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Ignoring Birdie’s comment, the elderly woman pointed her crooked forefinger at her friends, beginning with Erma.
Ms. Pinkie was on a roll.
“Remember that time we had a pool party at your house and after the men went to bed, we got into the schnapps and went skinny-dipping?”
Erma’s eyes narrowed. “What we didn’t know was that our husbands were hiding behind the bushes, taking naked Polaroids of us.”
Pinkie added, “Those pictures got out and no one would admit to being the culprit.”
Erma added with a sly smile, “So we purchased a diuretic from a local veterinarian and put in their food at our next dinner. After suffering severe digestive difficulties, we told them that if all the copies of our pictures weren’t in our hands the following day, their next dinner would be compromised with something much worse.”
Erma chuckled behind her hand, saying, “I swear, they stole that idea from us when they made that movie,Steel Magnolias.”
The ladies nodded in recrimination of Hollywood plagiarists.
Pinkie’s finger moved to Willa Mae. “Remember when you were told to leave the school board meeting in nineteen seventy-two because you dared to accuse the school board superintendent of inappropriate touching of some of the younger teachers?”
Willa Mae’s lip turned up. “Bubba Cross was a lecherous old coot. When he accused me of being out of order, I told him he could shove his gavel up his backside.”
Pinkie added, “And then you saw to it that he lost his job.”
“He should’ve been arrested,” Willa Mae added, shaking her head. “It was a different time.”
Then Pinkie’s attention fell on Cora Leigh, who had a mouthful of barbecue chicken and Willa Mae’s homemade coleslaw. Apparently shocked that Pinkie could find anything avant-garde about her.
“And you, Miss Cora Leigh Simmons.”
She chewed and swallowed, her eyes wary, as if girding her loins for what Pinkie was about to say. “What about me?”
“Remember when you had finally had enough of Billy Ray raising his fists?”
Birdie noticed everyone grow somber and quiet. This must have been one of those stories no one talked about, kept hush-hush.
Erma rubbed Cora Leigh’s back as another murmured, “Mmmhmm, strong woman right here.”
Cora Leigh didn’t appear convinced. “I wasn’t strong,” the woman in question said, bowing her head as she sat in one of the Adirondack chairs. Quietly, she set her plate on the round table beside her and folded her hands in her lap and resolutely said, “I was weak and cowardly.”
Pinkie shook her head back and forth. “You were nothing of the sort. You were an inspiration. Protecting sweet little Mavis from Billy Ray’s bouts of anger,” she said, with a tone that was charismatic and uplifting. “And when you had finally had enough of the broken bones and black eyes, you grabbed a pipe wrench and fought back.”
Cora Leigh appeared uncomfortable with the attention. “Lotta good that did me, almost went to prison for it.”
“But you didn’t,” Pinkie countered. “You were exonerated and put a man of his despicable nature where he belonged. In a deep grave.”
Birdie didn’t move her head, but her eyes were darting back and forth between the women.
Sweet, shy, Cora Leigh Simmons murdered her husband in self-defense back in the day? How in the hell did she not know this? Everyone knew everything about everyone in this minuscule town. How in the world did she miss that huge hunk of gossip?
And all this time, she thought Shelby Wellborn was the talk of the town.
Mary-Lou leaned her direction and whispered, “That was years ago, when Cora Leigh lived up north. After she was acquitted, she and her daughter, Mavis, moved to Wayward to get away from all the talk and finger-pointing. Was a well-kept secret for years. You couldn’t keep something like that secret today with all the social media and information flowing everywhere and to everyone.”
Wow, Birdie thought, trying to get her head around that story. Now she really wished she hadn’t stolen Mavis Simmons’ coat.
But dang it was super cute.
Pinkie stood even taller, another feat, considering she was sporting a dowager’s hump. “We all are so much more than what we’re given credit for. And we all know I could go on and on regarding our triumphs,” Pinkie continued. “So I ask you, are we going to make TikTaks about cooking and gardening? Or we going to put our heads together and come up with something unexpected, groundbreaking, and worthy of our characters?”
“Wow,” Birdie breathed, leaning toward Mary-Lou. “She’s quite the orator.”
