Chapter 3: The Dinner Party Part 1

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CELIE

I's stare at myself in the mirror for about 15 minutes, overthinking what I am wearing. "Will Shug like this?" I kept thinking. But a knock on the door took me out of that trance.

"Hey Mama." Olivia says as I open the door. She has a disappointed look on her face. "Hi baby. What happened?" "It's my dress." She explains. "It ripped." "Oh honey, that's an easy fix. Come here." I walk her over to my desk and sit her down on my stool. Every time she walks in here I always catch her studying my furniture and the pictures on the wall. Like she's trying to catch up on missed time getting to know me. It makes me melt every time.

"Here take this needle. Feel it okay? And take this here cloth.. feel that too, okay?" "Okay." She responds softly taking in everything I am saying with complete focus. She's so smart. Very intuitive too.

I continue to demonstrate and she picks it up pretty quickly. More quickly than I ever did when I was her age. She starts to do it on her own without my assistance. "How's that, Mama?" "Perfect! See good as new, baby." "Thanks!" She says with one of the most beautiful smiles there ever was." I start to pack up my sewing kit and things. I can see the wheels turning in my daughters head. Like she had another question about threading needles or making clothes. So I waited patiently for her to speak up. "Mama?" "Olivia?" "Do you know who my father was?"

I drop a needle on the floor. Olivia picks it up for me. "What was that baby?" That was not the question I was prepared to answer. "My father? No one ever talks about him. I have asked Aunt Nettie about a million times and-" "If she hasn't said anything to you, Olivia then it's probably business you ain't supposed to know!" It comes off harsher than I meants it to. But that's only because it was encased in love which comes with a strong desire to protect and shield.

But I do's apologize. "I'm sorr-" "No I'm sorry." Olivia cuts me off. "I shouldn't have asked."
"No I understand whys you asked. I just-." "You don't have to explain mama. Thanks for fixing my dress. See you at dinner." She leaves my room with a smile on her face, that I am pretty sure she only put there to make me feel less guilty. It didn't work.

30 minutes have gone by.

"Nettie where are my fancy plates?!" I ask my sister while I pace around the kitchen like a crazy person. "All your plates are fancy Celie!" She yells at me from... somewhere else in the house, I don't even know where. "Nah, I mean the fancy fancy ones." "Now how am I supposed to be able to tel-" "FOUND 'EM!" I cut her off in excitement.

Nettie appears out of a closet in the hallway. "What were you doing in there?" "Looking for your placemats." "We have those, they are right here." I's point to the table. "No I meant the ones that aren't ugly." She dare say. I literally gasped. "Those were Mama's!" I say defending the placemats, and my mama. "Mama, used them anytime we had company over." "Theys was ugly then and theys ugly now." Nettie laughs at herself. "You so wrong." I tell her.

After some more banter that younger me would've killed to haves with Nettie, there is a knock at the front door. "I'll get it!" Nettie races to the door.

"Adam!" She screams. "My favorite Nephew!" "Also your only." He laughs. I immediately stops what I am doing to greet my son and my daughter in law and my two grandchildren who quickly followed behinds them. "Thank you for coming, I have really missed y'all these pass few months. How are things?"

I lead my family into the family room. Adam tells me about his job and how well his children are doing in school. He promises to see me more often but with him having a family of his own its harder for him to see me as often as Olivia does. We talk for another 22 minutes. Adam plays a few songs on my piano. I sings along with him.

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