Standing in the Rainbow - Fannie Flagg [36]
After they got the cookies and the sandwiches, Minnie said, “I’ll bring your plate back in the morning. We’ll be here at nine sharp for your show, so don’t you worry,” and they drove off, leaving Betty Raye standing alone on the sidewalk.
A little too brightly Anna Lee said, “Hi, I’m Anna Lee, welcome.”
Dorothy pulled him over and said, “And this is Bobby.”
Bobby said, “Hello.”
Betty Raye looked down at the sidewalk and nodded. There was an awkward moment when they all just stood there but Dorothy jumped in with “Come on in and let’s get you settled. Bobby, take her suitcase.” Bobby, who had been fascinated, staring at her odd dress, said, “Oh . . . O.K.,” and took it from her, immediately asking, “Hey, is this made out of cardboard?”
Dorothy shot him a look. “I was just wondering,” he said.
Betty Raye, who was used to staying with strangers wherever she went, seemed resigned to the situation and followed behind them, waiting to be told where to go. She said nothing until she was taken to Anna Lee’s room. Dorothy opened the door and announced, “And this will be your room while you’re here.”
The large sunny room with the big white-lace canopy bed and the floral wallpaper looked like something out of a magazine. Anna Lee and Dorothy had worked all morning to get it ready. Dorothy had washed and starched the curtains to make the room as nice and as cheerful as possible for her arrival. They all waited for her to go on in first, but Betty Raye did not move from the doorway. Then she looked up at Dorothy, almost cringing, and asked in an apologetic voice, “Mrs. Smith, do you have anywhere else I could stay?”
Dorothy was completely taken aback. This was the last thing in the world they had expected to hear. “Oh,” she said. “Don’t you like this room? Is there anything wrong?”
“No, ma’am.”
Dorothy was at a loss. All she could come up with was “Oh dear.”
Bobby jumped in with a bad idea. “Hey, you can stay in my room if you want to. I’ve got all kinds of stuff in there.”
“No, Bobby, she’s not staying in your room. I’m just trying to think of where else you might like. We can take a look around if you like.”
Betty Raye cringed again and almost whispered a scared little “Would you mind?”
Thoroughly flustered, Dorothy said, “No of course not, you’re our guest. We want you to be happy.”
As the three of them followed behind Betty Raye like a small parade all over the house from room to room, Dorothy glanced over at her daughter and threw her hands up and shook her head, as if to say silently, “I don’t know what she’s doing, do you?” But Anna Lee was suddenly enjoying this strange turn of events and did not respond. Instead, she just looked up in the air and innocently batted her eyes with an attitude that translated as “Don’t look at me, you’re the one who invited her.” And at that moment Dorothy could have pinched her head off.
Betty Raye had almost gone through the entire house when she opened the door to the little sewing room off the sunporch. She looked in and pointed to the daybed that was against the wall, covered with old scraps of material and patterns. “Can I stay here?”
Dorothy, crushed, said, “Why yes, I suppose you can . . . but it’s just a little hole in the wall no bigger than a closet. There’s not even a place to hang your clothes. Wouldn’t you really feel better having a nice big bedroom with your own bathroom?”
But Betty Raye said, “No, ma’am, this will be fine.”
Dorothy tried to be cheerful. “Well, all right, we want you to be happy while you are here. Anna Lee, help me get all this stuff off the bed, and let’s fold up the ironing board.”
That night at dinner Betty Raye hardly ate a thing. She spoke only when spoken to and even that was minimal.
Doc had just gotten home in time for dinner and tried to chat with her. He asked pleasantly, “So, Betty Raye, how do you