Nobody's Fool

evident. She wasn’t holding a can, which meant she wasn’t collecting for the heart fund. Miss Beryl supposed that in order to clear this mystery up, she’d have to answer the door and ask. She was about to let the curtain fall back into place when she noticed that behind the tall woman, almost out of view, stood the little girl with the wandering eye, which made the tall woman the child’s grandmother and, according to local gossip, Sully’s longtime paramour. Was it the little girl’s bad eye or the good that fixed Miss Beryl before she could let go of the curtain?
    The bell rang a second time as Miss Beryl opened the door. “Oh,”the tall woman said, appearing startled. Her voice was as gruff and mannish as her clothes. “I was about to give up.… I mean, I thought you weren’t home.”
    â€œNo, I just check people out through the window before opening the door,” Miss Beryl admitted. As she spoke, Miss Beryl was trying to peer around the tall woman at the little girl, but the child had gone into hiding behind the woman’s legs. “I just let Mormons stand there. They do, too. Stand right there, like they’re waiting for the Second Coming. Them and insurance salesmen.”
    â€œI’m Ruth. You remember this one?” the woman said.
    â€œI sure do,” Miss Beryl said. “You gave me the slip, didn’t you? I looked up and you were gone.”
    It had been one of the worst moments of Miss Beryl’s life. Such a simple task, so profoundly botched. She had failed to protect a child. After hitting the little girl’s mother with his rifle, the father had simply collected his daughter, put her into the truck and driven away. The stupid policeman had stood right there and let him.
    â€œShe can move when she wants to, all right,” Ruth said, her tone suggesting that the child didn’t want to very often.
    Miss Beryl remembered her manners. “Come in out of the cold,” she said. “Little One wouldn’t eat my cookies last time, but she might now that we’re old friends.”
    The child was still in hiding behind Ruth, refusing, so far, to acknowledge Miss Beryl.
    â€œWe can only stay a minute,” Ruth said. “We just dropped by to say thanks.”
    â€œWhat for?” Miss Beryl asked, genuinely curious.
    â€œFor calling the police. Who knows what would have happened if you hadn’t? We’re sorry for all the trouble, aren’t we, Two Shoes? We would have stopped sooner except we’ve been spending most of our time at the hospital.”
    To Miss Beryl’s surprise, the little girl spoke from her hiding place. “Tomorrow,” she said.
    Ruth turned and picked the child up. “That’s right, darlin’. Tomorrow’s the big day, isn’t it. Mom gets out of the hospital tomorrow and Grandma gets to go back to work. At least for a while.”
    Miss Beryl took their coats and hung them up while Ruth and the child went into the living room. “Mommy was right,” Miss Beryl heard Ruth say. “This is some place. Look at all the Christmas decorations!”
    Miss Beryl couldn’t help smiling, since she had not, thanks to her blue funk, felt up to the task of decorating for the holiday. All of her Christmas things were still in storage. Probably Ruth’s eye had caught the small table that served as a stand for her nutcrackers. Maybe at first glance the rest of her exotica resembled Christmas to Ruth, who didn’t look like a traveler. “And look. Mrs. Peoples is doing a puzzle. There isn’t much we like more than puzzles, huh.”
    The child glanced at the puzzle and then back at Miss Beryl, causing the old woman to wonder if the little girl’s grandmother might be expressing a wish—that the child would be interested in something. When Ruth took a seat on the sofa, the child turned her back to the puzzle, climbed onto the sofa next to her grandmother and, all the while never taking her eyes off Miss Beryl, found Ruth’s earlobe with her thumb and forefinger. An expression like serenity came over the child’s face then.
    Ruth got off the sofa then and sat on the floor beneath the child. “There. Now you can reach it, huh,” she said.
    â€œAre you quitting the IGA?” Miss Beryl wondered in response to Ruth’s remark “at least for a while.”
    â€œIt’s quitting us. They haven’t said