FORTY-SEVEN
WILDA
Where are Haynes and Mama? My preoccupation with watching Ellie interact with her new pledge sisters, and getting to know their mothers, has made me lose track of their whereabouts. A hideous thought crosses my mind.Did Mama ask him to take her to Martin to see Ellie’s room?I dismiss that notion as soon as I consider it. She’s been sufficiently warned. They’ve most likely found a couple of chairs in an out-of-the-way corner. Neither of them can stand large crowds. But I am surprised Haynes hasn’t left for home. He has court in the morning.
Watching my daughter, completely in her element amidst the Alpha Delt Bid Day splendor, has been like eating a giant piece of caramel cake. I’ve been savoring every single second of it. Well, the stolen seconds she’s allowed me. Lilith, who I knew would be acting like Queen of the House, has been flitting around welcoming the newest members of her court. But she’s avoided me like the plague. She’s done the same thing to Gwen and Sallie. The irony, which has totally escaped her, is that we’re all glad. We want nothing to do with her.
Mama, on the other hand, won’t stop singing Lilith’s praises. I wasn’t able to witness their introduction, but apparently a new friendship has blossomed.From what Mama told me they played the do-you-know game for nearly an hour. Gag me with a spoon, please. I can only pray Mama wises up soon. On the way home, I intend to recount every single detail of Lilith’s impropriety.
For the third time I call Haynes’s number, but it goes straight to voice mail. My goodness; I hope everything’s okay. I glance at my watch. It’s six thirty already. I’m one of only a few mothers left, hovering around the House like a helicopter parent, the very thing I swore I’d never become. Sallie and Gwen left a long time ago. Lilith, of course, is still here, the one and only alum on the back porch. She’s been in the middle of the Bid Day party—the entire time—acting like she’s one of the girls, casting her bewitchery on every one of them. That’s the paradox. She’s utterly charming when you first meet her.
I walk out onto the front porch considering calling Haynes again, when I spot him and Mama walking briskly up Sorority Row. I can’t quite make out what he’s holding, but there’s something hanging from his hands and the closer they get it looks like…Oh God.It’s one of the furry throws from the girls’ dorm room.
Hurrying down the steps away from the House, I meet them in the street. “There y’all are. I’ve been calling you.” I reach out to take the throw, but Haynes tightens his grip. “What are you doing with that?” I ask, my heart blasting out of my chest. My eyes dart over to Mama, but she won’t meet my gaze.
“Sending it to the dry cleaners,” he says, with a tone that slices through the night air—and me—like a razor blade. When he slings the throw around his neck he gets a stern look in his eye. I’d seen that look once before when he found out about a failed business venture that his little brother had coerced their mother into investing in. She tried protecting his brother and lied about it to Haynes for months. He felt terribly betrayed and—oh my God.“Did you like the room?” I ask Mama, hesitantly.
“Utterly spectaculah!” she says. “I told Haynes our Ellie has hit the jackpot with Miss Annie Laurie Whitmoah. Both she and her parents are so elegant. Why just look at the outfit Lilith is wearing today. Simply stunning. And that Gage Whitmoah. If he isn’t the man of the hour I don’t know who is. Lilith told me he flew in this morning on their Lear.”
That same engorged forehead vein, the one that was throbbing at the Whitmores’ Grove party, is pulsing again, even harder.
But Mama doesn’t notice. She keeps on singing the Whitmores’ praises.“And their historic home. Why the pictures on Facebook have me convinced it’s the grandest in Natchez. I feel sure it must have been home to one of our Confederate generals. It’s so—”
“Will youstop it!” Haynes bellows with both hands covering his ears. “I can’t hear another word of this.”
Mama whips her head around to see who may be listening. By the grace of God no one is near.
“Is there anything else about that family, besides their money, that you deem utterly spectacular?” His eyes dart from Mama to me, then back to her. “Excluding that dorm room?” Now he’s staring at me, but pointing at Mama. “Thatshepaid for.”
I look at Mama in utter devastation. She gives me an earnest look of her own.
His fists are clenched and I can see the whites of his eyes. “G—dammit,Wilda. You lied to me.”
“Haynes. Watch your language!” Mama says. “You are in the presence of ladies.”
He completely ignores her comment and glares at me. “After thirty-four years I thought I knew you. Obviously, I was mistaken.”
“You do know me!” I reach out to touch him, but pull my hand back, unsure. Tears are bubbling behind my eyes. So I squeeze my face with all my might.
“Really? Then what made you feel the need to spend that kind of money on a dorm room? Then turn around andlie about itto your husband? Can you answer me that?”
“I—I don’t know.” His last question has opened my floodgate. Tears are streaming down my cheeks. I feel like the lowest form of life on earth.
“Was it to impress the Whitmores? To make them think we’re rich like they are?”
“No. Hell no. There’s a lot you don’t know, Haynes. We’ve been apart so long I haven’t had a chance to tell you what I’ve learned this week. I was waiting till I got home.” I can’t believe my mother is listening to this.
Even in the dark I can tell his face is red. “Learned what? How to live even higher on the hog?”
When he takes a step away I reach out and clutch his arm. “Of course not.I’ve… Can we please talk about this at home?” I’m pleading with him, but he won’t turn my way. “Haynes,please,look at me.”
For a long moment he does look. Actually he stares, but doesn’t speak, just shakes his head ever so slightly.
“Lilith and Gage Whitmore are—”
“Profligate, racist nutjobs.” Now he’s pointing toward Martin. “This is 2016. Who bringsthe helpwith them from home, four and a half hours north, to carve prime rib and shuck oysters at a Grove party? Do you suppose they provided them with hotel rooms? Or did they make them drive all the way back to Natchez at midnight?”
“Who said anything bad about colored people?” Mama asks, straightening the front of her jacket. “Certainly not I.”
