Бетти Смит - Maggie-Now

"You don't like him, do you, Aunt Lottie?"

"No."

"Why?'' "Because he's not like Timmy. Oh, Maggie-Now, dear,"

said Lottie, "what do you see in him?"

[223] "I: verything. Like when he tall

'And the things Timmy did for me made me feel like a queen. Like the way he'd lift my washboiler on the stove.

Your man would only look at it anti say, 'Interesting, ain't its"' "Oh, Aunt Lottie, if you knew hoNv much I loved hhn, you wouldn't run him down so."

"Why do you love him?"

"Because he needs me so," said Maggie-Now.

"Famous last words," said Lottie cynically.

"The way Uncle Timmy needed you, Aunt 1,ottie."

"Timmy didn't need nobody, I needed him."

Maggie-NoNv hung her head. She was saddened because the godmother she loved didn't love the man she loved. "He asked to:~TO to Mass with me tomorrow,"

she said hopefully.

"Sure! Sure! Them smooth talkers will do anything before marriage and not}ling,T after. Well, I tell you this, I\laggie-Now, it's my place to see that you don't marry him. And you won't marry him. I had my say, now, alla I

guess we better go back. He might think we're talking about him."

As they came out of the kitchen, Lottie talked loudly and brightly as though continuing the kitchen conversation. "I just wanted you to look at it and tell me if I paid too much for that wash wringer."

Claude was not foolec'. He stood at the mantelpiece, holding the china pug dog With the china nursing puppies, and looked at.Maggie-NoNv appealing!`. Her heart went out to him.

"My Timmy. ." said Lottie. And waited.

"God rest his soul," said Maggie-Now, looking intently at Claude and hoping he'd understand that he was expected to se! teat' too. But poor Claude only looked t~evvildered.

"Thanks," said Lottie pointedly. She continued, ". .

gave me that pug dog on our first wedding anniversary."

"It's an amusing little thing," he said.

.\laggie-NoN`.r moaned inwardly. I Vhy, she thought, can't he talk plain to her the clay he talks to me? I know whet he means that it's cute in a Tray that makes you smile. but Lottie thinks he wean that he thinks it's co7nical.

Indeed she did. She snatched the dog from him and held it to

[~4 1

her breast. "I was going to give it to Maggie-Now when she got married. Yes, I was going to give it to her." Her intonation said plainly that she wouldn't think of giving it to her now.

It was an uncomfortable visit. Claude kept saying the wrongthings as far as Lottie was concerned and his habit of cocking his head to hear better, a habit that usually endeared him to women, made Lottie nervous.

It was time to go and Lottie gave Denny the Easter basket she had prepared for him. It was large and elaborate.

"Oh, Lottie! You shouldn't have," protested Maggie-Now.

"Why not? You give two and I only give one back so it should be bigger. Like it, Denny?" He nodded. "Well, what do I get for it?" He gave her a big hug.

"Well, Mr. Bassett, it was nice to meet you," said Lottie.

"And come again when you call stay longer." She didn't mean it, but that was the right thing to say.

Going home on the trolley, Claude said: "I'm starry she doesn't like me your Aunt Lottie."

Maggie-Now thought of saying, BUt she does. It's just her way. But she was too honest to say it. She said: "Lottie's not used to strangers. She'll like you after a wlli!e. When she knows you better."

"But I like you, /mrw," said Dermy.

Claude placed the little boy's hand on his palm. When he saw 110V`T little the hand was and 110NV vulnerable it looked, Claude put his other hand over it protectively.

He held the child's hand 50 and said: "Thank you, Dcnny."

There was a little break in his voice. ''I'll always remember that.'

t22, ~

Liar many people w ith limited amounts of money to spend, Maggic-Now thoroughly enjoyed the spending of it.

She loved to shop, especially for ~ rod. She loved to see things in great abundance: a basket of tomatoes, a bin of potatoes, a thick stalk of bananas or a huge side of beef.

She was one of those women who like to touch things; she picked out onions one by one to drop into the bag the greengrocer held for her. She picked up muskmelons to hold and to smell before she bought. She picked up objects in stores and held them a second before she replaced them; ran her palm over dress goods in the bolt.

Shopping for food was a daily pleasure but shopping for Easter dinner for Glaude Bassett had been pure ecstasy.

She had taken Delmy along with her, as.oon as they got back from the cemetery and before they went to l,ottie's.

She had wanted the traditional ham for Easter but prices were up to twent~y-tvvo cents 2 pound on account of the big demand. She decided on marinated leg of lamb.

Her usual butcher had lamb but it was twenty" two cents a pound and Maggie-Now thought that was too dear.

"Last week it was eighteen cents a pound," she said.

"It's gone up because we're in the war," he said.

She didn't see Low being in the war for tvventy-four hours would affect the price of meat he had had in his icebox for two weeks, but she said nothing. Another woman in the store said: "Pst! " Maggie-Now went to her.

"Go by Winer's, near L~orDtler Street," she whispered.

"He's got lamb for seventeen cents."

"What goes on there, hall?'' called out the butcher suspiciously from behind the counter.

~ 226] "Nothing'7, nothing," said the woman hurriedly. (She owed him money.)

Maggie-Now went to Winer's but there was a catch in it.

It was seventeen a pound if one bought the whole leg;

nineteen a pound for half. Also it wasn't lamb; it was mutton. Maggie-Now felt a thrill. She liked mutton better than lamb but the butcher mustn't know or the price might go up. She hesitated and he said eighteen a pound if she'd take the shank end. That was the end she'd intended to buy but she was crafty.

"bet me see it first," she said.

He brought out the leg of mutton and threw it on the block. Maggie-Now fell in love with it at first sight. "All right," she said.

"How much?"

"About four pounds and cut off the bone end for soup."

It w as done and she was happy.

While the butcher was sawing away, Denny worked his way behind the counter and watched the butcher. "Denny!"

called Maggie-Now reproachfully.

"Leave him," said the butcher. "Maybe he'll be a butcher when he gets big." Maggie-Now must have made a little grimace for he said: "But maybe you'd sooner he was President?"

"I wouldn't mind," said Maggie-Now.

"Listen, lady. How many Presidents is there? Just one.

But how many butchers? A couple thousand. He's got more chance of being a butcher than President." He wrapped up the meat and gave Denny a slice of liverwurst.

She bought a few pounds of small, new potatoes with curls of red skin peeling off, a bunch of green spring onions, the smallest carrots she could find and a sliver of Roquefort cheese.

She put the mutton in a big bowl with sweet oil, pickle vinegar, salt, pepper and a bay leaf, and left it to marinate overnight in the icebox.

The next morning, Easter Sunday, Pat got dressed up and left soon after breakfast with the information that he wouldn't be home until the evening. In a flurry of excitement Maggie-Now put up her dinner so it could cook while she was at Mass.