"Thank you," I told the aide.

She smiled. "You're welcome. Your mother is a sweetheart. I love her style."

"I just wish she had more good days"

"Even when she doesn't know any of us, she still looks like a fashion queen. You do well keeping her all dolled up," she said.

I could have hugged the woman. "Thank you for noticing. You have a nice day."

"You too," she said as the door closed between us.

When I opened the car, a blast of heat hit me in the face, blowing strands of hair to stick to my cheeks and forehead. It didn't take long to get the engine going, the air conditioner running full speed, and to decide that I was cutting my hair. The only reason I had kept it long was for Drew.

I drove through Milburn, Emit, and Nida, which was basically a church and a few scattered homes. Then it was on to Durant. The idea of stopping to talk to Crystal about her decision to get married on the sly did cross my mind, but I had a war to fight with her father, and I couldn't do battle on two fronts at once.

When I arrived at Walmart, there was no waiting line in the beauty shop. I waltzed in, hopped up into a chair, and pointed to a picture on the wall of a young girl with too much eye shadow and bright red lipstick. She wore black leather and looked like a rock star. "I want it all cut off like that."

The hairdresser flipped a plastic cape around my shoulders. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. Only don't leave so much on the sides. Cut it above my ears. I want to be able to wash it and go. I'm sick of straightening irons and blow-dryers."

..You have a lot of curl for that cut. It's going to kink up all over your head"

"And I'm going to love it. I wore it like that in high school."

She removed the red silk scarf and brushed out a tangled mess of long, frizzy curls. "Why did you let it grow long?"

"Because my husband liked long hair."

She giggled. "Fighting with him, are you?"

"No, but I'm going to be very soon"

I flinched when she gathered up my long hair and laid the scissors to it.

"Want to change your mind?"

"No. Cut it off."

In twenty minutes it was short and kinky. My head felt lighter than it had in years. Too bad my heart was still a heavy chunk of rock in my chest. I paid the woman and added a tip, found a shopping cart, and was headed toward the clothing section when I heard my daughter's voice.

"Mother, what have you done?" Crystal gasped.

"I had my hair cut. What do you think?"

"Daddy is going to have a fit. He hates your hair short. That's why your senior picture isn't hanging in the hallway. I'm not coming home to visit you two until you grow it out again"

The battle had arrived whether I was ready or not. It was either fight or slink into a corner, and I was tired of that business. "Too bad, then. I'm keeping it this way forever."

Her nose wrinkled up in disgust. "And your clothes? You look like Aunt Gert"

"That's because these used to belong to Aunt Gert. I missed you at the funeral yesterday."

My daughter wore a cute little pair of jean shorts, a Vegas T-shirt, and fancy sandals, and she carried a purse that likely would have cost half of my teacher's-aide paycheck. Her light brown hair had been recently cut and highlighted with blond streaks.

"Was that yesterday? I wouldn't have come even if I'd remembered. I hate funerals. But why are you wearing her clothes?"

"You got time to have lunch with me? I'll tell you all about it." When opportunity knocks, you don't leave it standing on the doorstep. You invite it in and feed it chocolate cake. That's what Aunt Gert used to say.

She blushed. "No, I've got ... Actually, I'm just picking up some shampoo and conditioner and..

"Oh, don't get your panties into a wad. I know you and Jonah went to Vegas and got married. I don't like it, but evidently my opinion doesn't matter."

She tilted her head up and looked down her aristocratic nose at me. "I can't have this conversation now."

"Me, either. I've got underwear to buy. I'm at Aunt Gert'sno, I can't say that anymore. I'm at my house, but it's still listed under Gertrude Martin in the phone book. Call that number if you need me "" I pushed my cart around her.

She grabbed the cart and glared at me, those pretty blue eyes flashing enough anger to light up the whole Walmart store. "You're going to tell me right now what is going on!"

I gave the cart a jerk. "I'm not having this conversation here. If you want to talk, you can come to lunch with me. Otherwise, run along and buy your shampoo. We'll discuss it another day."

I left her digging in her purse for her cell phone, no doubt to call her father, but right then she could have been tattling to Saint Peter and I wouldn't have cared. On my way to buy underwear, I passed the window air conditioners, hauled the cheapest one down off the shelf, and set it into my cart. I'd be cool in the guest bedroom at night until central heat and airconditioning was installed. Billy Lee would most likely tell me the whole place had to be rewired before we could think about something that luxurious.

Cato's dress shop was located next to Walmart. A few minutes in there netted me a couple of dresses to wear to church: a bright red one with a parrot embroidered on the hem and across the back of the jacket, and a more subdued canary yellow with a Hawaiian-print, short-sleeved jacket. No more black silk for this girl. Lessie had said I was young and pretty. Besides, look what expensive black suits had gotten me: a husband who cheated with girls who wore bright colors.

I bought red leather slides with kitten heels and a pair of cute little flats in hot pink that matched a flower in the Hawaiian print. I wasn't slinking into church the next day. The old Trudy had died in the church bathroom. She was now a new woman who didn't need to be "poor" anymore or have her heart blessed, either. That's when I saw a beautiful hot pink hat. It would provide the crowning glory to my new outfit, so I bought it too.

I wouldn't have noticed the rack of Capri-length bibbed overalls if there hadn't been a line at the checkout counter. I found two pair in size sixteen and grabbed a couple of sleeveless tank tops to wear under them, one orange and one turquoise.

It was two o'clock when I got back to Tishomingo, and I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast. I whipped into the SONIC and ordered a foot-long hot dog with chili and cheese and a side order of Tater Tots. I rolled down the windows and ate in the car rather than taking the food home.

When I pulled up under the carport in the backyard, Billy Lee was coming through the opening in the hedge with a notebook in his hands. I took a long look at the house and seriously contemplated buying a box of dynamite, blasting the place, and letting it rain pieces all over town. Then I'd cash in all those assets Aunt Gert had left me and disappear off to a beach with white sand and no cellular service. That way I wouldn't have to have a conversation with Drew, Crystal, my cousins, or Billy Lee.

"Hey." Billy Lee's pale blue eyes lit up.

He stopped beside the car and flipped open his notebook on the hood. "So, you ready to see my ideas?"

"I guess I am" I looked at the air conditioner in the backseat and longed for a cool breeze. The wind blows constantly in Oklahoma until the first day of June, and then a body can't buy, borrow, or steal a gust of it until after Labor Day. That's because it's so hot in June, July, and August that any amount of wind would cook the flesh off our bones. Daddy used to say that even the lizards carried canteens over one shoulder and a machine gun over the other during the summer months. The machine gun was to take out anyone who looked sideways at the water jugs.