said. “Why don’t you show Grandma and Grandpa how you can walk?”
Mimi stood with her little hands clenched, steeling herself for action.
“Come on, sweetie. Walk to Mama.”
Mimi knitted her brow, sucked in her breath, and took one, two, three faltering steps before fallinginto Lily’s arms. At the sound of her grandparents’ applause, she grinned crookedly.
“I swear,” Big Ben said, “I think she’s just about the happiest baby I’ve ever seen.”
“Well, of course she’s happy,” Jeanie added. “Why wouldn’t she be? She’s well taken care of, andloved.” She looked straight at the Maycombs. “Mimi may not be hers by blood, but Lily’s still one of thebest mamas I’ve ever seen.”
Lily’s stomach clenched. All evening she had been wondering how to broach the subject of Mimi’scustody with the Maycombs. Now it seemed that Big Ben and Jeanie were going to cut to the chase forher, which, she noticed, had caused the Maycombs to squirm as though the cushions in their chairs werestuffed with gravel.
“Well,” Charles said, avoiding eye contact with anyone in the room. “I’m sure Lily is fine atseeing to the child’s basic needs —keeping her fed and clean, that kind of thing.” He smiled self-righteously. “But as I’m sure some of the ladies in the room know, there’s a lot more to being a motherthan that.”
“Oh, yes.” Ida looked at Mike in the same way Jocasta must have looked at Oedipus. “If you’venot carried the child in your own body, you don’t know what it is to be a mother. Nobody knows childrenlike a real mother does.”
That’s funny, Lily thought. You barely could have picked your daughter out of a lineup.
“Well, that’s certainly a sentiment you could needlepoint on a pillow,” Ben said. “But Mimi’sbiological mother is no longer with us. Lily and I are just trying to create the best family for her that wecan.”
“Well,” Charles said calmly, “we feel that Mimi needs to be in an environment where she canlearn the difference between right and wrong—”
“Now you just hold on a minute here,” Big Ben interrupted. “You can ask anybody in FaulknerCounty, and they’ll tell you the McGillys is fine folks. We’re a decent, hardworking family, and BennyJack here is a good boy. We never had a bit of trouble outta him, and I can’t say the same thing for hisbrothers. And Lily — she may not look like you’re used to girls looking, but she’s a good, honest person.”
The word stung Lily, but she was touched by Big Ben’s impassioned defense.
“Look,” Mike said impatiently, “there are certain factors here you don’t understand. I don’t want