[Section opener]
Meg
Chapter 33
Your mother is requesting our presence for supper tonight, Lucille says after she has hung up the
telephone. She delivers this news with about the same excitement as it’s time to clean the
outhouse again.
Well, it’s probably time we saw the rest of the family anyway.
It’s just us, Lucille says.
I wash my hair and comb it out like I am a respectable person. For my evening wear, I
select my favorite bluebird dress paired with white stockings and black shoes. Though I will not
be putting any damn bow in my hair tonight and ruin it. Lucille will have to strap it to my head to
get it on me.
Tom looks like his usual ironed self except he puts a tie on, and Lucille wears a dress she
calls couture de penitentiary. It is gray with gray buttons and that is all I can say about it. Still,
we look like a regular ole family tonight. Stick a puppy and a ball in this picture and we could be
a Dick and Jane story.
We have hardly made it off the porch when Lucille turns right back around, muttering.
Just because she’s treated like a prisoner doesn’t mean she has to damn dress like one. She
comes back out in a flashy red-and-black number she bought up in Memphis. When we finally
pull up to Tom’s mama’s house a half hour late, I am starving to death.
You’re sure Mama didn’t say what this dinner’s all about? Tom asks her.
551
