Authors: Donna Mabry
Turning to George, I asked, “Do you have a
teapot, George?” I hadn’t noticed one in the pantry, but
I hadn’t taken a really good look through what was in
there.
“We have one somewhere, don’t we, Ma? Bessie
used to water down her coffee, too.” He laughed, “She
said it wasn’t fit for humans to drink.”
His mother went to the pantry and came out
carrying a regular teapot, whistle and all. She slammed
it down on the stove. When he was finished eating,
George stood and stretched. “Well, I guess I’ll be
getting to the jail. You know where to find me if you
need me.” He headed to the barn. His mother hadn’t
eaten with us, and I asked her, “Aren’t you going to
eat, Mom Foley?”
“I’ll eat when I’m of a mind to,” she said with a
growl.
“Can we clear up the dishes here?”
“Me and Lulu can clean them up. You go do that
laundry you been wanting to do.”
I held back a smile. “All right. I’ll do my
laundry.”
I went upstairs and gathered the bundle of
clothes. The well was right next to the back porch. Two
tubs and a washboard hung on the back wall of the
house, a large tub for washing and a smaller one for
rinsing. I would have to draw a lot of water to fill the
old, galvanized tub. I heated the first bucket of water
in the big pot on the stove, and when it was boiling, I
poured it back in the washtub, and cut the bar of FelsNaptha soap, and added it to the water.
All the time, whenever I looked back at the
kitchen, I could see the old woman watching me. I
think she wanted to see if I was doing the job right.
It was a warm, sunny day, and I knew the clothes
would be dry in only a few hours. Both dogs sat and
watched me, and when I was finished with the wash
and picked up the basket, they followed me out to the
clothesline.
I was hanging up the last of the dark things when
I saw a slim, young, redheaded woman come out the
back door of the house next door and head toward me.
She was carrying a dish and followed by a girl with
flaming hair that matched her mother’s, who was just
about Lulu’s size. I was so happy to see my neighbors
coming to greet me that I had to hold back tears. It had
only been a few days since I left Bessie and Mom
Connor behind, but I was already missing the
companionship of other women. I doubted I would
ever grow close to George’s mother.
I dropped the shirt I held back in the basket and
greeted my neighbor with a real smile from my heart.
She smiled back just as warmly.
“Welcome to the neighborhood,” she said. “I’m
Clara Taylor, and this is my daughter, Maggie. That’s
short for Margaret, but she doesn’t like that, so she
asked me to have everyone call her Maggie. I think
that’s because her favorite teacher was named
Margaret but used Maggie for her name. My husband
is Alfred Taylor. He owns the feed store in town.” She
held out the dish in her hands. “I baked you an apple
pie.”
I took the pie from her. “I can’t tell you how
happy I am to meet you and Maggie. There’s coffee on
the stove, please come in, and let’s sit and talk.”
Clara looked toward the house and frowned
doubtfully. I couldn’t help it laughing out loud. “I see
you’ve met my mother-in-law.”
This drove Clara into a fit of giggles. “I would
never have said anything, but she isn’t exactly friendly.
How’s it going with the two of you?”
“Not too good, but I set my mind the first time I
saw her that she wasn’t going to run all over me. We
got home in the middle of the night and there she was,
standing there on the front porch in the moonlight
looking like a ‘haint with those two dogs next to her.
I’ve always been a quiet and easy-going person, but I
knew right then and there that if I didn’t stand my
ground I could never live with her.”
“Looks like you’re getting along with the dogs
all right. I’ve always been a little afraid of them.”
“They just needed to know who was boss. I
growled at them that first night, and they been good
ever since. ‘Course, they love Lulu, my little girl, and
so does George’s mother.”
“Maggie can’t wait to meet her. With school out
for the summer she’s been missing her friends. We
don’t get into town all that often.”
“Well, come on in. If the old lady bothers you,
I’ll protect you.”
Clara laughed again, and she and Maggie
followed me to the kitchen. Mom Foley and Lulu were
nowhere to be seen. I set the pie down on the table and
called out, “Lulu, come here, I got a surprise for you.”
I heard Lulu’s feet coming down the stairs, and she
popped in the kitchen. When she saw Maggie, her face
lit up. I was so happy for her, “This here’s Maggie
Taylor, and she lives right next door. Maggie this is
Lulu.”
Maggie grinned at Lulu. “Want to come over to
my house and play with my dolls?”
Lulu’s bobbed her head so hard, I thought she
might get dizzy. She grabbed Maggie’s hand and the
two of them ran out the back door without even asking
permission. I almost cried to see Lulu so happy. I got
cups and what else I needed to fix the coffee, and Clara
and I sat at the table. I looked in the hallway and could
see George’s mother walk by. She stopped at the sound
of our voices, gave me a hateful look, and then went
on her way. I didn’t care. I had a new woman friend to
share things with. I could survive.
The rest of the week passed without any big problems.
There was a small daily struggle over territory
between us women of the house, but nothing that I
wanted to bother telling George. Another attempt at
nighttime relations was just as unhappy as the first for
me, but we didn’t talk about it. George’s mother kept
the house clean and, needing to keep busy, I made
another trip to town to get some in-stock fabric for a
new shirt for George. It would be a month or so before
the wallpaper and the amount of fabric I needed for the
bedroom arrived.
Clara Taylor and I found some time each
afternoon to sit on Clara’s porch and talk while we
sewed. At Clara’s, we were out of earshot of Mom
Foley. Lulu and Maggie played with their dolls or on
the swing hanging from one of the big oak trees that
bordered the back of both yards. Lulu was so happy
with Clara’s friendship that she didn’t even talk about
missing Tennessee.
I hadn’t met Clara’s husband yet, but knew I
would see him at services on Sunday. I was happy to
learn that Clara was a member of the Holiness Church.
It was one of the spires I’d spotted when I went to town
that first day. It stood quite a distance away from the
house, on the other side of the jail.
I was looking forward to Sunday. At the end of
the service the preacher would give the invitation, and
Lulu and I would go forward with our letters from our
home church and ask to move our membership to the
Kennett church. The church members would vote and
approve them. We would belong.
When Sunday came, I was awake with the first
rooster crow and dressed in my best dress. George
didn’t stir right away, but I woke Lulu, who was
almost as excited as I was.
We went downstairs to the kitchen. There was no
sign of George’s mother. I looked back upstairs. The
old woman’s door was still closed. I thought that
maybe they made it a practice to sleep in on Sundays.
I made the coffee and some cornmeal mush and
Lulu and I ate. By then I was getting anxious. If
George didn’t get up soon, we would be late for the
service. I’d been looking forward to it all week.
I went upstairs. George was still sound asleep. I
shook his shoulder gently. He stirred a little, but then
went back to sleep. I shook him a little harder.
He sat up in the bed and started rubbing his chin,
but didn’t look me in the eye. “I don’t go to church,
Maude.”
“What do you mean? Everybody goes to
church.”
“Well, I don’t. I’ll hitch up the wagon and I’ll
drive you, and I’ll wait outside for you to bring you
home, but I don’t go to church.”
I was shocked. I’d never heard of such a thing.
“Why not?”
“Ma doesn’t believe in it. She keeps the old
ways, and I just never started up.”
“What does that mean, the old ways?”
“It’s the religion of her people. They call their
idea of God Wakondah.”
“What does that mean, their
idea
of God?”
“It’s not like we think of our God, but more like
a spiritual force that directs their lives. The holy man
is kind of like the preacher and he teaches the people
how to act and what to do to honor Wakondah.”
“But Bessie never missed a meeting.”
“When she was a girl, Bessie went to church
with one of her girlfriends, and when she came home
she said she’d been saved and she got baptized and that
was that. She went to church every meeting from then
on.”
“But you came to church with her.”
“When you’re in Bessie’s house you do what she
tells you to do, but this is my house, and I’m not going
to church.”
“You said that they don’t think of God the way
that we do. Does that mean you believe in Jesus, like
us, or in this Wakondah, like your mother?”
“I guess I believe in both of them. I believe in
God and I believe in Jesus being his Son and all that,
but
I don’t go to church
.”
“You never accepted Him for your Savior or got
baptized?”
“No.”
I thought about this for a few minutes. Finally, I
said, “Well, Lulu and I will go to church every Sunday,
and I’d appreciate it if you hitched up the wagon and
drove us, but if you don’t want to do that, we’ll walk.”
He got up and in a few minutes, he pulled the
wagon to the front door and waited. Lulu and I had
been watching for him, and we went out and climbed
up. George made no move to get down and help us.
I thought about the tattoos I’d seen on the old
woman’s forearms. “Do those pictures on your
mother’s arms have something to do with her
religion?”
“Sort of, her people all wore them in the old
days. I’m surprised she showed them to you.”
“She didn’t. I saw them when she was cleaning
chickens.”
I didn’t speak another word on the way to
church. My mind was turning over what we’d talked
about that morning. If I’d known George wasn’t a
born-again Christian, I wouldn’t have married him,
and I wouldn’t have cared what anybody said. Besides,
no one would have blamed me then for turning him
down, even if I had gone for an unchaperoned buggy
ride.
It was too late. I would have to live my life as an
example to him and hope that someday the Lord would
call him, the same way He called me, back when I was
only eleven years old, and Lulu, when she was nine.
The way to the church was straight through
town. I couldn’t help but notice how everyone we
passed greeted George with a smile and a wave. It
seemed to be true what his deputy’s wife, Sarah, had
told me. Everyone liked George. He stopped a few
times to introduce us to people, and they were all
friendly to both Lulu and me.
When we got to the church, several people came
over to say hello. Our neighbors, the Taylors, were
with them. Clara’s husband wasn’t at all what I’d
pictured. Clara was a few years older than I was, but
her husband looked to be at least fifty, and was as
plump as an October hog. Her being so slim, that
surprised me. He met us with a cheerful expression.
“I’m happy for Clara to have a woman friend right next
to us,” he told me.
George got down from the wagon and helped
Lulu and me down, but then he climbed back up on the
seat. He looked down at me. “I’ll be back here to pick
you up when the service is over.”
I’d hoped he would change his mind and come
inside for the meeting, but I could see that it wasn’t
going to happen--today--so I just nodded. Clara smiled
up at George. “You go on home, George. Our buggy is
big enough for us to bring them home. There’s no need
for you to sit out here three hours with nothing do to.”
He tipped his hat. “If you say so, Clara. Is that
all right with you, Maude?”
I was embarrassed and I just nodded. Clara
hooked her arm in mine and took me to meet some of
the other women. Maggie pulled Lulu’s hand and led
her over to meet some other girls their age. I looked
back and saw George was driving off.
It was time for the service to begin, and we filed
inside and took our seats. Lulu and I sat next to the
Taylors, about halfway to the back. We sang and
prayed for a half-hour and then the preacher took his
text from Matthew 25:34, his voice rich and full, rising
and falling as he read the words of Christ about
welcoming strangers.
The words were a happy challenge to me, and I
was sure they were the same to every Christian in the
church that day. Every person I’d met in the town of
Kennett, Missouri, had greeted me with Christ’s
attitude, except, of course, George’s mother. I couldn’t
help but wonder if Wakondah wouldn’t rebuke the old
lady for being so rude.
After the preaching, we sang some more songs,
and a few people repented of unexplained sins. Several
people testified to God’s goodness in their lives.
Finally, the preacher gave the invitation, and Lulu and
I went forward, handing him the letters of membership
my home pastor had given me. He asked for a vote,
and we were accepted into the church. We stood at the
front with the preacher while another song was sung,
and every member walked around in a circle to shake
our hands and welcome us. I was so happy I cried. I
didn’t yet feel that the house I was living in was mine,
but I did have a church home there in Kennett.
Things at the house settled into a sort of miserable
peace between me and George’s mother. I was
satisfied to let the old woman do the chores she had
always done, the cooking and most of the cleaning. I
did my own laundry separately and spent my extra
time sewing for myself or Lulu and George. I talked to
Clara for a while every day and gave thanks to God for
sending her to me and sending Maggie to Lulu. It was
only a few weeks before she filled the hole left in my
life when we moved away from Bessie.