“Play!” Gabe screamed at Jon.
“Do you know the rules, Mr. Jon?” Ruby asked.
“I think I can figure them out,” Jon said. He promptly poked her with his finger, and yelled, “Tag!”
Then Gabe ran over to him, and the game progressed. Jon didn’t think Gabe would ever agree to stop, and Ruby didn’t seem to care. But Lisa, Jon knew, wouldn’t be happy with things the way they were.
“Ruby, you need to start cleaning,” Jon said. “Have you done anything today?”
“I tried, Mr. Jon,” Ruby said. “Honest, I did. But little Gaby here needed some fun.”
“Ruby’s my best friend,” Gabe said. “We played all day. Tag, Ruby!”
“Did he have his nap?” Jon asked.
“Was he supposed to?” Ruby asked. “Seems to me he’s doing just fine without one.”
“He takes a nap every day at one o’clock,” Jon said.
“I’ll make sure of that tomorrow, Mr. Jon,” Ruby said. “You want something to eat? Your kitchen kinda scares me, but Gaby here can help.”
“Ruby let me cook my lunch,” Gabe said. “I put the honey on my bread all by myself.”
“Ruby, honey is only for special occasions,” Jon said.
“Today was a special occasion, Mr. Jon,” Ruby said. “I didn’t even know they still made honey. Haven’t seen any in so long. We sure did enjoy it, didn’t we, Gaby?”
Jon knew he should have scolded Ruby for eating the honey. But if Lisa hadn’t bothered to explain what food was for family and what food was for domestics, he wasn’t about to.
Instead he looked at Gabe, who was glowing with happiness. “Let’s play some more,” Jon said. “Tag, Gabe! Bet you can’t catch me!”
Tuesday, July 14
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.”
Wednesday, July 15
“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 wor
ked 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.”
“It’s kinda hard to remember,” Ruby said, turning away to wash the utensils. “I liked gym. We had races and we played kickball. School in White Birch didn’t have any gym. Do you have a gym where you go to school, Mr. Jon?”
“Yeah,” Jon said. “I’m on the soccer team, so I spend a lot of time there.”
“Jon’s the best,” Gabe said. “I saw him play. He can kick the ball a hundred miles!”
“Fifty miles on a bad day,” Jon said.
“I wish I could play soccer,” Ruby said. “Sometimes I feel like I’m tied up, can’t do anything. Not here, Mr. Jon. You and Mrs. Evans and little Gaby, I love doing for you. But it’s like my teacher, that other Mrs. Evans, used to say. Sometimes you have to bust out. She didn’t say it like that, but that was what she meant. Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy I’m a grub, working in a nice house like this. But sometimes I wish I could run the way I used to back home. Run till my feet can’t carry me no more and then keep on running.”
Jon cut another carrot in two. He offered half of it to Ruby, who hesitated and then accepted it. “I do get hungry,” she said.
“Then help yourself to some food,” he said. “You’re here to work, not starve.”
“Thank you, Mr. Jon,” Ruby said. “Maybe tonight you’ll let me show you how grateful I am?”
“Not tonight, Ruby,” he replied. He left her and Gabe and walked into the living room.
That afternoon he’d had his first afterschool since the riot. It had been pretty much as he’d expected. Coach screamed, cursing them for their cowardice, singing the praises of Tyler and Zachary, two boys who understood the importance of winning. He made a point of signaling out Jon, calling him every name in the book for not hitting the shot in White Birch when he was told to.
Jon knew if he stayed in Sexton, he’d be expected to play on the Sexton soccer team through college. That meant five more years of listening to Coach. Five years of humiliating people just to make sure they understood the superiority of clavers.
The only time, Jon thought, that he’d actually enjoyed playing soccer had been during the White Birch match, when the game had felt real and victory wasn’t guaranteed. He didn’t know where the grubs had learned the game, how they’d found time and strength to practice, but somehow they had, and for that reason alone, the game had felt real and exciting and worth winning.
White Birch was the biggest and best-run of all the area grubtowns. If they didn’t have gym, none of the other towns did, either.
It struck Jon that what he wanted to do was teach grubber kids soccer, basketball, running, any kind of sport. Girls and boys. They should all have that chance to bust out.
It was a dangerous idea. The kids were being raised to be domestics, laborers, miners. The clavers knew the danger of letting them bust out.
But somehow he’d find a way. He’d get the Rubys and the Opals and all the other kids in all those towns running and playing and busting out.
He’d make Mom proud.
Friday, July 17
“I have something to tell you,” Jon said to Sarah. He’d gone to her house after supper, and they sat on the porch. The southern breeze made things warmer and more humid, but the air was cleaner, and the evening sun was visible through the cloud cover.
“I have something to tell you, too,” Sarah said. “You go first.”
Jon no longer was sure telling Sarah was a good idea. “No,” he said. “Ladies first.”
“Guests first,” Sarah said. “What is it, Jon? Is Miranda all right?”
“Lisa called the hospital today, and they said she was,” Jon replied. “This isn’t about Miranda. It’s about me.”
“I’m listening,” she said.
“I woke up last night, and I was hungry,” Jon said. “Before, I would have gone downstairs and told Val to make me something. I wouldn’t have cared that she was sleeping. She was a grub and I was a claver. Only then I met you and I started thinking about things differently.” He laughed. “I still would have woken her up, but I would have said please and thank you and maybe even apologized.”
“Val isn’t there anymore for you to wake up,” Sarah said.
“No,” Jon said. “Carrie isn’t, either. We have a new girl. That’s what she is, a girl. Her name’s Ruby. She’s fourteen.”
“A high schooler,” Sarah said. “Daddy was offered one, but he said no. We’re managing with one domestic. I help out when I can.”
“Lisa has to have someone to take care of Gabe,” Jon said. “She didn’t have a choice. And Ruby seems okay with it. Gabe’s crazy about her. It’s like Carrie never existed.”
“Is she sleeping in the nursery?” Sarah asked.
Jon shook his head. “She’s downstairs, by the kitchen. If I’d gone downstairs, I might have ended up in her bed. She’s invited me to. But I didn’t want to do that to us.”
Sarah turned away from him. “There isn’t going to be an us,” she said. “That’s what I have to tell you.”
“What do you mean?” Jon asked. “Do you still want me to leave Sexton?”
“No,” she said. “Oh no, Jon. I love you. I want to be with you. But Daddy says it’s not safe here for me anymore. He’s sending me to my uncle’s in Virginia.”
“But you’re coming back,” Jon said, panic sweeping over him. “It’s just for August and then you’ll come back.”
She shook her head. “I begged Daddy to let me stay. But he and my uncle both think it’s best for me to go. Daddy said I could let you know, but you can’t tell anyone else. I’m leaving a week from Monday.”
“How?” Jon asked. “It’s hundreds of miles away.”
“My uncle’s getting me a travel pass,” she replied. “Daddy was going to ask for Alex to drive me, but I told him not to because of the baby. Alex will want to spend as much time with Miranda and the baby as possible, and it’s a long drive to Virginia.”
“Alex can go,” Jon said. “Miranda isn’t going back to White Birch.”
“Why not?” Sarah asked.
Jon thought of Alex’s fantasies of getting out, but that’s all they were. Fantasies. You needed money and passes to travel. Alex didn’t have an uncle to provide them.
“Lisa arranged for Miranda to be our domestic,” Jon said. “She’s coming after the baby’s born.”
“Miranda’s your sister,” Sarah said. “Lisa’s stepdaughter. She’s going to be your grub?”
“It wasn’t my idea,” Jon said. “Lisa thought it would be better this way. You’ve seen Mom’s apartment. That’s no place for a baby.”
“Laura never would have approved,” Sarah said.
>
“She knew,” Jon said angrily. “She approved. And you know something? You shouldn’t call her Laura. You only call her that because she wasn’t a claver.”
Sarah looked stricken. “Oh, Jon,” she said. “I never thought about that. But you’re right. I’m sorry. I’m just as bad as everyone else. No, I’m worse, because I go around acting like I’m better.”
“It’s not your fault,” Jon said, reaching out to take her hand. “It’s just the way they’ve taught us.”
“We could run away,” Sarah said. “I could go with you to your brother’s. We could be grubs together.”
Jon kissed her. “You’d make a lousy grub,” he said. “It’s okay, Sarah. Go to Virginia. I’ll know you’re safe there. I’d like somebody I love to be safe.”
“We won’t lose each other,” Sarah said. “We’ll work something out.”
Jon knew they wouldn’t, they couldn’t. But Sarah needed her fantasies, and Jon wasn’t going to deprive her of them.
“We’ll work something out,” he said instead, and kissed her with a promise of a different world, a different life, where people in love could work things out.
Saturday, July 18
Ruby was on her hands and knees scrubbing the hallway floor with Gabe attempting to help when the phone rang. She shrieked at the unexpected sound.
“That thing scares the living daylights out of me,” she said. “We had a phone back home in West Virginia, but I don’t remember it ever ringing that loud.”
“I’ll get it,” Jon said. He stepped around Ruby and picked up the phone. “Evans residence,” he said, hoping Ruby might learn.