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“Miss Louise, it just doesn’t make sense.”  Essie May collapsed onto the attic sofa, her chest still rising and falling.  As soon as her beauty queen classes were over, she had run to Miss Louise’s house.  Wiping her sweaty face on the hem of her skirt, she stuffed a pillow under her head and flung her feet over the sofa arm.

“What am I supposed to do with these coconuts?  I mean, they said to give them to whoever I wanted to and then they pitched a fit!  And now I’ve only got two days before the beauty competition. Two days.  Two days to get waxed and plucked and prodded and fitted.  Plus, you know they’ve got dress rehearsals those days.  How am I going to get everything done?” She looked over at a tiara on the coffee table.  Seizing it, she flung it across the room.  “I never want to see another coconut again!”

Snorting with laughter, Miss Louise shook her head.  Gliding across the attic beauty salon, she draped herself across the leopard settee.  “You’re too much.”

“What?”  Essie May scowled and folded her arms.  “What’s so funny?”

“You,” Miss Louise retorted.  “You’re acting like a two-year-old.”

“Am not.” Essie May stuck her tongue at her and raised her chin.  “If you were having to all this, you wouldn’t be peaches and cream either.”

“What makes you think I haven’t done all this?”  Miss Louise’s eyes flashed.  “And if you hate it so much, quit.  I have no time for whiners.”

“I can’t quit!”  Essie May looked horrified at the suggestion.  “If I quit, Queenie will win and my mom will sink into a state of utter oblivion.  Plus, I’ll never get to go to vet school.  I’ll be stuck in this small town forever.”

“If that’s the case, I suggest you stop whining and get on with it,” Miss Louise drawled coolly, her ice blue eyes piercing Essie May’s until she squirmed.

“But that’s what I’m trying to tell you!”  Essie May bellowed, kicking the arm of the couch.  “I tried to do things my way and they didn’t like it.  I made a mistake.  I can’t make another one.  I need help!  How do I figure out who to give the coconuts too?”  She reached down and pulled the coconut from the bakery out of her purse.  She tossed it to Miss Louise.  “I mean, honestly.  Look at it.  Who would want a coconut?”

Miss Louise turned the coconut over in her hands.  “What you must think of is, what does the coconut represent?  What does it mean?”

Essie May blinked.  “Huh?” she replied inelegantly.

“It’s like a tiara,” Miss Louise said, pointing to the discarded tiara across the room.  “When you see a tiara, what do you think of?”

“Beauty queens,” Essie May replied promptly.

“What else?  What other words come to mind?”

“Pain and suffering,” Essie May muttered under her breath.  Louder, she mused, “I guess competition, expectations, struggles, ambition, glitter, entertainment…”

“You really do hate beauty pageants.”  Miss Louise shook her head.  “Ok, now tell me what you think of the coconut?”

“Obnoxious,” Essie May piped up immediately, narrowing her eyes at the small fuzzy brown fruit.  “Hard.  Stupid.”

“Be serious.”  Miss Louise’s ice blue eyes warned her.

“Fine.” Essie May huffed, crossing her arms.  “Queen.  Tiaras, shoes, gowns, golden curls, parades, sashes.  History, I guess.  Tradition.  Sweets–like pies and cakes and cookies.  Hot summer days.  Beauty.  Beauty products.  Perfume.”   She gagged.  “I never understood why girls wore coconut perfume.”

“Me either.”  Miss Louise tossed the coconut to her.  Essie sat up on the couch, staring down at it.  “So we’ve established that in a way, the coconut represents beauty.  Let’s think about what beauty means.  What does it mean to you?”

Essie May bit her lip and looked down.  “Do you want my real answer or the standard Coconut Queen answer?”

“Real one.”  Miss Louise’s blue eyes twinkled with repressed mirth.

“Ok.” Essie May took a deep breath.  “When I think of beauty, I think of a horse.”

“A horse.”  Miss Louise’s face was blank.  “Go on.”

“A horse,” Essie May whispered, “racing across the plains.  It’s mane streaming behind it, muscles rippling under a shiny black coat.  I think of it’s dark eyes, it’s sleek nose and powerful hooves pounding into the ground.  It’s beauty in motion.”

Miss Louise nodded, her solemn face breaking into a smile.  “Wonderful.”

“Really?” Essie May smiled shyly.

“Now, what do you think Queenie’s idea of beauty is?”  Miss Louise continued.

“Sucking the souls out of small children and eating kittens,” Essie May muttered.  Rolling her eyes at Miss Louise’s raised eyebrow, she replied, “Fine.  I guess it would be Paris.  She just went there and seems pretty besotted by it.  Anything sparkly and expensive, you know–nice jewelry, dresses.”

“Very good,” Miss Louise praised.  “Do you have a better understanding now?”

“No.”  Essie May stared at her.  “I still have no clue what you’re trying to say.”

Miss Louise gestured to Myrtle, who was twirling in her exotic garden in a too-big ball gown, a tiara perched on her head at an angle as she sang a aria at the top of her lungs.  “Myrtle is beautiful.”

Essie May didn’t say a word.  She stared at Myrtle’s frizzy grey hair and flailing arms as she cartwheeled across a pond, landing in the center of it with a splash.

“She is not conventionally beautiful,” Miss Louise continued.  “In fact, many people would call her homely.  But she’s beautiful not for her looks, but for her spirit and joy for the simple things in life.  And our friend Mrs. Drew–she’s beautiful for her desire to help, her desire to make opportunities for girls without a lot of natural talent and skill.  Everyone had beauty within them, except for those who are simply ugly all the way around.  There are many different types of beauty.  But that’s not for you to judge.”

She held up the coconut.  “When you look at this hard, hairy fruit, you don’t expect sweet milk and meat to come from it.  When our forefathers first saw this fruit, they didn’t know it held the key to the town’s success.”  She handed the coconut to Essie May. “Think about that.”

Essie May nodded, turning the coconut over in her hands.  “I get it now.”

She wouldn’t make another mistake.  She didn’t have time.

To be continued….

Stay tuned, Invisible Friends!  Tomorrow we have a tasty new recipe, Green Pepper Swiss Steak!  Then Friday we have a new Twirl and Saturday, the confession of the Glitter Chicks!  Stay tuned!