Annie Laurie storms up to Lilith, shoves her hands on her hips. “Stop calling me! Can’t you take a hint? I don’t want to talk to you.”
She’s turning back around when Lilith grabs her by the arm.
“Letgo,” Annie Laurie says, yanking her arm free. Then she gets up in Lilith’s face. “I amembarrassedto be your daughter.”
Gage steps between them. “Don’t you talk to your mother like that, young lady.”
Annie Laurie glances at him. Then her eyes travel right back to Lilith. Her arms fall to her sides and her posture slumps. Seems like something has cracked inside. “I’m so disappointed in you. You aren’t the mommy I remember.” Astartling tenderness has crept into her voice. “We have to help Miss Pearl so her world can change.”
“You’ll have to trust your father and me on this, Annie Laurie. There are some issues you’re still too young to understand.”
The way she hangs her head tells me she feels defeated. Instead of trying to persuade her parents again, Annie Laurie takes a step back.
“Wait. We can talk about it,” Lilith says desperately, moving toward her. “You’ve always trusted my judgment before.”
“Well, not anymore.” Annie Laurie takes another step back. “For the first time in my life I have friends. Nice friends who want to do the right thing for people. Unlike you two.”
Lilith reaches for her, but Annie Laurie stays put. “No, I don’t want to talk about it. Not tomorrow, the day after that, or the month after that. If you insist on acting this way, just leave me alone.” After a heartbroken stare at Lilith, she turns around and runs back across the street, up the stairs to the House. I see Cali, who is along the walkway, reach for her. Then Ellie, who is right next to Cali, does the same. After several reassuring hugs from other Alpha Delts, Annie Laurie moves back to her place on the front porch.
Lilith stands there watching her daughter. Her lips are no longer pressed together in fury; they have softened into a straight line. For the next five minutes her eyes never leave Annie Laurie. It’s hard to read her, but I’d swear on my children’s lives I see more than anger. Call me crazy, but those eyes look more wounded than furious. It takes a mother to know one and I’m pretty sure I see pain all over her face. As hard as it is for me to believe Lilith Whitmore is capable of that emotion I have a sixth sense it’s there. I actually think Annie Laurie may have ruptured a valve in that cold heart of Lilith’s. I start to bring it to Haynes’s attention, but decide to let it go. I’m not sure he’d see it. He is a man, after all.
Lilith turns around. From where I’m standing, only fifteen feet away—safely behind Haynes—our eyes happen to meet. For a second I’m afraid, thinking she might clock me, but instead her eyelids drop sadly. When she opens them again, I get the sense she’s trying to tell me something. Could it be an apology? There’s pleading in her eyes. I consider going over to her but, before I can make up my mind, she motions for Gage. Ever the doting husband, he extends his elbow.
“Here comes Miss Pearl!” Selma shouts through her microphone. “I see her car. Everyone get in position.”
Lilith glances briefly over her shoulder before hooking an arm inside her husband’s. Haynes and I watch as Lilith and Gage Whitmore slip namelessly back into the crowd.
SIXTY-SEVEN
MISS PEARL
I told myself all day yesterday there was no need for a going-away party. That it would be too sad and I couldn’t keep myself from crying every time I looked into the face of one of my babies. But when Selma called and asked me to please reconsider, I felt like I had to at least think about it.
She sounded so sad. Said all the girls wanted to do something nice for me. After twenty-five years of loyal service, they felt like a going-away party was the least they could do. She said everyone understood why I was leaving, and that they supported me one thousand percent, but they still wanted to be with me one last time… as a family.
Mama Carla is the one who finally talked me into it. We’ve talked almost every day now since I walked out. When I left the University employment office, she was the first person I called. I told her every last word that she-devil had said to me. She cried when I told her I had worked my last day, and that I wasn’t coming back. I heard the first crack in her voice and that made me break down, too. I was already in my car headed home when she asked me to please come back to the House so she could hold me in her arms, but I told her I couldn’t do it. Especially with Miss Lilith there. Seeing that woman is not something I ever want to do again.
Now here I am, on an away-game Saturday afternoon, headed to the House. Not as a staff member, but as a guest at my own party. Selma assured me Lilith Whitmore would not be here. How she’ll keep her away is anybody’s guess, but Selma swears it’s true.
I took the same route I’ve driven a thousand times. From Highway 6, I veered left onto Jackson Avenue. Instead of parking a quarter mile away in the satellite parking lot, Selma had told me to go ahead and take a right on Sorority Row. “I have a space right out front reserved especially for you today, Miss Pearl.”
The only thing different about this drive is I’m not wearing my navy blue scrubs. I picked out my favorite pair of black pants and a pretty long white sweater—the one that accentuates my Mississippi pearl necklace.
The instant I turn down Sorority Row I see all kinds of commotion going on near Lenoir Hall. Folks have spilled out in the street, like it’s Bid Day. I’m having to drive extra slow to avoid hitting someone. Every time I try to accelerate I have to brake again. All kinds of folks out here. Not only sorority girls, I see plenty of boys, too. Black students, white students, teachers. Must be a few thousand people here today.
Seems like there’s a large white truck with a satellite dish ahead, parked near the Alpha Delt House. As I get closer I can see it’s a news van. WMC Channel 5 from Memphis is all the way down here in Oxford? And WTVA in Tupelo has a van in front of the Tri Delt house? There are even two University police cars with lights on, blocking the street. What in the world is going on around here?
When I finally make it past Lenoir Hall, I see the Alpha Delts dressed in their pretty black dresses, lined up in front of the House the way they do for Pref. Some are on either side of the walkway. Others are on the front porch. More lined up on the balcony. The entire yard is full of my sweet babies.
Now that I’m closer I can see all of them wearing big white buttons on their dresses, with black letters. I can’t read what they say, but when I get a few yards from the House I see they match two banners, the size of Texas, hanging from the upstairs balcony. I gasp; feel the blood draining from my face. Before God, one says,GIVE USOUR MISSPEARL!The other, hanging right next to it, says:OR WEQUIT!
Wha… What is happening here today? Oh Lord. My heart is racing sofast I feel faint. I place my hand on my chest, trying to get it to slow down, then I drive forward a few more feet. There’s Selma. She’s motioning for me to park. Standing on the curb in front of a space with a sign that reads:RESERVED FOR PEARL JOHNSON. I pull on up a little past her, then put my car in reverse. Parallel parking has never been my strong suit, especially with my nerves jumping all over this car, but I manage to squeeze my Honda in somehow.
Now Selma has her hand out to open my door. The second it opens I hear their voices. Soft and steady, like a choir of angels, filling the air with a song they sing on Pref. About pearls and roses. I don’t know every word, but after twenty-five years I’m very familiar with the song. When I step out of my car, and turn around to face the House, I see what seems like all 438 of my Alpha Delt babies, with their hands outstretched, singing and smiling right at me. Before I have a chance to put my foot on the curb, a young black man sticks a microphone under my chin.
“What’s your reaction to this altruistic show of support from the Alpha Delta Beta sorority sisters?”
I’m so choked up I can barely speak. But I manage to say, “I thought I was coming to my going-away party. I had no idea they were doing this until now.” I’m talking to him, but my eyes are pinned on the girls.
