Chapter 2: Saying Yes

The old brass knockers on our big front door rattled as I stepped into our lovely home. It smelled of fresh lilies and also a hint of lilac. I knew Papa was home, since I saw his unlit pipe on the oak coffee table in the parlor. He never left the house to go into the cotton fields unless he had his pipe. "Mama!" I called up the stairs. "Up here Magnolia, Darlin'. I'm just touching up my makeup before your daddy and I go out tonight." Mama and Papa were quite the social couple. Every other night they would be going out somewhere. I walked into her bright room, with walls as white as clouds on a nice spring day in the meadow. She sat at her vanity. It seemed like Mother's hair always fell perfectly into place. Her makeup was always just right. Never too much and certainly never too little.
"Mama?" I said, quiet and shy like a small child. "The LaRue's are having a ball this Thursday night. Mr. Marlin invited me to join him and his family. May I please go Mama? I swear, I'll never ask anything of you again if I can just have this one night." I found myself leaping off my high horse and asking permission before I went somewhere, which I don't usually do. Though I'm only seventeen, my parents have seen my maturity flourish over the years and I am now able to come and go throughout the day.
A slightly disappointed look crept onto her face as she set down her red lipstick. She turned around to face me and she casually propped her arm up on the back of the vanity's matching chair. I too sat down on the bench placed at the foot of Mama and Papa's bed. Her green eyes flashed up at me.
"Magnolia! Your really willing to go to a formal ball with a shopkeeper and his no-good son?!" She must've heard that Charles was in town. "Well yes Mother. And Mr. Marlin is more than a mere shopkeeper. He's a very nice man but you never give him a chance to show you that!" An angry edge suddenly appeared in my voice, slicing through the air like scissors.
"You know very well not to speak to me with such a tone, Magnolia. We raised you to know that you shall NEVER win over anyone's approval, nor their respect by speaking to them in such a way, young lady!" Mama's words stung like salt in a wound. I tried to think of something sensible to say. She just didn't understand! "Mama, I'm sorry I spoke to you the way I did. It will not happen again, but I really would like to go to this ball."
Just then, Papa came in. "What's all the fussin' about?" He asked. He looked at Mama and waited for an answer. "Magnolia wishes to go to the LaRue's ball this Thursday night with Marlin and his rotten boy, Charles." she said. Again, her words hurt. Father must've seen the sad frown on my face because then he said to Mother, "Scarlett, let the girl go. She works too hard and she deserves some fun in her life. After all, it is New Orleans." Mother still objected but eventually Papa talked her into letting me go. At that moment, I thought about how lucky I was to have a father so kind and giving. Thank the Good Lord for making me a Daddy's Girl.


This is the end of Chapter 2.