"Go back up quietly and turn off the light," she said. "I want it dark before I open this door. Go on." she urged when I didn't move fast enough.
I went up, switched it off, then stood there for a moment. It was so dark. I opened the basement door a little, and that gave me enough light to go down the stairs again. Alanis looked back, thought a moment, then opened the second door very slowly and very slightly. We could just see the sofa. We heard the laughter, and a moment later, we saw Mae Betty dressed only in her panties. She pulled on a man's hand and he came into view. They kissed. It was a long, hard kiss. He ran his lips down over her cheek to her neck and over her naked breasts. She threw her head back, moaned and seemed to sink in his arms.
He scooped he
r up and placed her on the sofa. Then he stood back and began to unbuckle his belt, laughing as he did so. We could hear her squealing in anticipation.
Alanis closed the door softly and turned away. She didn't say anything. She just started up the basement stairs with her head down. I followed, We stepped out in the hallway and I closed the door behind us. She looked at me. and I saw that the hardness and confidence were all gone. Her eyes were glassy with tears. She sniffed and pressed her lips together. I didn't know what to say. I followed her in silence as we returned to the stairway and back to my room. Once there, she shoved my book under the bed. When she stood up, she slumped and stared at the floor for a moment.
"Who's that down there with your mother?" I asked.
"I'm going to go put some of my things in the bathroom," she said instead of answering me. "You better get started on your homework."
She took her things and left. I went to my desk and opened my books. I started to read the assignments, but I kept one eye and ear tuned to the doorway, waiting for her to return. When she finally did, she looked like she had been crying,
"I hope you don't need help with any of that," she said. "I was never a good student."
She went to the bed.
"Which side of the bed you want?" she asked me.
"I don't care."
"I'll sleep on the right," she said and began to undress. She put on a dark dray nightshirt, then crawled under the blanket, turning her back to me. "Don't worry about keeping me up." she said. "Just finish what you have to finish. The light don't bother me. Sometimes. I got to go to sleep while my granddad's still watching television."
Even though she said that. I was uncomfortable working with her in bed trying to sleep. I knew I wasn't doing as well on my homework as I had the night before. because I rushed through it, Afterward. I prepared for bed and put on my pajamas. I thought Alanis was already asleep by the time I crawled under the blanket and turned off the light, but she started to talk as if she and I had been talking all the time.
"I knew that was my mother even before I opened the door. It didn't surprise me seeing her down there. I told her about the basement. I shoulda known she'd go and use it herself. She can't bring a man to my granddad's house. She'd bring one into the barn sooner than that."
"Who was he?" I asked again.
"Anybody," she said. "She thinks she's getting back at my father by being a tramp herself, but she ain't. He's long gone and she's outta his mind for sure. I don't know who started it first. Maybe she did. Maybe that got him started. I don't know."
"Started what?"
"Doing it with other men and women even though they was married."
"Your father womanized," I said. The word came back to me as if Ian had been there whispering in my ear.
"Yeah, he womanized. You know about that, do you?"
"My mother found out my father did it," I said. "That's why they had the fight and my mother wanted to get a divorce."
She turned, "Oh, yeah? What happened then?"
"My grandmother came to see us. We were up in the cabin in the Poconos and she talked my mother into giving my father another chance. We went home with her, and my father went up there to talk."
"To lie to each other some more is all," Alanis said bitterly. "So, they got back together, did they?"
"They were supposed to," I said. 'But that's when they got into the automobile accident. Ian said it was Grandmother Emma's fault, because she called and told them about Ian and the Sister Project. They came rushing home in a storm and crashed."
Alanis was silent so long that I thought she might have fallen asleep.
"No matter who you are or how much money you have, bad things still happen," she said. "If all this bad stuff happened to a girl like you, what chance do I got?"
"Maybe your father will come back for you someday," I said. I wanted her to have hope. She sounded so terribly sad.
"It's no different than your mother being in a coma. He might as well be in ant, too. I ain't holding my breath. and I don't know if I would go off with him anyway. He don't want a girl my age on his tail.