The Folks

Part 3: The Loveliest Time of the Year

Part Three The Loveliest Time of theYear '--_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _-___•.__________..J DOROTHY was just waking up. She was under orders to sleep as long as she could. First of all, she recognized the quality of the sunlight-this summer sunlight, flecked by the leafy green of the trees outside, lying in a square, pulled slightly out of shape, on the polished floor; and then the air, scented with grass cut early in the morning, and with peonies open in the sun, smelling of coffee and breakfast and of Margaret's Red Rose bath soap. She turned her head on the smooth pillow and spread out her hair to watch the sunshine gild the roughened curling ends of light brown with wiry auburn, wondering whether she liked her new permanent. She was in a blissful state of new perception of her body. Her eyes wandered from herself and took in the sweet familiarity of the room. The curly-haired doll, in its foam of lace over French-blue taffeta, sat among the lacy cushions piled in pretty disarray on the chest. The folks had let both the girls get new furniture when Margaret had left this room at the front, that had always been hers and Dorothy's together, and had taken the old guest room on the north. But now Dorothy could scarcely remember how it had looked before that. She lazily draped one arm over the blue coverlet and watched the sun bring out its frosty whiteness . . . She made a restless movement. Now she felt too excited to stay in bed. She stood and stretched herself in the square of sunshine. The lace strap of her flesh-pink nightgown slipped down from one round shoulder. Dorothy contemplated the smoothness of her arm down to the pink finger nails that she had sat up to manicure last night. Her eyes, veiled by the lovely lids with their feathery spray of golden-brown lashes, had an ecstatic glint. Jesse was coming at half past eleven. She sang "Half past eleven" just under her breath, not knowing whether she was more thrilled or frightened. She heard the battering sound of Nellie's dust mop as it hit a foot board. "My room be empty in a jiff, Nellie!" she cried. She flung her old blue crepe de chine negligee around her like a cape and ran pattering in her blue mules down the narrow 257 hallway to the bathroom-pausing a moment to peep into Margaret's room, empty and shaded, on the darker side of the house, with the furniture painted (not all of it successfully) in black and green and Chinese red. Margaret couldn't find any ready-bought furniture around here to suit her ideas. Dorothy looked into the room just for the confirming sight of Aunt Louie's things in there. A wonderful negligee of fruity-colored crepe de chine and yellow cobwebby lace lay across the bed. Dorothy thought of trying it on-Aunt Louie wouldn't care; but the powder and perfume-scented stillness of the darkened room, where one of the shades blew in and out a little, was somehow mysteriously private. Margaret had put out a cake of her own blue bath soap for her. Choosing bath soaps to match their auras was one of the secrets Dorothy and Margaret still had together. How grand to have all the towels she wanted, after rooming all last year! The shelves of the white-painted cupboard were thickly piled with the rough white softness of Turkish towels. Dorothy relished every little circumstan~e of these last few days at home. The folks all remarked on how calmly Dorothy accepted the fortune that came to her. She did, and in a way, could, because she had always felt a sort of certainty inside herself. And yet she knew how happy she was; she felt it in a trembling wonder. She heard Nellie's mop, voices somewhere in the house, and she felt herself strangely, yet rightfully, naturally, the center of all this luxurious commotion. She had always known that it would happen just like this some day. Now that it actually was happening, it seemed at the same time dreamily familiar and utterly fresh. She dressed and started down the back stairs to the kitchen, standing for a moment on the little, inconvenient, threecornered landing, alone with...