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September, 1946 – Sinful Park
Beatrice Hebert stood with the other mothers and watched as her little girl, Gertie, joined her young friends, Ida Belle and Marge, on the slide in Sinful Park.
“They’re getting big, aren’t they?” her friend, Acadia Boudreaux asked.
Ida Belle’s mother, Coralie nodded. “They are.”
“Don’t remind me,” Beatrice said, sniffing back the tears. “I got a letter from the school the other day. Kindergarten will be starting in one week.” She reached inside her purse and pulled out a tissue to wipe a tear streaking down her face. “It seems like yesterday Gertie was only a baby.”
Acadia rubbed Beatrice’s shoulder. “Think of all the extra time you’ll have during the day to get your chores done.”
Coralie nodded. “Not that I won’t miss my Ida Belle during the day, but those extra hours of uninterrupted housework will be a godsend.”
Beatrice sniffed back more tears. “I just keep thinking how fast she’s growing. First kindergarten, then high school, and before you know it, Harvey Chicoron will come a courting her.”
“Harvey Chicoron?” Acadia said, laughing. “He’s already taken. Marge will marry him.”
“If Ida Belle doesn’t get to him first,” Coralie said.
Louanne Boudreaux stood several feet away, listening. She couldn’t take another word of this nonsense. “You three realize your daughters are only five years old, right? Isn’t it a little early to marry them off to a boy who can’t even wipe the snot from his own nose?”
Louanne’s sister-in-law Acadia and the other two women glared at her. Since returning to Sinful a year ago, Louanne had received many such looks. Sometimes she thought she had an easier time in the Army fighting the Germans and Japanese than she did the judgment of her fellow Sinful residents.
“Not too early to plan my daughter’s future,” Beatrice said.
“Why don’t you wait and let her plan her own future?” Louanne was never known to leave well enough alone.
Coralie tossed a “do something with her” look to Acadia, who cleared her throat in a warning.
“Don’t you have to go open your shop?” Coralie asked.
Louanne shook her head. “Nope. I cleared my schedule to spend some time with my niece.” She plowed ahead before Acadia could stop her. “I’m sure my mother would have preferred me to stay home in Sinful and marry Harvey’s father, Sonny, and provide her with a slew of Chicoron babies, each born with a huge silver spoon in its mouth. But I felt another calling.” Pearl Harbor to be specific. “My momma got over it.” She thought of the work she’d done for the Army as well as the photography store she had opened on Main Street after leaving the military. “Those girls will find their calling someday, and it may not be little Harvey Chicoron. It might not even be here in Sinful. I just hope you’ll all be as gracious about it as my momma was.”
Beatrice burst out in tears.
“Look what you’ve done,” Acadia said, casting her steely gaze at Louanne.
Coralie shook her head. “Honestly, Louanne, could you be so thick? You don’t remind a mother her child might leave town someday.” This produced an even bigger wail from Beatrice, prompting Coralie to lean in and comfort her friend.
“My sister-in-law means well,” Acadia said to Beatrice. “Why don’t we gather the girls and you all come to my house. I have a just-baked coffeecake on the counter.” She shot a look Louanne’s way. “You’re welcome, too if you can keep your lips zipped.”
“Why don’t you all take some time without the girls,” Louanne said. “I’ll keep watch over them.”
Coralie’s eyes widened.
“I’ll just watch them,” Louanne said. “Lips zipped.” Maybe.
The three women talked among themselves. Acadia nodded her head. “Okay, but don’t be gone too long.”
Coralie shot a look at Louanne and shook her head, before turning and joining the other two women. As they walked away, Louanne returned her gaze to the three girls, who now stood at the entrance of a small, log-cabin playhouse. A lanky boy wearing suspender shorts stood in the doorway. Harvey Chicoron. He was only five, but his body language said he was picking up all the wrong things from his daddy, Sonny. Louanne moved in closer to hear what the children were saying to one another.
Ida Belle folded her arms and, mustering her best scowl, stared at the boy. “Let us in, Harvey.”
Harvey shook his head. “No. It’s a boys’ clubhouse.”
“Why?” asked Gertie.
“Because. No girls allowed.”
“Why?” demanded Marge.
He placed his hands on his hips. “Because.”
Ida Belle poked at his chest with her finger. “Stupid boys.”
Gertie joined in. “Yeah. Stupid boys.”
“Stop it,” Harvey said, swatting away their fingers.
Marge kicked him. “No. Let us in, stupid boy.”
Harvey kicked her in return. “Stupid girl.”
A small fire burned in Ida Belle’s eyes. “We want in.” She balled up a fist and knocked him in the stomach. Marge kicked him again and Gertie flung herself at him, knocking him to the ground.
Louanne felt herself grin. Impressive.
“You bad girls!” Sarah Chicoron, Harvey’s mother, ran onto the playground, shaking her finger at them. “That is a boys’ clubhouse.”
“Says who?” Louanne asked.
Snot Boy’s mother glanced at Louanne, who was walking toward her. “Everyone in town knows. Apparently, you’ve been away too long. But I’ll school you in the matter. The Chicorons donated that clubhouse for the boys to play in. The girls have that play kitchen set over by the sandbox. Another Chicoron donation. So they don’t need to be bothering the boys.” She looked at her son. “You go back inside, Harvey. Those girls won’t be bothering you again.”
Harvey slinked inside the log cabin. Mrs. Chicoron spun around on her heels and strode back to a bench on the edge of the park.
Louanne’s niece, Marge rubbed at her eyes. “That’s not fair.”
Louanne dropped to her knees in the grass and signaled the girls to crowd around her.
“Why can’t we go in?” Gertie asked.
“Well...” Louanne wiped at a tear trailing down Marge’s face. She thought a moment. An image of a room popped in her head. A room she’d worked in for a time with a team of women during World War II. Code Breakers is what they were known as inside that room. Secretaries is what they told the outside world they were. There’d been a time when those code rooms were also “Boys Only.”
Louanne felt her lips pursing. “Who says you can’t go in?”
Marge stuck her lip out. “Harvey said so.”
“Yes, well, if Harvey’s like his daddy, he’s dumber than that booger that’s hanging from his nose.” That made the girls laugh. The word, “booger” always did. “Seeing as how Sinful is as backward as an inside-out cow, you might have to be a little deceitful. Go undercover.”
Ida Belle’s eyes lit up. “What’s that?”
“Undercover? Why, it’s where you pretend you’re someone you’re not for infiltration purposes.” She reached out and bunched up Ida Belle’s long blonde hair. “You put this hair under a baseball cap and put a pair of jeans on you and a little dirt smudge on your face, no one would know you were a girl. If the three of you did it, you could push the boys out and have it to yourselves. Then you let other girls in who are still dressed as girls. Once the girls are inside, there’s no stopping them. They’ll never stand to be excluded again. That’s how change happens.”
Ida Belle grinned. “Undercover sounds like fun.”
“It is,” Louanne said. She smiled. “I think you’re going to like it.”