day.”
“Oh, I bet I can guess,” Jack laughed. “Was it Sandy?”
“Sure was. She’s as pregnant as a cow, too.”
Jack shook her head. “I’m not surprised. Sandy never does anything halfway. When she decidedshe was straight, I knew she was gonna be squeezing out pups as soon as nature would allow it.”
“Sandy used to be a regular at these little get-togethers,” Mick explained to Lily. “Her and Jackwas together for a while, but then ole Sandy kinda retreated to the enemy camps.”
“She went back to her ex-husband,” Jack added. “Decided that what she was doing with me wasjust an ‘experiment’ ... like I was her chemistry project or somethin’.”
Honey laughed. “I wonder what she did about that pink triangle I tattooed on her ass. I notice sheain’t had the guts to come back here and ask me to cover it up.”
“Oh, I’m sure that dumb redneck husband of hers ain’t even noticed it,” Sue drawled. “And if hehas, she probably told him it’s just a birthmark he hadn’t noticed before. I’m sure he’d be stupid enoughto believe it.”
Dale laughed and draped her arm around Sue’s shoulders. “Lily, I bet you think we’re awful.
You’re sitting there thinking, ‘These country dykes don’t do nothin’ but sit around and drink beer and talkbad about people.’ ”
“Hey, drinking beer and talking bad about people are two of my favorite things.” To illustrate herpoint, Lily popped open her second tallboy.
“Well, you’ll fit right in here, then,” Sue said.
“Actually, Lily, being from the city, you probably don’t think we’ve got any educational stuffaround here,” Dale said. “But right while you’re sitting here, you’re looking at a natural history exhibit.”
Lily knew she was being teased, but played along. “And what’s that?”
Dale grinned. “Why, you’re looking right at the oldest known lesbian couple in the history ofFaulkner County, Georgia.”
“That’s great,” Lily said, her insides aching as she thought of all the times she’d imagined growingold with Charlotte. “How long have you two been together?”
Sue squeezed Dale’s age-spotted hand. “We met at the WAC training base in Fort Oglethorpe innineteen and forty-four. I had a boyfriend back home, but when I first saw Dale, I knew I was throughwith the boys.”
Dale smiled slyly. “Our first weekend pass, we checked into a hotel in Chattanooga and didn’tcome outta that room for two whole days.”
Sue slapped Dale’s leg. “Now don’t go telling that!”
“A while back,” Dale said, “when all that gays-in-the-military foolishness was going on, I couldn’thelp laughing. The military’s brought more dykes together than any of them silly women’s music festivals