Corrine and Jojo got their Bama Pies and cold fountain drinks, and stood there eating and chatting with Paris. Corrine surreptitiously searched her friend’s face. She would need to talk to her privately. In her newfound maturity—even if she was munching on a Bama Pie the same as when she had been ten—she felt she must do something to help Paris.
Just then Belinda Blaine came blowing in the glass door. “Hey, y’all.” She wore both a sun visor and sunglasses.
Corrine’s gaze dropped to Miss Belinda’s belly, which the woman seemed to stick out ahead of her in an effort at balance as she made a beeline for the coolers.
Paris came hurrying out from behind the counter, ran over and planted herself in front of a shelf, with legs wide and arms splayed.
Miss Belinda, now returning from the cooler with a moist bottle of water, said, “Thank you, sugar.”
“You bet, Miss Belinda.”
“Bye, y’all.” The woman, arms pumping, pushed her belly out the door.
Corrine said to Paris, who was returning behind the counter, “What were you doin’?”
“Protectin’ Miss Belinda from the Little Debbies.”
The wedding day dawned in a great deluge of fall rain that came straight down in sheets, poured on rooftops, flowed down drain spouts and filled drainage ditches and creeks.
Paris Miller was awakened by water dripping on her face. Over at the Valentine home, Willie Lee saw water pooling around the house and went hurrying out beneath the back porch to get the kittens, who were now full grown but new in the ways of such a flood. At his pleading, his mother said he could put them up on the porch. Julia Jenkins-Tinsley battled water running under the rear door of the post office by throwing down wads of paper towels. The only one to really be happy was the fire chief; the threat of a summer-drought grass fire was gone.
“Dear Lord, please let it stop rainin’ and clear for Vella Blaine’s weddin’,” prayed Inez Cooper. Having recognized an uncharitable attitude toward Vella, she prayed for some ten minutes. Ever since her blowup with Belinda, she had been seeing things about herself. She wanted to be a nicer person. She also had a surprise planned for her Norman and everyone else, at the wedding reception, and wanted all to go well.
Vella Blaine, used to running her own life, did not really think of praying. She looked out her living room window at the rain and thought, Into every life a little rain must fall. When the rain had not let up by ten o’clock, she called all the women of her wedding party and told them to bring their dresses to the church. “We’ll all get dressed at the church and keep dry.”
She called Jaydee to have him order an awning for the church’s front steps.
“Already on it, sweetheart,” he said proudly.
Vella could see that Jaydee was not going to be a man who needed much direction. She had finally chosen well.
Although not officially taking part in the ceremony, Corrine went along with her aunt Marilee to be of help where she could, just like always. She had shown her aunt the new dress she had bought for the occasion, but she was relieved that her aunt would not see her in it until they were at the church and surrounded by a lot of other people. She had been very careful when she bought the dress. It was perfectly proper; however, Aunt Marilee had higher standards than most.
At the church, Corrine ran through the rain to help Aunt Vella and Miss Belinda bring in their things from their cars. Afterward she had to towel dry her dripping hair. Then she took the bows Aunt Marilee had made and fastened them to the ends of the pews along the center aisle. She arranged the flowers according to Miss Belinda’s direction, and lit each of the twelve candles on the single candelabra to make certain they would burn at the correct time.
Aunt Vella, Miss Belinda and Aunt Marilee viewed it all and pronounced it perfect. “Understated elegance,” said Aunt Marilee. Understated elegance was equal to righteousness in her book.
In the large dressing room in the rear of the church, Corrine, fetching and helping, watched them, these women of her family. Dampened and askew from hurry and rain, breathless and flush with excitement, they worked hair dryers and curling irons, and even had an ironing board and iron. They called back and forth to each other, and laughed and made risqué comments of a private nature they never would have spoken to others outside themselves.
Miss Belinda and her mother were amazingly cordial to each other, until Aunt Vella lit up one of her cigarillos. Miss Belinda threw a hissy about tobacco smoke in her and the baby’s vicinity. Usually Aunt Vella never took correction well, but this time, she said, “Ohmygosh, what was I thinkin’?” and raced to open the window and blow out the smoke she held in her mouth. She started to throw the cigarillo out the window, but then she decided that since she had it, she might as well take comfort in a few puffs, so, dressed in a bra, panties and slip, she leaned halfway out the window and smoked. Aunt Marilee, deep into carefully making up her face, remembered the camera that she had stuffed into her purse and had Corrine take it out and start snapping shots.
Then the three women were dressed and admiring one another. It was agreed that Aunt Vella was handsome and Aunt Marilee beautiful. Corrine said Miss Belinda was lovely, but Belinda looked at herself and said, “Enormously striking may be the better description.”
Aunt Vella produced a picnic basket—“a light repast to see us through,” she said in her flamboyant manner—and dispatched Aunt Marilee to the church kitchen to bring back a pot of hot tea to go with cheese and crackers and strawberries and chocolate sauce.
Corrine went behind the dressing screen and slipped into her dress and shoes. “Miss Belinda, will you zip me up?”
At the moment that Miss Belinda zipped, Aunt Marilee came through the door with a tray bearing the pot of tea and cups.
Miss Belinda said, “My goodness, you’re a knockout, sugar.”
Corrine glanced to see her image in the mirror and then at Aunt Marilee, who stood as if frozen, staring at her. Corrine turned in a slow circle, displaying herself.
At last Aunt Marilee smiled. “You are beautiful,” she said, blinking rapidly. And then, “And what else would we expect? The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!”
When Winston checked himself in the men’s room mirror, he saw Coweta’s image right behind his shoulder.
“We are finally gonna see Vella settled happily,” she said with a bright smile.
“Yep, we are.”
“Well, I thought you might take up with her, but you passed on that.”
“Wasn’t a good idea,” Winston said, with some regret. “I’m too old.”
“Yes, you are,” Coweta agreed more readily than he would have wished. “Straighten your tie, Winston.”
“What’s wrong with my tie?” Even so, he did as she said. He was proud to still have the knack of tying a bow tie, even if his hands shook quite a bit.
“You look quite debonair,” Coweta said.
“I do, don’t I?” Winston smiled as he surveyed himself. “What do you think of this suit?”
Just then the men’s room door opened. It was his grandson, Larry Joe, along with Willie Lee and Munro.
He looked around for Coweta, but she was gone.
“Mis-ter May-hall and Pa-pa Tate said to find you,” said Willie Lee, taking his hand.
“Well, I’m not lost.”
“They need help with Jaydee’s bow tie.” Larry Joe came close on the other side, taking his arm.
Winston shook them off. “Not yet, boys. I can still walk on my own.”
He straightened himself for proof, leaning only lightly on his cane as the three of them stepped out into the hallway.
Just then the door several yards farther along—the door to the bride’s dressing room—opened, and a beautiful young woman appeared. He liked a woman in deep red. Good mercy almighty! It was Corrine. It was hard to reconcile this young woman with the girl who had been plain faced and in her bathrobe that morning in his kitchen.
She came toward them, and Larry
Joe stopped in his tracks. His eyes went wide. Winston watched his grandson and this young woman whom he loved as a granddaughter. So taken up with each other, the two young people no longer saw anyone else.
“You look awfully pretty,” Larry Joe said in a sort of choking voice.
“Thank you…you look nice, too.” She momentarily shifted her eyes to Winston and Willie Lee, saying, “All of you look handsome,” but then her gaze returned to Larry Joe.
The two young people stood staring at each other in a foolish manner. Light bloomed from the glass front doors, silhouetting the couple. Winston’s eyes squinted and watered.
Winston turned and started along the corridor. Willie Lee joined him, and a moment later Larry Joe caught up with them. He took Winston’s elbow, and this time Winston did not shake him off.
At the door of the pastor’s study, Winston looked at his grandson. “Larry Joe.”
“Yes, sir?”
“You wait for Corrine. She’s the one for you. You don’t get distracted again.” It was time to say things straight.
“Yes, sir,” Larry Joe said solemnly.
Winston entered the pastor’s office, where he found best man Tate Holloway wrestling with Jaydee’s bow tie, with Pastor Smith giving instruction. Winston took over to do the job.
“Just hold still,” said Winston, wrestling the silk tie with his gnarled and shaking fingers.
Jaydee kept swallowing, and his Adam’s apple bobbed. Winston had not before noticed that Jaydee had such a sizable Adam’s apple.
“The ring. I can’t remember what I did with the ring,” said Jaydee.
Tate produced it.
Winston finished with the tie, and Jaydee checked himself in the mirror on the wall behind the door. The man, usually quite self-satisfied, was a picture of doubt.
“This deal is for good with Vella,” he said, his Adam’s apple bobbing again. “We did a prenuptial, but it pretty much slammed the door on divorce. Vella might kill me, but she isn’t likely to give me a divorce.” His baleful gaze passed over the other men.
“Well, I do think you might have thought of that before now,” said Winston. Then he put his arm around the younger man’s shoulders. “Listen, buddy, let me share my secret to dealin’ with Vella Blaine. Just say with regularity, ‘I think you’re probably right,’ to anything she says, no matter what you really think.”
Jaydee’s thoughts passed across his face in a studied frown. “Well, I don’t know…”
“Now don’t let your pride get in the way. What you are choosin’ is to be happy instead of right. It’s takin’ the higher ground.” He patted Jaydee on the back. “I’m countin’ on you to take good care of her. I know you are the man for the job.”
Jaydee nodded as a promise. He suddenly had developed a lump thick in his throat and thought that he could not talk.
The sun came out just as Vella and Winston walked through the side door into the sanctuary, her arm through his. Light falling through the stained glass high up behind Pastor Smith gave the room a rosy glow and seemed to fall like a benediction on the bride.
In that moment Belinda saw her mother’s face and thought that she had never seen her mother so happy. Her mother’s expression, and her baby picking that moment to shove a foot into her bladder, took Belinda’s breath and brought tears to her eyes.
When Pastor Smith said, “Who gives this woman to this man?” Winston moved Vella’s hand from his arm to Jaydee’s and said, “I do!” so loudly that a few in the congregation were momentarily confused and wondered if Winston was marrying her.
Vella frowned, annoyed that she had overlooked how such a phrase would sound. She was not property to be given by any man. But then she guessed that Winston really was giving up once and for all what might have been. And she was, too.
Her gaze lingered for a moment on Winston, knowing that she had moved on in her life. Then she became aware of how hard Jaydee was shaking. She hoped he did not die of a heart attack and leave her a widow before she was fully married.
Pastor Smith was speaking, and she had to catch up. When he indicated it was her part, she instantly jumped in, saying rapidly, “In the name of God, I, Vella, take you, Jaydee, to be my husband….”
Belinda shifted her flowers into her right hand and pressed her left hand into the side of her belly, attempting to move the baby. The ceremony seemed to go on forever, with Jaydee saying his part, then Pastor Smith going into this long spiel.
Lyle, who was in the front row right beside Winston and Willie Lee, saw Belinda seeming to list to one side. A little alarmed, he edged to the end of the pew.
Naomi Smith stepped up beside the organ and belted out “There Is Love.”
The congregation joined in. All four verses, and holding long on “…there…is…love.” People began crying and sniffing and passing around tissues.
Belinda crossed her legs and said her own prayer not to wet her pants.
The song ended, and Pastor Smith lifted his hand in a motion of blessing. “God bless and keep you in love…” Some faint sound caused him to glance in Belinda’s direction. As a man whose wife had born six children, he said, “Go-and-serve-God-together-amen.”
Lila Hicks hit the keys on the organ, Jaydee grabbed Vella and bent her backward in a dramatic kiss that had the congregation on their feet with applause and Belinda, unnoticed by everyone but Lyle, hurried through the side door to the corridor and the ladies’ room.
After the bride and groom had their pictures taken, everyone piled into their cars and took off through the wet streets bright with sunshine for the reception, held on the opposite end of town at the just-finished carousel building. Vella and Jaydee, being very much business people and active members of the chamber of commerce, saw their wedding as an opportunity to promote the progress of the carousel park built mainly by the two of them.
Because of the earlier heavy rain and there being as yet no landscaping, people had to cross the muddy ground to the carousel building over two-by-six boards. Women balanced precariously in high heels, and at least two lost both their balance and a shoe stuck in the mud. Vella took off her heels and raced across the board at a speed calculated to prove her vigor for the years of marriage ahead. Emma Berry started to do the same, but then John Cole swept her up in his arms and, to much applause, carried her across, proving he had fully healed from his heart operation. Seeing this, Larry Joe Darnell astounded Corrine by doing the same, proving the direction of his affections. Julia Jenkins-Tinsley looked at G. Juice, who shook his head and waved her gallantly ahead of him. Winston said to her, “Come on, darlin’, we’ll take hands.”
Refreshments were served, the bride and groom made speeches, friends made speeches, and toasts were given for a happy life. Jim Rainwater, wearing a vintage coat and hat, set “Stompin’ at the Savoy” playing from his portable DJ equipment, and Vella and Jaydee took to the dance floor.
People clapped around them and then joined in. Inez Cooper surprised her husband, Norman, as well as everyone else, when she went to dancing in movements that sent her fluid rayon skirt swirling high enough to show her pale thighs. Norman stood there stunned. He had not known that his wife could possibly move like that anymore.
It had been noticed over the past couple of weeks that Inez had gotten a modern, sassy haircut and was using hair gel, brighter makeup and wearing new stylish clothing. She had of late surprised a number of her neighbors by going out of her way with pleasant greetings. Julia Jenkins-Tinsley had seen a padded envelope come through the P.O., with a return address of the Positive Thinkers Club and addressed to Inez. Norman had faintly noticed that his wife had been disappearing several afternoons a week for the past three weeks, and he had caught her a couple of times doing yoga with the television. When Inez had come downstairs that afternoon, ready for the wedding, he had been startled to see that she wore a dress that showed a curvy shape that he had not known she had. He had been so struck by this difference in his wife that he had peered up the stairs
with the foolish urge to go check and make certain his real wife was not lying up there on the bed like something out of The Twilight Zone. Now he watched his wife as she did the close-in and swing-out steps of the boogie-woogie.
The next instant, Norman came to life. When Inez closed in, he took hold of her, brought her hard against him, then spun her out. While his steps were heavy and rusty, his memory quickly returned.
Norman and Inez had been the 1982 Oklahoma Ballroom Swing champion couple. They had loved to dance, and had traveled as far as California and New Jersey for ballroom dancing events. It had been the happiest, most romantic time of their married life. For two weeks now, Inez had secretly taken Lindy Hop lessons in the deep hope of rekindling the romance of that time with her husband.
That evening Inez realized her hope. The couple was the hit of the dance floor. People were flabbergasted to believe this was the same Inez and Norman they had known for years.
Inez felt pretty flabbergasted, too, but Norman, once over his surprise, said, “Honey, you’ve always been hot.”
All during the reception, Inez looked for Belinda to tell her thank-you for the hard truth that Belinda had told her that day, when she had said that Inez needed to work on herself.
But Inez never did find Belinda.
This was because while Inez did the Lindy, Belinda lay in the emergency room attached to a fetal monitor and other contraptions in an effort to stop premature labor.
CHAPTER 20
Bed Rest
“WE ARE GOING TO BRING THIS BABY GIRL healthy into the world. You are going to do just as I say.” Dr. Zwolle shook her finger at Belinda.
And what the doctor said was that Belinda was to be in bed for the next week. Not on the couch or in a recliner, but in bed. She could get up to go to the bathroom and to get something from the kitchen. She was allowed to take a bath and encouraged to relax for those minutes, but warm water, not hot.
Little Town, Great Big Life Page 22
