“Yeah, it was fun. You were right to drag me.”
“I knew it.” Willa squeezed her arm. “And you had a nice time with Claude. I saw you cutting a rug,” she said, her gown swishing around her ankles.
Sophia pressed back, but she was thinking more of her time with Max than with Claude.
As they turned through the quad in the direction of their dorm, Sophia saw Patty and her gang up ahead, cackling and stumbling. She watched as two girls caught Patty by the arm to keep her from tripping on the hem of her dress.
“What in the devil is wrong with her?” Willa tipped her head. Loose strands of hair had fallen from her updo.
“She’s drunk.”
“How do you know?”
Sophia had watched the Old Man stagger around on many weekends after he had finished his work. She knew the signs. “They were guzzling down spiked punch all night long.”
“Just foolish.” Willa giggled and then sighed dramatically.
“What?” Sophia asked.
“Max. He just smelled so good. Like fresh linen in a forest of pine trees. I was hoping he would try to kiss me, but he didn’t.”
Sophia tried not to grimace. “Guess he’s just a gentleman like that.”
“For crying out loud, it’s 1965, women are no longer delicate little flowers. Surely there is no harm in a tiny kiss.” Willa held Sophia’s arm tighter as she continued, reliving how Max had hung his hand around her waist on the dance floor.
“His touch made me feel all squishy inside,” she said, and while Willa gabbed, Sophia couldn’t help but think of her time alone on the bench with Max as they watched the embers burn in the fire. His fingertips pressed against her burn mark. Their easy way with each other. Max revealing his most hidden secret.
Sophia couldn’t stop picturing Max as a scared small child. Germany was a long way to travel for a family. And she had never even considered that there were Negroes living in Germany. How had his parents gotten together in the first place? And it was such a crazy coincidence that he had lived through a fire and she was constantly having night terrors of escaping one.
“Ladies.” Ms. Meacham stood in front of the double doors to their dormitory. “I hope you all had a divine evening. Please go to your rooms silently. Those who did not attend the dance are fast asleep, so please be courteous. You have thirty minutes to prepare for bed, and then lights out.”
The girls tried to obey Ms. Meacham’s courtesy rule as they walked down the halls and disappeared behind closed doors. Inside their room, Sophia removed her heels. She could feel her pinkie toethrobbing from being squished against the leather of the shoe all night. Willa sat down at her desk that she used as a vanity and removed her clip-on rhinestone earrings.
“I’m so glad fall break is in a few days. I cannot wait to shower in my own bathroom.”
“Like your own, own? Simply for you?” Sophia turned her back as she slipped her dress over her head.
“Yes, silly. Did you forget that I’m an only child? Who else would I share with?” Willa said, swabbing a cotton ball over her eyelids to remove her eye shadow.
Sophia thought about the one bathroom she shared with the whole family. Most times the pipes clogged, and nothing but rusted water poured into the blackened tub, too stained for her to even bathe in properly.
“What are you doing over Thanksgiving break?”
Sophia yawned. “Just hanging out here.”
“You and your jokes.” Willa laughed with her mouth open. When she noticed that Sophia had not laughed with her, she said, “You’re kidding, right?”
“I… can’t go home.”
“But the entire school will be closed from Wednesday until Monday at four. You can’t stay here. They won’t allow it.”
Sophia shivered. What option did she have? If she went home, there was no guarantee that Ma Deary would let her come back. Sophia could not take that chance. She was just starting to get the hang of things.
Willa picked up a clean cotton ball, dabbed it in makeup remover, and wiped away her lipstick. “Don’t you miss your family?”
“It’s complicated.” Sophia dropped onto her bed with a thud. Christ, how had she missed the notice that the school was going to be closed? This threw a wrench in her whole plan. Sophia could feel panic well up in her chest. Maybe she could stockpile food and hideout in her dorm room. Miz Peaches had been so kind to her. Sophia could convince her to pack up a few meals under the guise of needing the food for a long drive home. Would the maintenance staff be on campus? She wouldn’t leave her room except to use the bathroom, or maybe she could pilfer a bucket to relieve herself. She could dump it out the window under the cover of night. Peeing in a bucket would not be her lowest point. Nothing could beat that time Ma Deary had put a padlock on the refrigerator to teach them a lesson, and Sophia had gotten so hungry that she had plucked maggots out of half-eaten sandwiches from the trash can in the cafeteria at school.
Willa interrupted her thoughts. “Did you hear me?”
