Fannie Flagg - Standing in the Rainbow

She tried to stay in touch with Hamm as much as she could, to be there when he needed her, but he never seemed to need her for anything. Over time Betty Raye felt herself slowly beginning to fade away, like a light starting to dim. She began to live in a world where she felt invisible.

Even the boys were slipping away. They were both getting to be much more like their father, aggressive and rowdy, and spent much of their time outside playing ball with the guards around the mansion. She did not know why but she began to feel like a stranger living in a house where everyone knew a secret but her. Which was pretty much the truth. From the beginning, the inside circle knew about Hamm and Vita. Hamm had made it perfectly clear in a meeting with his staff right from the start.

"If Vita asks you for anything or needs anything, I want you to see that she has it, you understand? And if you want my opinion on an issue, ask Vita and she'll let you know."

Ralph and Lester, the two state troopers who usually picked her up, got the picture without having to be told. When they drove her somewhere to meet him they tipped their hats and called her Mrs. Green. There were no jokes, no sneers or attempts at familiarity. They knew who she was and what she was to the governor and it was not up to them to approve or disapprove. Vita did not complain or explain; she just was.

The entire staff understood there were unspoken orders to make sure that Vita and the official first lady were never at the same function at the same time. And if, God forbid, for some reason they were to be at the same place, that they were never to be in the same room.

But accidents do happen. Peter Wheeler and his wife, Carole, were hosting a party at their home to celebrate the opening of the brand-new art museum in Kansas City. Many prominent artists from all over the world were flying in for the occasion and Cecil, ever vigilant about protocol, felt that if the first lady did not at least put in an appearance it would not look good. "Darling," he said, "just come for thirty minutes. Say hello, have your picture made, and I promise you can slip out anytime after that and one of the troopers will drive you home."

Betty Raye looked stricken. "Oh, Cecil, do I have to?"

"It would mean so much to the state if you would, and I know Hamm thinks you should be there with him to welcome everyone. This is no ordinary party. We don't want to disappoint him, do we?"

"No, I guess not," she said.

It was, in fact, a star-studded affair with over five hundred people mingling in every room of the magnificent Wheeler home. Betty Raye came in wearing the same beige cocktail dress she always wore, and as always, she felt like a piece of old vanilla fudge compared to the rest of the women in their vivid and colorful clothes and jewels. But true to her word, she posed for pictures and stood in the receiving line.

She smiled and shook hands with each visitor and repeated what Cecil had told her to say, like a mynah bird. "Welcome to our state, we are so honored to have you." Finally, after about forty-five minutes, she made eye contact with Cecil. After she said her good-byes to the host and hostess, Cecil walked her out to the car and she was on her way home, early as usual, relieved as usual.

About ten minutes into the trip home Betty Raye took her earrings off and reached for her purse. But it was not there. She realized she must have left it at the party, in the upstairs powder room.

She would not have returned to the Wheelers' but her reading glasses were in the purse also and she needed them. The young state trooper who was filling in for Ralph Childress that night turned around and drove her back to the party. She slipped in and went upstairs and got her purse. As she was coming down the stairs, trying her best to be inconspicuous, she heard a woman's laugh that was so infectious she had to look and see where it was coming from. The woman, who had just joined the party, standing in the middle of a large crowd of men, laughed again and was clearly enjoying a story that was being told.

Betty Raye could not help but stop and stare for a moment until Martha Ross, a woman she had met earlier, walked up and said in a loud voice, "Why, Mrs. Sparks, we all thought you had left!"

Betty Raye whispered and tried to head for the door, hoping not to be noticed by anyone else. "I did but I had to come back; I forgot my purse."

Martha followed her. "Oh, don't you just hate when you do that, I do it all the time." When Betty Raye reached the door, curiosity got the best of her and she said, "Mrs. Ross, who is that pretty lady over there?"

Mrs. Ross looked. "Why, that's Vita Green. Don't you know Vita?"

Betty Raye shook her head and Mrs. Ross looked at her in surprise.

"She practically runs your husband's arts program. I can't believe you don't know Vita." She proceeded to grab Betty Raye by the arm and pull her across the foyer, calling out in an excited voice, "Vita! Look who I have here…. I can't believe you haven't met Mrs. Sparks yet."

An entire room full of laughing and chatting people suddenly went as silent as if they had all been struck dumb. Even the ice in the glasses stopped rattling. The men in Vita's group went visibly pale before her eyes. Vita, who had her back turned to Betty Raye at the time, seemed to be the only person able to move and speak. She casually turned around, her expression unchanging, and with warmth and poise said, "Why no, Mrs. Sparks and I have somehow managed to miss one another until now."

Vita smiled and extended her hand and in a pleasant voice added, "Hello. I'm so pleased to finally meet you at last."

Betty Raye was dazzled by Vita's large diamond spray pin and her beauty in general but did manage to offer a faint "How do you do."

Vita smiled again. "It's so lovely to meet you, Mrs. Sparks. I hope we'll see each other again sometime."

"Thank you," said Betty Raye. As she made her way back out of the crowded room, Mrs. Ross, thinking she had just done a good deed, said, "That's nice, I am glad I was able to introduce you two."

As soon as Betty Raye got to the door and it closed behind her, an ice cube managed a weak little clink and gradually people began to move and within seconds, Vita, who had never blinked an eye, continued her conversation as if nothing momentous or so potentially dangerous as wife meets-mistress had just happened. On the drive back to the mansion Betty Raye thought about Mrs. Green.

When they had met she had so gracefully and effortlessly moved her black cigarette holder from one hand to the other, with such elegance and style. She was like one of those movie stars that she and Anna Lee had seen at the Elmwood Theater. Betty Raye wondered if she should try to take up smoking. Vita, on the other hand, who had only seen Betty Raye in photographs, wondered how Hamm could have ever been attracted to this rather plain, nondescript person, a woman who, she was sure, was perfectly nice but had looked more like the help than a guest.

Hamm, who had been in another room at the time, had missed the entire event. Betty Raye had not said a word or seemed the least bit suspicious but Hamm was furious and promised Vita that it would not happen again. From that day forward, Betty Raye was never out of trooper Ralph Childress's sight for a moment.

After Betty Raye and Vita had the near miss Cecil said to Hamm, "It's your life, honey, but you are not being very considerate of your wife and that's all I'm going to say." But Wendell Hewitt, the attorney general of the state, was worried about Hamm getting hurt politically.

Wendell knew how fast that could happen firsthand. He had been caught with a blonde and ruined his own chances at being governor. But most of all, Wendell and Rodney had been used to being his only advisers and they resented Vita's influence over him. They tried to warn him how dangerous the situation was. But Vita never worried about what anybody said as far as Hamm was concerned. She knew she was the one he ran to when he was happy, sad, or scared or needed advice. She accepted who he was without question or judgment and he knew it. The night he gave his speech in front of seven thousand people at the state Democratic convention, he came back to her exhilarated, his eyes shining.