that would have been May, and you said that your birthday is in July – then you’re just shy of your seventeenth birthday!”
“ Ya don’t say! Well, ain’t that somethin’?”
Flo snuggled into me. “Mick, you’re so smart. I’m glad you rescued me from the darkie and figured out how old I am. So you think Ma lied to me?”
“ No, I don’t think your mother would lie, but sometimes people get history jumbled up in their brains. There were race riots and fires years before the Great Fire. Maybe she got them confused. But what matters now is that you understand that the man you saw today would never hurt you. His name is Lewis Graham and his wife is Miss Sara. Flo, these people love me and I love them. They are like family to me. In my family, we don’t call each other names.”
Flo pulled away. “Oh. Is he mad at me?”
Looking at her, I took back the regrets I’d given into earlier that day. She was pretty as a peach and just as sweet. And now that I knew that she was nearly seventeen, I felt like her prince again. I couldn’t help but smile.
“ No, Little Kitten, he’s as kind as you are sweet. I’ve never seen him angry.”
I sat with her until she slept. I watched her with sore eyes that had no time for rest. I left Flo to join my mother and sisters for breakfast. Halfway down the hall, I picked up pieces of the conversation from the kitchen.
I heard Mother’s voice. “Maybe we shouldn’t have laughed at the poor thing.”
Sadie broke in, “Oh, Mother. She was falling out of the car, barefoot and pregnant, screaming like a banshee. Who wouldn’t laugh?”
“ Well, just be sensitive to your brother’s feelings.”
Silence fell over the table when I poked my head in the doorway and took my place at the table.
“ Can I get you a cup of coffee, Son?”
“ Thank you, Mother.”
“ How is she?”
The rising steam from the coffee cup cleared my sinuses. “She’s scared and confused.”
Sadie repeated the question that people would ask me for years to come. “Mickey, how in the world did you get mixed up with a girl like that?”
I stabbed a piece of ham on the platter. “People look a little different on a cold, lonely night in the city than they do out here in broad daylight.”
The talk died down long enough for me to enjoy my breakfast. I washed away my weariness with country ham, red-eye gravy, grits, and biscuits. Mother stirred cream into her coffee and laid out the day’s schedule.
“ Sophia, I want you to get started making Flo some decent dresses. You’ll find plenty of cloth in the armoire. Just measure her across the shoulders, a princess cut should allow enough room. Short sleeves, solid dark colors, a white Peter Pan collar should set it off nicely, I think. That should do for now.
“ Sadie, bake a cake and put together a nice dinner we can eat on the lawn. I don’t expect there’s much need to make a big to-do over it. Mickey’s going into Lawrenceville to see Justice Chalmers about performing the ceremony here tomorrow. And Mickey, tell little Flo to get herself together because tomorrow she’s going to be a married woman.”
Sadie shook her head at the eggs on her plate and stifled a laugh. “That girl has a lot to learn about living in the country!”
Mother huffed, “She has a lot to learn about respecting her elders.”
I wanted to defend Flo’s actions at the barn. But I already had too many things to explain that day and not enough willing ears to listen. My actions had caused great turmoil in our household, and I doubted that it would end any time soon.
Sophia measured Flo’s shoulders and made her wedding dress according to Mother’s instructions. Sophia loved clothes and was fast with a needle. Considering Flo’s condition, I thought Mother’s idea for the dress was appropriate. Flo thought differently.
Sophia ran the tape measure across the finished dress. “There, that seems to be just about right.”
Flo
“ Ya don’t say! Well, ain’t that somethin’?”
Flo snuggled into me. “Mick, you’re so smart. I’m glad you rescued me from the darkie and figured out how old I am. So you think Ma lied to me?”
“ No, I don’t think your mother would lie, but sometimes people get history jumbled up in their brains. There were race riots and fires years before the Great Fire. Maybe she got them confused. But what matters now is that you understand that the man you saw today would never hurt you. His name is Lewis Graham and his wife is Miss Sara. Flo, these people love me and I love them. They are like family to me. In my family, we don’t call each other names.”
Flo pulled away. “Oh. Is he mad at me?”
Looking at her, I took back the regrets I’d given into earlier that day. She was pretty as a peach and just as sweet. And now that I knew that she was nearly seventeen, I felt like her prince again. I couldn’t help but smile.
“ No, Little Kitten, he’s as kind as you are sweet. I’ve never seen him angry.”
I sat with her until she slept. I watched her with sore eyes that had no time for rest. I left Flo to join my mother and sisters for breakfast. Halfway down the hall, I picked up pieces of the conversation from the kitchen.
I heard Mother’s voice. “Maybe we shouldn’t have laughed at the poor thing.”
Sadie broke in, “Oh, Mother. She was falling out of the car, barefoot and pregnant, screaming like a banshee. Who wouldn’t laugh?”
“ Well, just be sensitive to your brother’s feelings.”
Silence fell over the table when I poked my head in the doorway and took my place at the table.
“ Can I get you a cup of coffee, Son?”
“ Thank you, Mother.”
“ How is she?”
The rising steam from the coffee cup cleared my sinuses. “She’s scared and confused.”
Sadie repeated the question that people would ask me for years to come. “Mickey, how in the world did you get mixed up with a girl like that?”
I stabbed a piece of ham on the platter. “People look a little different on a cold, lonely night in the city than they do out here in broad daylight.”
The talk died down long enough for me to enjoy my breakfast. I washed away my weariness with country ham, red-eye gravy, grits, and biscuits. Mother stirred cream into her coffee and laid out the day’s schedule.
“ Sophia, I want you to get started making Flo some decent dresses. You’ll find plenty of cloth in the armoire. Just measure her across the shoulders, a princess cut should allow enough room. Short sleeves, solid dark colors, a white Peter Pan collar should set it off nicely, I think. That should do for now.
“ Sadie, bake a cake and put together a nice dinner we can eat on the lawn. I don’t expect there’s much need to make a big to-do over it. Mickey’s going into Lawrenceville to see Justice Chalmers about performing the ceremony here tomorrow. And Mickey, tell little Flo to get herself together because tomorrow she’s going to be a married woman.”
Sadie shook her head at the eggs on her plate and stifled a laugh. “That girl has a lot to learn about living in the country!”
Mother huffed, “She has a lot to learn about respecting her elders.”
I wanted to defend Flo’s actions at the barn. But I already had too many things to explain that day and not enough willing ears to listen. My actions had caused great turmoil in our household, and I doubted that it would end any time soon.
Sophia measured Flo’s shoulders and made her wedding dress according to Mother’s instructions. Sophia loved clothes and was fast with a needle. Considering Flo’s condition, I thought Mother’s idea for the dress was appropriate. Flo thought differently.
Sophia ran the tape measure across the finished dress. “There, that seems to be just about right.”
Flo
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