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The Knack
- University Press of Mississippi
- Chapter
- Additional Information
The Knack "NOT so HIGH, TARA." Shading her eyes with her hands, Lettie Sparks watched the four girls shuffle and rearrange themselves by the shoreline. The fold of flesh under her chin was filled with pinpricks of mica and her mascara had begun to run toward the rouged circles on her cheeks. "The camera don't like elbows." One of the girls frowned, lowered her arm. Lettie studied the cluster of tender fawn legs, nubile breasts. "Keep those lips wet, ladies." Involuntarily, she licked her own upper lip, then rubbed it against the lower as if she were spreading color between them. The teenagegaggle hesitated, their arms around each other's waists and shoulders. She cupped her hands over her mouth to reach them. "Youhear me?" Slowly, with the sullen obedience of the young, her charges wet their lips, then restruck their poses. Overhead, seagulls wheeled and screamed. It was not February yet, and the wind along the beach was cold, stinging. Shivering in pastel bikinis , the girls had clearly forgotten the excitement of their first 160 modeling assignment. Spasms traveled through the group like waves, and every few minutes, someone broke formation to massage her calf, unfreeze her smile. Perspiring under a sweatshirt, a platter-shaped sunhat tied around her neck, Lettie wasjust getting started. "Don't forget, ladies, our name is going to be right there on the back of the Cara Mia catalog." She worked her way behind the photographer , then stood with a hand on one massive hip. "Models from the Sparks School, that's what it's going to say. Tuck in your tummy, Denise." She bore down on the girls until the offending pelvis was tilted, then cocked her head to one side like a slit-eyed sparrow. "The Sparks name means something, you know." It meant something in Tylerville,North Carolina. It meant glamour and opportunity in a clay-covered town with one stoplight and a five-and-dime that still sold hairnets. It meant enough to keep the hopefuls coming to Lettie's pink storefront between the bank and Sheer Style hair salon. It gave her some standing in the community, a modest income, and the perennial joy of supervising troupe after troupe of awkward adolescents , their long legs, their redoubtable, acned faces all turned toward her like sunflowers facing east. "This catalog may not be Spiegel's," Lettie told them now, "but it's going out to homes all across the country. Carrying the name, ladies. The Sparks name." The girls held their poses, but they managed to roll their eyes, to send faint, barely perceptible messages of forbearance to each other. They had heard this speech before. THE KNACK l6l [3.229.124.236] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 16:43 GMT) "Don't forget my sister was Miss North Carolina." Lettie relaxed into the litany, taking her time. "There hasn't been another to match Charlene Sparks since. Not in our state or any other." She drew the words out, stretching them like taffy. "Course it was more than looks with Charlene, you know.She had the knack, this way of moving and smiling that just kind of washed over you till you couldn't look at nothing else." "Time to wrap." The photographer, a dark, wiry man, folded his tripod with a snap,leavinga star-shaped track in the sand. "I've got another shoot," he told Lettie with authority. "Besides," nodding toward the girls, "they're getting too antsy to stand still." "We still got to do those sports outfits, Phil." Lettie's chin quivered, she fingered a strand of limp hair that had fallen from under the sun hat. "We'll do them tomorrow," the photographer said, hoisting the strap of one of his equipment cases over his shoulder. He sounded annoyed, and Lettie wondered if she should have called him Mr. Lambert instead of Phil. "But we're doing the covertomorrow." Shesidled up to him, spoke confidentially."We're only here two days. I don't want these young ladies to miss no more school than they got to." Even out of season, Fort Lauderdale seemed exotic and costly. "Webooked our trip home in advance." Mentally,shetoted up the rooms, the burgers, the video games, the movie they had begged for last night. "No problem." Lambert waved to the girls, then, without looking at Lettie, turned and began making his way toward THE KNACK 102 the palm-fringed parking lot and his Toyota. "We'll...