Letters to Missy Violet

by Barbara Hathaway

  Your cousin,

  Essex Windbush

  When Papa finished reading the letter, his face looked like a road map, with all the lines and veins. A worried look came over Mama’s face, too, but she didn’t say a word. Papa laid the letter down on the table and walked out of the room. We sure did feel sorry for our Papa. We were all disappointed too.

  Papa didn’t have much to say to anyone for the next week or two. But Mama never said “I told you so.” She tried to humor Papa and fixed all his favorite foods. Finally, he came around and started talking again, and we were all glad to have our old Papa back. Not long after that he got a job at Mister J. A. McAulay’s textile mill as a cleaning man. It didn’t work out too bad, because Papa could bring home all the scraps he wanted. And he brought home some beautiful materials for Mama and Savannah. I wish he could get a job in an ice cream factory.

  From your best helper girl,

  Viney

  A Wedding

  December 19, 1929

  Dear Missy Violet,

  Surprise, surprise! Mister Som Grit married Miss Petty. Folks can’t stop talking about it. Arma Jean is the only one not surprised because she’s the one who said “Miss Petty need to marry Mister Som Grit” in the first place.

  It happened so fast that some of the ladies at the church had to scare up a wedding. They said a lady Miss Petty’s age deserved a dignified wedding. So the ladies on the Usher Board set up some long tables on the church grounds, and the congregation brought enough food to feed a pharaoh’s army.

  Mama and Miss Petty and Savannah got together and made the most beautiful dress. Arma Jean said she heard Miss Petty already had a dress in her hope chest, but it was wore out from waitin’ so long. But the dress she and Mama and Savannah made was all lacy with pearls and creamy white like the icing on a cake.

  Arma Jean and I sat together in the front row. Miss Lutie Mae Darkchild and her sisters tried to shoo us away because they wanted those front-row seats, but Arma Jean stood up to them and they backed off. We knew they just wanted to laugh and make fun of Miss Petty when she came down the aisle because they were jealous.

  Papa walked Miss Petty down the aisle. He didn’t want to do it but Mama made him. Mama told Miss Petty to be sure and hold her head up high when she came down the aisle. And Mama wouldn’t let her wear her spectacles. “James will guide you down the aisle,” she told her. She told Miss Petty to think of herself as a princess so Mister Som Grit would be proud when he saw her. Mama and Missus Mims put a little lipstick and a little rouge and a little powder on Miss Petty, and she was almost pretty. The Darkchild sisters couldn’t close their mouths, they were so shocked at how good Miss Petty looked. Everybody was shocked.

  Mister Som Grit didn’t look bad himself. He wore a black suit with tails, and patent leather shoes. His hair was parted down the middle and slicked back. He didn’t wear his derby, thank the Lord. A Mister Willie Poe from across the river stood up with him in the church. Mister Som Grit kept wipin’ his brow the whole time he was saying his vows. But after he finally got the ring on Miss Petty’s finger and “kissed the bride,” they sashayed out of the church husband and wife and everybody had a fine time. I hope they are going to be happy. Somebody said Miss Nula Irish tried to trip the bride while she was coming down the aisle, but they said Papa saw her and gave her the fish eyes and she pulled her foot back in. Arma Jean and I missed that. As far as we saw, Miss Petty got down the aisle smooth as cream. I thought Charles would pull one of his pranks, but I guess he remembered what Mama told him she would do to him if he messed with Miss Petty, so he behaved himself at the wedding. Weddings are so nice.

  I know Mama is going to kill me for writing this letter. She’ll say I was being grown and fast, writing about grown folks’ business again. But I just had to tell you about the wedding.

  Yours truly,

  Viney

  Mister Som Grit

  Before the wedding, Mister Som Grit wrote Miss Petty a letter. I know because Miss Petty came over to our house and asked Mama what she should do. Then she gave Mama the letter and ran out the door. I just happened to be standing in the next room when she came. Mama read it, slipped the letter in her apron pocket, and started fixing lunch.

  That afternoon Arma Jean came over and I told her what happened and she said we had to get that letter and read it. So when Mama took her apron off and hung it on the nail behind the door, Arma Jean and I slipped it out of her pocket and read it. It said:

  Dear Miss Petty,

  Let me tell you something about myself. I’m a poor widow man who lost his wife two years ago. Her name was Mary Faye and she was a good Christian woman. We had one child, born dead. We named her Elizabeth Faye. She up in heaven now. We did not have any more children.

  I been askin the Lord to send me another wife. I am a lonely man. I can take good care of a wife. I got a house, some land, and my own automobile. I am retired now, but I was the buggy driver for the Rakestraw family for twenty-five years. They give me one of their automobiles so I could drive around in style after I retired. It’s a big ol’ shiny Packard. You most likely done seen me drivin around in it. I’d like to give you a ride in it sometimes.

  I might as well tell you, cause you bound to find out someday: I was tryin to talk to Miss Viola McCrae and Miss Nula Irish, but they snubbed me. So I been lookin at you for a while now. You seems like a nice settled lady and that’s what I’m lookin for. I ain’t lookin for no fast, loose woman to run through my money like water. I’m lookin for a nice quiet, settled lady like yourself. I likes it that you can play the pianna too.

  Please let me know what you think of my letter.

  Very Truly Yours,

  Somilant Grit

  Miss Petty came back the next day and asked Mama a zillion questions. “What should I do?” “Do you think he really likes me?” “Do you think I’m too old?” “Which house will we live in?”

  “Do you want to get married?” Mama asked Miss Petty.

  “Oh, yes!” Miss Petty answered. “But I never thought anyone would ask me. I thought I was too old, and too homely,” Miss Petty said.

  “Phooey!” Mama said. “Does he make you feel happy?” Mama asked.

  “He makes me laugh,” said Miss Petty. “Not that he says funny things, but he looks kind of funny,” explained Miss Petty.

  “Is that so?” said Mama.

  “Yes, he’s like a big ol’ teddy bear.”

  “Do that bother you?” Mama asked.

  “No. He’s sort of cute and helpless like a baby,” Miss Petty said.

  “He’s got his own house and a car,” Mama reminded Miss Petty.

  Miss Petty started wringing her hands. “Oh dear, oh dear. I don’t know the first thing about pleasing a man,” she said.

  Finally, Mama said in a patient voice, “Look, Merlene, the man is lonely. He needs someone to look after him. Can you do that?”

  “Yes,” Miss Petty said.

  Missy Violet Comes Home

  When Missy Violet came home after New Year’s, Mama had her over for supper one evening and she told us the whole story about her poor brother. He had been a very sick man, but instead of going to a regular doctor for his ailment, he was going to an ol’ snake doctor who was giving him some kind of oil to drink and rub on his body. By the time Missy Violet got there he was almost dead. She took him to a real doctor and the doctor put him in the hospital right away. He’s much better now, so Missy Violet was able to come home.

  Everybody wanted to sit next to Missy Violet at the dinner table that night—we were all so glad she was back! But Mama sat her between James Clyde and Charles. That took Charles up a few buttonholes. After supper all of us children hung around, asking Missy Violet questions about Tallahassee. Even Claude Thomas remained at the table, although he doesn’t care much for company. We are all hoping that Missy Violet can get him to calm down inside before he gets himself killed by the Klan. Things just seem so right when Missy Violet is here in Richmond C
ounty.

  Missy Violet said that Tallahassee, Florida, was one of the most beautiful places she’d ever visited. With beaches and freshwater springs and gardens and palm trees everywhere. Charles wanted to know about the funny name “Tallahassee.” Missy Violet said that her brother told her it was an Indian name that meant “old fields.”

  Missy Violet said there are a lot of Indians in Florida. She said they were fine-looking people who liked to dress in beautiful, colorful clothes. Many people came down to Florida just to see them and to buy things they made on the Indian reservation where they live. Missy Violet brought us some gifts from the reservation: an Indian doll for baby Cleo, some pretty glass beads for me and Savannah, a little wooden alligator for Charles. A woven basket for Mama and leather wallets for Papa and the boys. Charles wanted a wallet too, but I guess Missy Violet thought he would get himself in trouble with it. She even brought flowers and flower seeds. Tickseed. They are a favorite flower in Florida. Yellow and shaped like a sunflower around the edges, red or mahogany-colored in the center. Missy Violet says when they grow the stems are so thin, the flowers look like they are floating on air. She says lots of butterflies will come where they are. Mama can’t wait to plant them.

  Those were not the only gifts she brought. There was also smoked sausage that tastes better than the smoked sausage we make here in Richmond County, though I didn’t think that was possible. Oranges and grapefruits. Our family hardly ever sees a grapefruit. And Missy Violet’s brother sent us a recipe for Lima Bean Pot. Mmm. Missy Violet’s brother was a cook at the governor’s mansion before he got sick, and Missy Violet says he knows lots of good recipes.

  But what I liked best was when she talked about the Seminole Indians’ folk medicine. She looked right at me while she was talking. That made me feel good that she thought I was interested—and I was. She said she brought back some corn shuck tea, because the Indians say it is good for rashes. Missy Violet hopes it will help Mister Johnnie Browne’s weeping eczema. If it doesn’t, she can try a poultice made from witch hazel, which she also brought back. Missy Violet thinks of everyone!

  Well, Charles couldn’t wait to say something about Savannah and Solomon Trueheart. Savannah dropped her head and blushed when Charles let the cat out of the bag. Missy Violet asked her if that was true, if she was keeping company with Solomon Trueheart. I guess Missy Violet didn’t know what else to do after the way Charles blurted it out.

  “Yes’um,” Savannah said in a little itty-bitty voice, and Papa started shuffling his feet underneath the table.

  “You keep yourself firm like a wall, you hear?” Missy Violet said to Savannah in her “I mean business” voice. “And don’t let no boy trip you up. I’ll be watchin’ you.”

  “Yes, ma’am, I will,” Savannah said. Then Missy Violet turned to James Clyde, my oldest brother, and asked him when he was going to take a wife. But James Clyde said he was going to wait.

  “Missy Violet, I’m tryin’ to establish a small lumber business for myself before I takes a wife,” he said.

  “Now, that’s a fine thing,” Missy Violet said. “I like that, but remember to be a gentleman while you waitin’,” she told him.

  I think all the talk about courting and marriage made Papa nervous. He started talking about something else: Me! He told Missy Violet how I had gone into the woods with Mama and gathered goldenseal to help poor Mary Lee Williams. And how I had visited the little Dockery girl and little Bennie. “I think my girl would make a fine hospital nurse,” Papa said. I never knew Papa even paid attention to those kinds of things when I did them! I think he was proud of me. I felt a big grin spread across my face. A big grin spread across Missy Violet’s face too.

  “Well, children, it’s been a fine evening, but it’s getting late and I best be getting on home,” Missy Violet said, and rose from her seat. Mama, Savannah, and I walked her to the door. Missy Violet hugged us, and then she said to me, “Viney, two Saturdays from today, I want you, Arma Jean, Charles, Mister Waters’s boy Cleveland, Ruby Dean, and your new friend Mister Brownlee’s niece to come over for cake and lemonade. Missy Violet is going to bake the biggest coconut cake you ever did see.”

  I felt real special after Missy Violet left, but Charles tried to make me feel bad. He came over and whispered in my ear, “You too dumb to be a hospital nurse.” But I didn’t believe him. I believe if I work real hard in school and learn to read well, and learn all I can from Missy Violet about roots and herbs and babies and people, I will be able to go to that nursing school up in Chicago someday. Maybe they even have a nursing school I could go to down in Tallahassee, Florida.

  “The world is changing all the time,” Missy Violet always says.