The Christmas Women

FICTION The Christmas Women Lynn Sadler INEZ, MATILDA, AND PEARL WERE SITTING around a table at Inez's working on a quilt one day, when what happened began to happen. Inez started it. "Well, it's almost that season again, and, sure enough, here we are working on another quilt for the Annual Christmas Bazaar." Matilda was caustic, as usual: "Do you have something against Christmas, Inez? Or quilts? Or is it the Annual Christmas Bazaar? Who's licked the red off your candy cane this time?" "It's just—well, I doubt that all Mrs. John Wesley was expected to do was make quilts!" Pearl could no longer keep still: "Goodness, Inez! All of us have more to do at Christmas than we can rightly do." Inez was not giving up easily: "At home, we do. I'll grant that. Christmas homes aren't homes without women to make them so. It's at church, in the Bible, I'm thinking of. There's Mary, of course, but what other place is there for women in the Christmas story?" Matilda nodded; she'd figured out what was wrong with Inez, right enough. "It's that niece of yours, isn't it, Inez? That 'Pookie/ as you call her! With a name like 'Pookie'—anyhow, since she went off to college at Duke and got so all-fired 'feminized/ you haven'tbeen the same! Children are supposed to listen to their elders—not the other way around!" "Matilda Blalock, youjust leave Pookie out of this! You never did like the girl in the first place. And her real name is—but now that I think about it, it's Duke, isn't it, that gets your goat! It's Duke, not Pookie. You're originally from Erwin, and Erwin was originally called 'Duke' but had to have a name change when Trinity College was re-named 'Duke.'" "You think you've got it all figured out, don't you, Miss SmartySmart Inez? Well, that so-called Methodist school is ruining your darling Pookie with all its feminist claptrap, or my name is not Matilda Blalock, and I'm not the only one who's outraged by the newfangled ideas in that Divinity School—!" Pearl tried a little more strongly to make peace. "Now, now, ladies. Inez, Matilda. It's almost Christmas. People must be on their best behavior at Christmas. I'm sure—" 63 "I'm tired of being sweet at Christmas and about Christmas. I'm tired of being everybody's 'Sweet Inez.' Period. I haven't admitted it to Pookie, but she's right—women don't have a place in Christmas. Not from the point of view of the Bible or the church. And stop looking so shocked, both of you. Just stop it." Pearl tried another tactic. "I must admit, Inez, that I don't know quite what to say to you. In my down moments, I like to recall that Dorcas was a maker of coats and garments and that she was restored to life. And the good woman of Proverbs 'seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands—Strength and honor are her clothing.'" Pearl was chagrined at the very different effect her words had on Inez and Matilda. "Now, Matilda. At least Inez conceded that Mary—" Her dander up, Inez interrupted: "And how must she have felt? How would you feel? That angel—male, ofcourse—that Gabriel comes flying in and says—make that annunciates—right off the bat without so much as a Good Day, Lady. 'I'm here to tell you that you're going to have a baby.' Just like that!" She snapped her fingers to demonstrate. "Would any self-respecting girl put up with such a thing?" Pearl made an effort to redirect her friend. "Remember, Inez. Easter has many women. Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene—" Inez was into this so deeply now, there was no going back: "Right, Pearl. And Martha was probably there sweeping up at the foot of the cross. She 'was cumbered about much serving/ as I recall. Like mothers at Christmas time. Anyhow, Easter is not Christmas, Pearl." Matilda grew...