The Same Stuff as Stars

It was just then, just when they were all having such a great time together, that they heard the noise. “What’s that?” Verna leaned out her window.

“It’s the pickup,” Angel said. Then, through the usual rattle of the truck she heard the blubbidy blubbidy blubbidy sound.

“Hell’s bells. I got a flat.” Verna pulled over to the shoulder and cut off the motor. “And me with no spare.”

“You should always have a spare, Mama. It’s not safe not to—”

“Give me a break, Angel. I don’t always do what I ought to, okay? Satisfied?” Verna climbed out and walked around the truck.

“I want to see!” Bernie said, reaching for his seat belt. Angel grabbed his hand. “We better stay here,” she said. “It’ll just make her madder if we get out.”

They watched anxiously as Verna lifted the hood and then walked several yards ahead and began to wave at passing cars. It was ages before anyone stopped. When at last a guy in a pickup older than their own pulled over, Verna ran up to his window. They talked for a few minutes, and then the pickup drove off. Verna came back and climbed into the cab.

“Why wouldn’t he help us, Mama?” Bernie asked.

Verna sighed. “I haven’t got a spare. He’s got to send somebody back who can tow us to a station. “That’s all I need today. A tow charge and a new tire.” She put her head down on the steering wheel. “Oh Lord, can’t anything ever go right? What did I ever do?”

Angel wanted to comfort her. She wanted to put her hand on Verna’s back and tell her everything was going to be all right, but she wasn’t sure it would be.

It seemed like hours before the tow truck came. The driver didn’t want all three of them squeezing into his cab, and for a minute Angel was afraid Verna might leave them behind. But she took Bernie on her lap and sweet-talked the guy into taking them all along. It was hours more at the station while the man sent to somewhere else to get the right-sized tire. When it looked as though everything was taken care of and they were all set to go, the guy told Verna her credit card was maxed out. Verna said that was not possible and the guy said it was, too, and how was she going to pay for the tire and the tow? Verna started cussing him out, right there in front of everybody, and the man got red in the face and started cussing back.

Angel tried her best to keep Bernie out of the way, but before she could stop him, he was grabbing Verna’s shirt right in the middle of the fight. “Mama, I need some chips!”

Verna turned, scowling. “Just get in the damn truck, Bernie. You, too, Angel. I’ll work this out. I know somebody I can call. You two just get in the truck and don’t give me any more grief, you hear?”

***

“I just wanted something to eat.” Bernie’s lip was stuck out almost as far as the windshield.

“I know, Bernie, but she’s trying to work things out. We can’t interrupt.”

They strained their necks, looking in all directions, for whoever might be coming to their rescue. At last, a rusty Subaru wagon drove up, and a man Angel had never seen before got out, but he must have been the one Verna was waiting for because she came running out of the station and threw her arms around him. Then she stuck her arm through his and led him inside.

“Why was Mama hugging that man?” Bernie asked.

“She’s just thanking him for coming to help her,” Angel said. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

It couldn’t mean anything. Verna was married. Married people didn’t go around hugging people who weren’t their husbands. She thought Verna would bring their rescuer over and introduce him, but when the man came out, he said a few words to Verna and then, with only a quick glance at the pickup and the two children peering out the window, went back to his car and drove away.

At least, Angel thought, Verna would explain who the man was. But all she said was, “Well, that’s it. We can get going now.”

Bernie slumped against the door. He was tired, Angel saw. She gave a big yawn. Bernie yawned in echo. “How ’bout Bernie and me take a nap, Mom?”

“I’m not tired,” Bernie said, trying to cover another yawn. “I’m hungry.”

“Well, it won’t hurt you to be quiet and give Angel and me both some rest.”

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nbsp; Angel closed her eyes and tilted her head back against the seat. Verna switched on the radio. “Find me a station, Angel,” she said.

Angel wound the dial past all the noisy rock stations until she found one that was playing a gentle music that wrapped its arms around her. It reminded her of a field trip last year to hear the Vermont Symphony. All the kids had really liked the concert, but they pretended they’d been bored. Only stuck-up rich people were supposed to like that kind of music. Angel relaxed into the sound. Soon she heard Bernie’s gentle snore.

Angel hadn’t meant to sleep. She’d just meant to make Bernie take a nap, but it had been a hard day, and before she knew it Verna was slowing the car. Angel sat up abruptly. They were at a traffic light.

“Well, sleeping beauty, awake, without a kiss.”

“I was just resting my eyes.”