Oh! Hi! I thought there weren't nobody down here. You looking at the river? I likes to do that too. It's so pretty to look at, 'specially from that rock where you're a-settin'. I was just takin' a rest from my mornin' chores and thought I'd kind o' take a walk down here. Nice an' warm t'day, not too airish.
Is that yer big black shiny car on the side of the road down a piece? It is? Well it sure is fine lookin', I ain't never seen a car like that around here afore! It's a what? A Hudson? Well, whatever 'tis it's sure a lot diff'rent than th' old model T my Daddy drives around in, and even Daddy's car's one of th' only ones in the county. Most other folks uses a horse and buggy.
Well, where's my manners! My name is Ella-Sue, sir, Ella-Sue Bandy. Alan? Well how d'ya do, Mr. Alan! I'm certainly pleased to meet you. Don't know as I ever got t' shake hands with a gentleman like you afore! Do you mind if I sets a spell and talks with you? I don't get to talk with strangers much around here, 'specially ones with big shiny cars like yours! I'll just set on this old stump next to you.
So where you from Mr. Alan? You talk like you ain't from these parts! Oh, from up north? And where you off to now? Where? You goin' all the way down to Florida? Oh my, that's far, ain't it? I don't rightly know how far but it sounds far to me. I ain't never been out o' Carolina myself. You wanna know somethin' funny? I just found out t'other day that there's actually two Carolinas, North and South. Huh! I just knew I was in Carolina and I thought that was all, now I find out I'm in the North one. Guess it don't really make no difference, I'm just where I'm at and that's that!
So what ya do traveling around so far, Mr. Alan? Oh, you sell things? What kind o' things? Oh, I'm sorry to ax you so many questions Mr. Alan! I'm just excited t' meet somebody from so far away is all. Kitchen imp ... uh, im-plee-ments? Uh, I'm sorry but I don't know what ... oh, gadgets! Sure, I know what they are! Momma's got a whole passel o' them in the kitchen drawr, I been playing with them whimmy-diddles ever since I was a little girl. Maybe you can go see Momma an' show 'er some new ones. We live in that ol' house up the road, maybe you passed by it. Used-a be a big farm there like a thousand years ago but now it's just a house an' a barn, an' the house was just 'bout fallin' down when Daddy and Momma moved into it afore I was borned, and since whoever lived in it before done gone off ain't nobody knows where, well, it just sort o' became our house. It got three whole bedrooms in it! Daddy and Momma have the biggest one they call the master, the one in the front, an' I'm in one in th' back. My little brother used-a be in there with me too, but now he's in one Daddy fixed up in the barn, Momma says it's for privacy, but Daddy says he don't want a bunch o' cross-eyed chinee babies runnin' 'round some day ... I don't rightly know what he means, but anyways I'm all alone in my room now. Oh, an' then there's my Uncle Cal, he been in the room right next t' mine since he got back from that big war, the one fightin' agin somebody named the Hun. He got shot over in that France place. He cain't walk good anymore so he spends all o' his time in his room. Well, not all of it, but he don't get out much, sep'n when he drives inta town with Daddy. At home he uses this crutch-thing t' git around with.
Me? Oh I'm nineteen, well actually eighteen and a half but gettin' real close to nineteen. I know I looks real young, what with sometimes wearing my hair in braid pigtails like I am today. Lots o' folks who don't know me good think I'm a whole lot younger, and a lot of my friends are a lot younger'n me too, like my best friend Jolene, she's twelve but we get along real well. We likes to play games an' dolls, an' tell secrets an' stuff. And she sits next to me in school, she does, and helps me when I don't know th' answers. Our school has just this one room and one teacher - Mr. Crandall, I like him, he's nice an' he's real good lookin' - and the little kids sits on one side, the real old kids on th' other, and the kids who are just startin' to get big in the middle. I should be with the big kids but I just cain't make no sense outta the lessons Mr. Crandall gives them so he lets me sit with Jolene and th' other middle kids. I can do most of the lessons they get, 'specially when Jolene helps me, she's sharp as a tack she is! So anyways Momma braids my hair like this and dresses me up for school in short little dresses so's I'll look more like the middle kids. Sometimes she makes me have ponytails instead when she sees me puttin' th' ends o' my braids in my mouth. At least ya don't suck ya thumb no more, Ella-Sue, she says, an' I laughs, 'cause I hardly ever does that now!
So, Mr. Alan, were you good at school? Did ya like it? Wow, all the way through high school! You must be real smart for a fact. An' was you in th' Army like my Uncle Cal? You was? Was ya ever wounded? Well tha's good, guess you was one o' the lucky ones, an' now you can travel all over creation sellin' im-plee-ments! Maybe if'n you sells a lot you'll get t' be rich! Oh, you wanna be the boss one day? Well, that would be a fine thing for a fact, and I sure do wish you kin do that, Mr. Alan - I wish it once, I wish it twice, I wish it chicken soup with rice! That's a poem Jolene done learned me.
I know I ain't one of the smart ones like Jolene but preacher Deke says we just got to make do with what God gives us and do the best we can, and I sure am tryin' to do that. But you know, my Daddy says it really don't make no difference if I ain't real smart 'cause a girl who's pretty as me with my blue eyes an' blond hair is sure to get what she wants anyway. My Momma smiles whenever he says that, 'cause everbody says I'm the spittin' image of her and I look just like her when she was my age, so she hears it like a compliment to her. Daddy doesn't say so, but besides my eyes and hair I know he means these, too. My chest is big as Momma's already! When I squeeze 'em like this I cain't even get 'em all in my hands ... see? An' I seen lots o' men in town lookin' at 'em when I walk by. It makes me kind o' proud. I like it. Even Mr. Crandall, you know, my teacher? Jolene told me tha' when he comes over to hep me with my writin' she sees him tryin' t' look down the front o' my dress! So now if'n I remembers I undoes the top button afore school starts! *giggle*
You know what Jolene told me? She says there's these girls in the real big cities like New York an' Raleigh, they called flappies or fappies or somethin' like that, they wears these straps under they dresses t' flatten down their titties! Imagine that! Now why would girls wanna go an' do somethin' like that? Maybe big city men likes girls what look like boys, but that sure ain't the way in the hollas 'round here! All my friends at school cain't wait till they gets big'uns like mine, an' men'll do just about anything t' get t' play with 'em! My older brother, the one as lives in town, he takes me out back o' the horse barn durin' county fair an' charges his friends money t' see mine, and oh my don't those fellers stare hard!
Why thank you, Mr. Alan, you're nice to say I'm pretty! And I ain't even dressed up t'day, just wearing this old shift to do my chores in. It's real old, that's why it's kind o' small on me ... see, when I stand up it doesn't even come down to my knees ... and look, when I raise my arms like this it liketa go all th' way up my legs. And when I undo the top button like this my titties just about pop right out ... see? But that's okay 'cause I got a coupla new dresses to go to school in. They real pretty and I like 'em a lot. Actually I play this game with Uncle Cal ever morning. I used to go into his room a lot to keep him company when he was still bad hurt but even though he's better now I still likes to visit, so just before I go to school ever day I go next door to his room to show him what I'm wearin' that day. While he's lyin' there in bed I say, oh look Uncle Cal, see what I got on today? An' I stand in front of him and hold my skirt out to the sides sort o' like a princess in a fairy book and make a little bow. He laughs when I do that! Sometimes I spins myself around so my dress flies up, and then I lift my skirt up high and I say see what I'm wearing underneath, Uncle Cal? Do you like my panties today? Are they pretty?
He says yes and sometimes I turn around and wiggle my rear just like the hoochie coochie dancer he told me about once, who was in the circus that come through town last year. I didn't get to see her actually dancin' 'cause kids weren't allowed in the little tent where she was, but I seen her when she went outside to smoke a cigarette once. She was dressed in these spangley things that didn't cover much at all, and Uncle Cal told me that when she danced she shimmied and wiggled like jelly, and the spangley things tinkled like little bells! I asked him to show me how she did the wiggle and he did one day. He kneeled down on the floor and had me stand real close to him and lift up my dress. Then he had me turn around slow-like a couple times while he smoothed down my bloomers with his hands and then he took hold o' my hips and rear and moved them around like the hoochie coochie lady did, and pretty soon I could do it all by myself. I don't do it ever day but when I do Uncle Cal really likes it. Once just for fun when I was a-wigglin' my bum at him I pushed my panties down and then up real quick-like then laughed and said "bye now" and ran out to get to school. That was so funny!
