Fannie Flagg - Standing in the Rainbow

"Why do you want that stupid cuckoo clock on the list? It's a piece of junk."

"Well, it's old. And it was a wedding present. Put something down you want then."

Macky got up and walked around the house, looking for things. A few minutes later he came back with the baseball Bobby had given him signed by Marty Marion.

"Well, put it in the box under the bed then. I'm not going to waste their time having them look for some old baseball when too many other important things are at stake." She added it to the list and then said, "You know I wonder how big a safety-deposit box is and are they fireproof?"

"Why?"

"Well… I think we'd be a lot better off when we left town if we just took everything we could down to the bank and put it in a safety-deposit box. Then I won't have to worry about human error. That way we would know for sure."

"What if the bank burned down?"

Norma looked at him. "Macky… why would you say something like that to me? Why would you want to put something like that in my head when you know how serious this is?"

"Oh, for God's sake, Norma. I was just kidding the bank is not going to burn down. Neither is our house."

"All I'm trying to do is preserve our memories, protect our family history so that Linda and our grandchildren won't wind up without anything to look at after we are gone, and you make a joke out of it."

"Norma, I was kidding."

"I don't think you appreciate the things I try and do for this family. Children should have a sense of continuity, it's very important."

"Honey, first of all, we don't have any grandchildren."

"But we might someday."

"Even if we do, we can always have new pictures made if anything happens."

"I am aware of that, Macky, that's not the point. The point is, they would only see pictures of us when we were older and not when we were young… that's what I'm talking about. I want them to get to see a picture of me when I was young and still had a figure, not some old middleaged woman."

"Oh, Norma, you're only thirty-five years old, just stop it. You are better looking now than you ever were." There was a pause. Macky saw his chance and he took it. "You look better today than the day I married you."

"Oh, you're just saying that."

"No, I'm not. I was looking at you the other night, when you had on that pink thing… you know?"

"My nightgown?"

"Yeah. I said to myself just the other night, Norma gets better looking every day."

"Really?"

"Yes. You were a pretty girl but now you're… a… sexy, mature woman. Just like a ripe juicy plum ready to pick off the tree… just right…"

"I've had that old pink thing for years."

"Maybe so, but you look great in it."

"It's just an old nightgown I got over at Kmart."

"Well, you don't have a thing to worry about how you look now, that's all I can say. You're a good-looking old broad and don't you forget it."

"It had a housecoat to match. I don't know why I never wear it. I don't even know if I still have itI might have thrown it out or given it away by now."

After Macky left the house, Norma went into the bedroom and took out her pink Kmart nightgown and held it up to her and looked at herself in the mirror. She turned to the left and then to the right and smiled.

Ten minutes later the phone at the store rang. Macky picked up.

"Warren's Hardware."

"Macky, let me ask you something, and tell me the truth."

"What?"

"You don't discuss me with other men, do you?"

"What?"

"You don't discuss what I look like in my nightgown with other men, do you?"

"Of course not."

"Because I would be horrified if you did."

"Honey, I promise I don't discuss what you look like in anything with anybody, you know that."

"I would just die if I thought while I was talking to some man he was trying to imagine what I looked like in my nightgown."

"Norma, do you think I would take the chance of driving all the men in this town wild? I know better than that."

"That's not what I mean. I mean, oh, you know… I'd just feel funny if I thought somebody was looking at me funny."

"No. Your secret's safe with me."

"Good. I feel better. Guess what? I found that housecoat. I had put it up on the top shelf in that red box with those extra pillowcases we don't use, but guess what else?"

"What?"

"I can't wear it."

"Why?"

"It doesn't match anymore. It's a much darker pink than my nightgown, so it's not a matched set. I'm thinking about running out there and seeing if they still carry the same thing and that way I could just buy the gown if they would let me, they might not, but if they won't… I thought that maybe if I ran it through the washing machine every time I did a load, it would fade sooner or later. What do you think… should I do it?"

"Do what?"

"See if I can get a new nightgown. I thought since you like the way it looks on me, I should try and get a new one. If they still carry the same line; they keep changing things, I wish they wouldn't… don't you?"

"What?"

"Keep changing things. When you buy something you like, it's terrible to go there and they don't sell it anymore. That's something you should remember in your business. Don't discontinue things or change the make or brand."

"Okay, honey, I'll remember that."

"Macky, you're not going to be mad at me for going to Kmart, are you?"

"No."

"I'm not buying hardware. I might not be buying anything. If they have it I'll just get this one thing and then that's it, O.K.?"

"All right…"

"I'll take Aunt Elner with me… but we will just look, O.K.?"

"O.K."

"You won't think I'm a traitor, will you?"

"No, you go on and see about your nightgown."

"Macky, do you really still find me attractive after all these years or are you just kidding?"

"Do you want me to close the store and come home right now and prove it?"

"Macky Warren! You better stop that nasty talk. What if a customer should hear you?"

Macky laughed heartily, and Norma hung up the phone and smiled.

Maybe while she was there, she would see if it came in any other colors.

In all the time Vita and Hamm had been together there had only been one conversation that came close to being an argument. Early on, when the affair first started, Hamm went through a period where he talked about getting a divorce but she had quickly nipped that idea in the bud.

"Absolutely not. You are not going to ruin your political future over me. Besides, I don't want to get married. I'm a grown woman and I want exactly what I've got. If this is some sort of guilt over me, forget it. You might as well know right now, I don't want children. I have no interest whatsoever in being a mother or a stepmother."

"But Vita," he said, "I do feel bad."

She took his face in her hands. "Darling, I know how you feel about me. You don't need to wreck your life to prove it. What you do at home is your business but what we have together is just between us. We are not hurting anyone. It's perfect the way it is."

Of course, Vita did not know it as yet but her affair with Hamm was hurting someone in ways that at this point were subtle. Outwardly, to Betty Raye, Hamm seemed the same as he always was. He had always been on the move and never at home and when he was she seldom got to see him alone. She did not know it, but being with Vita had changed him and the way he looked at the world and Betty Raye. He still loved her but differently from before. No matter what he might say, Hamm was caught up in the whirl of Vita's big-money and big words crowd, still a little amazed and flattered to be suddenly socializing at black-tie affairs with people who would barely have spoken to him before.

He seldom took Betty Raye along. First of all was her famous dislike of parties and social functions and second of all, she simply would not have fit in. The few places he did take her were for political purposes only and when they arrived he would immediately disappear into a circle of people dying to meet him. She usually wound up over in a corner, talking to one or two women who felt sorry for her or were curious about her, and then leave as soon as she could slip out and go home.