I arrange the-this and the-that for her lady friends. Set out the good crystal, put the silver service out. Miss Leefolt dont put up no dinky card table like the other ladies do. We set at the dining room table. Put a cloth on top to cover the big L-shaped crack, move that red flower centerpiece to the sideboard to hide where the wood all scratched. Miss Leefolt, she like it fancy when she do a luncheon. Maybe she trying to make up for her house being small. They aint rich folk, that I know. Rich folk dont try so hard.
Im used to working for young couples, but I spec this is the smallest house I ever worked in. Its just the one story. Her and Mister Leefolts room in the back be a fair size, but Baby Girls room be tiny. The dining room and the regular living room kind a join up. Only two bathrooms, which is a relief cause I worked in houses where they was five or six. Take a whole day just to clean toilets. Miss Leefolt dont pay but ninety-five cents an hour, less than I been paid in years. But after Treelore died, I took what I could. Landlord wasnt gone wait much longer. And even though its small, Miss Leefolt done the house up nice as she can. She pretty good with the sewing machine. Anything she cant buy new of, she just get her some blue material and sew it a cover.
The doorbell ring and I open it up.
Hey, Aibileen, Miss Skeeter say, cause she the kind that speak to the help. How you?
Hey, Miss Skeeter. Im alright. Law, its hot out there.
Miss Skeeter real tall and skinny. Her hair be yellow and cut short above her shoulders cause she get the frizz year round. She twenty-three or so, same as Miss Leefolt and the rest of em. She set her pocketbook on the chair, kind a itch around in her clothes a second. She wearing a white lace blouse buttoned up like a nun, flat shoes so I reckon she dont look any taller. Her blue skirt gaps open in the waist. Miss Skeeter always look like somebody else told her what to wear.
I hear Miss Hilly and her mama, Miss Walter, pull up the driveway and toot the horn. Miss Hilly dont live but ten feet away, but she always drive over. I let her in and she go right past me and I figure its a good time to get Mae Mobley up from her nap.
Soon as I walk in her nursery, Mae Mobley smile at me, reach out her fat little arms.
You already up, Baby Girl? Why you didnt holler for me?
She laugh, dance a little happy jig waiting on me to get her out. I give her a good hug. I reckon she dont get too many good hugs like this after I go home. Ever so often, I come to work and find her bawling in her crib, Miss Leefolt busy on the sewing machine rolling her eyes like its a stray cat stuck in the screen door. See, Miss Leefolt, she dress up nice ever day. Always got her makeup on, got a carport, double-door Frigidaire with the built-in icebox. You see her in the Jitney 14 grocery, you never think she go and leave her baby crying in her crib like that. But the help always know.
Today is a good day though. That girl just grins.
I say, Aibileen.
She say, Aib-ee.
I say, Love.
She say, Love.
I say, Mae Mobley.
She say, Aib-ee. And then she laugh and laugh. She so tickled she talking and I got to say, its about time. Treelore didnt say nothing till he two either. By the time he in third grade, though, he get to talking better than the President a the United States, coming home using words like conjugation and parliamentary. He get in junior high[3] and we play this game where I give him a real simple word and he got to come up with a fancy one like it. I say housecat, he say domesticized feline, I say mixer and he say motorized rotunda. One day I say Crisco. He scratch his head. He just cant believe I done won the game with something simple as Crisco. Came to be a secret joke with us, meaning something you cant dress up no matter how you try. We start calling his daddy Crisco cause you cant fancy up a man done run off on his family. Plus he the greasiest no-count you ever known.
I tote Mae Mobley into the kitchen and put her in her high chair, thinking about two chores I need to finish today fore Miss Leefolt have a fit: separate the napkins that started to fray and straighten up the silver service in the cabinet. Law, Im on have to do it while the ladies is here, I guess.
I take the tray a devil eggs out to the dining room. Miss Leefolt setting at the head and to her left be Miss Hilly Holbrook and Miss Hillys mama, Miss Walter, who Miss Hilly dont treat with no respect. And then on Miss Leefolts right be Miss Skeeter.
I make the egg rounds, starting with ole Miss Walter first cause she the elder. Its warm in here, but she got a thick brown sweater drooped around her shoulders. She scoop a egg up and near bout drop it cause she getting the palsy. Then I move over to Miss Hilly and she smile and take two. Miss Hilly got a round face and dark brown hair in the beehive. Her skin be olive color, with freckles and moles. She wear a lot a red plaid. And she getting heavy in the bottom. Today, since its so hot, she wearing a red sleeveless dress with no waist to it. She one a those grown ladies that still dress like a little girl with big bows and matching hats and such. She aint my favorite.