When they got back from the movie, Mr. Roosevelt and his men were wrapping up for the day. From the looks of it, they’d gotten only about half the tree.
Fannie was back to pacing on the porch. Queenie was waddling along next to her, but she wasn’t consoling Fannie, as she’d done the day before, and the day before that.
This time Queenie had a worrisome look on her face too.
That night Ibby had trouble falling asleep. She couldn’t get her mother out of her mind. She remembered what Doll had told her not too long ago, that it hurt to love sometimes. Ibby wondered if there was ever a time when love didn’t hurt.
She leaned over and opened the window. The smell of sawdust hung in the air as a passing cloud draped the tree in an eerie shadow, making the roots look like bony fingers reaching up from the depths of the earth. There was something sad about the tree, the way it was sprawled on its side with its outer branches cut off. Ibby rubbed her arms, thinking about her mother, feeling alone and exposed, just like the tree down below.
She heard a rustling noise. She didn’t think much of it at first—probably just a wandering raccoon scurrying down the alley on the left side of the house. Then she heard it again, a scuffle below the window. She turned the light off in her room and peered down, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. She could just make out some sort of shadow hovering near the edge of the hole left by the tree. Was it an animal? Whatever it was seemed to be looking for a way to get down into the hole.
“Who’s there?” Ibby called out.
There was no answer.
“Anyone there?” she said again.
She hurried down the stairs and out the back door, hoping to catch whatever it was that might be down there, but when she got to the front of the house, all she saw was a stray cat skidding across the yard.
Perhaps I’m just spooked by what Doll told me today, about my mother, Ibby thought.
When she peeked over the edge of the hole, she felt the earth move beneath her feet. She jumped back. I’m a fool, Ibby thought. There’s no one here.
Ibby made her way to the back of the house and went inside. When she started up the stairs, she was startled by a noise coming from the landing. She froze. Was there someone in the house? She was trying to decide if she should run next door for help when she heard a small voice.
“Let me in.”
Ibby was surprised to find Fannie on the landing in her bare feet and white nightie, trying to open the door at the top of the stairs. She kept twisting the knob and pushing her shoulder against the door, repeating the same words.
“Little Mama. Little Mama.”
From the look in Fannie’s eyes, Ibby thought she might be sleepwalking.
“What’s wrong, Fannie?” Ibby came a little closer.
“The room. It’s locked.” Fannie pointed at the door.
“I know.”
“Open it.”
“I can’t. I don’t have the key.” She put her hand on her grandmother’s back, trying to calm her.
Fannie tussled with the knob. “Open it.”
“I told you, Fannie. I don’t have the key.”
Fannie tried the knob once more, then looked over at Ibby with exasperation. “Little Mama is in there.”
“Who’s Little Mama?”
Fannie shook her head.
“Come on, Fannie, let’s go back down to your room.”
“No!” she cried. “I need to get Little Mama out!”
Her outburst startled Ibby, but she tried to remain calm for fear she might upset Fannie more. As it was, Fannie was wringing her hands and looked as if she were about to cry.
Ibby gently coaxed Fannie away from the door, trying to think of a way to get her back down the stairs. “Let’s come back tomorrow, okay? I think Little Mama is asleep. We don’t want to disturb Little Mama when she’s asleep, do we?” She kept talking as she led Fannie down the stairs, Fannie’s dirty feet leaving marks on each step as they went along.
After Ibby managed to get Fannie settled in her bed, she closed the door and took a deep breath. Had something happened in that room? And who was Little Mama? No one had ever mentioned her.
She went back to the top of the stairs, to the locked room that Fannie had been trying to get into. All the rooms on the second floor were accounted for except this one. She shook her head. There was so much about her family she still didn’t know.
After four years of living in this house, it was still holding secrets from her.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The next evening, after Mr. Roosevelt and his men left, Ibby went up to her room to get ready for her rendezvous with Birdelia to watch T-Bone play at Union Hall. She slipped on a skirt and a top, and at the last minute, she added an extra dab of Wild Orchid No. 7 perfume. She tried to sneak past Fannie, who was watching the Steeplechase horse races on the television. She’d almost made it to the kitchen when she heard Fannie call after her.
“You going somewhere, young lady?”
“Oh, um, yes ma’am. Just out for a little while.”
“With whom?”