Fannie Flagg - Standing in the Rainbow

The next Friday Hamm put on his brand-new blue suit from Sears and drove over to Elmwood Springs with the box in his pocket. He had not bothered to inform Betty Raye he was coming because he wanted to surprise her. He walked up the steps to the house and knocked. Dorothy came to see who was there.

"Hello, Mrs. Smith, is Betty Raye here?"

"Well, hello, Hamm." Dorothy opened the door. "Yes, she is. Come on in. We are just sitting down for supper; why don't you come in and join us."

"Thank you, I think I will, if it's all right."

"Of course it is, all I have to do is set a plate. You just go on in the dining room and sit down." She called down the hall as she went to the kitchen, "Betty Raye, everybody, Hamm is here."

When Doc looked up and saw the new blue suit coming in the door, he thought to himself, Uh-oh, here comes trouble. Hamm walked into the dining room and said, "Hi, everybody," pulled out a chair, and sat down across from Betty Raye. Everybody said hello but Jimmy just nodded. He was not sure about this guy. A little too pushy for his taste.

Hamm soon sat there eating and talking all about tractors, farmers, Allis Chalmers and anything else that came to mind, including a joke he had just heard. Bobby thought he was funny and liked him right away but Betty Raye was confused. She did not know whether she was glad to see him again or not. She liked him O.K." she guessed, but he made her so nervous the way he talked so fast and moved so fast that she didn't know what to think. She was embarrassed that he had just shown up like that but it had not seemed to bother anyone else. Mother Smith and Doc and Dorothy chatted away as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

After dinner Betty Raye picked up a few plates and started for the kitchen, relieved to get away for a while. He had grinned at her all through dinner and she had felt herself blushing every time he caught her eye. But Dorothy said, "Betty Raye, you put those down and go out on the porch and visit with your young man. He's come all this way to see you. Mother Smith and I will do the dishes tonight." Betty Raye had no choice but to go. When Doc and Bobby got up to go out on the porch with them, Dorothy gave Doc a funny look.

"Don't you and Bobby have a ball game to listen to tonight?" she said in a high voice, blinking her eyes.

"What?" he said.

She fired him another look and he finally figured it out. "Oh, yeah.

Bobby, come on with me, let's go listen to the ball game."

"What ball game? They don't have a game tonight," he said as his father led him away by the back of his neck to the parlor. Jimmy excused himself and headed out the back door to the VFW for his poker night with his buddies and Betty Raye found herself on the way to the porch, wondering how someone she did not even know at all well had suddenly become her young man.

They sat on the porch and after a few minutes Hamm reached in his pocket and handed her the little box. "Open it," he said.

She asked, "What is it?"

"Open it. I bought you a ring."

She was puzzled. "Why?"

"Because I want you to marry me."

First she was not quite sure what she had heard. Hamm may have had this in mind for a month but for her this had come out of the blue.

"What?" she said again.

"Will you marry me?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you. What do you say?"

By this time she was so flustered she didn't know what to do, so she handed the box back and said, "Oh, thank you for asking but I don't think I want to get married. I hope I haven't hurt your feelings or anything but I can't. I have a job, I'm sorry," she said. "I have to go in but thank you anyway." And she stumbled into the screen door and said, "Oh, excuse me," to the door and went in, leaving him sitting in the swing.

This was not exactly how Hamm had envisioned the evening turning out. But it was only one night.

Hamm did not give up. Every free moment he had he came over to see her. He would show up at the cafeteria and go down the line singing out, "Aw, come on, honey, say you will, I'm coming back every night until you say yes." He even started to show up at the bowling alley. Ada and Bess Goodnight, pulling for him, told him where they would be and all the women on the team liked him and encouraged Betty Raye to let him drive her home, which she did.

This went on for weeks. Doc said, "I'd hate to have that boy chasing after me. Hell, at this point I'll marry him and he hasn't even asked me."

Weeks of this kind of intense attention and flattery is hard to resist, even to someone who does not want to get married. But Betty Raye did not have much choice in the matter. Hamm was like a small tornado and she got caught up in the whirlwind and, like most women, was at first curious and then dazzled by him.

That night he had parked the car in front of the house. "Now, Betty Raye, you can't go in until I get just one little kiss. Just one. You don't want to break my heart, do you?"

After one and then more than one, she walked onto the porch and into the house in a daze and said to Dorothy, "I think I might be engaged."

After Betty Raye had gone to her room Mother Smith spoke to Dorothy.

"Now, personally, you know, I like him, but I worry that that boy has just come in here and swept her right off her feet."

Dorothy suddenly looked concerned. "Oh, dear. You think so?"

"Oh, not that way. It's just I don't know if he's given her enough time. They've only known one another for a few months. What do you think, Doc?"

"She must like him; she said yes. But he certainly seems to be in one hell of a hurry, I'll grant you that."

The next thing Betty Raye knew Hamm had tracked down the Oatmans, who were performing in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the two of them along with Ada and Bess Goodnight as chaperones drove all night to get her parents' blessing. The Oatmans did not go on until after the first intermission and the Elmwood Springs contingent managed to get to the auditorium in time. Betty Raye had not seen them perform since she'd left and since they had become such a success. She was surprised at how much the act had changed. Her mother and Beatrice still wore no makeup but they did have matching dresses with rhinestone trimming. The boys and Ferris had on shiny suits with plaid cummerbunds.

They started their part of the show with the spotlight on Minnie, who held a microphone in her hand. As the group in the background hummed, she began to speak. "I am but a poor woman. I have no precious jewels, no silver or gold, I own no earthly mansions nor wealth in this world. My father is but a poor man… I've had many burdens to bear… cried many a bitter tear… There were times I wondered how I could go on… But one day a tattered and torn old woman knocked on my door and saw me there in my deep despair… And with eyes filled with joy she said, "Oh, daughter, have you not heard the Gospel? Do you not know the good news? Your Father in heaven has given you more than the millionaire's child. More than the queen on a throne. Open your eyes, daughter, and behold the gifts and precious jewels He has laid out before you. He's given you diamonds that sparkle in the sky, rubies in the redbirds' wings, and sapphires in the deep blue sea. Priceless emeralds lay stretched before you in the green grass; there's silver in the mountain streams and gold in the sunsets of every day. You are clothed in His love and your home is a mansion in the sky. There's no depression in heaven, no hunger, sorrow, or pain, no dirty dishes to wash, meals to cook, or wood to chop." Oh, brothers and sisters, I ask you, is it any wonder why I just can't wait to get to heaven!" The stage suddenly lit up with dozens of colored lights and they launched into their big hit.

The audience as usual went wild and stood clapping and cheering. After the show was over, Hamm and Betty Raye had to fight their way through the hundreds of fans wanting their albums signed to get to the family so she could introduce him.