fireworks.”

Violet looked at her with a momentary consternation, having assumed she’d agree. “Couldn’t you skip just this once?”

“I don’t know. I told her I’d go with her, and I don’t want to break a date.”

“Trust me, if you’re going out with a girl, it’s not a date. It’s marking time.”

“Couldn’t you get someone else?”

“Oh for heaven’s sake, Lies. At this late date? There’s no chance. Besides, Kathy’s a sourpuss. I’ve seen the way she bosses you around. Aren’t you ever going to stand up to her?”

“Maybe I could come for a little while. Until eight forty-five. We could hold off going over to the park till then.”

Violet fixed Liza in her clear green gaze. “If you sat the whole evening, you could have Ty come over. You know I wouldn’t care. Missing the fireworks isn’t that big a deal. There’s always next year.”

Liza was stricken. What was she supposed to say? The day had been so perfect, all because of Violet, who wanted only this one small thing.

Violet’s eyes widened. “Please, please, please? You can’t let Kathy take up all your time. I really need the help.”

Liza didn’t see how she could refuse. She sat for Violet all the time. Violet had been counting on her even if she forgot to ask. And Kathy had been such a pill of late. “All right, I guess. Maybe I can do something with her on Sunday instead.”

“Thank you, Sugar Bun. You are too too sweet.”

“That’s okay,” Liza said, flushing with pleasure. Praise of any kind always made her warm.

After lunch, for the finale, Violet took Liza and Daisy to see a 3-D movie called Bwana Devil, with Robert Stack and Barbara Britton. It had been in the theaters for seven months, but it hadn’t come to Santa Maria until recently. The three of them settled in front-row seats with their cardboard glasses, wearing wax lips for fun, munching popcorn and Milk Duds. Violet told her that for the early 3-D movies, one lens of the give-away glasses was green and the other was red. This was new technology, Polaroid, with both lenses clear, though Violet wasn’t quite sure how either process worked. Why one green and one red lens would produce a 3-D effect was beyond her, she said. The credits began and they settled in. Unfortunately, the first time a lion jumped straight out of the screen at them, Daisy got hysterical and cried so hard Liza had to take her out to the lobby and sit for an hour.

Still, it was the best birthday Liza could remember, and she hated to see the day come to an end.

After they got back to the Sullivans’, Liza sat with Daisy for an hour while Violet ran an errand. Thankfully, Foley didn’t get home until 6:00, so she didn’t have to deal with him. True to form, Violet took longer than she said, so it was close to 5:45 by the time Liza finally got to her house. Her mother heard her come in and called her into the living room. Liza stood at the door while her mother struggled into a sitting position. Her mother had that fuzzy look that made Liza want to scream.

“What,” she said. She didn’t want to spoil the good mood she was in, but she knew better than to ignore her mom.

“Word of warning. Kathy Cramer came by with your birthday present, and when she found out you weren’t here, she got that look on her face.” Her mother’s consonants were only slightly soft. In her own curious way, she was aware of what was going on.

Liza felt her heart sink. The last thing in the world she wanted was for Kathy to find out she’d had lunch with Violet and had seen Bwana Devil afterward. Kathy had been talking about Bwana Devil for weeks, trying to get her dad to drive them into town and drop them at the theater. Liza didn’t feel she was under any obligation to wait and go with her, but she knew Kathy would see it differently. “What’d you tell her?”

“I forget. I made some excuse for you. She woke me from a sound sleep, standing on the porch, pounding on the front door like the house was burning down. I hollered for her to hold her horses, but by the time I got there, she was already acting like she had a stick up her butt. I told her I didn’t have a clue where you were and she got all snotty and sullen. Honestly, Liza, what do you see in her? She’s chained to you like a rock and she’s dragging you down.”

“You didn’t mention Violet?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Where’d you put the present?”

“She took it to your room and said she’d leave it on your desk.”

Liza made a beeline for her room, suddenly worried that Kathy had taken advantage of the opportunity to snoop. Her room was much as she’d left it, but when she went to check her diary, hidden behind the bookcase, she couldn’t be sure if it had been moved or not. She sat on the bed and leafed through the pages, waves of anxiety coursing through her. She’d recorded every detail of her romance with Ty Eddings, and if Kathy had read the last few entries, she was doomed. According to Kathy, even the use of junior Tampax was an affront to the notion of Absolute Purity.

Liza found a new hiding place for the diary and then sat on her bed and opened Kathy’s present, which was beautifully wrapped in pink-flowered paper with a pretty pink bow on top. Pink was Kathy’s favorite color. Liza herself preferred shades of purple, which was also Violet’s favorite.

When she saw what Kathy had given her, she could hardly believe her eyes. The box of lily of the valley dusting powder was the same one she’d given Kathy for her birthday in March of the year before. She checked the bottom of the box and, sure enough, there was the same drugstore sticker she’d torn in half when she’d tried to peel it off. Clearly Kathy hadn’t used the powder and didn’t remember who’d given it to her. Now what?