The Fur Coat

The Fur Coat As this is a true story I cannot use her real name so I will call her Sue Froney. That would have been her name if her mother's mother had been named Sue and her father's mother named Froney. Anyway, she never did like her own name and changed it to Lenora. Of course, no one ever called her anything except Sue Froney. She never did have a close friend at school. I guess you could say that I was the closest thing to a friend that she ever had. She, being a slow learner, got to the eighth grade at the same time I did, although she was at least five years my senior. And as much as three years older than any of the others. She really tried to learn. I remember helping her with her homework in math. I can t say that I liked her but I did feel sorry for her. She was always falling over her own feet. Some of the other kids would yell at her and say, "Sue Froney, Sue Froney, baloney, macaroni with a rubber navel. ' After finishing the eighth grade she never returned to school. Myself, I had quit school after one and a half years of high school to get married. One day a few years later I ran into one of Sue Froney's sisters (she had six sisters and four brothers—some older and some younger—none of them very bright). I wasn't all that interested, but out of good manners I asked her sister where she was now and what she was doing with herself. Her sister told me that Sue Froney had been gone from Caney for quite a spell, gone up north, got a good job, and doing just fine. There was nothing strange in that; a lot of our young folks were doing the same thing. It was four or five years later before I was to hear from her again. In fact, everyone on Caney had something or other to say about Sue Froney's return home. She had returned home a very sick and disturbed woman. Until today it has remained a mystery as to what happened to her while she was gone, to make such a great change in her, but it must have been something terrible. Of course, everyone had their own version. Sue Froney had brought back with her a beautiful fur coat that must have cost hundreds of dollars. Now, as you know, at that time there was no one on Caney that owned a fur coat, and very few of us wanted one. How Sue Froney loved that fur coat! She wore it from morning until night, rain or shine. Her folks said that she slept with it on. Summer or winter, every day she walked for a mile or more up and down the road with her fur coat on, never speaking a word to anyone. If someone spoke to her, she would only frown. She would stomp along, a frown on her face, and her arms held tight across her chest, never speaking to anyone, mumbling to herself and walking, the pride in her fur coat showing in every step she took. This went on for years. Folks got used to seeing her. Some kids would still yell at her and say, "Sue Froney, Sue Froney, baloney, macaroni with a rubber navel." Children can be so cruel. Other children were afraid of her and would run and hide when they saw her passing. Willie, my husband, was then working for the gas company and I was running a small grocery store, just this side of Caney School. One day a well-dressed man stopped in front of my store and parked a very expensive-looking car. He got out and came in. He had a briefcase in his hand. "I am looking for a Lenora Smith," he said. "Do you know anyone by that name?" At first I was puzzled, then I remembered that was the name that Sue Froney always called herself. "Oh, I think you are looking for Sue Froney; she likes to be called Lenora...