Pink of Perfection

Sunday.

This morning I got up early and set the coffee to boiling. I fried some sausage and made biskit, and cooked some hominy grits and eggs. Maudy sat in Martha’s lap to eat, and Oakley got some church music on the radio. It was that old time gospel hour out of Bristol. And then, for a minute while everybody was eating, I felt like church. I mean I think I felt the way you are supposed to feel in church, which I never do. The back door to the orchard stood open and sunlight fell in a long solid block into the kitchen, touching Maudy’s red curly hair. Little bits of dust went twirling in the sunlight which lay warm and restful on my new linoleum tablecloth which is all flowers, red and white roses entwined in circle that repeat and repeat and repeat. It is real pretty. Can I have some more eggs? Bill said. You can’t fill him up! Danny Ray was reading a book which he does all the time and I said, Don’t read at the table. He was reading, The Mayor of Caterbridge. Here’s some more biskits I said and took them out of the oven and Oakley said, These are real good, Ivy. The Blue Sky Boys on the radio were singing Look on the Sunny Side of Life. I got us all some more coffee and sat back down and all of a sudden I thought how funny it was to have everybody there at the same time, usually they are off and running a in a million different directions especially the boys. Where is the honey? Oakley said because it is new honey, he has just robbed the bees, and I got up and got a piece of it still in the comb and put in on a blue plate. It is pale, pale yellow honey, the lightest sweetest kind. Oh that is good, said Martha, and the children were chewing the comb, they act like it is candy. Don’t reach, I said to Bill. Now you will just have to wash all over again, you are such a pig, Martha said to Maudy who had smeared it all over herself. Do piggy, Maudy said, and stretched out her fat little leg and wiggled her toes and Martha said This little pig went to market, this little pig stayed home, this little pig had roast beef, this little pig had none. Maudy was giggling, Oakley was staring out at the mountains the way he does, Danny Ray was reading The Mayor of Casterbridge. The gospel singers sang This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine on the radio. The sun felt warm on my forehead, like somebody’s hand. Bill was eating up all the sausage. I put some of the new honey on a biskit and ate it myself. It was smooth and sweet. This is the best honey yet I said to Oakley who said it was because we’d had so much rain. This little pig cried wee wee wee all the way home, Martha said, pulling Maudy’s least toe. Maudy started squealing and jumped out of Martha’s arms and ran around and round the table. Gotcha. Oakley grabbed her. I ate another biskit, may be I will get old and fat like all the women in Oakley’s family. Holding Maudy, Oakley was staring at me the way he does. It is clear to me now Silvaney that however much I may have wated to die, I am stuck smack in the middle of this life.

I remain

Your loving sister,
IVY.

––Fair and Tender Ladies, by Lee Smith

Photo: honey comb print available from Etsy seller butterflyfood