ROSEWOOD

         The trouble happened all because of Beauty’s new hat.

         Beauty was fussing at the mirror, moving her hat side to side, trying to find the best angle to show off her hairdo. She was smiling, looking quite satisfied with the way the gold flowers on her hat brought out the gold flecks in her dark eyes.

         “You better hurry up, Mama wants us back right away,” Happy Carrier told her sister, annoyed. “There’s too much to do as it is, without wasting the time to get it all done.”

         “Don’t rush me, Happy, I never can decide how to wear this thing,” Beauty said.

         “Mama gonna help you decide, here she comes,” Happy lied, to get her sister moving.

         Beauty quickly pinned the hat in place, grabbed her gloves and scurried out the door, Happy right behind her. They headed west after they passed through the front gate, towards the train station in town.

         Tall trees grew along the road that ran next to the railroad tracks, and the dense undergrowth beneath the canopy of trees made a cool, green tunnel of the roadway. The wind blew through and Beauty pulled her collar closed, shivering.

         “Mmm, smell that, Sister, that’s a winter time wind!” Happy exclaimed. “It smells like ice!”

         “Ice doesn’t have a smell,” Beauty replied, but she lifted her face into the cold breeze and inhaled, smiling. “Sure feels like winter, though.”

         “Maybe we’ll have snow,” Happy said.

         “Maybe the Gulf will freeze, we’ll walk over to Mexico,” Beauty said. “Maybe Florida will become the place everyone comes in the summer.  ‘So nice and cool’ they’ll say.”

         The two young women laughed.

          “Ice cream every day you want.”

          “Polar bears, swimming at the beach.”

         Happy sighed. “I sure would like to see some snow, just once. It looks so pretty in all the pictures.”

         The two young women continued on, talking as they moved down the road.

         “Oh, no. It’s been such a nice morning,” Beauty muttered, and stopped walking. Happy looked up and groaned.

         “Not those two,” she sighed, and looked at Beauty who was shaking her head.

         “Let’s go back,” Beauty said, and turned towards home.

         “I’m not turning back for those two!” Happy told her sister. “All they are is an annoyance. Mama told us, be polite but that’s all. I’m not afraid of them, I whupped Darrel back when we were children. It’s him what ought to be afraid of me. Now come on,” she said, taking her sister’s arm and continuing towards town.

         The two boys looked like twins except for being different sizes. The older was man-sized but skinny. The younger looked to be about thirteen. They both had tan colored, straw straight hair and pale skin covered in freckles. Both were wearing ragged coats and overalls that weren’t very clean. The younger one used the sleeve of his coat to wipe his runny nose, leaving a trail of mucus on the fabric.

         The two boys approached, sneering at the young women. The older one spit on the ground in front of the young women, and the younger mimicked him.

         “Damn, I hate to see these two,” the elder said to the younger.

         “Look at the two of them, you ever seen anything so ugly?” the younger one asked. “Lookit them lips.”

         “Lord help me, I promise I’ll be good,” Happy muttered, and Beauty squeezed her hand.

         The two boys walked close enough to the sisters to block their further progress. The bigger one smirked at Happy and looked Beauty up and down, then up and down again. The younger one ran a finger down Beauty’s coat sleeve, making her shudder.

         “Well good morning, if it isn’t the Carrier sisters. Where you off to?” he asked.

         “How come you and Dwight aren’t up the mill this morning, Darrel?” Happy replied.

         “Aww, they don’t use us no more. Pay a colored man less, Daddy says, puts us decent men out of work. He sent us off to hunt, ain’t nothing worth hunting, though. Never see a rabbit around here no more, no more squirrel.

         “How come you don’t ever call us Mister, girl?” The big boy asked Happy, circling her and Beauty. “You ought to, you know, Happy. Happy, huh, she don’t ever look too happy, do she Dwight? She look kinda unhappy, if you ask me,” he said, and his brother laughed.

         “What you girls up to today? We’re supposed to catch some meat, but we sure didn’t expect to catch you two. Don’t know what good they might be, Brother, do you? Can’t think what they might be good for, can you?”

         The younger brother brayed laughter, wiping his nose again, snorting mucus up into his throat and spitting on the ground next to Beauty’s foot. She stepped back, tears forming in her eyes, and she would have turned to run if Happy didn’t take her arm and hold it tight.

         “I can think of something they’d be real good for,” the younger boy said, leering. The two boys moved closer, almost touching the sisters.

         Happy crinkled her nose as if she smelled something foul. Abruptly she bent over, dropped to a crouch and untied, then started to retie, her right boot.

         “I can never get this boot right, either it’s too loose or too tight, I can never get it comfortable,” she muttered, twisting the laces into a bow. She then undid and retied the left boot, muttering all the while.

         Beauty could feel her heart racing. She thought she might run if one of the boys even moved towards her. She looked down towards her sister, tying her laces, and was surprised when Happy looked up at her and winked, then turned back to her lace and untied it then tied it again.

         The boys had stepped back when Happy dropped down to fuss with her boots, and they stood watching her with puzzled frowns on their faces. As she stood they instinctively stepped back to allow her room to rise. Happy used Beauty’s arm to pull herself up, and in the same movement pulled her sister to the right so that they now stood beside the boys in the road, no longer blocked by them. When Happy raised her chin and looked her tormenters straight in the eye, the boys stepped back one more step, surprised by the cool look of contempt on her face.

         “I suppose if you wanted to hire us for some work, you could do so, but you’d have to have your mama speak to our mother about that,” she told them in cold tones. “If you have something else in mind, you’ll have to speak to our brother, Sylvester. He’ll be along directly, we can ask him.”

         At the mention of her brother’s name both boys flinched and looked around, as if worried that saying the man’s name would cause him to appear. When they turned back Happy and Beauty had moved on, walking at a slow pace but arm in arm. The boys couldn’t see the fear in Beauty’s face or Happy’s angry glare, nor could they hear Beauty whispering, “Lord, give me strength, Lord, give me strength.”

         “Aah, you always was a tattle tale, Happy, sure look unhappy, you ask me,” Darrel shouted after them, but the two boys did not follow. They passed into the woods to the north after looking again all around. Happy held her sister’s arm for several more paces before she dared look back, but the boys were gone when she did look, and Happy finally stopped holding her breath.

         “Always trouble, what a nuisance all of those Davis boys have always been,” she said. Then she noticed her sister was crying, and she pulled Beauty close, urging her along down the road towards town.

         “Don’t you cry over those two, don’t you ever,” Happy scolded her sister, but she pulled off her glove and gently wiped her sister’s face. “Old shoelace trick, works every time. It’s like watching a snake charmer, they can’t help but look. Don’t think they know how to tie a boot, they always stare and stare. Look like they’re trying to figure it out.”

         Beauty laughed, but still sobbed a little as she took in a deep breath.

“I know I’m foolish, I just hate how dirty they talk. It makes me ill to hear that nasty way they speak to us. I’ve a good mind to tell Sylvester, there’ll be no more of that kind of talk.”

         “You keep shut about it, Sister,” Happy frowned. She pulled her glove on and pulled her sister along, moving east down the dirt road. “Nobody was hurt. Hurt feelings don’t matter. Nobody can fault us for anything. Well, maybe you, they could, you eat like a hog,” Happy teased, but she took her sister’s arm in hers again and smiled, and Beauty smiled back.

         “Me! You ate five pancakes this morning, f-i-v-e five count them!” Beauty taunted.

         “You ate five before I even came down from bed!”

         “You ate another half dozen while I was getting coffee!”

         “You did!”

         “No, you did!”

         They bickered, and walked, and soon the sound of their footsteps faded into the background of bird song and the breeze sloughing through the tall pines crowded along the road beyond the railroad tracks.