Standing in the Rainbow - Fannie Flagg [65]
“Why not?” asked Beatrice.
Dorothy had hoped she would ask. “Well, in order for her to stop singing they would have to find someone to replace her in the group.”
“Oh,” said Beatrice. She began to pet Honey’s head a little faster. “Really?”
Dorothy stirred two more teaspoons of sugar into her coffee to give Beatrice time to think. “Of course, it would mean a great deal of traveling for someone . . . always going from one place to another . . .”
“Really?”
“Oh yes. I didn’t say anything to Minnie . . . but you wouldn’t be interested in anything like that, would you?”
Beatrice immediately stood up. “Oh, Dorothy, do you think they would take me? Do you think they ever would? I know all the songs and I can learn the harmonies—”
“Well, Minnie is calling me in a few days and if you want I can certainly ask her. But now, I don’t think it would pay much.”
“I don’t care about that. And if they’re worried about me being blind, tell them about Honey. Tell them we get around fine. I can do almost anything. I would not be a burden. Tell them I’d sing for free.”
They were both on pins and needles until Minnie called, as promised. Dorothy told her that Beatrice would be available to go on the road in Betty Raye’s place if they wanted her. Minnie said she would talk it over with Ferris and call back.
An hour went by and finally the phone rang again. “Mrs. Smith, you tell that girl if she is willing to put up with us we would just love to have her. Hold on, I’m gonna put Betty Raye on the line.”
While she was waiting Dorothy called out to Beatrice, who was in the kitchen waiting to hear. “They want you, honey.” Then Betty Raye came on.
“Hello?”
“Betty Raye . . . has your mother told you everything?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Is this all right with you? You know, we really want you to come.”
There was a long pause. “Mrs. Smith, you just don’t know how much I want to be there.”
This was almost the first complete sentence Dorothy had ever heard Betty Raye say in all the time she had known her.
As worried as Dorothy had been about doing the wrong thing, at that moment she knew that she had done the right thing.
Minnie got back on. “Tell Beatrice we’ll be over to get her in a few weeks. I swear, just when you think there is no answer the Good Lord sends you an angel. God bless you for a saint, Mrs. Smith. You don’t know what a burden has been lifted from my heart.”
Dorothy hung up and went to the kitchen but Beatrice was gone. She was already next door in her room, starting to pack.
The Exchange
FERRIS OATMAN was not at all happy about losing Betty Raye and breaking up the family but for the first time in their marriage Minnie had put her rather large foot down.
“Ferris, my baby wants to get off the road and go to school and that’s what she’s gonna do.”
“Over my dead body,” he said.
“If that’s what it takes, then so be it but she’s going.”
Ferris saw the look in her eye and decided not to push it and two weeks later the Oatmans made a swing down into Missouri on their way to Arkansas to drop off Betty Raye and pick up Beatrice Woods and her dog. When they drove up Minnie rolled down the window and said, “Mrs. Smith, I don’t even have time to get out and hug your neck, we are already running late; we have to be at an all-night sing in Little Rock by eight, but I’ll be praying for you all the way there.” The back door opened and Betty Raye got out and Beatrice and Honey got in.
Uncle Floyd was in the front seat with Ferris and Minnie and as soon as they pulled out Chester, the Scripture-quoting dummy, turned around and looked at her and his eyebrows shot up and down and he said, “Whoo, whoo—well, hello there, good looking.”
Beatrice answered right away, “Well, hello there yourself!”
Mother Smith, Dorothy, Bobby, Anna Lee, and Nurse Ruby Robinson all stood and waved good-bye, moist-eyed. But Beatrice Woods never looked back. She would not have, even if she could have seen them. She was too busy concentrating on what was ahead. At last she was out on the road, headed