Re: log: flower delivery - ella g/mason j
Beauty hadn't done a thing for Ella when hunger had its way with her back during the Depression. Back then, a bellyful was the only thing worth having, and beauty wasn't worth rubes like it could be in these days. Like any gal of her era, she'd danced and kicked up ankles bared brazenly, and she'd tried to get herself invited to every ritzy gin joint offering peanuts and gaspers. Judge you might but, the chips being down made a gal do foolish things, and Ella wasn't any different in that regard. Hindsight was entirely 20/20, and it was easy to lament a gilded cage with food rounding out your belly softly.
But the door to that cage was open now, and the canary was pleased to sing outside the confines. There, on the golden bars and her little feet held tightly. She was utterly pleased, and her freckles stood out brightly against the bridge of her nose as she regarded him with cheek and offering. She convinced herself, of a moment, that she'd been wrong in the sense that overtook her as she entered the church. Perhaps she was becoming superstitious. She could blame her time out of the world, and she she watched him suck on the cigarette and put his broom aside.
"I'd like one of those gaspers," she said of his cigarette. Ella was brazen and bold, and she'd always been the kind of gal to defy propriety, even as she garbed herself in its weeds.
She carried her flowers past him, the scent of violets, marigolds and hydrangeas trailing her like a train, and she set them upon the steps near the front of the church. She crouched, better arranged them, and then she moved to the piano which sat closed and narrow.
It was a typical church piano. Unadorned, like things in Protestant churches always were. The keys were yellowed, and she settled her skirt around her before sitting on the worn wooden stool. "Do you think the Lord would be terribly fussed if I played out of tune?" she asked, her tone playful enough to be entirely disrespectful. But the song she chose was nearly appropriate, assuming he didn't know the words or the sensual implications. But she knew, and it was hidden in a smile dolled up in sweet.