Doing It at the Dixie Dew by Moose Ruth

Author:Moose, Ruth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Chapter Fourteen

The next morning I stood before the drugstore jewelry counter with twenty dollars in my hand. I missed “dime stores,” the Roses stores, McLellans and Woolworths I’d grown up with. Littleboro had one of each and I’d spent Saturday mornings with fifty cents to spend among the marshmallow peanuts, Blue Waltz perfume sets and rhinestone hairnets. Usually I bought books of paper dolls or wonderful, waxy-smelling boxes of crayons or magic brush paint books.

“Ah,” said Malinda. “A big-time spender. Got me a live one, Mr. Gaddy!” she called to the back. Then to me she said, “I’d rather sell rings and things than peddle pills.” She slid on a dozen jangle bracelets, held both arms up like a snake charmer. “This is usually Delores’s counter, but she’s off this week. Went to see her son in Alabama. She’ll never recognize the place when she gets back. What can I sell you?”

“The cheapest, tackiest, wildest junk jewelry you got,” I said.

Malinda laughed and reached behind her to a box heaped high with every color of plastic made to jangle or wear on ears or string like Christmas lights around your neck. “This box has been waiting for a sucker like you. I’d say it’s waited as long as it can without scenting up the whole place.” She pulled out a huge pink plastic chain and held it up. “Think this will fit? You planning on the country club dance or something?”

“Reba,” I said. “They’re for Reba … not me.”

“For a moment there I thought you’d left your taste back in third grade.” Malinda plowed with both arms through the jewelry. “Give me twenty dollars and this entire box of priceless jewelry is yours, and yours alone.”

Malinda dumped the contents of the box into a brown bag for me. “Tell her not to wear it all at one time or she’ll be arrested for tacky.” She folded down the top and handed it to me. “Is it Reba’s birthday?”

I hesitated. “I wish it were that simple.” Should I tell Malinda? For some reason I felt if anybody in town could be trusted with the truth, it was Malinda. So I told her about the jewelry, and Malinda leaned her head back and laughed. “For a quiet gal you sure do get in some messes.” Then she asked seriously in a low tone, “And what do you do with the real things after you get them from Reba? Turn yourself into a target?”

“I think I know who the real things fit,” I said. “And if I can’t get them back to their owner, I can at least get them to the next in legal line and get some DelGardo hassle out of my face.”

“Good luck,” said Malinda. “And let me know what happens?” She waved me out the store, glanced behind her and whispered, “Take care, you hear.”

Now to find Reba. Should I try Reba’s tree or first try to guess where Reba might be? The Dinette. Sometimes Blue’s Dinette behind the courthouse fed Reba.

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