“Well, of course she’s happy,” Jeanie added. “Why wouldn’t she be? She’s well taken care of, and loved.” She looked straight at the Maycombs. “Mimi may not be hers by blood, but Lily’s still one of the best mamas I’ve ever seen.”
Lily’s stomach clenched. All evening she had been wondering how to broach the subject of Mimi’s custody with the Maycombs. Now it seemed that Big Ben and Jeanie were going to cut to the chase for her, which, she noticed, had caused the Maycombs to squirm as though the cushions in their chairs were stuffed with gravel.
“Well,” Charles said, avoiding eye contact with anyone in the room. “I’m sure Lily is fine at seeing to the child’s basic needs —keeping her fed and clean, that kind of thing.” He smiled self-righteously. “But as I’m sure some of the ladies in the room know, there’s a lot more to being a mother than that.”
“Oh, yes.” Ida looked at Mike in the same way Jocasta must have looked at Oedipus. “If you’ve not carried the child in your own body, you don’t know what it is to be a mother. Nobody knows children like a real mother does.”
That’s funny, Lily thought. You barely could have picked your daughter out of a lineup.
“Well, that’s certainly a sentiment you could needlepoint on a pillow,” Ben said. “But Mimi’s biological mother is no longer with us. Lily and I are just trying to create the best family for her that we can.”
“Well,” Charles said calmly, “we feel that Mimi needs to be in an environment where she can learn the difference between right and wrong—”
“Now you just hold on a minute here,” Big Ben interrupted. “You can ask anybody in Faulkner County, and they’ll tell you the McGillys is fine folks. We’re a decent, hardworking family, and Benny Jack here is a good boy. We never had a bit of trouble outta him, and I can’t say the same thing for his brothers. And Lily — she may not look like you’re used to girls looking, but she’s a good, honest person.”
The word stung Lily, but she was touched by Big Ben’s impassioned defense.
“Look,” Mike said impatiently, “there are certain factors here you don’t understand. I don’t want to go into them because there are ladies present. Let’s just say that given these factors, we feel it would be in Mimi’s best interests to live with the remaining members of her biological family.”
“But Mike,” Lily interjected, “Ben is Mimi’s biological father.” So much for the honesty theory, she thought.
“Oh, I don’t believe that story for a minute. Mimi’s daddy was in some test tube at a sperm bank.” Mike’s bald spot flushed red, and a vein in his forehead bulged. “Just because you found some sissy to marry you, just because you put on a dress and shaved your legs, that doesn’t change what you are—”
“Calm down, son—” Charles interrupted.
Heedless, Mike ranted on. “And don’t think for a second we don’t know who you are, Lily...
McGilly, as you call yourself. For whatever perverted purposes, you may claim to be a normal wife and mother, but deep down you’re still a godless, man-hating…”
A crash issued from upstairs as though a door had been ripped from its sockets. Something huge barreled down the stairs and soon was standing on its hind legs with its front paws positioned on the arms of Mike’s chair. A low growl issued from its black, curled-back lips.
“Mordecai!” Big Ben hollered. “Down, boy!”
The rottweiler didn’t budge. Mike’s face, so recently aflame with anger, was now frozen in terror.
