Wedding Bell Blues - [24]

get happy. And you wanna talk about some fine people ... they was some of the best folks you’d ever meetin that church.” He took a slug of Coke. “Now, I ain’t in that church no more, mind you. Jeanie and Mamajoined up with the Presbyterians a while back, and I joined up with ’em. I don’t hardly go to church there,though, ’cause the preaching and the singing’s so quiet, it seems like I have to start snoring just to make alittle noise.

“I’ll tell you somethin’, though. A few years back I was down in Mississippi on bizness, and Ilooked up this ole army buddy of mine—a black feller. He invited me to a tent revival his church washaving. I was the only white man in that tent, and I swear to God, I don’t believe I sat down once duringthe whole service ... I was too busy standing up and clapping and singing. Them people knew how to havechurch, let me tell you.” Big Ben picked up his silverware and dug back into his steak.

“Well, of course, there’s good people in every group,” Charles waffled. “I didn’t mean—”

“I know what you meant, buddy,” Big Ben said, looking Charles in the eye.

“So,” Jeanie said, with determined cheer. “We got pound cake and chess pie. Who wants what?”

As everyone sat with their coffee in the living room, Lily crawled down on the floor with Mimiand helped her to a standing position. “How about a little after-dinner entertainment, Mimi-saurus?” Lilysaid. “Why don’t you show Grandma and Grandpa how you can walk?”

Mimi stood with her little hands clenched, steeling herself for action.

“Come on, sweetie. Walk to Mama.”

Mimi knitted her brow, sucked in her breath, and took one, two, three faltering steps before fallinginto Lily’s arms. At the sound of her grandparents’ applause, she grinned crookedly.

“I swear,” Big Ben said, “I think she’s just about the happiest baby I’ve ever seen.”

“Well, of course she’s happy,” Jeanie added. “Why wouldn’t she be? She’s well taken care of, andloved.” She looked straight at the Maycombs. “Mimi may not be hers by blood, but Lily’s still one of thebest mamas I’ve ever seen.”

Lily’s stomach clenched. All evening she had been wondering how to broach the subject of Mimi’scustody with the Maycombs. Now it seemed that Big Ben and Jeanie were going to cut to the chase forher, which, she noticed, had caused the Maycombs to squirm as though the cushions in their chairs werestuffed with gravel.

“Well,” Charles said, avoiding eye contact with anyone in the room. “I’m sure Lily is fine atseeing to the child’s basic needs —keeping her fed and clean, that kind of thing.” He smiled self-righteously. “But as I’m sure some of the ladies in the room know, there’s a lot more to being a motherthan that.”

“Oh, yes.” Ida looked at Mike in the same way Jocasta must have looked at Oedipus. “If you’venot carried the child in your own body, you don’t know what it is to be a mother. Nobody knows childrenlike a real mother does.”

That’s funny, Lily thought. You barely could have picked your daughter out of a lineup.

“Well, that’s certainly a sentiment you could needlepoint on a pillow,” Ben said. “But Mimi’sbiological mother is no longer with us. Lily and I are just trying to create the best family for her that wecan.”

“Well,” Charles said calmly, “we feel that Mimi needs to be in an environment where she canlearn the difference between right and wrong—”

“Now you just hold on a minute here,” Big Ben interrupted. “You can ask anybody in FaulknerCounty, and they’ll tell you the McGillys is fine folks. We’re a decent, hardworking family, and BennyJack here is a good boy. We never had a bit of trouble outta him, and I can’t say the same thing for hisbrothers. And Lily — she may not look like you’re used to girls looking, but she’s a good, honest person.”

The word stung Lily, but she was touched by Big Ben’s impassioned defense.

“Look,” Mike said impatiently, “there are certain factors here you don’t understand. I don’t wantto go into them because there are ladies present. Let’s just say that given these factors, we feel it would bein Mimi’s best interests to live with the remaining members of her biological family.”

“But Mike,” Lily interjected, “Ben is Mimi’s biological father.” So much for the honesty theory,she thought.

“Oh, I don’t believe that story for a minute. Mimi’s daddy was in some test tube at a sperm bank.”Mike’s bald spot flushed red, and a vein in his forehead bulged. “Just because you found some sissy tomarry you, just because you put on a dress and shaved your legs, that doesn’t change what you are—”

“Calm down, son—” Charles interrupted.

Heedless, Mike ranted on. “And don’t think for a second we don’t know who you are, Lily...

McGilly, as you call yourself. For whatever perverted purposes, you may claim to be a normal wife andmother, but deep down you’re still a godless, man-hating…”

A crash issued from upstairs as though a door had been ripped from its sockets. Something hugebarreled down the stairs and soon was standing on its hind legs with its front paws positioned on the arms