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Like any good Southern woman, Miss Louise lived in a old Victorian home in the quaint historic part of Coconut.  It was the kind of street folks from miles around drove up and down Christmas to see the lights and ambushed on Halloween for the handmade candy.   A oil rig widow, Miss Louise worked as a seamstress and baker from her home, where she lived with her sister Myrtle.

What most people didn’t know was that Miss Louise had been Miss Coconut five times and Miss Texas three times in a row.  She knew everything there was to know about beauty contests.

As Myrtle escorted them into the living room, Essie May looked around nervously.  She’d been to Miss Louise’s home several times before, but this time was different.  The mood was dour, highlighted by her mother’s white lips pressed together and her own hands clutching her purse.  Even the air hummed with a tension, like an angry bee buzzing in a jar.

“Miss Louise will be in here in a minute,” Myrtle shouted, extending a hand and gesturing for them to sit on the stiff couches.  Her wild white hair frizzed around her wrinkled face, which had been painted with garish shades of blue and red.  Two pink streaks extended into her hairline from the tips of her cheekbones.  Her withered lips cracked, revealing several teeth stained with red lipstick.  “Can I get you anything to drink?  Tea, coffee?”

“We’d hate to be a bother,” Essie May’s mother, Barbara, cooed.

“What brother?” Myrtle shouted back, looking around in confusion.  “I have a brother?  No one ever told me!”

“No, no, no,” Barbara stuttered, fluttering her hands.  “I said we didn’t want to be a bother.  When you asked us for coffee or tea…”

“You have to pee?” Myrtle bellowed.  “Well go right ahead, honey.  Don’t let me stop you.”

Essie May smothered a giggle, forcing herself to stare at the floor until the feeling subsided.

Barbara turned crimson, her mouth opening and closing.  “I meant–we don’t want to be an inconvenience.  We know we intruded.”

“I don’t believe I’ve met Fred,” Myrtle pondered aloud, tapping the whiskers dancing on her wrinkled chin.  Her face brightened.  “Is that my brother?”

“Cheese and rice!” Barbara moaned.

“Mice!?!?” Myrtle screeched, leaping onto the coffee table.  Her red satin dressing gown billowed around her, revealing a yellow nightgown printed with chickens and fuzzy green house shoes.  “Where?  Louise, call the exterminator!”

As if on cue, Miss Louise glided into the room.  Her grey hair was patted back in a soft updo and her delicate frame draped in a soft lavender dress.  The high cheekbones and smooth neck were hints of her younger beauty days, but her eyes shook Essie May.

Framed in thin silver spectacles, light blue eyes the color of a early spring sky peered at the party with a sharp glance.  Essie May knew however she may had presented herself to the community, there was no fool behind those eyes.

“Myrtle, darling,” Miss Louise spoke in a loud clear tone, touching her sister’s arm.  “There’s no mouse.”

“Are you sure?” Myrtle bellowed, giving the floor an apprehensive look.  “Mice are small.  You might not be able to see them.”

“I’m sure.”  With a soft smile, Miss Louise pulled her sister down from the coffee table.

“Did you know we have a brother named Fred?” Myrtle shrieked, peering suspiciously at the carpet as she stepped onto it.  “And Barbara has to pee.  I think she’s scared to.  That’s what a mouse does to people.  Can’t even go pee without fear.”

Barbara’s cheeks flared and Essie May burst out laughing.  With a straight face, Louise led her sister to the base of the stairs.  “Why don’t you go finish getting ready?  Georgia and Fanny are meeting us in a few hours at the Club.”

“Fabulous idea,” Myrtle shouted, patting her frizzy hair.  She smiled at Essie May and Barbara.  “Upkeep, you know.”  Bounding up the stairs, she disappeared into the historic home.  Turning, Miss Louise raised an eyebrow.  “Barbara.  Essie May.  What brings you to my home on a Sunday morning?  Nothing church related, I presume?”

For the third time that day, Barbara flushed.  “I’m terribly sorry to intrude, Miss Louise,” she stuttered.  “I know it’s Sunday and all.  But we just got the most terrible news, horrible really–the most descpicable, scandalous”–

“Queenie Lurche  is running for Coconut Queen this year,” Essie May interrupted, shifting on the uncomfortable couch.  “The same year I am.”

Miss Louise tapped her lips with a long finger.  “A Baker and a Lurche in the same race,” she murmured.  “How unusual.  How dangerous, really.”

“So you see why we had to come to you,” Barbara burbled, waving her hands around as she spoke.  “Rumor has it Queenie went to France last summer for culinary school and got all sorts of fancy gowns and tips.  Plus, you know the cupcake stunt her sister pulled.”

A smile cracked Miss Louise’s solemn face.  “I do,” she drawled, her laugh filling the air and shattering what was left of the tension.  “One of my friends was one of the judges.  He lived on those cupcakes for days, convinced everything in town was poisoned.”

“Oh, Miss Louise, you must help us!” Barbara cried.  “No woman in the Baker family has ever not been Coconut Queen!  Essie May will be devastated if she doesn’t get that crown!  She’s worked so hard.  I mean, she dances three times a week, eats only organic”–

“Yes, yes, I remember what it takes,” Miss Louise interrupted, waving her hand.  She eyed Essie May, who shrank back from her piercing glare.  The ice blue eyes seemed to bore into her for hours before shifting back to her mother. “Come back in an hour.”

“What?” Barbara stared at her.  “What do you mean?”

“My sister and I have an appointment at the Club in two hours.  Come back in an hour and I’ll be done with Essie May.”

“What do you mean, done?” Barbara twittered.  “Why can’t I stay?”

Miss Louise took a small step forward, her eyes hard.  “Am I not the best?” she asked.

“Well, of course!” Barbara stuttered.  “That’s why we came to you!  We knew that only your expertise and knowlege could”–

“I know exactly why you came to me,” Miss Louise interrupted, her voice quiet but firm.  “You want to beat Queenie and you want to make sure I’m on your side.  You know the ties I’ve got to this competition, to the judges, to the beauty industry overall.  You’re hoping that I can give you some secret, some magic formula to win.  Come back in an hour.”

With wide eyes, Essie turned to look at her mother.  Barbara opened her mouth and closed it.  Without another word, she meekly scurried from the house and hurried down the wooden front porch steps.  Essie May heard the engine roar as their truck hurried down the street.

Turning on her heel, Miss Louise glided to the base of the stairs.  Pausing with her hand on the banister, the blue eyes stared at her from across the room.  “Coming, dear?”

To be continued…

Stay tuned, Invisible Friends!  Tomorrow we have TWO delicious new recipes and a new Twirl Friday.  And next week, we have all sorts of whimsical fun, including a new Creative Woman.  Stay tuned!

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