colonial-antebellum-style home. In thirty minutes, Ben would be meeting the Maycombs at the Versailles interstate exit to escort them to the house. Right now, though, Lily and Ben sat on opposite ends of the slate-blue and mauve living room, dreading the evening ahead of them.
Jeanie strode into the room, nervously glancing at her gold watch. “Benny Jack, you heard me tell your daddy to be home by five-fifteen so he could change into some decent clothes, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Mother, I heard you.”
“Well, if you heard me, why the hell didn’t he?” Jeanie was wearing a peach jersey sundress and tan canvas espadrilles. A small strand of undoubtedly real pearls hung just below the hollow of her throat.
Her curly brown hair hung loose around her tanned shoulders. She looked stylish, comfortable, and very, very rich.
Lily was wearing a sky-blue dress she had borrowed from Jeanie. Except for her most faded pair of Levi’s, it was the lightest-colored garment she had worn since she was a kid. But for Mimi she’d suffer anything — even pastels.
Lily looked down at her daughter, who was playing on the floor and wearing a mint- green smocked dress. Lily watched as Mimi spotted Mordecai, a demonic gleam in her eye. “Mookie!” she squealed, then pulled herself to standing at the coffee table, walked three tentative steps, and fell smack on her diaper-padded butt.
“Omigod!” Lily yelled at the exact same moment Jeanie did. Lily picked Mimi up and swung her through the air. “Mimi-saurus, that was great! You’re a toddler now!”
“Did you see that, Benny Jack?” Jeanie was breathless with excitement. “Your little girl just took her first steps!”
“Yeah,” Ben said, sounding completely devoid of interest. “Well, I guess I’d better go pick up the Cobb County cretins now.”
As he headed out the door, Jeanie shook her head in exasperation. “Men. Sometimes I think they just don’t know what’s important in life.” She turned her attention to Mimi. “Now, I think a big walking girl ought to at least get a cookie if her mama says it’s okay.”
Lily smiled. “Of course it’s okay. This is a special occasion.”
Jeanie and Lily assembled a salad while Mimi nibbled her cookie. “It would be great if Mimi would walk in front of the Maycombs tonight,” Lily said, slicing a cucumber that she was secretly thinking of as Mike Maycomb’s penis. “That way, they’d see she’s developing normally in this environment —”
“You know,” Jeanie said, chopping a tomato, “Big Ben told me about Mimi not being yours by blood, but I’ve never seen nobody love a child the way you love her. If these people can’t see that, there’s something bad wrong with them.”
Lily felt her eyes fill, and it was carrot, not onion, that she was chopping. “Mimi’s the world to me. She’s all I’ve got.”
“Besides Benny Jack, you mean?”
“Yeah, right. Besides Benny Jack.”
Just as Jeanie had feared, Ida, Charles, and Mike Maycomb arrived at the house before Big Ben.
Big Ben’s absence made Lily nervous. She knew the Maycombs would be more comfortable if there was a patriarch presiding over the evening’s events, and as far as patriarchs went, Ben the younger didn’t quite fit the bill.
