Joyce and the Drifter

"I will," Joyce promised as she looked at the paper. "The Bronx. Sounds like another world."

"It is child. Way different than this. It's an exciting place but it's lonely too even though it's crowded with people. There's pretty parts and there's ugly parts, just like up here," Isaac said as they headed back to the farmhouse in the dark.

"Next year," Joyce said as they neared her home. "Will you head up around here next summer?"

"Usually I try to go someplace different every summer but I suspect I've grown attached to this area so if I'm still living you can expect me around when summer comes along."

"Gives me a reason to keep on living myself," Joyce said as they kissed like it was the last time, and when Joyce finally turned and ran into the house the long and lean white girl wasn't the only one with tears rolling down.

"You're getting soft in your old age," Isaac muttered to the darkness as he went down to his campsite for the last time. "Senile old bastard."

***

Summer ended and fall came and was almost over as well. The leaves changed color in upstate New York just like they did in the Bronx only earlier, and then they fell to the ground as winter began to hint at its arrival.

The old black man often thought about Joyce as he spent his days like he had since he retired; going to the library and reading, walking through the streets and watching people, or just thinking.

Thinking mostly about Joyce. Remembering the good times, which were the best times Isaac had enjoyed since so long ago he couldn't recall. He thought of the bad times too, and when he imagined what the poor girl might be going through up in that hell hole, it made sleep impossible.

Isaac was thinking about Joyce one early December afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee and looking out his window to the streets below when a knock broke him out of his woolgathering.

"Jehovah's Witnesses here I come," Isaac mumbled as he went to the door expecting the usual suspects, but after he opened it he was glad he had set the coffee down on the way.

"Joyce?" Isaac almost shouted as he saw the teen standing there in a threadbare coat and holding a suitcase that not only looked older than her but as aged as he was. "What..."

"You said I could..."

"Come in come in," Isaac yelped, pulling the girl in from the hall and taking her suitcase from her, and after lifting her up and hugging her set her back down. "You okay?'

"Yeah," Joyce said, explaining that he had a bit of trouble finding the place, which probably explained her shell shocked look. "The place is crazy. The traffic and the people."

"Oh child, I'm so glad to see you," Isaac gushed. "How about a cup of coffee? A sandwich?"

"Okay," Joyce said as she sat down, and it wasn't until Isaac sat down at the kitchen table across from Joyce that he saw the discoloration around her eye.

"He give you that?" Isaac asked as he watched Joyce devour the ham sandwich he had made, and after she nodded he mumbled, "Son of a bitch."

"He was mad," Joyce said. "Can't blame him."

"You look good though," Isaac said as he looked at his friend, who was wearing the dress she had worn to church that day, and except for the black eye she did look good, a little less scrawny at least.

"Got to tell you something," Joyce said. "Don't hate me."

"Why would I hate you child? Heck, I love you. I'm glad you're here although I'm afraid to ask what finally got you to leave that place."

"I was pregnant," Joyce said.

"You are?" Isaac said as he rose out of his seat. "I mean - I don't know how - but it's alright child. I'm sorry but it's alright. Not your fault. It was all mine. When are you..."

"I'm not," Joyce sniffed. "I - I lost the baby."

"Oh," Isaac answered softly, the horror/joy of learning he was a father coming and going so fast his head spun. "I'm sorry. You seen a doctor?"

"No," Joyce said. "I couldn't hide it any longer. Think I was three months along and Daddy noticed."

"Shit."

"That was a couple of weeks ago. It was bad. Daddy went nuts," Joyce explained. "I tried to make up something to explain it, like his seed dripping into me from my bottom one time, but he wasn't having none of it. Wouldn't have mattered in the end because if I had the baby it wouldn't have looked anything like him. Never was with nobody but you, I swear."

"I know honey. So the stress of him getting all over you caused you to..."

"No," Joyce confessed. "He brought me back to the barn and told me I was a disgusting sinner like my sister was only worse, and then he said it was his duty to beat the sin out of me."

"Dear god," Isaac said, and although he wanted to hold the girl he found himself running to the bathroom, making it just in time.

"You are mad at me," Joyce said as she appeared in the doorway after Isaac had straightened up from over the toilet and was washing his mouth out at the sink.

"Of course not," Isaac said as he came over and hugged Joyce. "You did nothing wrong. I was wrong because I didn't think I... and he was beyond wrong. I wish now I had gone in and killed him that night when I saw him with you in the barn. Wish I had strangled him then and there."

"Me too," Joyce whispered in the old black man's ear, and together they went to bed where they spent the night holding each other.

***

In the morning, Joyce seemed much happier and explained that she had managed to get her sister's phone number from the woman who ran the store in town. Her sister had left the number with the woman a while back but since Joyce had never gone into town since then there was no way to get it to her.

Joyce's sister was in Roanoke, Virginia and Joyce was going to head there but had discovered that traveling wasn't cheap. The bus ticket to New York City had used up most of the money Isaac had given here but Joyce was hoping that she could use Isaac's phone to talk to her.

Isaac dialed the number for her and after the connection was made Isaac left the apartment as Joyce became the animated and excited teenager she was supposed to have been all these years. When Isaac returned to the apartment ten minutes later Joyce was still gabbing away and had written notes on the back of a paper bag with directions and the like.

"Gotta go now," Joyce said when she saw Isaac. "I'm running my friend's phone bill through the roof."

"It's okay child," Isaac said. "Can I talk to her before you hang up?"

Joyce nodded and after introducing Sandy to her friend she handed him the phone.

They spoke briefly, and as Joyce went to the bathroom he got to speak frankly to the girl who had gone through the horrors of living at the Barker farm and was doing okay herself.

"Joyce said she wants to come down and that's great by me," Sandy Barker said.

"I'll make sure she gets on the right bus and everything," Isaac promised. "She has the money for the ticket."

"Don't know who you are mister," Sandy said. "Just talking to Joyce there leads me to believe that you must be some kind of guardian angel or something. Lord knows she needed one."

"Just a friend," Isaac said, not sure of what Joyce told about him.

"She says she wants to stay there with you for a bit," Sandy said. "Good chance for her to see the big city. Did she ask you about that?"

"No need for her to,": Isaac said. "She's welcome to stay however long she wants, and when she heads your way I'll make sure you know when she'll be arriving there."

"Bless you," Sandy said. "I felt so horrible leaving her behind."

"Not your fault honey," Isaac said. "You two will be together again, and she will do fine. She thinks she's dumb but she isn't. She's wise beyond her years, and she thinks she ugly but she's wrong there too. She's the most beautiful creature in this green earth. All she needs is somebody to make her see that."

"That's my job," Sandy said. "Thank you Isaac."

***

Three days later Isaac was putting Joyce on a bus, and after getting back to his place the old black man called up her sister on the phone and gave her the time the bus would be getting to Roanoke, telling her to call collect if there were any problems, or if either of them needed anything ever.

His apartment was empty again, the rumpled bed reminding him of the wonderful nights of lovemaking they had shared. No looking over shoulders or worrying about whippings or anything but the joy of making love.

He had taken Joyce to the top of the Empire State Building, standing in the cold wind as the woman/child looked in wonder at what his aged eyes had taken for granted and never really seen. They kissed out on the viewing deck, oblivious to what it looked like and who was looking.

She had her first slice of pizza, and watching her wrestle the big New York slice was amusing. Seeing the way she loved it and chowed it down made him think that she wouldn't be skin and bones for long. Eating without being filled with fear seemed to suit her well.

Just before Christmas a card came in the mail. The note said how happy Joyce was, and the pictures that were enclosed verified that. It was a strip of four black and white photos taken at a Woolworth or something, the two girls crammed in a booth making faces and laughing at the camera.

Sandy was a very attractive woman, Issac concluded as he put the pictures under a magnet and put them on the refrigerator until he could find a little frame for them. Not the cutest girl in the picture, Isaac concluded, but that was a forgone conclusion.

There was a phone call in the Spring, with a breathless Joyce saying how she had gotten a job and was trying to get her GED at night as well.

"Not much of a job," Joyce lamented. "But it's a job."

"Any boyfriends?" Isaac asked, and after a moment of silence her pressed for an answer.

"A boy at work had been real nice to me, and I think he might ask me out," Joyce admitted in a tone that suggested she was cheating on him. "He seems like a nice fella. tall and skinny like me."

"Good for you. You deserve a nice fella," Isaac beamed, more like a proud grandfather than a jilted lover. "You deserve nothing but the best."

"I think I already had the best," Joyce said in a voice that cracked a bit. "Maybe I'll get lucky again."

"You will child," Isaac assured her. "You keep in touch."

"I will, but I never stop thinking of you. You saved my life."

"No Joyce. You saved yourself," Isaac declared. "I was just lucky enough to be there to watch."

***

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