Part 19 (1/2)

”No, no, it's alright. That was my job, to get the others.”

”What about . . . Lou Anne's maid,” I say quietly, pulling out my list. ”What's her name . . . Louvenia? Do you know her?”

Aibileen nods. ”I asked Louvenia.” Her eyes are still on her lap. ”Her grandson the one got blinded. She say she real sorry, but she have to keep her mind on him.”

”And Hilly's maid, Yule May? You've asked her?”

”She say she too busy trying to get her boys into college next year.”

”Any other maids that go to your church? Have you asked them?”

Aibileen nods. ”They all got excuses. But really, they just too scared.”

”But how many? How many have you asked?”

Aibileen picks up her notebook, flips though a few pages. Her lips move, counting silently.

”Thirty-one,” Aibileen says.

I let out my breath. I didn't know I'd been holding it.

”That's . . . a lot,” I say.

Aibileen finally meets my look. ”I didn't want a tell you,” she says and her forehead wrinkles. ”Until we heard from the lady . . .” She takes off her gla.s.ses. I see the deep worry in her face. She tries to hide it with a trembling smile.

”I'm on ask em again,” she says, leaning forward.

”Alright,” I sigh.

She swallows hard, nods rapidly to make me understand how much she means it. ”Please, don't give up on me. Let me stay on the project with you.”

I close my eyes. I need a break from seeing her worried face. How could I have raised my voice to her? ”Aibileen, it's alright. We're . . . together on this.”

A FEW DAYS LATER, I sit in the hot kitchen, bored, smoking a cigarette, something I can't seem to stop doing lately. I think I might be ”addicted.” That's a word Mister Golden likes to use. The idjits are all addicts. The idjits are all addicts. He calls me in his office every once in a while, scans the month's articles with a red pencil, marking and slas.h.i.+ng and grunting. He calls me in his office every once in a while, scans the month's articles with a red pencil, marking and slas.h.i.+ng and grunting.

”That's fine,” he'll say. ”You fine?”

”I'm fine,” I say.

”Fine, then.” Before I leave, the fat receptionist hands me my ten-dollar check and that's pretty much it for my Miss Myrna job.

The kitchen is hot, but I have to get out of my room, where all I do is worry because no other maids have agreed to work with us. Plus, I have to smoke in here because it's about the only room in the house without a ceiling fan to blow ashes everywhere. When I was ten, Daddy tried to install one in the tin kitchen ceiling without asking Constantine. She'd pointed to it like he'd parked the Ford on the ceiling.

”It's for you, Constantine, so you don't get so hot being up in the kitchen all the time.”

”I ain't working in no kitchen with no ceiling fan, Mister Carlton.”

”Sure you will. I'm just hooking up the current to it now.”

Daddy climbed down the ladder. Constantine filled a pot with water. ”Go head,” she sighed. ”Turn it on then.”

Daddy flipped the switch. In the seconds it took to really get going, cake flour blew up from the mixing bowl and swirled around the room, recipes flapped off the counter and caught fire on the stovetop. Constantine s.n.a.t.c.hed the burning roll of parchment paper, quickly dipped it in the bucket of water. There's still a hole where the ceiling fan hung for ten minutes.

In the newspaper, I see State Senator Whitworth pointing to an empty lot of land where they plan to build a new city coliseum. I turn the page. I hate being reminded of my date with Stuart Whitworth.

Pascagoula pads into the kitchen. I watch as she cuts out biscuits with a shot gla.s.s that's never shot a thing but short dough. Behind me, the kitchen windows are propped open with Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogues. Pictures of two-dollar hand mixers and mail-order toys flutter in a breeze, swollen and puckered from a decade of rain.

Maybe I should just ask Pascagoula. Maybe Mother won't find out. But who am I kidding? Mother watches her every move and Pascagoula seems afraid of me anyway, like I might tell on her if she does something wrong. It could take years to break through that fear. My best sense tells me, leave Pascagoula out of this. But who am I kidding? Mother watches her every move and Pascagoula seems afraid of me anyway, like I might tell on her if she does something wrong. It could take years to break through that fear. My best sense tells me, leave Pascagoula out of this.

The phone rings like a fire alarm. Pascagoula clangs her spoon on the bowl and I grab the receiver before she can.

”Minny gone help us,” Aibileen whispers.

I slip into the pantry and sit on my flour can. I can't speak for about five seconds. ”When? When can she start?”

”Next Thursday. But she got some . . . requirements.”

”What are they?”

Aibileen pauses a moment. ”She say she don't want your Cadillac anywhere this side a the Woodrow Wilson bridge.”

”Alright,” I say. ”I guess I could... drive the truck in.”

”And she say . . . she say you can't set on the same side a the room as her. She want a be able to see you square on at all times.”

”I'll . . . sit wherever she wants me to.”

Aibileen's voice softens. ”She just don't know you, is all. Plus she ain't got a real good history with white ladies.”

”Whatever I have to do, I'll do it.”

I walk out of the pantry beaming, hang the phone up on the wall. Pascagoula is watching me, the shot gla.s.s in one hand, a raw biscuit in the other. She looks down quickly and goes back to her work.

TWO DAYS LATER, I tell Mother I'm going to pick up a new copy of the King James Bible since I've worn mine so thin and all. I also tell her I feel guilty driving the Cadillac what with all those poor starving babies in Africa and I've decided to take the old truck today. She narrows her eyes at me from her porch rocker. ”Where exactly do you plan on buying this new Bible?”

I blink. ”The . . . they ordered it for me. At the Canton church.”

She nods, watches me the entire time it takes to start the old truck.

I drive to Farish Street with a lawn mower in the back and a rusted-out floorboard. Under my feet, I can see flashes of pavement whiz by. But at least I'm not pulling a tractor.

Aibileen opens the door and I come in. In the back corner of the living room, Minny stands with her arms crossed over her huge bosom. I've met her the few times Hilly allowed Missus Walters to host bridge club. Minny and Aibileen are both still in their white uniforms.

”h.e.l.lo,” I say from my side of the room. ”Good to see you again.”

”Miss Skeeter.” Minny nods. She settles in a wooden chair Aibileen has brought out from the kitchen, and the frame creaks. I sit on the far end of the sofa. Aibileen sits on the other end of the sofa, between us.