The Hats

Amelia and Cissy popped through the kitchen door, jumping and bubbling around the room like a glass of freshly poured Coke. "Checkthe fridge, I'm starved!"Amelia ordered Cissy and ran to the door opening out to the parlor. "Mimi! Laloo! We're back! Where are you? We've got great news!" she called out to the cool gloom. "Where couldthey be?" she turned back The Hats by Katherine Elberfeld i 67 to her friend whose upperbody haddisappeared inside the refrigerator, as if the appliance had tricked her, had devoured her, instead of allowing her to violate its contents. "They never go anywhere in the afternoon. Is there anything to eat? I'm so excited, I think I could eat the refrigerator door if I could unhinge it!" "Miss Amelia, what's all the ruckus?" A deepvoice spokebehindherback. It came from the place where the yellow sunny kitchen met the parlor's dark entrance. Quickly, Amelia turned and saw the brown face, the strarched white apron and cap, the body hard andfirm. Cissy rescued herselffrom the refrigerator and stood up. "Baker! I didn'thearyou," Amelia said, running across the room. "Oh, Baker, we've got the biggest news! We've both got parts, big parts, in the Community Theater's first play for the summer. The director said we were both so good, he wanted to start the season off with us, because people would be sure to come to more of the plays later on! Isn't that wonderful? lsn t that the best news you've ever heard?" Amelia hugged Baker tight around the neck. "Letme go, girl, soIcanbreathe,"Baker choked, removing Amelia's arms and stepping back, smoothing her apron. "Yes, yes,"shesaid,finally. Thatisgood news. I know your aunts will be happy to hear it." "Speaking of them, where are they? I can't wait to tell them." "They're upstairs," Baker answered with forced patience. "They've just finished their naps and will be down in a minute." She looked at Cissy who still stood near the refrigerator door. "Now if you girls'11 sit down at the table, I'll fix you a snack. Go on," she said as she pushed Amelia gently toward the table," 'Sit down, Miss Cissy, I would appreciate it if you would close the door to the icebox—it works better that way." The girls sat down as instructed and talked quietly about their theater plans while Baker heated up cinnamon rolls from breakfast and sliced honeydew melon. She poured thick, fresh buttermilk into tall glasses, decorated with large red flowers and green leaves. A warm afternoon breeze toyed with the yellow curtains atthe window, andthe sun slanted in and touched the gray linoleum floor, bringing Baker's waxed surface to a gleam. Yellow paper that served as background to all kinds of kitchen equipment drawn in gray—rolling pins, coffeejots and teapots, and cups and saucers, oots and pans, sugar bowls, spoons and adles—covered the walls, the pattern of figures repeating itself all around the room. Presently two tiny, elderly women stood in the doorway to the parlor, like a matched set of salt and pepper shakers. The only difference between the two was that one was slightly taller than the other. They both had red hair still, neither had ever grayed, and white faces and blue eyes like china dolls. The red hair and white face and blue eyes had been treasured by generations in the family and handed down as gently and carefully as the Ming dynasty vase that a missionary great-grandfather had brought home with him from China years ago. The vase that now went nowhere but stayed on the side table in the sisters' dining room. But this time, the name and hair and face and eyes had been passed through a brother. For only the boy of the family had married. Just as Amelia's name had been preserved and protected by the family, Mimi's real name—Harnett—had been lost, bowing and curtsying and running off in the face of the name Mimi, given to her by the first of so many grand nieces and grandnephews. The taller sister...