Vasti had some shower games for us to play after that, and of course we munched some more, but eventually people started to leave. Richard and I were staying with Aunt Maggie, so while I was waiting for her to get out of the bathroom so we could drive over to her house together, I listened in as Vasti gave Aunt Ruby Lee some last-minute instructions.
“You checked with the florist like I told you to, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Vasti,” Aunt Ruby Lee said.
“And you made sure that Aunt Daphine can fix your hair the morning before the wedding, haven’t you?”
“Yes, Vasti.”
“Good. Now I got a call from the lady at the dress shop this afternoon. Your dress is all ready, but she said that Ilene hasn’t come in for her final fitting.”
Aunt Ruby Lee turned to her daughter, who had put on a Walkman, and said, “Ilene, I thought you had an appointment yesterday.”
Ilene didn’t answer.
“Ilene? Ilene!”
There was still no reaction.
Finally Vasti called out in her shrillest voice. “Ilene!”
Even a sullen teenager couldn’t pretend not to have heard that, and Ilene looked in our direction. “What?”
Aunt Ruby Lee said, “Honey, can you turn that down a minute?”
Ilene made a show of doing so.
“Vasti said you haven’t gone for the final fitting of your dress for the wedding. I thought that’s where you were heading when you took the car yesterday.”
“I guess I forgot,” Ilene said.
Vasti sighed theatrically. “You forgot? Ilene, the wedding is only eight days away. Don’t you want everything to be perfect?”
Ilene shrugged. “Tom and I had to go down to Rocky Shoals and register for the Jamboree, and it took longer than we expected. I don’t see what the big deal is—I’ll go the first of next week.”
“I should hope so,” Vasti said.
Ilene turned the Walkman back on and closed her eyes, making it plain that she was finished with us.
“Aunt Ruby Lee,” Vasti said, “doesn’t Ilene realize how important the appearance of an attendant is to the beauty of the wedding? Especially when she’s the only bridesmaid. I told you we should have had more.”
“Vasti, you know I wanted to keep the wedding simple,” Aunt Ruby Lee protested. “Having Ilene and the boys stand up with me and Roger is a plenty.”
Vasti did not look convinced. “I suppose it’s too late to ask anybody else now, anyway. Unless I had a seamstress make the dresses special …”
“Who are you getting dresses for now, Vasti?” Aunt Maggie said as she came out of the bathroom. “I thought you had one already.”
“Of course I do. I ordered my dress ages ago. Only I had to have it altered just this week because I’ve lost weight.” She put her hands on her waist. “I think I’m even tinier than I was when I got married.” She waited a minute for compliments, but when none came, she said, “Where’s your mail, Aunt Ruby Lee? I want to check and see if you got any more RSVPs today.”
Now that Aunt Maggie was ready, I thought that we were finally going to get out the door, but just then the groom-to-be Roger came in, followed by Clifford, Earl, and a tall man I didn’t recognize. Of course that meant taking a few minutes to hug Roger, Clifford, and Earl, which normally I don’t mind, but it was getting late.
I didn’t know if I was supposed to hug the stranger or not, so I said, “Hi. I’m Laura Fleming, one of Ruby Lee’s nieces. Which makes me Roger’s niece-to-be, I suppose. Most people call me Laurie Anne.”
The man took this explanation in stride, which made me think that he was a Southerner. When he spoke, I was sure of it.
“Pleased to meet you, Laura. I’m Slim Grady. I play in the Ramblers with Roger.”
The Ramblers were Roger’s country music band, and that meant that this fellow was the object of Carlelle’s, Idelle’s, and Odelle’s affections. “Slim” was a pretty good name for him, because he wasn’t plump, but he wasn’t skinny. His hair was dark and his eyes even darker. He had big, strong-looking hands, which were good for a musician and reminded me of a tale about male anatomy I had heard in junior high school.
I shook that thought right out of my head. I was more tired than I had realized.
With the formalities over with, Clifford and Earl headed for the kitchen to dig into the leftover goodies and Roger asked, “Did y’all ladies have yourselves a good time?”
“We sure did,” Aunt Ruby Lee said. “Everybody gave me the prettiest things.”
“Well, haul them out and let me see.”
“Roger, I can’t show you those things,” Aunt Ruby Lee said, and darned if she wasn’t blushing.
Vasti explained, “It was a lingerie shower.”
“Is that so?” Roger said with a gleam in his eye. “I’ll be looking forward to seeing just what you got in a week or so.”
He put his arms around Aunt Ruby Lee and gave her a big hug. They were a handsome couple. Roger was blond, too, but his hair was sandy-colored and wavy. Roger’s the only country musician I’ve ever heard of who dresses flashier offstage than on. He was wearing a bright blue Western shirt that would have looked gaudy on anybody else, and of course had on his trademark turquoise and bear claw bracelet, ring, and belt buckle.
They looked so cute standing there that I had to smile, and even Aunt Maggie looked indulgent. Then I heard a loud snort from the couch. It had been so long since Ilene had spoken to anybody that I had nigh about forgotten she was there.
Aunt Ruby Lee pulled away from Roger, and Roger said to Ilene, “Hey there, pumpkin. I didn’t see you over there. Did you enjoy your mama’s party?”
Ilene shrugged. “It was all right.”
“She’s just tired,” Aunt Ruby Lee said. “All these wedding activities are getting to her.”
“What about me?” Vasti wailed. “I spent all day putting the shower together, and I’ve still got to get the plates and punch bowl set I borrowed into the car.”
“Clifford and Earl can take care of that for you,” Roger said, right on cue. He called them out of the kitchen, and when Slim volunteered to help, Vasti put them all to work. She made a couple of pointed hints for Ilene to help, too, but Ilene ignored her just as pointedly.
While the fellows loaded the car, Roger added, “Speaking of wedding activities, Vasti, you don’t have anything for me to do this weekend, do you?”
Vasti pulled a tiny leather-bound notebook from her pocketbook and consulted it. “I don’t think so.”
“Good. I got a call from Forrest Jefferson over in Rocky Shoals. One of the judges she had lined up for the Jamboree backed out, and she asked me to take his place. Since me and the Ramblers were already going to play a couple of sets there, I told her I would.”
“Without checking with me first?” Vasti said in a shocked tone.
“Vasti, have you ever tried to say no to Forrest Jefferson?”
“She is awfully pushy,” Vasti agreed, which was the pot calling the kettle black as far as I was concerned. “I guess it’s all right.”
Ilene snorted again. “A person would think it was you getting married, instead of Mama and Daddy. Haven’t you got something else you need to do?”
Vasti smiled in a way that told me trouble was coming, and said, “I guess I get carried away. So Roger, are you going to be judging the novice competition?”
“No, just the semi-pros,” he answered.
“That’s good. I was afraid that your being a judge might be a problem with Ilene being in the competition,” Vasti said, far too innocently. Clearly she knew something that I didn’t.
“Since when is Ilene in the competition?” Roger said. “I don’t remember being asked about it.”
“Mama said I could,” Ilene said quickly.
“Is that right? Ruby Lee, don’t you think that you and I should have talked about something like this?”
Aunt Ruby Lee looked distinctly uncomfortable. “I didn’t think it was necessary, Roger. Ilene’s been in contests before, in school and all.”
“The Jamboree isn’t just a school talent contest, honey,” Roger said. “It’s for people who are planning to become professionals. Our little Ilene would be way out of her league.”
I swear I saw the blood rushing to Ilene’s face.
Aunt Ruby Lee must have seen it too, because she said, “But Clifford and Earl were in it last year, and they did good enough to move up to intermediate.”
“That’s different. Clifford and Earl are working toward careers in music.”
“So am I!” Ilene said. “I’m as good as they are.”
“Honey, you know that’s not so,” Roger said. “I’m just thinking of you. You don’t want to go out there and embarrass yourself, now do you.”
“Daddy, I’m good. I am!”
“She does have a pretty voice,” Aunt Ruby Lee said.
“A pretty voice isn’t enough,” Roger said, and the patronizing tone in his voice was raising even my hackles. “The Jamboree is for serious musicians, not for little girls.”
“I’m not a little girl,” Ilene said.
“Ilene, I’m afraid you’re just not ready for something like this. Maybe next year.”
Ilene must have been able to see from his face that talking to her father was like talking to a stone wall, so she turned to her mother. “Mama, you said I could. I’ve been practicing for ages. Tom helped me work out an act, and I’ve got my costume all ready.”
Aunt Ruby Lee looked at Ilene, then at Roger, then back at Ilene. “Well, baby, if your daddy says you’re not ready, maybe it would be better to wait a year.”
“But Mama! Tom and I paid my money yesterday. You can’t change your mind now.”
“That’s another thing I don’t like,” Roger said. “I don’t know that Tom Honeywell is a good influence on you. Ever since you started running with him, you’ve been talking back to me and your mama, being out at all hours, dressing like a—Like you’ve been dressing. You never used to act like that before Honeywell came sniffing around.”
“How would you know?” Ilene shot back. “You were never around.”
Even Roger had to realize that Ilene had a point there. After he split up with Aunt Ruby Lee, he hadn’t spent as much time with Ilene as he should have.
He said, “Well I’m here now, and I think it’s high time you found somebody else to spend your time with instead of that—”
“Don’t you dare say anything about Tom,” Ilene said. “You’ve got no right to talk about him like that, and you’ve got no right to tell me who I can see.”
“The hell I don’t! Just who do you think you’re talking to?”
Ilene didn’t bother to answer that. Instead she looked at Aunt Ruby Lee again and said, “Please, Mama. You said I could be in the Jamboree.”
“I know I did, honey, but if your father feels this strongly about it, maybe you shouldn’t.”
“If he feels this strongly? What about how I feel?”
“Don’t talk back to your mother,” Roger warned.
“But it’s not fair!”
“You watch your tone!”
“You watch yours!” Ilene yelled at him. “We were doing just fine, Mama and me and the boys. Why did you have to come back? You don’t own this house, and you don’t own me. I’m going to be in that Jamboree and I’m going to win, too. You just watch me!”
Before anybody could respond, she spun around and ran up the stairs.
“Just wait one minute!” Roger started, but Aunt Ruby Lee took hold of his arm.
“You better let her be for now, Roger,” she said. “I’ll talk to her later.”
He relented, but he didn’t look happy about it. Seconds later, we heard a door slam hard enough to shake the rest of the house.
That’s when the two of them remembered that Slim, Aunt Maggie, Vasti, and I were still there, just as embarrassed to have seen that as they were. At least, Slim, Aunt Maggie, and I were embarrassed. Aunt Ruby Lee murmured an apology, and we said something equally meaningless in return. Then we all left, with Aunt Maggie making sure that Vasti went, too. Slim was too polite to say anything about the fight. He just walked us to our cars before leaving himself.