Read Online A Short History of a Small Place by T. R. Pearson - Free Book Online
Authors: T. R. Pearson
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official who could give him anything he couldn’t get for himself, but just as a means of whiling away the hours. So he helped get some folks into office and he helped get some folks out of office and he earned himself the title “Notable Democrat.” Daddy said he was a slimy individual. Momma didn’t know about that, but she was convinced he made the best shortbread cakes and cream-filled savannahs she’d ever tasted.
Mr. Alton Nance and rumors of the mayor’s candidacy arrived in Neely about the same time. The rumors came on the wind, Daddy said, but Mr. Nance was a little more stylish about it and hit town in a 1928 Ford Deluxe Phaeton with fender skirts. Daddy said it was in the most remarkable condition for a car of that vintage. According to Momma we were supposing governor or at least senator and were a shade disappointed when it turned out that the mayor was after nothing more than a seat in Congress; we’d just assumed he was no longer capable of modesty and caution, Daddy said.
As far as Momma was concerned, Mr. Nance was not a particularly handsome gentleman. She found him too squat and pasty-faced and said he did not look at all rich, just unhealthy. Daddy stuck with slimy, so he was a little more shocked than Momma when Mr. Nance and Miss Pettigrew began keeping company. Actually, it started out with the three of them climbing into Mr. Nance’s Phaeton and going to a show in Greensboro or to dinner in Winston-Salem or traveling all the way to Raleigh for some sort of political hubbub or another. Then the mayor merely withdrew his attendance, so it was really more that he left off with his company than they started keeping each other’s. But there was talk anyway, Momma said, talk that Miss Pettigrew was finally getting herself a husband who was as wealthy and as prominent as she was if only half as handsome, and talk of the mayor’s candidacy for one of the seventh-district seats, which he still had yet to officially announce but for which he had already begun to circulate lapel buttons and fliers.
Daddy said it all looked fine. It all looked proper. However, it was not fine and proper, he said, but rotten underneath like an apple that seems ripe and shiny enough on the outside but turns out to be brown and mealy when you bite into it. Daddy said Mr. Nance did not want to get married; he already was, to a woman who was paid astounding sums of money to remain what Daddy called invisible. That was the first problem, he said. The second was that the mayor alone knew it. Daddy said it was probably the appeal of glory and fame and power, touched with a little of boredom, that did away with the mayor’s good judgement, which was no excuse but was certainly a reason. So when Mr. Nance agreed to give the mayor a seat in Congress (which was, after all, what he was doing) and when he made the mistake of supposing that the mayor could give him in return something finally he could not purchase, Daddy said it was somewhat understandable that the mayor made the mistake of supposing so too.
And it was a mistake, Daddy said, a tremendous miscalculation on the mayor’s part, and it ruined him, ruined him altogether. The mayor’s end of the bargain came due on a very warm, still night in Neely, and Momma said half the town was out in shirtsleeves making aimless excursions along the boulevard or lounging on porches in the dark. She said the silence was amazing and had a kind of hum to it, and Momma imagined that if a town can seem secure and contented then that’s what Neely seemed. Daddy said both wings of the Pettigrew house were all lit up and Mr. Nance’s car was parked alongside the curbing out front, which Daddy said was natural and reassuring, him being considered a suitor and the object of Miss Pettigrew’s happiness. And he said folks were wandering back and forth in front of the Pettigrew house with some regularity, a few of them pausing to admire the inside of Mr. Nance’s car but the better part of
Mr. Alton Nance and rumors of the mayor’s candidacy arrived in Neely about the same time. The rumors came on the wind, Daddy said, but Mr. Nance was a little more stylish about it and hit town in a 1928 Ford Deluxe Phaeton with fender skirts. Daddy said it was in the most remarkable condition for a car of that vintage. According to Momma we were supposing governor or at least senator and were a shade disappointed when it turned out that the mayor was after nothing more than a seat in Congress; we’d just assumed he was no longer capable of modesty and caution, Daddy said.
As far as Momma was concerned, Mr. Nance was not a particularly handsome gentleman. She found him too squat and pasty-faced and said he did not look at all rich, just unhealthy. Daddy stuck with slimy, so he was a little more shocked than Momma when Mr. Nance and Miss Pettigrew began keeping company. Actually, it started out with the three of them climbing into Mr. Nance’s Phaeton and going to a show in Greensboro or to dinner in Winston-Salem or traveling all the way to Raleigh for some sort of political hubbub or another. Then the mayor merely withdrew his attendance, so it was really more that he left off with his company than they started keeping each other’s. But there was talk anyway, Momma said, talk that Miss Pettigrew was finally getting herself a husband who was as wealthy and as prominent as she was if only half as handsome, and talk of the mayor’s candidacy for one of the seventh-district seats, which he still had yet to officially announce but for which he had already begun to circulate lapel buttons and fliers.
Daddy said it all looked fine. It all looked proper. However, it was not fine and proper, he said, but rotten underneath like an apple that seems ripe and shiny enough on the outside but turns out to be brown and mealy when you bite into it. Daddy said Mr. Nance did not want to get married; he already was, to a woman who was paid astounding sums of money to remain what Daddy called invisible. That was the first problem, he said. The second was that the mayor alone knew it. Daddy said it was probably the appeal of glory and fame and power, touched with a little of boredom, that did away with the mayor’s good judgement, which was no excuse but was certainly a reason. So when Mr. Nance agreed to give the mayor a seat in Congress (which was, after all, what he was doing) and when he made the mistake of supposing that the mayor could give him in return something finally he could not purchase, Daddy said it was somewhat understandable that the mayor made the mistake of supposing so too.
And it was a mistake, Daddy said, a tremendous miscalculation on the mayor’s part, and it ruined him, ruined him altogether. The mayor’s end of the bargain came due on a very warm, still night in Neely, and Momma said half the town was out in shirtsleeves making aimless excursions along the boulevard or lounging on porches in the dark. She said the silence was amazing and had a kind of hum to it, and Momma imagined that if a town can seem secure and contented then that’s what Neely seemed. Daddy said both wings of the Pettigrew house were all lit up and Mr. Nance’s car was parked alongside the curbing out front, which Daddy said was natural and reassuring, him being considered a suitor and the object of Miss Pettigrew’s happiness. And he said folks were wandering back and forth in front of the Pettigrew house with some regularity, a few of them pausing to admire the inside of Mr. Nance’s car but the better part of
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