contrast to the black gunk on his face. “One of the blame machines at the mill broke down, and I had tofix it. You want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.” He nodded at the Maycombs. “I’m BennyJack’s daddy, by the way. Ever’body calls me Big Ben.” He looked down at his grease-blackened paw.
“Don’t mean to seem standoffish, but I don’t reckon y’all’d wanna be shaking my hand right now.”
“Honey —” Jeanie’s voice was tense. “Why don’t you take a shower before you put the steakson?”
“I reckon I will.” Big Ben wiped his brow, smearing grease across his forehead. “Think I’ll justgrab me a be — a Co’Cola first.” It was Big Ben’s custom to consume a six-pack of Budweiser betweenthe time he got home from work and the time he went to bed, but Lily had asked him to abstain while inthe Maycombs’ presence.
Later, as they sat around the dining room table, everyone but Lily and Mimi slicing into huge,bloody slabs of steak, Ida chirped, “Lily, I just don’t see how you can stand to be a vegetarian. I mean,what do you eat?”
Lily smiled so tensely that her jaws ached. “Everything but meat.” She speared a forkful of salad.
“Well,” Charles began, “doesn’t it say in the Bible, though, that the Lord gave man dominion overanimals?”
“Well, Lily’s softhearted when it comes to animals,” Ben said. “You know how women are.”
Charles, Ben, Mike, and Big Ben all shared a laugh about the sentimentality of womenfolk. Whilewringing her napkin under the table as though it were a human neck, Lily noticed that Jeanie rolled hereyes at the men, while Ida laughed right along with them.
They were very different women, Jeanie and Ida. While Jeanie might enjoy reading a romancenovel while lounging in the pool, she definitely knew the difference between fantasy and reality. Shenever let a man have the final word just because of his gender, and as a mother and a businesswoman, sheexuded competence and confidence.
Ida, however, lived in a world in which she unquestioningly took orders from God and herhusband, not necessarily in that order. No matter what her husband and son said, she smiled in agreement.
If Ida ever had any complaints, Lily was sure that she muttered them under her breath instead of sayingthem out loud.
“You know,” Charles began, “I was just saying when we were driving through Versailles how Ikinda envy y’all for living in this small town. Some of the best folks anywhere live in small-townAmerica—God-fearing, hardworking people who aren’t afraid to do for each other.”
Or to mind each other’s business, Lily thought.