I start stripping the bed. When I'm done, I pick up all the wet tissues and gla.s.ses off the nightstand. I see a stack of mail. At least the woman's gotten up to go to the mailbox. I pick it up to wipe the table and there I see the letters H W H across the top of a card. Before I know it, I've read the whole note: Dear Celia, In lieu of reimbursing me for my dress you tore, we at the League would gladly receive a donation of no less than two hundred dollars. Furthermore, please withhold from volunteering for any nonmember activities in the future, as your name has been placed on a probationary list. Your cooperation in this matter is appreciated.

Do kindly make the check out to the Jackson League Chapter.

Sincerely, Hilly Holbrook President and Chairman of Appropriations ON WEDNESDAY MORNING, Miss Celia's still still under the covers. I do my work in the kitchen, try to appreciate the fact that she's not hanging around with me in here. But I can't enjoy it because the phone's been ringing all morning, and for the first time since I started, Miss Celia won't pick it up. After the tenth time, I can't listen to it anymore and finally just grab it and say h.e.l.lo. under the covers. I do my work in the kitchen, try to appreciate the fact that she's not hanging around with me in here. But I can't enjoy it because the phone's been ringing all morning, and for the first time since I started, Miss Celia won't pick it up. After the tenth time, I can't listen to it anymore and finally just grab it and say h.e.l.lo.

I go in her bedroom, tell her, "Mister Johnny on the phone."

"What? He's not supposed to know that I know that he knows about you."

I let out a big sigh to show I don't give a fat rat about that lie anymore. "He called me at home. home. The jig is up, Miss Celia." The jig is up, Miss Celia."

Miss Celia shuts her eyes. "Tell him I'm asleep."

I pick up the bedroom line and look Miss Celia hard in the eye and tell him she's in the shower.

"Yessir, she doing alright," I say and narrow my eyes at her.

I hang up the phone and glare down at Miss Celia.

"He want to know how you doing."

"I heard."

"I lied for you, you know."

She puts the pillow back over her head.

By the next afternoon, I can't stand it another minute. Miss Celia's still in the same spot she's been all week. Her face is thin and that b.u.t.terbatch is greasy-looking. The room is starting to smell too, like dirty people. I bet she hasn't bathed since Friday.

"Miss Celia," I say.

Miss Celia looks at me, but doesn't smile, doesn't speak.

"Mister Johnny gone be home tonight and I told him I'd look after you. What's he gone think if he find you laid up in that old nasty nightthing you got on?"

I hear Miss Celia sniffle, then hiccup, then start to cry full-on. "None of this would've happened if I'd just stayed where I belonged. He should've married proper. He should've married . . . Hilly. Hilly."

"Come on, Miss Celia. It ain't--"

"The way Hilly looked at me . . . like I was nothing. nothing. Like I was trash on the side of the road." Like I was trash on the side of the road."

"But Miss Hilly don't count. You can't judge yourself by the way that woman see you."

"I'm not right for this kind of life. I don't need a dinner table for twelve people to sit at. I couldn't get twelve people to come over if I begged."

I shake my head at her. Complaining again cause she has too much.

"Why does she hate me so much? She doesn't even know me," Miss Celia cries. "And it's not just Johnny, she called me a liar, accused me of getting her that . . . pie. pie." She bangs her fists against her knees. "I never never would a thrown up if it wasn't for that." would a thrown up if it wasn't for that."

"What pie?"

"H-H-Hilly won your pie. And she accused me of signing her up for it. Playing some . . . trick on her." She wails and sobs. "Why would I do that? Write her name down on a list?"

It comes to me real slow what's going on here. I don't know who signed up Hilly for that pie, but I sure know know why she'd eat alive anybody she thought did it. why she'd eat alive anybody she thought did it.

I glance over at the door. That voice in my head says, Walk away, Minny. Just ease on out a here. Walk away, Minny. Just ease on out a here. But I look at Miss Celia bawling into her old nightgown, and I get a guilt thick as Yazoo clay. But I look at Miss Celia bawling into her old nightgown, and I get a guilt thick as Yazoo clay.

"I can't do this to Johnny anymore. I've already decided, Minny. I'm going back," she sobs. "Back to Sugar Ditch."

"You gone leave your husband just cause you throwed up at some party?" Hang on, Hang on, I think, my eyes opening wide. Miss Celia can't leave Mister Johnny--where in the heck would that leave me? I think, my eyes opening wide. Miss Celia can't leave Mister Johnny--where in the heck would that leave me?

Miss Celia cries down harder at the reminder. I sigh and watch her, wondering what to do.

Lord, I reckon it's time. Time I told her the one thing in the world I never want to tell anybody. I'm going to lose my job either way, so I might as well take the chance.

"Miss Celia . . ." I say and I sit down in the yellow armchair in the corner. I've never sat anywhere in this house but in the kitchen and her bathroom floor, but today calls for extreme measures.

"I know why Miss Hilly got so mad," I say. "About the pie, I mean."

Miss Celia blows a hard, loud honk into a tissue. She looks at me.

"I did something to her. It was Terrible. Awful." My heart starts thumping just thinking about it. I realize I can't sit in this chair and tell her this story at the same time. I get up and walk to the end of the bed.

"What?" she sniffs. "What happened, Minny?"

"Miss Hilly, she call me up at home last year, when I's still working for Miss Walters. To tell me she sending Miss Walters to the old lady home. I got scared, I got five kids to feed. Leroy was already working two shifts."

I feel a burn rise up in my chest. "Now I know what I did wasn't Christian. But what kind a person send her own mama to the home to take up with strangers? They's something bout doing wrong to that woman that make it just seem right. right."

Miss Celia sits up in bed, wipes her nose. She looks like she's paying attention now.

"For three weeks, I be looking for work. Ever day after I get off from Miss Walters', I went looking. I go over to Miss Child's house. She pa.s.s me up. I go on to the Rawleys' place, they don't want me neither. The Riches, the Patrick Smiths, the Walkers, not even those Catholic Thibodeaux with them seven kids. n.o.body do."

"Oh Minny . . ." says Miss Celia. "That's awful."

I clench my jaw. "Ever since I was a li'l girl, my mama tell me not to go sa.s.s-mouthing. But I didn't listen and I got knowed for my mouth round town. And I figure that's what it be, why n.o.body want to hire me.

"When they was two days left at Miss Walters's and I still didn't have no new job, I start getting real scared. With Benny's asthma and Sugar still in school and Kindra and . . . we was tight on money already. And that's when Miss Hilly, she come over to Miss Walters's to talk to me.

"She say, 'Come work for me, Minny. I pay you twenty-five more cent a day than Mama did.' A 'dangling carrot' she call it, like I was some kind a plow mule." I feel my fists forming. "Like I'd even consider beating my friend Yule May Crookle out a her job. Miss Hilly think everbody just as two-faced as she is."

I wipe my hand across my face. I'm sweating. Miss Celia's listening with her mouth open, looking dazed.

"I tell her 'No thank you, Miss Hilly.' And so she say she pay me fifty cent more and I say, 'No ma'am. No thank you.' Then she break my back, Miss Celia. She tell me she know bout the Childs and the Rawleys and all them others that turn me down. Said it was cause she'd made sure everbody knew I was a thief. I've never stole a thing in my life but she told everbody I did and wasn't n.o.body in town gone hire a sa.s.s-mouthing thieving Nigra for a maid and I might as well go head and work for her for free.

"And that's how come I did it."

Miss Celia blinks at me. "What, Minny?"

"I tell her to eat my s.h.i.t."

Miss Celia sits there, still looking dazed.

"Then I go home. I mix up that chocolate custard pie. I puts sugar in it and Baker's chocolate and the real vanilla my cousin bring me from Mexico.

"I tote it over to Miss Walters's house, where I know Miss Hilly be setting round, waiting for the home to come and get her mama, so she can sell that house. Go through her silver. Collect her due.

"Soon as I put that pie down on the countertop, Miss Hilly smiles, thinking it's a peace offering, like that's my way a showing her I'm real sorry bout what I said. And then I watch her. I watch her eat it myself. Two big pieces. She stuff it in her mouth like she ain't ever eaten nothing so good. Then she say, 'I knew you'd change your mind, Minny. I knew I'd get my way in the end.' And she laugh, kind a prissy, like it was all real funny to her.

"That's when Miss Walters, she say she getting a mite hungry too and ask for a piece a that pie. I tell her, 'No ma'am. That one's special for Miss Hilly.'

"Miss Hilly say, 'Mama can have some if she wants. Just a little piece, though. What do you put in here, Minny, that makes it taste so good?'

"I say 'That good vanilla from Mexico' and then I go head. I tell her what else I put in that pie for her."

Miss Celia's still as a stone staring at me, but I can't meet her eyes now.

"Miss Walters, her mouth fall open. n.o.body in that kitchen said anything for so long, I could a made it out the door fore they knew I's gone. But then Miss Walters start laughing. Laugh so hard she almost fall out the chair. Say, 'Well, Hilly, that's what you get, I guess. And I wouldn't go tattling on Minny either, or you'll be known all over town as the lady who ate two two slices of Minny's s.h.i.t.' " slices of Minny's s.h.i.t.' "

I sneak a look up at Miss Celia. She's staring wide-eyed, disgusted. I start to panic that I told her this. She'll never trust me again. I walk over to the yellow chair and sit myself down.

"Miss Hilly thought you knew the story. That you were making fun a her. She never would a pounced on you if I hadn't done what I did."

Miss Celia just stares at me.

"But I want you to know, if you leave Mister Johnny, then Miss Hilly done won the whole ball game. Then she done beat me, she beat you . . . " I shake my head, thinking about Yule May in jail, and Miss Skeeter without any friends left. "There ain't many people left in this town that she ain't beat."

Miss Celia's quiet awhile. Then she looks over at me and starts to say something, but she shuts her mouth back.

Finally, she just says, "Thank you. For . . . telling me that."

She lays back down. But before I close the door, I can see her eyes are wide smack open.

THE NEXT MORNING, I find Miss Celia's finally managed to get herself out of bed, wash her hair, and put all that makeup on again. It's cold outside so she's back in one of her tight sweaters.

"Glad to have Mister Johnny back home?" I ask. Not that I care, but what I do want to know is if she's still fiddling with the idea of leaving.

But Miss Celia doesn't say much. There's a tiredness in her eyes. She's not so quick to smile at every little thing. She points her finger out the kitchen window. "I think I'll plant a row of rosebushes. Along the back of the property."

"When they gone bloom?"

"We should see something by next spring."

I take this as a good sign, that she's planning for the future. I figure somebody running off wouldn't go to the trouble to plant flowers that won't bloom until next year.

For the rest of the day, Miss Celia works in the flower garden, tending to the mums. The next morning I come in and find Miss Celia at the kitchen table. She's got the newspaper out, but she's staring out at that mimosa tree. It's rainy and chilly outside.

"Morning, Miss Celia."

"Hey, Minny." Miss Celia just sits, looking out at that tree, fiddling with a pen in her hand. It's started to rain.

"What you want for lunch today? We got a roast beef or some a this chicken pie left over . . ." I lean in the refrigerator. I've got to make a decision about Leroy, tell him how it is. Either you quit beating on me, or I'm gone. And I'm not taking the kids either. Either you quit beating on me, or I'm gone. And I'm not taking the kids either. Which ain't true, about the kids, but that ought to scare him more than anything. Which ain't true, about the kids, but that ought to scare him more than anything.

"I don't want anything." Miss Celia stands up, slips off one red high heel, then the other. She stretches her back, still staring out the window at that tree. She cracks her knuckles. And then she walks out the back door.

I see her on the other side of the gla.s.s and then I see the axe. I get a little spooked because n.o.body likes to see a crazy lady with an axe in her hand. She swings it hard through the air, like a bat. A practice chop.

"Lady, you done lost it this time." The rain is pouring down all over Miss Celia, but she doesn't care. She starts chopping at that tree. Leaves are sprinkling down all over her, sticking in her hair.

I set the platter of roast beef down on the kitchen table and watch, hoping this doesn't turn into something. She bunches her mouth up, wipes the rain from her eyes. Instead of getting tired, every chop comes a little harder.

"Miss Celia, come on out the rain," I holler. "Let Mister Johnny do that when he get home."

But she's nothing doing. She's made it halfway through that trunk and the tree's starting to sway a little, drunk as my daddy. Finally I just plop down in the chair where Miss Celia was reading, wait for her to finish the job. I shake my head and look down at the newspaper. That's when I see Miss Hilly's note tucked underneath it and Miss Celia's check for two hundred dollars. I look a little closer. Along the bottom of the check, in the little s.p.a.ce for the notes, Miss Celia's written the words in pretty cursive handwriting: For Two-Slice Hilly. For Two-Slice Hilly.

I hear a groan and see the tree crash to the ground. Leaves and dead fronds fly through the air, sticking all over her b.u.t.terbatch.

MISS SKEETER.

chapter 27.

I STARE AT THE PHONE in the kitchen. No one's called here in so long, it's like a dead thing mounted to the wall. There's a terrible quiet looming everywhere--at the library, at the drugstore where I pick up Mother's medicine, on High Street where I buy typewriter ink, in our own house. President Kennedy's a.s.sa.s.sination, less than two weeks ago, has struck the world dumb. It's like no one wants to be the first to break the silence. Nothing seems important enough. STARE AT THE PHONE in the kitchen. No one's called here in so long, it's like a dead thing mounted to the wall. There's a terrible quiet looming everywhere--at the library, at the drugstore where I pick up Mother's medicine, on High Street where I buy typewriter ink, in our own house. President Kennedy's a.s.sa.s.sination, less than two weeks ago, has struck the world dumb. It's like no one wants to be the first to break the silence. Nothing seems important enough.

On the rare occasion that the phone does ring lately, it's Doctor Neal, calling with more bad test results, or a relative checking on Mother. And yet, I still think Stuart Stuart sometimes, even though it's been five months since he's called. Even though I finally broke down and told Mother we'd broken up. Mother looked shocked, as I suspected she would, but thankfully, just sighed. sometimes, even though it's been five months since he's called. Even though I finally broke down and told Mother we'd broken up. Mother looked shocked, as I suspected she would, but thankfully, just sighed.

I take a deep breath, dial zero, and close myself up in the pantry. I tell the local operator the long distance number and wait.

"Harper and Row, Publishers, how may I connect you?"

"Elaine Stein's office, please."

I wait for her secretary to come on the line, wishing I'd done this earlier. But it felt wrong to call the week of Kennedy's death and I heard on the news most offices were closed. Then it was Thanksgiving week and when I called, the switchboard told me no one was answering in her office at all, so now I'm calling more than a week later than I'd planned.

"Elaine Stein."

I blink, surprised it's not her secretary. "Missus Stein, I'm sorry, this is--Eugenia Phelan. In Jackson, Mississippi."

"Yes . . . Eugenia." She sighs, evidently irritated that she took the chance to answer her own phone.

"I was calling to let you know that the ma.n.u.script will be ready right after the new year. I'll be mailing it to you the second week of January." I smile, having delivered my rehea.r.s.ed lines perfectly.