Divas and Dead Rebels by Virginia Brown

Author:Virginia Brown
Language: ar
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books
Published: 2012-09-26T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

We ended up at Jo’s Auto Clean-up and Costume Shop on University. Mississippi businesses often like to diversify. It’s common to see hand painted signs that advertise proudly, “Snacks & Bait” shops all over the countryside. I try to never eat at those places, but renting costumes was an entirely different proposition.

Bitty was dismayed when she saw the costumes I chose for us. “Maids? You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“No, I’m not kidding. At least these should fit us and not fall down around our ankles.” I said the last as a not-so-gentle reminder of one of Bitty’s former schemes that hadn’t worked out well for me. When Bitty didn’t respond, I knew she remembered exactly what I was talking about. That didn’t stop her from blowing out an irritated puff of air, but at least I didn’t have to hear protests of innocence.

We left the shop with our costumes and a pug wearing a tiara. Don’t ask. Bitty has her peculiarities. Chen Ling looked smug all dolled up in a pink taffeta tutu and tiara big enough to fit the average first grader.

Once we were in the car I dropped my next bomb on poor Bitty: “Now we have to rent an old, beat-up car or something that looks like a work van.”

I thought Bitty was going to pass out from sheer horror. Finally she found words to go along with her shrieks of protest: “WHY? Are you crazy?”

“Because few maids drive Mercedes, and I thought we’d settled that crazy question a long time ago. Think about it, Bitty. Just for a moment. Does your Maria arrive in a nice, shiny limousine every morning?”

“She doesn’t come every day anymore,” Bitty replied, a bit sulkily, I thought.

“Okay. So when she does come to clean, what does she drive?”

“Oh for heaven’s sake, Trinket, how would I know? Even if I’m up when she gets there, I don’t look outside to see what she drives.”

I sighed. Sometimes getting Bitty to see reason is a long, complicated process. I gave it one more try. “All right, then, maybe you remember what Mrs. Tyree used to drive when she was a maid for the mayor?”

Mrs. Tyree is Bitty’s next door neighbor. She’s a lovely elderly lady who came from an entire family of domestics who were clever enough to form their own cleaning company way back in the new liberation era of the early 1970s. Then they diversified into offering yard services as well, and their little company grew large enough to keep Holly Springs well-supplied with help. It ended up being bought out by a larger corporation in the nineties, leaving Mrs. Tyree with enough money to buy the house next door to Bitty, and her children and grandchildren excellent college educations wherever they chose to go. Not that the Civil Rights era changed everything. Some taboos are still firmly in place no matter what the person’s race or position in life. Change takes time.

Bitty thought for a moment before she said, “I think she was the mayor’s morning help and drove a nineteen-forties Buick.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.