“What is it Martha?” Homer hollered from the
shed behind the house. “I’m trying to find that
small shovel while I’m waiting for Matt to take me
to pick up the truck.”
It was Monday morning and Homer was in despair, the
weekend having been spent in quiet turmoil. He had
told Martha that he was cleaning out the shop but he
actually spent the time wrestling with his
emotions. Depression and hopelessness threatened to
consume him, he felt tied up in knots.
He was struggling with his inability to give
his Betty what she wanted. Part of him tried to
figure out how to raise the money himself. The
other part thought he should ask somebody, maybe
some of Martha’s kinfolks, the church or somebody,
for help.
No, I’m a man and should be able to help Betty
myself, he thought and
frustrated, continued to hunt for the shovel.
Latoya gathered her notes and crammed them into
her briefcase. She stood at the doorway of the
local Waffle House and wondered which lady was
Estelle Granger. Walking in, she noticed an older
lady who had been sitting by herself bustling over
to her.
“Ms. Cower! I’m so glad to see you. Come over
here. Would you like some coffee?”
“No thank you, Ms. Granger. I’ll just have some
water.”
“I’ll tell the waitress when she returns.
Please call me Estelle. It makes me feel old to
hear Ms. Granger. Now what did ya’ll figure out
about Betty’s dress? I do hope you can help her.”
“Let me ask you one thing to start with. Ms.
Richardson, our assistant station manager is worried
that even if we do try to help Betty that maybe they
will look on it as charity and refuse our help.
What do you know of Betty or her family?”
Estelle paused for a minute before speaking
allowing Latoya to order some water and the waitress
to refill her coffee.
“I believe Betty would accept the help, I mean,
this wedding is important to her. The grandmother
would probably agree but I’m not sure about the
grandfather. He is of that old quality of man that
has stood on his own two feet for years, probably
fought in a war or two and it might be hard for
him.”
“That’s the same thing Ms. Richardson said,
comparing him to her own grandfather. But we think
we have a way to help if you are willing.”
“What is it?”
“We are doing a wedding series called 'Til
Death do us Part during the local broadcast all
next week. It will air on the six o’clock news right
before the weather. This is a prime time for all
the area people to catch this story. We thought we
would lead off Monday’s series with a story about
you.”
“About me?”
“Yes, we would use your work as a dressmaker that
designs and sews wedding dresses for the public.
With the Smiths’ permission, we could bring in their
story and I believe the public would respond. Are
you working on any other wedding dresses?”
“No, business has been slow.”
“Let the Smiths know that you need to bring in
their story because you are working on no other
dresses at the moment.”
“That just might work. Yes, I believe Mr.
Smith could be persuaded if the story wasn’t
centered on them. Do you want to go see them?”
“Well, I’d like to bring a crew to your home
Wednesday to do the preliminaries and build the
foundation for the story. If you could go by maybe
Tuesday and clear a path for me, I could bring a
crew out to their house Thursday to finish it up.
I’m going to be busy Tuesday getting next Tuesday’s
segment together which is a piece on Bentley’s, the
bridal shop.”
“That’s the bridal shop that turned Mr. Smith
down,” Estelle said, angrily. “The Dress Boutique
turned him down also but at least they gave a
reason as being booked up. I don’t know if that is
true or not.”
“Bentley’s turned him down. Now that’s
interesting,” Latoya said, jotting it down on her
notepad. “What time can I come out Wednesday?”
“How about eleven?”
“That will be great. Don’t worry about a
thing. I’ll have some questions to ask you and
we’ll just talk. Talk to the Smiths’ and let me
know what they say about the piece and about
Thursday.”
“I will. I am so excited about all this. I
just believe Betty will get her dress.”
Glenda was on her third cup of coffee and it
was only nine o’clock. No wonder she is so wired
up, Angeline thought. Francine had everyone come
in at seven o’clock, an unheard of time for a shop
that didn’t open until ten. This was an unusual day
though with the news people coming out and all.
“Can you believe they’re doing a whole piece on
Bentley’s?” Glenda said to one of the other girls.
“I mean, sure we’ve been mentioned on TV before but
a whole segment! Francine said it was to be called
Til Death do us Part.”
Glenda lowered her voice and went back to
dusting as she heard the click-click of Francine’s
Italian leather heels on the tile floor of the
hallway.
“Glenda! Aren’t you finished with that dusting
yet? They’ll be here within the hour.”
“Almost finished, ma’am. This is the last
jewelry case.”
“I don’t know why I can’t find competent help.
If I didn’t have to hire the Bentley’s cousins,”
Francine muttered to herself as she continued
inspecting the shop. “How can I be expected to keep
Bentley’s on the map with employees like Glenda?”
Angeline came around the corner with a notebook
and pen in hand, checking off things that had
already been done. Floors clean, check, dress
displays perfect, check, dusting, check.”
“Angeline!” Francine shrieked from the last
dressing room, causing her to jump and drop her pen.
“Yes ma’am,” she said hurrying in that
direction.
“What is that?!” she said in a vicious tone of
voice, her face red with abhorrence.
A dead mouse lay in the corner of the room,
obviously a delayed victim of the exterminator that
had sprayed over the weekend. Angeline grabbed some
paper towels and scooped him up, put him in the
trash and started toward the door to dump the trash
outside.
“If you can’t get your act together better than
this, you’ll soon be looking for another job,”
Francine said.
How was I supposed to know a rat would crawl
up in that dressing room to die?”Angeline
thought to herself as she walked outside.
Francine was so hard to work for and getting
worse every day. She was smiles and compliments
when she first hired Angeline but that only lasted a
week before her true character started to show. Her
only focus was to make money and gain favor with the
owners and she did not care who she stepped on to
get there. If it were not for the pay, Angeline
would have already quit.
It was a beautiful day in early summer with the
trees fully clothed in fresh green leaves and the
small lawn in front of Bentley’s was manicured
perfectly. Flower beds were here and there, full of
varying shades of white, pink and red.
Unfortunately, Angeline had no time to enjoy them,
as she dumped the trash in the back. Rounding the
corner to reenter the store she noticed a white van
approaching. It was Channel Seven News! They were
early!
“They’re here!” Angeline called out as she ran
in to replace the garbage can. She grabbed her list
on the way.
“Girls, get in your places! And nobody say
anything unless spoken to and it better be
positive!” Francine barked.
The bell above the door sounded as Latoya Cower
stepped in followed by Steve, her camera man.
“Ms. Cower, do come in. I am Francine Davis,
manager of Bentley’s. We talked on the phone.”
One thing could be said about Francine,
Angeline thought to herself, she was smooth. She
went from screaming boss to smiling, successful
manager at a moment’s notice. Angeline stood back
at her desk, and looked over the week’s invoices
like Francine had told her to. Try and look busy,
she had said.
“Hello, Ms. Davis. I am limited for time so if
you will just answer questions as I walk through the
store, Steve will film us and I will put it all
together back in the studio. I can’t tell you which
parts will make the news so let’s try to cover
everything and I will build my story from there.”
“Of course, whatever you wish.”
Latoya found a corner full of bridal gowns and
when Steve had adjusted the lighting and his camera,
he gave her the cue.
“This is Latoya Cower of Channel Seven News and
this is the second segment of our bridal week series,
Til Death do us Part. We are here at Bentley’s,
an exclusive bridal shop in Riverview, a small town
west of Central City. We have Francine Davis,
manager of Bentley’s here to give us a tour and tell
us what this shop means to brides in the area.”
With Steve following, Latoya and Francine
walked from room to room, Latoya asking questions
about gowns, shoes, jewelry and even tuxedo rental.
During the interview, they pointed out Glenda and
some seamstresses working on gowns.
“You have your own dressmakers?” Latoya asked.
“Of course, Bentley’s has four dressmakers,
employed for alterations and for complete original
gowns, custom made and fitted.”
“I guess they stay busy.”
“Mostly alterations but some people do want
original gowns.”
“So you are not booked up ahead, too busy for
new customers?”
Francine eyed Latoya suspiciously wondering
about this line of questioning.
“Bentley’s is always ready to help any bride
have her dream wedding, if that is what you mean.”
Latoya asked a few more questions and the
interview was over. Angeline could breathe again as
Latoya and Steve made their way back to the van.
Through the window she noticed him taking another
shot of her talking in front of the store.
“I guess she is wrapping up the story,” Glenda
said, looking over Angeline’s shoulder.
“Okay girls,” Francine said. “Excitement’s over
so get back to work. Angeline I need those invoices
filed now.”
She sighed and grabbing the invoices and
another cup of coffee, went back to work.
“Betty,” Martha said, bustling into the living
room. “That was Estelle Granger on the phone. She
wants to come by and visit us for a minute, said she
was in the neighborhood. I guess she was on a cell
phone. I’m going out to tell Homer. I wish I would
have known she was coming earlier, the house is a
mess.”
“Don’t worry, Mamaw. The house looks fine.”
Betty went to the door as she heard Mac
bark.
Estelle had intentionally not called until she
was close, figuring they would probably be home.
Catching them off guard would be better, she
thought. Might cut down on the pride thing so they
would accept what she had to tell them.
Betty answered the door and had asked Estelle
to sit when Martha and Homer entered. Homer wiped
his hands on the kitchen towel he had grabbed before
shaking her hand and sitting on the couch.
“So you were in the neighborhood, Martha tells
me,” Homer said, in his slow drawl. “It was nice of
you to drop in.”
He figured she probably wanted to be paid for
her work. He had a little money he could give her
as a down payment and later he could sell some hay.
Estelle interrupted his thoughts as she spoke, “I
know you’re wondering why I am here and it is to ask
you a favor. You know that I am a dressmaker and
I’ll be honest with you, business has been slow
lately. However, I have been talking to Latoya
Cower of Channel Seven News and she is doing a whole
series next week on weddings. She wants to do a
story on me and my business for Monday’s news. This
would be such a great opportunity for my business
and I am so excited.”
“That’s wonderful, Ms. Granger,” Betty said,
excitably. “But how can we help?”
“Well, at the moment I am not working on
anyone’s dress but I told Ms. Cower that I had been
designing a dress for you and she said she could
work the story from that angle.”
“But we can’t pay you to do the dress…I mean,
you’re really not working for us. I have not come up
with a way to raise the money,” Homer said, a little
confused.
“That’s okay. She is going to do the story
about the way I design a dress and pick out the
material and do the fittings. She’ll just want to
talk to Betty about how helpful I was to her and the
way I can work with people.”
“She was very helpful, Papaw. We have to talk
to Ms. Cower,” Betty said.
“Of course, you have helped us a lot and I
still mean to pay you.”
“The publicity I get from this story will be
payment enough, Mr. Smith, I assure you. I just
know it will help me with my business.”
Homer brightened considerably at the thought of
being able to pay Ms. Granger back for all she had
done.
“The news people will be here Thursday if that
is okay. They are coming to my house tomorrow. If
it is all right, I will give them your phone number
so they can call and tell you what time. Oh, and
Latoya said for Matt to be here too, being the
wedding stuff, you know.”
Estelle stood up and rushed to make her escape
before Homer could change his mind.
“Thank you so much for helping me. I must get
back and get things ready before tomorrow. Thanks
again!” she said, as she hurried out the door and to
her car.
Estelle hummed the wedding march as she drove
down the long driveway on her way back to Central
City, dialing Latoya’s number on her cell phone.
The next day was a blur for Estelle. Latoya arrived at
her house and conducted the interview similar to the way
she had done Bentley’s. Before they began, Latoya
shared the plan for the interview.
“I am going to just interview you for your
dressmaking skills and at the end I will ask you what
your latest project is. You can say you have designed a
special gown for Betty Smith, a gown that has a
functional train though Betty is in a wheelchair. We’ll
end it there and I will pick up the interview I do with
Betty tomorrow from there. At the end of the broadcast,
I will casually mention their dilemma in a positive
light and we’ll see what happens.”
“I believe people will be moved to help, I really
do,” Estelle said. “I can’t wait until Monday!”
Stay Tuned for CHAPTER 9.
© 2009 Jennifer Hallmark. All Rights Reserved.
