She uncrosses her legs, sits up straight. “No. Pearl. That’s the last thing I want to happen. Please don’t quit.”
“A few weeks ago, when I was leaving here, you know the night you got back from Ocean Springs?”
A nod lets me know I’ve got her attention.
“Something hit me clear as day when I was leaving out the back door.”
“What was that?”
“I looked up at the study room, at all the girls doing their homework. Right then and there I knew it was time to get my butt back to school. And once and for all, finish the degree I started all those years ago.”
Mama Carla leans toward me with her hands on her thighs. “Pearl. That’s the best thing I’ve heard you say in a long time.”
“I know it’s what I’m supposed to do.”
“Have you registered yet?”
“No. I’d never be able to afford Ole Miss tuition, so I’ve decided to apply to Rust College in Holly Springs.” When I graduated from Oxford High School, I had a full scholarship to Ole Miss, but had to give it up after my firstyear. Mama Carla only knows I dropped out of school. What she doesn’t know is why. She’s never asked and I’ve never told her.
I had worked hard to earn my scholarship. Finally there would be a woman in our family to break the legacy of career housekeepers and graduate from college. Yet one fateful choice reversed my plan. Once I gave up my daughter, I could no longer concentrate on my studies. My grades suffered and my scholarship was lost.
“Rust is a fine school. Can you get financial aid?”
“I looked into it when I got home the other night. I can get a partial scholarship, so I’ve been thinking I might get a job in Holly Springs, long as I’m driving all that way. Who knows, I may even move there. Might be able to find a better deal on rent.” Rust College is forty-five minutes away from Oxford.
Mama Carla doesn’t say anything for the longest time, but I can tell her brain is spinning. She does that sometimes when she’s searching for the best answer. After a long minute she says, “May I offer you my opinion?”
“Why, sure.” I relish any advice Mama Carla has to offer.
“I think you should cut back your hours a little bit here while you’re working on your degree. The girls would love to have you up in the study room with them. Or find your own nook somewhere else. This House is certainly big enough.”
“But you won’t be here. Maybe the new housemama won’t feel the way you do.”
“Once she gets to know you, and how you hold this ship together, she’ll be eating out of your hand.”
“What you’re saying sounds good, but… I’m hardly making it as it is, Mama Carla. I’m not sure I’ll be able to cut back. That’s why I’m thinking of moving down to Holly Springs.”
“It’s a conundrum. I can see that. Let me think on it and get back with you.”
I feel fatigue setting into my body and it’s only eight thirty. “Let me get back to work, then,” I say, slowly rising from the chair. “Why folks feel like they have to touch the composite every time they see someone they know is beyond me. But it happens every day.”
“You do know everything there is to know about this place.”
“I know more than you think I know.”
“Like what?” she asks with a mischievous grin, rising from her chair.
“Some of the Alpha Delt secrets. I know the handshake and that secret swear. But don’t tell it. I would never want to get anybody in trouble.”
Touching her heart with four fingers she winks. “I wouldn’t dare.”
“You know the secret swear, too?” I say from the doorway.
Her eyes crinkle at the corners. “I have my own sources.”
We both laugh. Then I walk out the door.
I’m already past the staircase when Mama Carla calls my name. I turn around to see her waving me back. “I had a thought,” she hollers, so I move toward her. When there’s not but a foot or two between us she glances behind her, then side to side. “What about you?”
