Fair and Tender Ladies (49 page)

And as for me, I felt a stirring that I had not felt since Oakley's death. Yes! For that old, fat man. I turned away.

I remember one time when I came back from work early and you were in the house alone washing yourself, Curtis said. You had your blouse pulled down to your waist. I stood in the door, he said. You never saw me.

I stood looking out in the yard, at Oakley's stump-creatures.

Curtis, Curtis, we are too old,
I said.
The time is gone. It is too late now,
I told him.

Ivy, please.
Curtis had begun to cry. It looked so funny to see such an important gentleman crying. You could tell he wasn't used to it, either. It was like it hurt him. I went over to him and held him for a long time, and after a while he quit.

Ethel, Curtis begged me to go back up to West Virginia with him, but of course I would not go. So that possibility is done with.

Oh I will admit I was tempted. But only for a minute, because Curtis Bostick and me are as different as day and night, and both of us know it. If Beulah was too high-falutin for him, I am not high-falutin enough. He is going to have to find himself a woman in between. But you know he won't, because he doesn't really want one. If he really wanted one, he would not have come searching me. He would have come after somebody suitable. What Curtis held about me—what brung him all the way up here—was a
notion
he had. Men are like that. They will do anything on the basis of a notion, even old men. May be they are the worst! For poor old Curtis Bostick would not want me at all if he knowed me, which he does not. All he has got is an idea, which is more important to him than I could ever be. Naturally I did not explain this to him, nor even try.

But Curtis stayed on for an hour or more, catching up on all that had happened, and Maudy came out with some pizza pie which she learned to make on the M.Y.F. trip to Myrtle Beach. I never heard of it before she started making it, now I think it is real good. Curtis left at 4 p.m. He is a serious man, I think he is a good man. It grieves me to know, as I do, that I will never see him again.

And so, Ethel, I remain,

 

Still Single!

 

IVY.

May 18, 1961

 

 

Dear Joli,

 

I don't reckon David has got himself in any trouble that we can't fix. Send him on, honey. I am liable to slap his face first then give him a big kiss and set him to working with Rufus. It is good for a boy like that to work with wood. Don't worry. We will get him straightened out bye and bye.

And thank you for sending your book which I sat down and read in one sitting, it was pretty good although I think you could of used more of a love interest. Or may be that is just me! Anyway it was real good even if they do
just think
an awful lot. You might put some more plot in it next time, for an awful lot does happen in this world, it seems to me. Oh honey, I am real proud of you! But I wonder, why don't you write about New York City, since you have been up there for so long? Or about Norfolk and the newspaper life? It seems like that would be more exciting than these mountains which nobody wants to read about, honey. By the way I read a good book the other day, The View from Pompey's Head by Hamilton Basso, there is also A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, both have plenty of plot and kissing. Raintree County is another one, it's a real humdinger. But this is all just a thought. You know I am behind you one hundred per cent.

And now for some news. I have got some good news and some bad news, as the man said.

Ethel finally had to put Victor in the V.A. Hospital down there in Florida.

But, he likes it fine! Ever since the war, Victor has been lazy without much aim in life. He likes to be waited on hand and foot, and since Ethel hates to wait on anybody, this has kept them busy fighting for twenty years. But now in the V.A. Hospital, he is waited on plenty and Ethel does not have to do it. Plus he has got a whole bunch of old men to talk to, which is what he loves. Ethel says when she goes over there to see him, he is just about too busy to see her. He's out back in the sandy lot under the scrub pines at this table they've got set up out there, dealing five card stud, wearing a baseball cap. Orioles. Somebody gave it to him. She says he looks up and grins and says
Hey there Ethel!
real jaunty, like he used to do. Ethel says that the way they sit around that table reminds her of how the old men used to sit around the stove in Stoney's store, Victor right in amongst them of course. He never got over those days, and now he has got them back.

Ethel herself has been up here with her new husband Pete Francisco, lord you ought to get a load of him as Maudy says. He is real fat and about a foot shorter than Ethel, with long white hair that looks like a wig or like a star's hair. In fact Pete Francisco looks like a star. He looks like somebody on the Opry. He was wearing a bigweave white suit with a white tie and a dark shirt, I think it was black, kind of shiny. He smiles all the time, but I think it is a
real
smile, nonetheless. He seems to be so pleased with Ethel, who dresses just as plain as she ever did, and seems as sour and practical as ever.

Ah Ethel! Pete Francisco says, shaking his head and making a tch-tch noise with his teeth.
What can you do with such a woman?
he asks, spreading his hands wide, after he tells a tale about how he bought Ethel a fur coat and she took it straight back to the store.
Fur in Florida?
Ethel snorts. She thinks it is crazy. Pete Francisco grins and shrugs. All the movements he makes are big movements, like he is in a movie.
That's because he is Italian,
Ethel says. Bill and Marlene think he is Jewish. He is something foreign, in any case. And Ethel is pleased as punch with him, you can tell. When he went out of the room for a minute, she said
Ivy, isn't he a sight in the world?
and I had to agree, he is!

Pete Francisco used to run a trucking business out of Memphis Tenessee. Now he has retired to Florida where he runs this Quik-Pic that Ethel got a job in, which is how they met. I guess it is a case of opposites attract. For although they are so opposite, I can not now immagine one without the othern. Ethel and him stayed down at Ruthie's hotel. I can't get over Geneva dying, even now. It does not seem right to say,
Ruthie's hotel.
But anyway. Ethel and Pete Francisco did not even have a reason for the trip! I think Ethel just wanted to show him off, what I think. She knows everybody in town, from standing in the store so long. So she got Pete Francisco all dressed up and set him out on the porch Sunday afternoon, so folks could see him. She was like a big child at Christmas, with a new little toy.

Ethel was also pleased to see she sold the store in the nick of time, for Hawk is about to go broke with it. The Magic Mart is taking all of his business. And with the road finished finally, folks can just drive over to Richlands and go to the shopping center if they've got a mind to, which they do. Ethel got out while the getting was good.

But it is getting real built up around here, Joli, and real tacky, People are throwing these jerrybuilt buildings up anyplace, even out into the river which is not a good idea as they say that's what caused the flood—that and all the strip mining. But Bill says you can't stand in the way of progress. This makes me sad to hear. I wish he hadn't of quit farming, and let that tobacco field fall to weeds. I keep thinking about this land and how Daddy said,
Farming is pretty work.
It hurts me to see the scrub pines taking over what used to be the garden. Do you remember how steep it was? I have got me another little garden up close to the house now, but it's not the same.

Bill and Marlene are doing real good in the real estate business though, Marlene turns out to be one sharp cookie. She works even harder than Bill if you ask me. I keep their little Ellis a lot, he is a precious angel in the world. Marlene's two oldest boys are going off to college on football scholarships, both of them. Ernest is going to Kentucky and John to East Tenessee State. Bobby has got one more year to go in high school, like David.

Honey,
just send him on,
and do not worry about him too much. It is a boy's nature to get into things, and one of those things is trouble. A boy will get into trouble if he
can.
I never will forget the time I had with Danny Ray, and look at him now! A lawyer! It beats all. Of course I know from T.V. that there is a lot worse stuff for them to get into now than there used to be. One thing to remember about a teenager is this—they will not believe a thing you tell them, not one word of it. A teenager has got to do it all himself, or
her
self, as the case may be. Maudy was a case too. But they all grow up, believe me. They all grow up. So, send him back over here. I will do my best to straighten him out. I will put Bill and Rufus on it too.

That is all the news for now except I guess you read in the papers about Francis Gary Powers and the U-2 plane, well he is from right around here. He is one of those Powers from over at Hurley. He used to play football for Hurley. And speaking of news, what do you think of Jackie Kennedy, I think she is too thin, and bowlegged. But Maudy thinks she is just perfect, in fact Maudy has bought a little round hat like Jackie wears. Maudy reminds me of Beulah, the way she likes to dress up. Dress up and then drive around in the car, that's all she does. Mark won't let her work. I don't think she is all that happy with him either, if you want to know. He is gone so much. But now she says she is going to teach twirling at the Charm School in Richlands, and how to walk. Part time. One thing you can say for Maudy is, she walks great! Mark wants to have a baby but Maudy does not yet, she is on birth control pills.

I said to Maudy,
Those birth control pills are great. They are the greatest thing since drip dry.
You ought to get yourself some, Joli, just in case. You can't ever tell when a love interest might come along. I would, if I was still young.

Send David.

And speaking of love interests, don't forget to put a bigger one in your next book. People don't like to have too much thinking in a book. Mister Rochester in Jane Eyre is my idea of a good love interest, Joli. Or Heathcliff. I would have him be smoldering.

And I remain your loving,

 

MAMA.

Dear Molly,

 

I could not believe it, to hear from you of all people, and after so many years! In a way it seems like no time atall since we jumped rope together and mined for gold. In another way it seems like more than years. It seems like lifetimes and lifetimes ago. For we are old now Molly, old—leastways, I am! My face has got lines all over it especially the eyes, and it is hard to tell my hair was ever red. Yet sometimes I feel just like that girl again, and even more so. I still get all wrought up about writing my letters, as you see. When I can get the time! I have got so many grandchildren around here now, they are like to drive me crazy. They want to stay up here with me all the time, they like it up here since I do not
bug
them as they say. Ha! So I do not have much time to sit and enjoy my old age, to read and think of things, as I would like to do. I have got plenty of thinking saved up to do when I get the time, believe you me.

But if you really want me to, I can help you some with the settlement school. I can tell you who to hire around here and who not to, for sure. Lord knows it is a good high school, you know my Joli graduated from there, the one that is a famous writer, and Danny Ray that is a lawyer, and Maudy my least girl. So I think that putting in a college down there is a fine idea and needed. I am so glad to hear that you are the one coming back here to do it, for you know us, and our ways. You will have to go slow, you know. You remember how we are so proud here, and what Granny Rowe used to call
techious.
But we need an education, these children around here needs the light.