Above all, be the heroine of your choices in life, and not the victim. (Ephron)
Ethel Louise
Ethel Louise is the youngest a the girls here, and she’s the only one actually from Yella Rose, Texas. Fact is, she’s the daughter of the mayor a Yella Rose, and he actually tole Miz Suze he’d pay her to keep Ethel Louise here. I wasn’t supposed to know that, just happened to be in the hall when he was a’visitin’ one day. Miz Suze, she got right aggervated and turned him down flat, tole him to stand up and be a father, but Ethel Louise is here anyways because he wasn’t doin’ much standin’ up, and Miz Suze wouldn’t turn nobody out anyways.
The reason the mayor said he’d pay to have Ethel Louise here is ’cause her and him had a big fight ’cause he won’t let her step out with that Johansson boy, and what did she do but up and run away to The Yella Schoolhouse, and tole Miz Suze she wanted to be one a the girls. Miz Suze tole her back that she couldn’t have no customers, but she could stay until she decided to go back home and she tole Miz Suze back that would be when hell froze over, and she’s still here, four months later, so who knows . . .
I s’pect her pa thinks she’s safer here than runnin’ away somewheres else. He don’t like that Johansson boy, tole Miz Suze he was nothin’ but trouble. And I reckon Ethel Louise’s doin’ what Matilde calls rebellin’. Like me, she don’t got no ma, and her pa says he never did know how to handle her.
I do know, since as you know by now, I keep pretty good tabs on what goes on here, that she’s been sneakin’ out of The Yella Rose Schoolhouse to see that Johansson boy, and if she ain’t careful, she’ll make a baby, and lord knows there’ll have to be a weddin’ then, even if the mayor don’t like that boy. When Miz Suze got on her case, Ethel Louise tole her kinda snooty-like that she had no intention of gettin’ pregnant (I’m not s’posed to say that word either), that she had big plans for herself that didn’t include no gettin’ married and no snotty nose kid. When I tole AutumnGlory, she just shuffled her cards, shook her head, and said the best laid plans of mice and men, and that Ethel Louise isn’t likin’ Ethel Louise very much. I don’t know what mice got to do with anything.
I stood up to Ethel Louise one day and tole her I seen what she was doin’, and she slapped me and called me a dirty little sneak ‘n tattletale. But then she started cryin’ and hugged me and said she didn’t mean it. I don’t think she knows what she does want, mebbe she’s just unhappy with herself, like AutumnGlory says.
But I’ll keep on listenin’ and watchin’ in case I can do anything. I don’t much like the way Ethel Louise is a’actin’, but she ain’t totally a bad sort. And I kinda feel a connection since both our mamas died.