Nancy Culpepper by Bobbie Ann Mason

Author:Bobbie Ann Mason
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307431516
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-18T05:00:00+00:00

15

“Well, so long,” says Lila to Mrs. Wright, who is riding out the door in a wheelchair. She’s going home.

The old woman crouches, her eyes aimed at her belly. She’s in a print dress, lavender and green. She doesn’t look up, but grunts faintly. Lila hopes she never develops such an attitude.

“I bet she can’t wait till she gets back to her trailer so she can fix her up a mess of hog jaws and turnip greens,” she says to her friends Mattie and Eunice, who are visiting. “She wouldn’t eat a bite here.”

Mattie and Eunice are in Lila’s card-playing group. Last year, Reba was the fourth, and this year the fourth is Addie Mae Smith. But now Addie Mae is visiting her daughter in Florida and doesn’t know Lila is in the hospital. “The flowers are from all of us, though,” Mattie says, giving Lila a bowl of houseplants. “Addie Mae can go in on them when she gets back.”

“I had a big crowd Sunday,” says Lila. “Cat fixed my hair, but the curl’s fell out now.” She tugs at some stray sprigs. Cat took such care with her, fluffing her hair expertly with the plastic pick, like a hen pecking fondly at her chicks. When Cat was fussing with her, she said, out of the blue, “Mom, I know I didn’t do the right things the right way. I should have gone to college and not married so young. But everything’s different now, and you don’t know how hard it is to work it all out. Things aren’t the way they used to be—if they ever were.” She sounded bitter, but then she said, “It’s not your fault I didn’t turn out right. You’re the sweetest mother in the world, and I’ll never be as good as you.” They had cried together for a moment, until they were interrupted by a nurse with a blood-thinner shot.

Mattie and Eunice won’t let Lila say anything bad about herself. They tell her how good she looks. They chatter about their families and events at church. The conversation works around to the weather occasionally, and that prompts them to tell her again how good she’s looking. They bring her a nightgown—store-wrapped in pink flowered paper. Lila can tell that it won’t hang right over her new bustline, but it’s the thought that counts. Mattie and Eunice haven’t mentioned her breast. No one mentions Reba and her months of suffering. It’s as though Reba never existed. Lila folds the gown and places it inside the tissue in the box. She smooths out the wrapping paper and folds it to save.

“It’s freezing in here,” Mattie says.

“I’ve been cold as a frog,” Lila says. “Nancy and Cat had to bring me an undershirt and this sweater.” She has on a blue cardigan of Cat’s. “In here, I can’t tell what the weather is.”

Mattie has to get up and stir for her circulation. She sets the gift box on a shelf in the closet. Restlessly, she pokes in Lila’s things, while Eunice flips through one of Cat’s magazines.

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