Queenie shook her head. “That won’t do. Miss Fannie say she want to see them when you finished.”
Ibby opened the box to find engraved monogram note cards.
“Look at that—your initials are LAB, for Liberty Alice Bell. Like one of them Labrador hunting dogs,” Queenie chuckled.
Ibby closed the lid. “Don’t remind me. Annabelle Friedrichs discovered that my first day of school, when she saw the monogram on the collar of my uniform. She’s been barking at me in the hall ever since.”
Birdelia stuck her head through the back door. “Tell Mama I be back in a little while.”
“Where you off to?” Queenie wiped her hands on her apron.
“I might go over to Audubon Park,” Birdelia said.
“Now listen here,” Queenie fussed at her. “T-Bone just got that part-time job over at the Audubon Stables. Don’t go messing it up for him while he’s at work.”
“Can I come?” Ibby asked.
“If you want.” Birdelia shrugged.
“What about your thank-yous, Miss Ibby?” Queenie asked.
“I can do those later.” Ibby followed Birdelia out the back door. “Or never.”
Queenie opened the screened door and called out after them, “You hear what I say, Birdelia? Don’t go messing around with T-Bone while he’s at work.”
“Yes’m.” Birdelia gave a backhanded wave and kept walking.
Birdelia headed toward Magazine Street, a few blocks from Fannie’s house toward the river. When they got to the stables, they went around back, where they found T-Bone hosing down one of the horses.
“Why you all here?” T-Bone asked.
Birdelia reached up and grabbed a cigarette from his shirt pocket. “Just came to see how you doing.”
“Why don’t y’all go on up by the river, near the Butterfly? I’ll meet you there in about twenty minutes, when I get off.”
“Why you whispering?” Birdelia asked as she lit the cigarette.
A high-pitched voice called out from inside the barn, “Why isn’t my horse saddled yet?”
Annabelle Friedrichs sauntered out of the stables, dressed in tight black riding pants that barely contained her fat rear end.
“Well, who have we here?” Annabelle eyed Birdelia savagely before approaching Ibby. “You got a horse here?”
“I’m thinking about getting one,” Ibby shot back. “I wanted to check out the stables before I decided.”
It was a lie of course, but Ibby was determined not to let Annabelle get the best of her.
“Well, you can’t keep it here—the stables are full,” she said smugly before turning toward T-Bone. “Hurry up and saddle my horse. I don’t have all day.”
“Yes, Miss Annabelle,” T-Bone said as he walked into the barn.
“Why don’t you go and help get my horse ready?” Annabelle said to Birdelia.
“I don’t work here,” Birdelia said.
“She’s with me,” Ibby said defiantly.
Annabelle tapped the side of her leg with her riding stick. “Oh, I forgot. Ibby Bell always was a nigger lover.”
T-Bone must have heard Annabelle’s comment because he came out of the barn looking so angry, Ibby thought he might smack Annabelle. Instead, he led her horse out calmly and handed her the reins.
“Here you go, miss.”
“Aren’t you going to help me up on the saddle?”
T-Bone gave Annabelle a lift up. After she trotted off, he headed back inside the barn without a word.
Birdelia turned to Ibby. “My grandma has a saying: ‘Ugly is as ugly does.’ That Annabelle one big fat ugly.”
They walked to the back of the park toward the river, where they passed the zoo and the public swimming pool with the padlocked gates. When they crossed over the levee, they came upon a big open field. At the far end, near the river, was a concession stand that looked like a butterfly, with wings jutting out on either side. Birdelia stopped to buy a snowball.
“You want one?” She licked the red syrup off the side of the paper cup.
“No thanks,” Ibby said. She was still thinking about the way Annabelle had spoken to T-Bone. It had left a sour taste in her mouth.
Birdelia led Ibby to some steps that went down to the batture of the river. They sat on large boulders the Army Corps of Engineers had placed around the river’s edge to keep erosion at bay. Beyond the rocks was a small beach of river mud littered with garbage where pigeons were scavenging. The water lapped against the rocks as a tugboat pushing a grain barge let out a whistle as it passed under the Mississippi River Bridge, scaring up the pelicans perched in the rafters.
After a while, T-Bone came down to the batture to join them. He lit a cigarette.
“I’m sorry about the way Annabelle acted just now,” Ibby said.
T-Bone gave her a small sideways glance. “Used to it.”
Everyone sat in their own thoughts, watching the river. Ibby could tell T-Bone was angry, even if he tried to pretend he wasn’t. Birdelia stood up on the boulder and began throwing pebbles at the pigeons. When they scattered, she skimmed a stone across the water, where it skipped several times before disappearing beneath the surface.