She looked back at the photograph and another smile came to her face. She laughed, tapping a long finger on the motorcycle, which was still grimy but identifiable. “I ’member that!” she said. “Jesse done cover it over. Miss Anna, she paint it again. Jesse cover it again.”

I was lost. “What do you mean?” I asked.

She lifted her watery gaze to my face. “You know you got to be quiet about her, right?” she asked me in a hushed voice.

“Why?” I asked, wishing I had the key to unlock this old woman’s skittering brain. “Why do I need to be quiet about her?”

She only pressed a finger to her lips again, and I sighed.

“All right, yes, I’ll be very quiet about her.” I looked at the grainy newspaper photograph, which now rested on my knees, and ventured the question that disturbed me the most. “Mama Nelle,” I said. “Do you know if Miss Anna killed herself?”

Behind her glasses, Mama Nelle’s dark eyes widened in surprise. “Oh no, child!” she said. “Why, that girl? She couldn’t even kill a chicken.”

Chapter 28. Anna

Chapter 28

ANNA

January 12–15, 1940

The morning started out very well, the day full of promise. Miss Myrtle, Ellen Harper—the salesgirl from the Patsy Department Store—Freda, and Mayor Syke’s wife, Madge, all came to the warehouse to pose for the cartoon. Anna had borrowed dresses for Miss Myrtle, Ellen, and Miss Madge from a local historian Mr. Arndt had put her in touch with. The women changed their clothes one by one in the revolting warehouse bathroom, laughing over too tight bodices and scratchy petticoats. Then Anna sat the three Tea Party ladies around a crate they pretended was a table. The ladies giggled too much for grown women, but all in all, Anna was happy with the way her drawing turned out on the cartoon paper.

Freda was the real star in the modeling department, though. Because she never spoke, Anna had never really seen her teeth. When Freda smiled, as Anna asked her to do for the portrait, the woman displayed beautiful white teeth and a fetching smile. Anna’s plan was for Freda to hold out her apron full of peanuts. Anna had the apron, but no peanuts, so she would have to add them to the drawing later.

Jesse arrived before Anna was even finished sketching the women. She wasn’t surprised by his early, enthusiastic arrival, and without a word, he began cutting wood for the braces on the stretcher as she continued working with the women.

She was both exhausted and elated by the time the models left. Then Theresa and Peter arrived. Peter joined Jesse at work on the stretcher, but Theresa took Anna aside.

“My daddy won’t let me work here if he’s here,” she whispered, nodding in Jesse’s direction.