QUEENOLA BELL--CHAP. 4

CHAPTER 4

Aunt Sybil comes in and wakes us up around nine, she tells us to cook breakfast because she had to go down to the chicken houses. Well we get up still half-asleep, we go to the kitchen to cook we’re both still in our nightshirts and barefoot. We stand at the stove frying bacon and eggs. We decided we’d make biscuits instead of toast, so we get out flour, lard, milk, water, and the biscuit pan. We start mixing up our biscuits not knowing what we were doing or how much of anything to put in the mixing bowl. Lisa asks me if I put my hands in it I said of course. I’ve watched mama make up biscuits and she always puts her hands in it, so we both dive in the mixing bowl adding milk, water, lard and flour. We were all into this biscuit mixing when we smell the bacon. Lisa turned around and grabbed the spatula we had left in the hot pan and drops it on the floor, because it’s hot. She picks it up and puts it in the sink but before we could find another spatula the bacon was very crisp. We take up the very crisp bacon and get back to the biscuits we finished mixing them now it’s time to roll them out. I’ve watched mama do it and it looked real easy. I pinched off some dough like mama does and start rolling but the dough sticks to both hands. I can’t get it off and I can’t get it to roll. When I put my hands together to roll it, it just smears everywhere. I’m beginning to get worried about this when I hear someone say “well ain’t this a pretty sight”. I look up and David’s standing at the living room door just laughing his hinny off at me. By then we had dough and flour all over us, on our faces, in our hair, on the floor, there were even little specks of dough on the ceiling.

David walks in and looks at me up and down it really makes me flush. He steps over to the mixing bowl and flours his hands then he takes over. I watch amazed he tells me to grease the pan and set the oven on 350 degrees (which I forgot to do). He rolls the biscuits like a professional like my mama. David helps us clean up the mess and finish the biscuits. He even helps cook more bacon, when we finish he reaches over and pulls a glob of dough out of my hair and laughs, then he says you girls better get cleaned up before mama gets home, so we took off to the bedroom to the bedroom to clean ourselves up.

We drew straws on who would get the bathroom first, and I won, so I go in get undressed to take a shower. I notice myself in the mirror, for the first time really. My hair is long and brown, my eyes are gray or green it depends on what I wear. I’m actually a pretty girl, not real tall in fact kind of short, but with a pretty good body. I’m always trying to hide my body wearing baggy clothes but I think I’ll get me a job and buy new clothes that fit. I wish I looked like Lisa with long blond hair, blue eyes, and long skinny legs. But her looks are a little to big I think, and she has acne scars on her chin but she covers that up pretty good with all that make-up she wears. I haven’t tried the make-up thing yet most girls at sixteen have been wearing it for at least a year but I’ve always been slow at everything that has to do with maturing. We finish our baths, put on our robes and go back to the kitchen. I can smell myself now because Aunt Sybil keeps the best smelling soap & shampoo in the bathroom. I think I smell good. I didn’t have time to dry my hair so I sat down at the table with wet hair but I kept it pulled back behind my shoulders. Aunt Sybil and David were ready to eat so Lisa pours all of us some juice then she sets down and we eat. Aunt Sybil said, “girls after breakfast you two need to get ready for church.” I l look at Lisa and she looks at me neither one of us brought church clothes. I told Aunt Sybil we didn’t bring any church clothes, but she says it’s alright if we wear jeans this church don’t mind because they look at the person not at the clothes they wear. After breakfast we do the dishes and go get ready for church. We get ready and walk out the hall; David walks out the same time we do. When I get close to him my body feels funny because he smells so good and he looks good in his black slacks and white shirt. I’ve never noticed a boy that way before, but I started noticing David. He had short black hair always neat, dark brown eyes, real pretty smile and white teeth. I don’t know why I notice this about David it messes with my mind. Aunt Sybil gets us in the car, Lisa in front, David and me in the back. We go to a little white church on Hog Mountain Road. The Church of God. We walk in to be seated on the bench, Lisa goes in first and slides all the way to the other end, and Aunt Sybil sits beside her, then me then David. Other people slide in beside David until the bench was full. I’d never been to this kind of church before. I’ve only gone to Bible School at the big church in town. The man up front (I guess he was the preacher) told us to get out our hymnals and turn to page 291. I had no idea what a hymnal was so I watched David reach over on the back of the bench in front of us and get a book, so I do the same. I try to turn to page 291. All of a sudden everyone stands up. I felt like an idiot because I’m still fumbling through the book for page 291. David reaches over and takes my book; he puts his book in my hands already opened to page 291.

While I’m standing here feeling dumb, David finds the page in the book and everyone starts singing. I had no idea how to read music. I’m just standing here holding this book in my hands. David reaches over and puts his finger on my book, and I noticed he would follow the words with his finger showing me how to read it. I look up at David; he’s smiling at me. I’m blushing now. After the song everyone sat down. The preacher began to talk about God and being saved, and the Holy Ghost. I had heard about all this from TV I watched Brother Lee’s revivial on T.V. every Sunday morning at home. Well we sat there and listened for awhile then all of a sudden the preacher comes running down the isle, I start sliding closer and closer to Aunt Sybil. He gets real loud. I grab my ears; everyone is looking at me. I sat up straight and tried to understand what’s happening. I look at David and he’s watching me I guess he could see the fear in my eyes so he reaches over takes me by the arm and pulls me close to him, then he puts his arm around me and I hide my face in his shirt, every time the preacher starts yelling. I could feel David’s squeeze my arm and rub my shoulder. I guess to let me know it was all right to be scared the first time in a church like this. As I hid my face in his shirt I could smell his cologne. I never really got that close to a man before, other than my daddy. I had this weird feeling in my lower stomach and I felt dizzy. I guess it’s the cologne. After church is over everyone starts hugging each other, shaking hands and saying they love each other, but the first chance I got I shot out the door to the car. Lisa seemed to be taking all this in stride; she loves showing off in front of people. I sat at the car for about ten minutes waiting on Aunt Sybil to come and unlock the door. I start to get worried thinking maybe they did some thing to her like tie her up, beat her or something like that (you know you hear all kinds of stuff people will do.) Well I look up and here comes Lisa strutting out to the car, swinging her hair, with her nose stuck up in the air, I look up to see if it’s gonna rain, cause I’d hate to see Lisa drown. She walks up to me and said wow that was fun. Aunt Sybil said we might come back to the evening service. I said, maybe not.

We got back to Aunt Sybil’s house she is in her room putting on her work clothes. I knock on her door, she says come in. I walk in and try to start a conversation with her before I ask what I really want to know. I said Aunt Sybil why don’t chicken lay eggs on Sunday she laughed and said what makes you ask something like that? I say I thought chickens laid eggs every day but I thought maybe they didn’t today because you went to church instead of going to the chicken houses. Aunt Sybil tells me that the lady from down the road helps her on Sunday, and this lady has a daughter about my age and that we need to get together with her sometimes. I told her I’d like that. Then I ask Aunt Sybil what happened to Uncle Tom and her, why Uncle Tom don’t live here anymore. She said things happen you just fall out of love. I ask her about the way I felt in church, I think I caught something from David; I can see the shock in her eyes. She asked what did we do, I told her that when David put his arm around me in church this morning I felt my stomach move and tingle in my private parts. Aunt Sybil takes my hand in hers and pulls me over to sit on the bed beside her. She gives me this real serious look and asks me questions. She said, Queenie didn’t your mama ever talk to you about this kind of thing? I said what kind of thing? She said the birds and the bees. I had no idea about the birds and the bees but I heard mama tell daddy that he needed to talk to the boys about them. I told Aunt Sybil about over hearing mama tell daddy this. Aunt Sybil gets up off the bed and says Lord have mercy child, didn’t your mama tell you anything? I’m sitting here shaking my head in confusion. Aunt Sybil tells me to put on some old clothes and come with her. I changed clothes and met her in the kitchen. I didn’t see Lisa; there’s no telling what she’s up too. We go out the back door and walk towards the chicken houses. Aunt Sybil says Queenie have you ever been on a date? I say no maim, she said have you ever read any books about sex? I really start getting embarrassed. She said don’t be shy Queenie we all have to learn about this stuff, I said no maim. We don’t say much more until we got to the chicken house. We walked in the little egg cleaning room. Aunt Sybil tells me to sit down; she needs to ask me some questions. I sit in her desk chair. She looks at me and says Queenie you and me are going to the library in the morning to get some books for you and Lisa, because you are sixteen years old and you need to know about sex. I said Aunt Sybil, the way I felt in church with David, is that sex? She said no hun but it does have something to do with it. We’ll pick out some books okay? I said okay.

Aunt Sybil changes the subject by asking me if I would like to have my first job. I said yes, then I can buy new clothes, she said yes you can, you can buy pretty clothes for a pretty girl, then she walks out of the room. I’m sitting here stunned because no one ever said I was pretty. I walk back to the house in a daze. I walk in the kitchen door and David was sitting at the table drinking juice. He looks at me funny, and said Queenie why are you looking so funny? Where is you mind? Are you sick? I said Aunt Sybil said I was pretty. David smiles and says you are pretty, very pretty. I walk out of the kitchen not really hearing the words, until I get to the bedroom where Lisa’s asleep on the bed, then I realize what he said. I had funny feelings again, all over this time. Aunt Sybil walks in the bedroom and asks when I want to start work. I said in the morning, she said okay. I’ll wake you up at 7:00 a.m. to start work; we’ll go over the rules first okay? Then she walks out of the room.

I turn to Lisa, wake her up and start telling her about my job. I notice Lisa looks kind of sick. I said what’s the matter. Lisa said I don’t feel so good. I run to the kitchen to get Aunt Sybil but she had already gone back to work. I told David that Lisa didn’t look so good so he goes in to check on her. When David comes out of the room he says, I think she’s got a bad case of poison oak. We may have to take her to get a shot. When mama gets home we’ll see.

Aunt Sybil walks in about thirty minutes later and David sends her to check on Lisa. Aunt Sybil gets Lisa up, tells me and David to help get her in the car, then she leaves to take Lisa to the hospital. David and me go back inside, I asked David what would happen to Lisa he said she’d be okay, and she’d just itch a lot. David asks me if I want to go to church with him. I kind of had a loss for words. Then he said Queen you don’t have to be scared of church, once you start going a lot you’ll get used to it.

David walks over beside me, takes my hand and says Queen, I’ll go and sit beside you and put my arm around you if you get scared. I said no I don’t want to go (because I knew if he put his arm around me I’d feel funny again.) I was real happy to hear Aunt Sybil’s car pull up in the yard, but I was thinking it’s to quick for her to be back, she just left about fifteen minutes ago. Then someone knocks on the door and David turns to go answer it when he opened the door this tall pretty girl walked in and said hi David. David kind of pushes her back and says Faye this is Queen, Faye rolls her eyes and says who would have a name like Queen? I drop my head David puts his hand on Faye’s back and says let’s go to my room. They walk away and I’m standing here feeling stupid.

Aunt Sybil comes in with Lisa and says that she’ll probably take Lisa home tomorrow after work, because she had a bad reaction to the poison oak and she probably wouldn’t feel good for awhile, so Aunt Sybil figured she’d recover better at home.