Or to mind each other’s business, Lily thought.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Charles continued, “I like where we live out in Cobb County. I could never live right in Atlanta, though. There’s a certain element there I just don’t want to associate with. I think you know who I mean: the crack dealers, the prostitutes, just all the bla —”
“People who haven’t found Jesus yet,” Mike finished for him.
Of course, Lily thought. You Lieutenants of the Lord are willing to disguise your racism in order to preserve the patriarchy.
“Well, of course,” Ida said, smiling sweetly, “there are ... undesirables wherever you go. In small towns, you get the trailer trash and the Holy Rollers.”
“How’s that?” Big Ben asked, leaning over the table intently.
“What my wife means is, those Church of God people,” Charles said. “You know, the ones that shout and dance and speak in tongues and act crazy.”
“They’re very unrefined,” Ida said, with a superior simper.
“Some of ’em even drink strychnine and set themselves on fire,” Mike laughed.
Big Ben set down his knife and fork. “I was raised in the Church of God. Now, we wasn’t the kind to handle snakes or set ourselves afire or nothin’ like that. But we would shout and speak in tongues and get happy. And you wanna talk about some fine people ... they was some of the best folks you’d ever meet in that church.” He took a slug of Coke. “Now, I ain’t in that church no more, mind you. Jeanie and Mama joined up with the Presbyterians a while back, and I joined up with ’em. I don’t hardly go to church there, though, ’cause the preaching and the singing’s so quiet, it seems like I have to start snoring just to make a little noise.
“I’ll tell you somethin’, though. A few years back I was down in Mississippi on bizness, and I looked up this ole army buddy of mine—a black feller. He invited me to a tent revival his church was having. I was the only white man in that tent, and I swear to God, I don’t believe I sat down once during the whole service ... I was too busy standing up and clapping and singing. Them people knew how to have church, let me tell you.” Big Ben picked up his silverware and dug back into his steak.
“Well, of course, there’s good people in every group,” Charles waffled. “I didn’t mean—”
“I know what you meant, buddy,” Big Ben said, looking Charles in the eye.
“So,” Jeanie said, with determined cheer. “We got pound cake and chess pie. Who wants what?”
As everyone sat with their coffee in the living room, Lily crawled down on the floor with Mimi and helped her to a standing position. “How about a little after-dinner entertainment, Mimi-saurus?” Lily said. “Why don’t you show Grandma and Grandpa how you can walk?”
Mimi stood with her little hands clenched, steeling herself for action.
“Come on, sweetie. Walk to Mama.”
Mimi knitted her brow, sucked in her breath, and took one, two, three faltering steps before falling into Lily’s arms. At the sound of her grandparents’ applause, she grinned crookedly.
“I swear,” Big Ben said, “I think she’s just about the happiest baby I’ve ever seen.”
