Dear Doctor Lily by Monica Dickens Page A

girls not good enough for him?’
    Ida was to hear this a lot until she lost her accent. It was an insult disguised as a joke.
    â€˜So you’re from jolly old England,’ Lefty said, with a blue-lipped grin, and some shoppers turned to have a look. ‘How about a spot of tea?’
    That was another joke Ida was to hear many times. Sometimes she tried saying, ‘We say “cup of tea”,’ but the joker knew better.
    There was a rack of dud-looking postcards at the front of the shop.
I’ll get fat here,
she would write to Lily.
Jam doughnuts and everything is giant size, and six different kinds of tomato soup,
butVerna pushed her past the cards and on to the No-name Laundromat, where Ida saw her pink nylon blouse going into the machine with the baby’s dirty nappies. Mrs Legge sagged on to a chair to wait. Ida wanted to go back to Lefty’s, but Verna pulled her down next to her and gave her a lecture on how to take care of Buddy.
    â€˜Very sensitive boy, you can’t cross him. It upsets his system. He’s a free spirit, like I say, a free spirit. He shouldn’t marry, really.’
    Oh, thanks very much. Ida put her hand over her mouth. The hot dog she had eaten at lunch was getting back at her. ‘If you didn’t put your hand over your mouth, no one would notice,’ she heard Lily saying. Mrs Legge didn’t notice anyway. You could die of a burst ulcer before she paid any attention.
    Folding the pile of torn grey nappies, Mrs Legge sighed and said, ‘Isn’t it always the way? I’ll just get this one trained to do his jobs in the toilet like God meant him to do, and it’ll be time to start all over again with the next.’
    â€˜What?’ Ida stood with a sock in each hand and stared at her among the tumbling washers, the soap and hot air, the waiting women with their feet planted parallel.
    â€˜Didn’t you know? Lookit.’ Verna showed her profile.
    â€˜It doesn’t show.’
    Where was the baby under all those layers of fat? How did Shaker ever find his way in? Ida had seen enough pregnant women, God knows, including herself before Jackson was sent down, but she was shocked.
    Hot from the No-name, Verna smelled very bad. She put one bag of laundry over her shoulder and pulled up Vernon from among the fluff balls on the floor. Ida took the other bag and followed her out.
    During the next days while Ida was waiting for Buddy to come back and marry her, a few women neighbours dropped into Legge Manor, to inspect the new recruit to the family. They talked a lot, so Ida didn’t have to say much. They seemed quite pleasant, but almost before Verna Legge had shut the door behindthem with a thud that brought a nervous ‘ting’ from the wall clock, she had started to find fault.
    â€˜What did
she
come for? I know what she came for. Looking around. You see how she looked around? Three cups of coffee she drunk on me. Then I make a fresh pot and she takes but one sip. Well, they got a good look at you, so I hope it was worth it.’
    â€˜They made me feel welcome,’ Ida said. ‘They’re very nice, your friends.’
    â€˜They’re not
friends,
they’re neighbours,’ Mrs Legge said firmly. ‘Shut up in there!’ She slapped at her mounded stomach. ‘Lookit,’ she laughed gleefully. ‘See the rascal? See him poundin’ about?’
    But the baby could no more make itself known to the world than if it had been inside a two-foot thick igloo.
    The day before the wedding, they went downtown to buy a white hat. Ida had planned to pin a flower in her hair, but Mrs Legge said she had to wear a proper hat, like it or not. On the way back, they would ‘swing by’ Buddy’s married sister, ‘since she hasn’t chosen to behave like a Christian woman and stop around and tell you hello. Put on them shiny spike heels, Hilda.’ She sometimes called Ida that.
    â€˜I