Isle of Palms by Dorothea Benton Frank

Author:Dorothea Benton Frank [Frank, Dorothea Benton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Isle of Palms (S.C.), Humorous Fiction, Fiction, Women - South Carolina, Sagas, South Carolina, Islands, General, Domestic Fiction, Women
ISBN: 9780425200100
Publisher: Berkley Trade

Nineteen

Miss Mavis and Miss Angel Confer

I HAD been watching that house all day and there was enough funny business next door to alert the authorities. I was sure of it. All day long, cars coming and going and doors slamming and people yelling and carrying on.

“Oh!” I said and closed the curtains. “She almost saw me! That was too close for me! Angel? Are you there?”

Anna was going with that child of hers over to you-know-who’s house again.

“No, Mavis, I was juss fixin’ to go to Charleston and find us some men.”

“What? I didn’t make out what you said. Come out here!” She was always hollering at me like I don’t know what, knowing perfectly well how impolite it was to yell from behind a closed door.

And, there she came, like the Queen, strutting across my floor.

“I’m righ’ chea, Mavis. What’s got your motor going now?”

“My motor’s not going anyplace! You look down there and tell me what you see.”

She stood to the right side of the curtains and slowly, slowly pulled them back a little, staring at me the whole time like we were in a contest to see who would blink their eyes first. Then she moved across the curtains and peered down and then across Anna’s to that little hussy’s house. She was trying my patience, I can tell you.

“I don’t see nothing, Mavis. Nothing ’cept a bunch of folks up in that crow’s nest of Lucy’s.”

“It’s a widow’s walk and you know it.”

“I reckon they likes to watch the sun go down for the day. Something wrong with that?”

Well, there wasn’t anything wrong with watching the blooming sun set and I knew that.

“For heaven’s sake, Angel, you’re probably right. After all, Lucy’s been hanging off the side of that porch ever since that no-good bubba she married took off. Just mooning and mooning! But you’re right, I am too judgmental and maybe a little nosy. Even Mary Magdalene needed friends, didn’t she?”

“Ooh! You bad, Mavis!”

Suddenly, I was wishing I could go up there too. But I was too delicate to climb all those steps and I knew it. After a certain age, there are a few pleasures you have to forego for the sake of your own personal safety. That annoyed me too.

“Well! My mother always said, tell me who your company is and I’ll tell you who you are. I just don’t like to think about Anna ruining her reputation by going around with that, that . . .”

“Oh, go on, Mavis. Ain’t nobody looking at who she going with ’cept us! And, she’s all grown! Come on now! What’s the matter?”

“Oh, Angel! I don’t know. You remember last Sunday and how we talked to her about her mother?”

“I do. I remember the look on her face too. She didn’t want to hear that her momma might be a good woman. Not no how! Makes a body wonder what kinda nonsense they been feeding that child all she life, ’eah?”

“That’s exactly what I mean! The

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