Fannie Flagg - Standing in the Rainbow

On the day of Lillian Sprott's funeral, when the preacher signaled it was time, Beatrice's father led the girl in a white dress up the aisle and put her in a chair and placed her zither in her lap. She sang the old hymn "Someone's Waiting for Me Up There" and ended the service with "There'll Be Peace in the Valley."

After she finished there was not a dry eye in the house. One woman who had not particularly cared for the dear departed remarked that old Lillian had most certainly been sung into heaven that day, whether she deserved to be or not. John Robinson told Ruby they should get Beatrice to sing on The Neighbor Dorothy Show. Dorothy was always looking for talent. That afternoon her father asked Beatrice if she wanted to go. She immediately said yes and two days later she went on the radio and sang "Always." A guest artist on The Neighbor Dorothy Show was certainly not an unusual occurrence. Throughout the years Dorothy had featured many singers. Only the week before, twelve-year-old Ian Barnard, billed as Windsor's Wonder Boy of Song and Dance, had come all the way from Canada and had caused quite a stir singing and tapping to the tune "If You Knew Susie." But never before had there been such an overwhelming response to a single performance as there was to Beatrice Woods's first appearance. Calls and letters came pouring in, everyone wanting to hear more from the "Little Blind Songbird of Tennessee." And on the next appearance, when Beatrice sang "Old Shep," a song about a dog, everyone who had ever had a dog that died, or even one that might, broke down and sobbed, including Neighbor Dorothy, who had to leave the room and when she came back was barely able to sign off the air. Down at the hardware store, fifteen-year-old Macky Warren, who was helping his daddy, heard it and cried so hard over his dog Tess he made himself sick and had to go home. She was such a hit that Neighbor Dorothy asked her to appear on the show every week and the Golden Flake Lite-as-a-Feather Flour company agreed to pay her room and board if she would. Her father drove her back over to Elmwood Springs, this time with her clothes and her radio. As it turned out, Beatrice knew the words to hundreds of songs and could sing anything hymns popular songs, gospel, country, you name it. Pretty soon she received so many requests she was appearing on the show every day. Since she was now living in Missouri she dropped the "of Tennessee" from her title and just went by the "Little Blind Songbird."

She did not have far to go every day since Ruby and John lived right next door. Doc ran a clothesline from one back door to the other so she could hold on to it and find her way back and forth between the two houses without any trouble. This worked out fine unless it rained.

Then she was told to wait on the back porch until someone came over to get her.

Bobby would be the first one to discover Beatrice's secret. One rainy morning Dorothy looked out the window in the kitchen and saw that it was not letting up and told Bobby he better go get Beatrice. He had just finished his breakfast, said O.K." and started for the door when his mother stopped him.

"Bobby, take the umbrella."

Bobby moaned. He did not mind going to get Beatricehe liked her but he did mind having to take the umbrella. Muttering to himself, he went to the hall closet and rummaged around behind the heavy winter coats his mother had hanging there and pulled out the large black umbrella he despised with a passion. The huge multi spoked creature had tortured him for years. Besides being almost as big as he was, it had a mind of its own and was mean and ornery. One spoke was always off and by the time he wrestled it to the ground three or four more had popped off.

Then there was the problem of maneuvering it out the back door without falling down the stairs. Mother Smith said never to open an umbrella in the house because it was bad luck but if he stood outside on the back steps he would be drenched before he could get it open, so what was the point.

He dragged the dreaded monster to the back door, pushed with all his might, and the thing popped into place but as usual one spoke on the left side flipped up. He decided not to even fool with it and he banged and pulled himself and the umbrella out the door and down the steps.

Beatrice was dressed and waiting. She had on her yellow raincoat and rain hat and galoshes, which Nurse Ruby always insisted she wear just to walk from one house to the other. Beatrice greeted him before he opened the screen door.

"Hi, Bobby," she said, knowing it was him by the way he ran up the steps.

They walked arm in arm, chatting.

"What are you going to sing today, Beatrice?"

"Oh, I don't know yet What do you think?"

Bobby thought about it as he guided her around a big puddle.

"What about "Cool Cool Water'?" Bobby's musical tastes always led him to suggest cowboy songs first. "Or maybe "April Showers'?"

Beatrice nodded. "Those are two good ones."

Mother Smith was waiting for them on the other end and opened the door.

"This is a humdinger, isn't it? Come on in and let me get those wet things off of you." Beatrice loved going to the Smith house every morning. It was a treat for her, with the aroma of warm, freshly baked cookies and the sounds of people running in and out and busloads of fans dropping by to visit. It was a far cry from the quiet rooms where she spent most of her time.

The Robinson house, given Nurse Ruby's fear of germs and considering her personal credo, "I never met a germ I couldn't kill," always had the slight smell of Lysol disinfectant lingering in the air. After the show Beatrice usually stayed for lunch and went home around one. That day the rain continued in a constant downpour and Bobby was summoned from the attic, where he had been busy mowing down an army of clay soldiers with a tank made out of a large matchbox. When they stepped out Dorothy's back door, Beatrice heard Bobby grunting and struggling with the umbrella and whispered, "Bobby, let's not even use that thing. Let's just go without it."

Bobby's eyes lit up. "You don't care if you get wet?" *

"No. Don't you think a walk in the rain would be fun?"

"Yeah!"

She took her rain hat off and put it in her pocket. "Let's go!"

About ten minutes later Bobby and Beatrice were having the time of their lives, running up and down the sidewalk in their bare feet, stomping in every puddle Bobby could find. They were headed up to the end of the block again when Ruby Robinson, who had just come in from work, looked out the window and saw them. She ran out on the front porch and hollered for them to come in this very minute. Hers was clearly a medical concern; she took the responsibility of her boarder's health very seriously.

They were both soaking wet and by the time they came up the front stairs, Ruby was in a fit. "Well, I've heard of people who didn't have enough sense to come in out of the rain but this is the first time I've seen it with my own eyes. And to think, Bobby Smith, that you of all people would lead a poor little blind girl around in a downpour."

Beatrice defended Bobby. "It's not his fault. I'm the one who wanted to walk in the rain."

Nurse Ruby looked at Bobby, dripping all over her rug. After she moved him off the rug onto some newspapers, she said somewhat skeptically, "Well… whoever's idea it was, if you die of double pneumonia it's not going to matter. Both of you ought to be ashamed, putting your health at risk for such foolishness. I'll be surprised if you live out the week."

Despite her dire predictions, neither one got sick, not a cold or a sniffle, a disappointment to Nurse Ruby, who took their temperature daily for a week. After the seventh day, unable to detect the slightest symptom, she relented. As she held the thermometer up to the light and it read 98.6 again she said, "Well, all I can say is that you both were just lucky this time, that's all."