“Can I go, too?” I asked.

“You’ll have to be quiet.”

“I can do that.”

Frances came out onto the balcony with her eggs and toast. “You want some more juice, Sophie?” she asked. “Or a Coke?”

“No, thanks. I have to go.” The child gave a wave and disappeared into the living room. In a second, though, she stuck her head back through the door. “I have my nipples and my navel pierced,” she announced. And with that, she left.

“Good Lord!” Haley exclaimed. “Do you think she really does? Surely we’d have noticed in that bikini.”

Frances and I, old veterans of this war, just grinned at each other.

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

“Papa’s coming to protect us,” Haley said when I told Frances about Fred’s plans.

“Don’t knock it,” Frances pushed her empty plate back and sighed. “You know, I haven’t smoked in—how long has it been, Patricia Anne?—God knows, and I’d give an eye-tooth for a cigarette right this minute.”

“Take a deep breath and you can get a whiff of Fairchild’s cigar,” I said. “He’s over there on the balcony smoking up a storm.”

“At least he’s not inside.” Haley took the last sip of coffee and sighed contentedly. “That was delicious, Frances. Thanks.”

Frances nodded. “He’ll be smoking in the living room by afternoon.”

“You think so?” Haley asked. “Millicent hated those cigars.”

Frances nodded again. “I’m telling you. In the living room. When my Aunt Isabel died, they laid her out at home—you know how they used to do—and damned if my Uncle Douglas didn’t go in there right over the casket and light up a cigar and blow smoke on her. And Aunt Isabel just lying there and smiling, decked out in her wedding dress that wouldn’t button anymore but you couldn’t tell it since the buttons were in the back. Made my mama so mad she said, ‘Douglas, this is a sin and a disgrace doing my sainted sister this way. God’ll punish you, sure as anything.’”

“Did he?” I asked.

“What? God punish him? Not that I know of. He’s still living up in Lanett, working on his third wife.” Frances licked her finger and stabbed toast crumbs from her plate. “Which reminds me. Have y’all ever been to The Little White House at Warm Springs? It’s not far from Lanett.”

We admitted that we hadn’t.