Imagine That (Woody McClain Chronicles)

1936.

"AB, I swear you are the most boring 20 year old I've ever met!" The young lady, commonly called AB, sat on her twin sized bed as her sister Eva taunted, just as she did every Friday night, in hopes of getting her to go out with her. It rarely ever worked. AB didn't consider herself boring, she just didn't enjoy the same things other folks her age enjoyed. There wasn't much to do in Charleston, South Carolina but on the weekends, all the young Black people found someone's shindig to let loose at...all except AB.

AB's eyes switched back and forth from the book she was reading to her sister who scurried around their bedroom like a chicken with her head cut off; spraying perfume, unraveling rollers from her hair and, putting on shoes all at the same time. She shook her head at her younger sister's frenzy.

"Abigail Bernice, you are going out with me tonight! I'm tired of you sitting in this house like an old maid. You ain't got no husband and at the rate you goin' you never will!" Eva snatched the book from her hands and pulled her up from her bed. "Daddy got him a woman! He don't need you sittin' up under him on his free days!" She teased. AB cringed at the thought of her father and his new lover, Ellen. They never got along.

"Evaaa!" AB whined, stomping her feet.

"Shut ya mouth. Go get dressed." Eva ordered as she put one pearl stud earring in he rleft ear then the right.

"I don't have anything to wear." AB shrugged. Her sister looked her up and down in distaste before smacking her lips and going to the small closet they shared.

"It don't have to be nothin' fancy. We just goin' down to the Blues Shack. Here, put this one on." Her sister laid a Black polly swing dress, with a floral patterns, at the foot of the bed and dove back into the closet to find the perfect pair of shoes.

Abigail rolled her eyes at her sister's dominance. Anyone could easily mistake Eva for the older sibling due to her boisterous, sometimes bossy, personality. She'd always been the one trying to break her big sister out of her shell and make her live a little but AB always preferred to play it safe and do what "ladies are supposed to do." Eva still wasn't sure what that meant. All she knew was that her big sister wasn't getting any younger and she didn't want to see her alone and downtrodden. AB didn't want that for herself either but she was much too reserved to step out and accept any of the male advances she received. She did have her antennas up for one though.

"Now, get dressed. We gotta get there before the fish fry ends!" Eva exclaimed, shoving the clothes at her sister who huffed as she shuffled out of the room and across the hall to the bathroom.

"How do I look?" AB sighed as she slouched in the doorway. Her sister scrunched up her made-up face as she looked her over.

"Like a hunchback. Stand up straight."

AB straightened her back, plastered a sarcastic grin on her face and threw her hands out like she was the main act in a minstrel show.

"Is I fine enough fo' ya, Miss Eva?" She mocked, making her sister laugh.

"Gorgeous! Ooooh AB, you gon' knock that fine ass Woody McClain right off his feet!" Her sister beamed.

AB's face twisted in confusion and her eyebrows rose as she spoke.

"Who said I wanted to impress that boy?! I'm only going out with you so you'll stop naggin' me, lil' girl." AB shifted her weight to her left hip and rested her hand on it. Eva rolled her eyes and smacked her lips.

"Oh please! Everybody in the county knows that boy got his nose wide open for you!" A smirk slowly formed on Eva's face as she continued, "And don't think I don't see the way you look at him when we pass him at the market." She spoke slowly as to tease her big sister. She did think he was attractive, and funny...and damned if he wasn't charmingly persistent but AB had other things on her mind, like finishing school to become a teacher.