Wedding Bell Blues - [17]

to go through six dozen eggs a week.” She handed Mimi a sippy cup of milk, Lily a mug of coffee.

“Speaking of my boys, I bet that sorry husband of yours ain’t turned over in the bed yet.”

“He was still pretty out of it when I got up.” She sipped from the mug. “Good coffee.”

“He always was slow to wake. I used to pour ice water on him to get him outta bed for school.”Jeanie set a plate of scrambled eggs and toast in front of Lily. “Hmm,” Jeanie said, “I reckon I should justgo on and wake him up. I can’t just wait around all day to cook his breakfast.”

Lily nibbled toast and spooned egg into Mimi’s open, baby-bird mouth while Jeanie hollered upthe stairs, “Benny Jack! You better get on up! It’s going on nine o’clock!”

Lily smiled. Back in Atlanta, Ben rarely rose before eleven.

From upstairs Lily heard Ben yell back a response that sounded like, “oh, for god’s sake, Mother.”But in two minutes, he was in the kitchen, his face shadowed with stubble and his hair standing on end asif he were a cartoon character who had stuck his finger in a light socket.

“Welcome to married life, Lily,” Jeanie said, dropping two more pieces of bread in the toaster.

“You might go to bed with a good-looking man, but when he wakes up in the morning, he’s gonna looklike holy hell.”

Lily laughed, while Ben muttered an incantation against the female sex and helped himself tosome coffee.

“I’m just teasing you, Benny Jack. You want three eggs or four?”

“Mother, I’ve told you a thousand times that I don’t eat eggs anymore. I know the doctors inVersailles haven’t heard of cholesterol yet, but —”

Jeanie rolled her eyes. “I know all about cholesterol, Benny Jack. I just thought you might want areal breakfast this mornin’ since it’s a special occasion. I mean, if a man don’t wake up after his weddingnight with a good appetite, then there’s somethin’ bad wrong —”

“Two,” Ben mumbled.

“What was that, honey?”

“Two eggs, Mother.” He sank into a kitchen chair.

Mimi pulled herself to standing and leaned against Ben’s knee. She grinned up at him with herjack-o’-lantern teeth. “B-Jack,” she crooned.

Jeanie looked up from her cooking, delighted. “What was that she said?”

Lily laughed. “I think she just called him Benny Jack.”

Jeanie grinned. “Now, Mimi, honey, you don’t call him that. You call him daddy, just like always.”

Mimi gave Jeanie a puzzled glance. Daddy was not a familiar concept to her. She looked back upat Ben, giggled, and repeated, “B-Jack.”

Ben slammed down his coffee mug in exasperation. “Ben! Why can’t everybody just call me Ben?

It’s just one little syllable! Is that too much to ask?”

“Now, now, honey,” Lily cooed with mock affection. “I think Benny Jack is an adorable name.”She thought it only fair that if she had to suffer the indignity of being named Lily McGilly, Ben shouldalso be saddled with a name he hated.

Jeanie brought Ben’s breakfast to the table. “Your daddy wants y’all to meet him down at the millat eleven. He’s got y’all a one-thirty appointment with Buzz Dobson, but first, he’s got a little surprise.”

Lily wondered with some trepidation what the surprise could be. Surprises weren’t really what shecraved these days.

“And I was hoping,” Jeanie said, “that you might leave Mimi with me. I’d just love to show heroff and maybe take her shopping. The poor little thing barely has a stitch of clothing to her name.”

Lily looked down at Mimi, who was wearing a plain white T-shirt and a pair of tiny denim shorts.

Lily had bought most of Mimi’s clothes at Goodwill, and her main criteria for selecting infant wear wasthat it would not be permanently stained by milk, cereal, spit-up, or pee. “I’m sure she would love to goshopping with you,” Lily said, against her better instincts.

At five after eleven, Lily and Ben pulled into the gravel parking lot of the Confederate Sock Mill.

As they went in the side entrance of the building, with Lily toting Mimi and a bag full of baby supplies,the all-female clerical staff descended on them and crowed, “Oh, is this the new grandbaby?” “I want youto look at her!” “Isn’t she the sweetest thing?”

When Jeanie rose from her desk and approached them, the other women cleared a path for her.

“There’s Mamaw’s little sunshine!” she called, opening her arms to receive Mimi. “Benny Jack, yourdaddy’s out on the floor if you want to go get him. You can take Lily, too — show her the production

The production area of the Confederate Sock Mill hurt Lily’s ears and nose. The clicking andchugging of the machinery was deafening, and the smell of the textile fibers caused her to have a sneezingfit. The two dozen mill workers, engrossed in their repetitive tasks, didn’t seem to notice the sounds orsmells at all.

Big Ben, who had been deep in conversation with a machine operator, spotted them and waved.

“Hey,” he yelled over the rumbling machinery “Y’all ready to go for a ride?”

As they walked to the parking lot, Big Ben said, “Well, I reckon we could go in Benny Jack’s caror my truck.” He grinned. “Or Lily, we could go in your car.”