"Next month, we'll start makin' plans for the Easter Parade and Egg Hunt, headed by me and Mrs. Wilma--" Carolyn nodded her powdered face at the old woman at the front seat of the pew of deaconesses. "--and then we have the Summer Revival not to soon after that. I know that's all down the road, but it's coming up soon enough. The Lord always asks us to be ready, amen?"
"Ay-meyan." Someone comments thoughtfully from the admiring faces of the town congregation.
Carolyn smiles conservatively and steps down from the minister's podium with her schedule.
"Thank you, Carolyn." A deacon helps her down the small steps and gives the town a message to carry with them as they exit the service. A hymn on a pipe organ hums softly while the congregation shuffles towards the door.
At Carolyn's house
Hours later, Carolyn opens a pot of stew and flinches from the steam. Her uncle shifts out of the corner of her eye on their sofa. She stirs the soup once more and shakes the wooden spoon before placing it back on the counter, wondering how long she'd have to cook for three people.
"Carol." An even, low voice beckons from the front study.
Carolyn peeks slowly into her father's study. There was no visitors from the congregation this time; the room was empty and lit with open window blinds. The plain wooden chair is now filled with the same man that had sat in it for years, but now the man's hair had wisps of grey and graceful wrinkles when she looked at him. There were shelves of books lining the walls--Hebrew dictionaries, Greek alphabet references, Latin novels, Shakespeare, Mormon bibles, New Testaments, Quorans, and a single yellowed recipe book tucked tightly in a corner. They had remained untouched from the day he left for Haiti to the day he returned.
Her father' glasses looked up from his open book and gave his daughter a small smile. "Just like your mother. Come here, Carolyn." He laughed to himself and closed his book as Carolyn walked all the way up to his desk. She took a letter from him.
"Lemuel's been writing you." He said. It was only a command more than a statement. "He says you still haven't written back."
Carolyn glanced coldly at the cursive return address from Harvard University.
"He's studying ministry. And he asked me to be his mentor. Of course, I couldn't refuse. He's a fine boy. Good, respectable family, Christian values--"
"Why is Uncle Jake still here, Daddy? You said he was gonna leave when you got back." Carolyn interrupted. She regretted it when he gave her a stern look.
"He's staying a little longer. He just lost his job."
Carolyn nodded and turned to leave.
"Carol. Write Lemuel."
"...Alright."
"That's not all." The reverend beckoned her back. "I want to talk to you."
She respectfully anchored herself in place.
"Carolyn, it's not easy for me to say this." Mr. Hill smiled, took off his glasses, and rubbed the lenses thoughtfully. He walked in front of her. "You're growing up, yes, I know. You're becoming as beautiful as your mother was, everyday." His grin widens. "I've missed you, very much."
A smile immediately blossomed on her face, but she chewed on her lip to hide it.
"But, there's some things that I will not allow from you."
Carolyn's grin faded and her heart started to race.
"You must always set an example. You can't dress like other girls. They're a bad influence. Understand?"
Carolyn stood still at a thought. He had probably already thrown everything in her closet away.
"Dick Harvey and his friends are not the type of people that you should be with either. Come straight home after school from now on." The reverend looked up when Carolyn hadn't moved.
"Somebody asked me to homecoming, Daddy."
"Carolyn, we've been through this many times." The reverend sighed patiently. "You're going to focus on your exams that night, and you lead the children's school that Sunday. You have no time for that. You're not going with anybody."
The doorbell rang.
The reverend looked back into his daughter's eyes sternly before walking to the front door. The door squeaked open to reveal a dark-skinned boy holding a glistening pecan pie and a blonde girl holding a deep aluminum dish covered with foil.
"Hello, Ms. Biggs; Mr. Jackson."
"My mother wanted to thank you for welcoming us at the service today." Michael spoke, easing the dessert into the Reverend's hands.
"Thank you, son. We'll enjoy. You have a fine family of folks." The Reverend's laughing lines stretched in a reserved smile. "And a large one, too. Is it five brothers?"
Michael nodded humorously. "Yes, sir."
"And this is for you. Grandaddy says welcome back, and come by the diner anytime." Judy smiled.
As the reverend talked to Michael about how he liked it in the town, Michael stole hidden glances into the space behind Mr. Hill. Carolyn eventually emerged from behind her father and gently closed the door in front of him. They all looked at each other accusingly.
"Carol-Jean, I don't have to go with Michael." Judy smiled like she had just learned about their relationship.
"Why?" Michael spoke. "Why are you with Dick? You hate him."
"Maybe so." Carolyn replied quietly.
Michael and Judy looked shocked. Judy earnestly narrowed her eyebrows. "Carolyn. He's way out of your league! He's a disgusting bully! They all are!" She gave Carolyn a serious once-over with her eyes. "And, believe me, sweet pea, he doesn't want you." When Carolyn refused to answer her, she continued. "This was all a bad idea from the start. You should have never joined us. You're not like them. You never were!"
"I'm confused Carolyn." Michael started loudly after an uncomfortable silence. "What is it you really want? Popularity? 'Cause you've got a funny way of earning it, girl!"
Carolyn didn't answer.
"Did our kiss even mean anything? Or, were you just curious?"
Carolyn blinked back tears.
Michael shook his head in disbelief. "I can't wait until I get the hell out of this town." He said hoarsely. He then walked down her porch steps.
"Wait...!" Carolyn stepped quickly toward Michael, but he didn't turn around. Judy looked back at the girl on the porch and followed Michael down the street. Neighbors stood cautiously on the borders of their lawn, watching the pair like hawks.
The next time, at Bigg's
"I don't think you even need my help anymore." Roxanne's eyes danced over Carolyn's short yellow halter dress. "You look better than me in my own clothes."
"Damn right." Jason muttered. Roxanne shoved past his shoulder as she walked past him to the diner door.
"C'mere." Dick motioned for Carolyn and gave her a lighter. "Any girl of mine has to know how to light me."
She stood still with the lighter in front of Dick, who bit a cold cigarette. He shook his head when she couldn't strike a flame after five tries. Dick took his lighter back and blew out a long trail of smoke. "Thanks anyway." Dick's eyes volleyed all over her. "Does your Pa know you dress like that?" He took his time on the delicate bulge of her hips.
Carolyn shook her head.
"Well, amen." Dick grinned. His smile felt like something she shouldn't be allowed to see.
Carolyn nervously scanned the parking lot for her father's black Ford, which could show up at any moment. As usual, the pink Chevy and a few other trucks was all that she could see.
The old cowbell of the diner rang as the senior regulars walked to their favorite table.
Roxanne snorted when she saw Michael wiping off the bar. "Biggs--how come he ain't been fired yet?!"
There was no reply from the old man when he walked in between the corridor with a crate of raw meat.
"Biggs, he hasn't taken our order!" Jason called into the kitchen. Roxanne giggled at Michael's hurry to carry the tube of Bon-Ami and his damp rag behind the lobby and re-emerge with a water for Jason and a sweet tea for Roxanne.
"This isn't what I wanted." Roxanne looks strangely at Michael, who looks exasperated.
Michael took a deep breath. "What do you want to drink?"
"Coffee." Roxanne said loudly, enunciating every small syllable. Dick tied some straw wrappers together and tucked it into the back of Michael's apron.
"And you?" Michael looked cautiously at Jason.
"You're fine. This one's right, for once."
Michael shook his head and went to tell Chester what to cook. A long tail of straw wrappers swished from his waist. Dick quickly nudged the other two to look, and their faces immediately burned red with laughter.
When Michael returns with their orders, his eyes linger a little too long on Carolyn, who is shrinking away from Dick's unwanted touches. Dick blinks at him angrily. "What are you starin' at?"
"Nothing--" Michael shrugs. He sees something white flash behind him, and rips off a long tail of straw wrappers from his apron. The sight of the gag only makes him angrier.
"Then, fuck off." Dick says.
"Hey--relax." Jason presses Dick, who's tone was getting a little scary.
"Leave her alone." Michael demands, clenching his fists.
Dick pushed out of his chair and caused it to clatter to the floor. "Judy ain't good enough for you, is she? You just have to go on and take everything."
Chester peeked out from the kitchen at all of the racket.
"I'm not with Judy. She's just a friend. And I'm not going with her to the dance." Michael backs away slightly at Dick's approaching leather jacket and boots, but he doesn't tear away from Dick's bloodthirsty eyes.
"Who are you going with then?" Dick sneers, glancing daringly at Michael's fists.
"Carolyn."
Dick froze. For a glimmer of a second, his blue eyes grew into saucers. He looked back at Carolyn curiously.
"Michael...." Carolyn's eyes widened at Michael as if she was asking what in the hell he was doing.
"Stay of out it, Carolyn." Michael warned her, not breaking his glare into Dick's eyes.
"Ever since you came here you've been startin' trouble--first our town, now our diner, now Judy, now Carol-Jean--" Dick snatches his arm away from Jason. "--somebody needs'ta teach him a lesson!"
"Can't you see she's scared of you? She doesn't really want to be here." Michael's sneakers withdrew from the boy coming so close to him. The smell of motor oil radiated from Dick like he was a car about to run Michael over.
"You're talkin' like you know her or somethin'."
"Of course I do." Michael grinned. "She's my girl."
"Oh, shit." Jason blurted.
Dick lunged at Michael and knocked him against the bar. They tussled roughly and ripped at each other's collars, exchanging a savage claw to the head in return for every missed punch. Bar stools clanged loudly when the two boys' weight hurled into them. Michael tugged at Dick's red fingers that were squeezing his neck.
Roxanne shrieked at Dick to stop, but their thrashing was too violent to make room for any intervention.
Chester raced away from the grill and shoved Michael and Dick away from each other. Dick wriggled out from Chester's grip and battered Michael to the floor. "Don't fucking touch me!!" Dick panted. He looked back at Carolyn with a disgusted grimace.
Michael writhed painfully on the tile, but a triumphant smirk still remained on his face.
"What in God's name is going on out there?!!" An elderly voice boomed from the back. Mr. Biggs walked to the housefront.
Jason and Dick caused the diner's cowbell to rattle when they scrambled out of the door.
Roxanne glared at Carolyn's outfit. "I want all my stuff back. Tomorrow." Roxanne's pencil skirt twisted over her fast-walking legs as she left the diner.
Mr. Biggs turned to the small red headed teenager planted in front of him, and then he looked down at Reverend Hill's girl who was bending over Michael on the floor. He stared at his main floor in shock. "I'm about near close to firin' both of you boys--all'a this mess at closing time!" Biggs shook his head, removing the cap from his head. His white hair stuck tiredly to his forehead. "Get Carol-Jean some ice, boy--what're you standin' there fer?" He ordered Chester. "An' straighten those stools, will ya?" Chester walked to the freezer and Biggs retired into his office.
Chester handed Carolyn some ice in a dishrag. She pressed the rag tenderly to Michael's injuries as he winced.
Close to homecoming night
Carolyn walked carefully to her father's study for a dictionary. There were many words that Lemuel used that had sailed past her head when she finally read his recent letter. She would have to start from the beginning with all of the definitions right next to her. It was hard for her to focus on anything that night, ever since she had learned that she couldn't convince her father or her uncle to let her go to homecoming. She had called Michael, but something always made her hang up before he could answer.
Then, Carolyn heard a voice inside of the room.
"I can reverse the crops this year--earn some money here n' there. I'll start out as hand, and then maybe I'll join up in the farm business again. If I still remember how t'do everything." Uncle Jake spoke quietly to his brother.
Carolyn could hear her father laugh softly. "It's been a long time--we were just boys!"
"I know all that...but...I don't have much of a choice, now, do I?"
Carolyn started to turn around--the conversation sounded private.
"What was it that Jean said she wanted to do again?"
"Law school." Reverend Hill shifted some things around. "It's impossible."
Carolyn burned with rage when they both started chuckling.
"What she needs to do is settle down, stay in place, and don't get too wild in the head." Uncle Jake let out a long breath and whispered, "She oughta have a mother around."
The reverend hummed in agreement.
There was a respectful space of silence the room before Uncle Jake spoke again. "She's a smart girl. But college ain't no place for her. It wasn't for me, neither. Has she wrote that Harvard boy back yet?"
The reverend and Carolyn's uncle jumped at a harsh slam of a door.
Carolyn shoved her homework off of her desk and watched as the work sailed back and forth and fluttered to the floor like paper pigeons. She ripped Lemuel's letter in half and stared angrily at the romantic loops of black ink on the torn pages at her feet.
The wound dial phone on her dresser rang with a call. Carolyn slowly put the cold metal against to her cheek.
"Hello?"
Michael's voice leaped over the combined sounds of reckless laughter, clinks of dishes and "Bread and Butter" blaring from a jukebox . "My shift's over--Biggs is sending me and Chester home early. My clothes are in the back. You'll be here soon?"
"Yes."
Carolyn could hear Michael's small excited breathing over all of the racket. "Would you mind if I just waited for you inside?" He quickly added, "I think they're used to me, but...you know."
She responded naturally. "I understand."
"Good." Michael squashed out some background noise from the phone with his hand. "I'll be right there in the middle of the dance floor."
Carolyn's heart fluttered in her ribcage at his sweet little promise.
Michael chuckled flirtatiously. "What're you gonna wear for me?"
"Oh, I don't know." Carolyn answered honestly. All of the dresses that made her feel pretty were taken back from Roxanne before she was banned from the gang that she had fought so hard to get into. All she had left were school dresses and service dresses and a couple pairs of pants and overalls. No heels. Still, she wanted to look good for him.
"Is it a surprise?" Michael said after a while.
"Yes."
Carolyn heard Michael laugh again. "I'll be there." The line crackled and ended.
Carolyn quickly punched in another phone in the rotary dial.
On the other end, Judy Biggs picked up the phone with one hand while her opposite hand fluffed out the blonde ringlets of her hairdo in a mirror.
"Hello?"
Carolyn took a deep breath and then asked Dick's ex-girlfriend if she could borrow a dress.