Standing in the Rainbow - Fannie Flagg [146]
After Macky left the house, Norma went into the bedroom and took out her pink Kmart nightgown and held it up to her and looked at herself in the mirror. She turned to the left and then to the right and smiled.
Ten minutes later the phone at the store rang. Macky picked up. “Warren’s Hardware.”
“Macky, let me ask you something, and tell me the truth.”
“What?”
“You don’t discuss me with other men, do you?”
“What?”
“You don’t discuss what I look like in my nightgown with other men, do you?”
“Of course not.”
“Because I would be horrified if you did—”
“Honey, I promise I don’t discuss what you look like in anything with anybody, you know that.”
“I would just die if I thought while I was talking to some man he was trying to imagine what I looked like in my nightgown.”
“Norma, do you think I would take the chance of driving all the men in this town wild? I know better than that.”
“That’s not what I mean. I mean, oh, you know . . . I’d just feel funny if I thought somebody was looking at me funny.”
“No. Your secret’s safe with me.”
“Good. I feel better. Guess what? I found that housecoat. I had put it up on the top shelf in that red box with those extra pillowcases we don’t use, but guess what else?”
“What?”
“I can’t wear it.”
“Why?”
“It doesn’t match anymore. It’s a much darker pink than my nightgown, so it’s not a matched set. I’m thinking about running out there and seeing if they still carry the same thing and that way I could just buy the gown if they would let me, they might not, but if they won’t . . . I thought that maybe if I ran it through the washing machine every time I did a load, it would fade sooner or later. What do you think . . . should I do it?”
“Do what?”
“See if I can get a new nightgown. I thought since you like the way it looks on me, I should try and get a new one. If they still carry the same line; they keep changing things, I wish they wouldn’t . . . don’t you?”
“What?”
“Keep changing things. When you buy something you like, it’s terrible to go there and they don’t sell it anymore. That’s something you should remember in your business. Don’t discontinue things or change the make or brand.”
“Okay, honey, I’ll remember that.”
“Macky, you’re not going to be mad at me for going to Kmart, are you?”
“No.”
“I’m not buying hardware. I might not be buying anything. If they have it I’ll just get this one thing and then that’s it, O.K.?”
“All right . . .”
“I’ll take Aunt Elner with me . . . but we will just look, O.K.?”
“O.K.”
“You won’t think I’m a traitor, will you?”
“No, you go on and see about your nightgown.”
“Macky, do you really still find me attractive after all these years or are you just kidding?”
“Do you want me to close the store and come home right now and prove it?”
“Macky Warren! You better stop that nasty talk. What if a customer should hear you?”
Macky laughed heartily, and Norma hung up the phone and smiled.
Maybe while she was there, she would see if it came in any other colors.
Near Miss
IN ALL THE TIME Vita and Hamm had been together there had been only one conversation that came close to being an argument. Early on, when the affair first started, Hamm went through a period where he talked about getting a divorce but she had quickly nipped that idea in the bud. “Absolutely not. You are not going to ruin your political future over me. Besides, I don’t want to get married. I’m a grown woman and I want exactly what I’ve got. If this is some sort of guilt over me, forget it. You might as well know right now, I don’t want children. I have no interest whatsoever in being a mother or a stepmother.”
“But Vita,” he said, “I do feel bad.”
She took his face in her hands. “Darling, I know how you feel about me. You don’t need to wreck your life to prove it. What you do at home is your business but what we have together is just between us. We are not hurting anyone. It’s perfect the way it is.”
Of course, Vita did not know it as yet but her affair with Hamm was hurting someone