About four oclock, Miss Skeeter come in the kitchen. Before she can even say hello, Miss Leefolt rush in behind her. Aibileen, I just found out Missus Fredericks is driving down from Greenwood tomorrow and staying through Thanksgiving. I want the silver service polished and all the guest towels washed. Tomorrow Ill give you the list of what else.
Miss Leefolt shake her head at Miss Skeeter like aint she got the hardest life in town and walks out. I go on and get the silver service out the dining room. Law, Im already tired and I got to be ready to work the Benefit next Saturday night. Minny aint coming. She too scared she gone run into Miss Hilly.
Miss Skeeter still waiting on me in the kitchen when I come back in. She got a Miss Myrna letter in her hand.
You got a cleaning question? I sigh. Go head.
Not really. I just I wanted to ask you the other day
I take a plug a Pine-Ola cream and start rubbing it onto the silver, working the cloth around the rose design, the lip and the handle. God, please let tomorrow come soon. I aint gone go to the gravesite. I cant, itll be too hard
Aibileen? Are you feeling alright?
I stop, look up. Realize Miss Skeeter been talking to me the whole time.
Im sorry Is just thinking about something.
You looked so sad.
Miss Skeeter. I feel tears come up in my eyes, cause three years just aint long enough. A hundred years aint gone be long enough. You mind if I help you with them questions tomorrow?
Miss Skeeter start to say something, but then she stop herself. Of course. I hope you feel better.
I finish the silver set and the towels and tell Miss Leefolt I got to go home even though its half a hour early and she gone short my pay. She open her mouth like she want to protest and I whisper my lie, I vomited, and she say go. Cause besides her own mother, there aint nothing Miss Leefolt scared of more than Negro diseases.
Alright then. Ill be back in thirty minutes. Ill pull right up here at nine forty-five, Miss Leefolt say through the passenger car window. Miss Leefolt dropping me off at the Jitney 14 to pick up what else we need for Thanksgiving tomorrow.
You bring her back that receipt, now, Miss Fredericks, Miss Leefolts mean old mama, say. They all three in the front seat, Mae Mobley squeezed in the middle with a look so miserable you think she about to get a tetanus shot. Poor girl. Miss Fredericks supposed to stay two weeks this time.
Dont forget the turkey, now, Miss Leefolt say. And two cans of cranberry sauce.
I smile. I only been cooking white Thanksgivings since Calvin Coolidge[71] was President.
Quit squirming, Mae Mobley, Miss Fredericks snap, or Ill pinch you.
Miss Leefolt, lemme take her in the store with me. Help me with my shopping.
Miss Fredericks about to protest, but Miss Leefolt say, Take her, and fore I know it, Baby Girl done wormed her way over Miss Fredericks lap and is climbing out the window in my arms like I am the Lord Savior. I pull her up on my hip and they drive off toward Fortification Street, and Baby Girl and me, we giggle like a couple a schoolgirls.
I push open the metal door, get a cart, and put Mae Mobley up front, stick her legs through the holes. Long as I got my white uniform on, Im allowed to shop in this Jitney. I miss the old days, when you just walk out to Fortification Street and there be the farmers with they wheelbarrows calling out, Sweet potatoes, butter beans, string beans, okra. Fresh cream, buttermilk, yellow cheese, eggs. But the Jitney aint so bad. Least they got the good air-condition.
Alrighty, Baby Girl. Less see what we need.
In produce, I pick out six sweet potatoes, three handfuls a string beans. I get a smoked ham hock from the butcher. The store is bright, lined up neat. Nothing like the colored Piggly Wiggly with sawdust on the floor. Its mostly white ladies, smiling, got they hair already fixed and sprayed for tomorrow. Four or five maids is shopping, all in they uniforms.
Purple stuff! Mae Mobley say and I let her hold the can a cranberry. She smile at it like its a old friend. She love the purple stuff. In dry goods, I heave the two-pound bag a salt in the cart, to brine the turkey in. I count the hours on my hands, ten, eleven, twelve. If Im on soak the bird for fourteen hours in the salt water, Ill put it in the bucket around three this afternoon. Then Ill come in to Miss Leefolts at five tomorrow morning and cook the turkey for the next six hours. I already baked two pans a cornbread, left it to stale on the counter today to give it some crunch. I got a apple pie ready to bake, gone do my biscuits in the morning.
Ready for tomorrow, Aibileen? I turn and see Franny Coots behind me. She go to my church, work for Miss Caroline on Manship. Hey, cutie, look a them fat legs, she say to Mae Mobley. Mae Mobley lick the cranberry can.
Franny bend her head down, say, You hear what happen to Louvenia Browns grandson this morning?
Robert? I say. Who do the mowing?
Use the white bathroom at Pinchman Lawn and Garden. Say they wasnt a sign up saying so. Two white mens chased him and beat him with a tire iron.