“All right then. I just hope this raggedy old jalopy doesn’t break down before we can get to Hartville and back. I’d hate to be stranded on a dark gravel road in my new clothes.” Joyce looked at the plain green-and-white dress I had on. “Girl, you must love that dress. I’ve seen you in it at least a dozen times in the last couple of months. I wonder why it hasn’t fallen apart at the seams by now. When it does, it’d make some good quilt pieces and dust rags. Where in the world did you find it?”

“At a secondhand store.”

“I figured that. They stopped making that style years ago.”

I was seething, but I managed to bite my tongue. “Well, you know me. I ain’t half as good as you when it comes to keeping up with what’s in fashion. But this dress is so sturdy, I’m pretty sure I can wear it at least a dozen more times before I wear it out.”

“I’m sure you will.” Joyce shifted in her seat again. “It’s been months since Odell took me to a restaurant other than Mosella’s, or one of the chicken or rib shacks in Branson or Lexington. What’s the name of this place in Hartville?”

“It’s Po’ Sister’s Kitchen. A lot of our regular customers at the grill told us about it,” I replied. “Some of the folks who come drink at the house mention it all the time. They claim that them folks serve the best deep-fried, buttermilk-marinated catfish in the world.”

“If I like it, Odell and I will treat y’all to supper there some day,” she gushed. “He doesn’t like to drive, and he probably won’t be too eager to go because it takes about an hour to get to Hartville. I’m sure I can talk him into it, though.”

I had to hold my breath to keep from laughing at her last remark. Odell put at least a hundred miles a week on his car going to and from Hartville.

“Joyce, feel free to take a snooze if you want to. We don’t mind,” Milton piped in.

She giggled. “Oh, I’m not sleepy. I’d rather chat. Talking to y’all is a lot less complicated than it is with most of the other folks Odell and I know; teachers and other professionals. With them, I have to keep my guard up so I won’t say anything ignorant or offensive. I can say whatever comes to my mind around y’all.”