I see. Inez, if Mariah did have a special charity, would Flo have supported it?
Depends on the charity. Thats why I think Mariahs disappearance is related to something else. Politicsas I mentioned, politics usually brings out the worst in people.
Im beginning to think politics is a platform for extreme egotism, Harry mused. One stokes greed, the other fuels egothe desire for power over others.
Got that right, Snookums. Inez used the old term from Fanny Brices radio show, then realized Harry had never heard of it. The Baby Snooks Show.
Pardon?
Baby Snooks was Fanny Brices radio show. Screamingly funny. You saw Funny Girl, Im sure.
A revival. Wish I could have seen it with Barbra Streisand.
Barbra Streisand started out singing at the Bon Soir on West Eighth Street in the Village.
Inez, is there anything you dont know?
Inez laughed. When youre ninety-eight, youve lived a lot, plus Im blessed with a sharp memory. I have so many interests. Is there anything I dont know? Lots. I dont know why the human animal so likes to destroy thingsliving thingsand I dont know where Mariah is. Her voice lowered.
Im so sorry, Inez. As chairman of the alumnae board, this lands in your lap.
Im worried, Harry. She paused and half-whispered, Deeply worried.
Ill help in any way I can.
I know you will. I wanted to talk to you about the problems on the board before we got here. You often have unconventional solutions. Little did I know when I made that phone call that it would be something big when we got here. You have a good mind, and you arent misled by sentiment. Thats uncommon, really. You dont let emotion cloud your thinking.
Thank you, Inez. Do you think Aunt Tally is in danger?
A long pause followed. Its possible. She has an unerring ability to stir a hornets nest.
The animals had been listening.
The blood in the manure pile, Tucker said. Lets get out of here and go back there.
Mrs. Murphy replied sensibly, Tucker, a blizzard is developing. Theres more than a foot of snow on the ground already. The manure pile is covered and frozen. You know that. We couldnt dig into it if we had to.
Pewter, finally drawn into this, said, I didnt see the manure pile, but it sounds as though its in plain view.
In the back, but its not hard to find, Mrs. Murphy answered. A manure pile is not a likely place to actually kill someone, though. For one thing, if the killer and Mariah made noise, a student might have heard it; the horses certainly would have. I bet Mariah was killedif indeed she wassomewhere else. As the manure pile was fresh on the top, it would have been pretty easy to dump her there, pull the fresh manure over the body. Or the attack could have started there if the attacker was able to silence her in some fashion. I dont know; right now it makes no sense.
You dont know if the blood you smelled was hers, Tucker. Pewter was now sorry she hadnt gone to the barns. And your idea means whoever put the body there would have to be lucky that the pile wasnt frozen.
Or they knew the maintenance routine. Tucker sat still. If only we could get Mom back there.
Thats not going to be anytime soon. Mrs. Murphy looked toward the window.
Whiteout.
The wind whipped the heavy snows sideways at times. The mercury hung at twenty-two degrees but threatened to go lower as the night of March 25 deepened. By six, the time of the celebration, the auditorium held the students who lived on campus and most of the faculty and staff. The over-eighty alumnae had been bused in. All the alumnae board, except for Mariah, sat in the front row on the right of the center aisle. The elderly graduates sat on the left. The auditorium was half-full. There was no way those living far away could fight the storm. As it was, the students would be walking back to their residence halls holding hands in a chain. Losing ones way in a whiteout was easy, far easier than one would suspect. All people in cold climates knew stories of farmers frozen to death not ten yards from the barn door.
Harry left her three animal companions in the house. None of them had minded. She sat toward the front. Big Mim and Little Mim sat directly below the podium. Inez sat next to Jahnae Barnett and Aunt Tally on the stage.
Jahnae spoke, lovingly sketching the universitys history. It was founded in 1870, five years after the end of The War Between the States, in response to the needs of female children orphaned by the conflict. Sixty-one years later, Tally Urquhart graduated. The Great Depression was two years old; Germany was rearming. Dismal though things might be, sound entered movies, and people flocked to theaters to forget their troubles. Professional sports provided another bright spot. It might have been the Great Depression, but the young were ever hopeful. This applied to the class of 1931 and to Inezs class, 1933.
Then as now, one of the hallmarks of William Woods was the lifelong friendships forged during the students two years. William Woods became a four-year institution years after Tally and then Inez had graduated. At this, Jahnae introduced Inez, providing a bit of her history.
Inez could always command an audience. I first met Tally Urquhart in 1931, my freshman year, in the stable. She said, Put your hands down.
I was riding a hunter but with Saddle Seat hands. From that day to this, my oldest and dearest friend has spoken her mind, usually without honey-coating her thoughts. She was right. My hands needed to come down.
As you can imagine, weve lived through a great deal. Were still here. I will always be grateful to William Woods for the superior education I received at a time when not many women managed to achieve a higher education nor were encouraged to do so. Most of our classmates are gone now, but we have maintained vibrant friendships. I hope this one lasts another eighty years and then some, but failing that, well make the most of what time we have left.
Without further ado, Tally Urquhart.
To thunderous applause, Inez took her seat next to Jahnae, who leaned over to congratulate her.
Using her gold-headed cane from Inez, Tally reached the podium without hobbling. Given Tallys short stature, Jahnae had arranged for a low podium. Tally wanted to stand. No chair for her.
Aunt Tallys eyes, still quite good, swept the audience, lingering on her niece and grand-niece; then she cast her eyes at Harry. Taking a deep breath, she addressed the assembled.
Thank you for braving a Missouri spring to be here. She paused for the ripple of laughter, then continued, You know how old I am. A woman who will tell her age will tell anything. I intend to do just that.
I applaud your good sense in attending William Woods. I look back on my time here with untrammeled joy. I know I speak for Inez, too, for all the Grande Dames. The rest of our classmates have gone on. I miss them. This will happen to you many decades from now, the good-byes to those who sustained you in life. You go on. You retain their wisdom. You try to incorporate their best qualities into your behavior.
One professor stands out in my minda wonderful, wonderful history professor, Chuck Jones. He used to tell us over and over againto the point where Inez and I could look at each other, wink, and then repeatTrust your instincts and dont expect life to be logical. He told us the truth.
I will now try to live up to what I learned here, to what life has taught me, and to my own instincts. I will tell you the truth as best I know it.
The first truth really is to trust your instincts. How easy that sounds. How difficult in practice. Why? Because all religion and government want to do is take you away from you. This isnt to say that organized religion is bad, only that it has strayed far away from spirit and is now part and parcel of the political structure. I guess the leaders of the various churches have forgotten Christs words, Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods.
As to the United States government, at the federal level it is a disaster. At the state level it can be intrusive. At the local level it often works very well. The further a politician is removed from those who are governed, the more mistakes he or she makes.
And we have no statesmen, only politicians, hence the disasters that will accumulate and intensify until you become involved, which is to say fight back. Rememberin fact, tattoo this on the inside of your eyelidsJeffersons quote that every American should hold sacred: That government is best which governs least.
Never ever believe that laws will solve a problem. The law allows what honor forbids. A problem will be solved only by people, not by a piece of paper.
She caught her breath, smiled, then continued, So much for the so-called big issues. Now to life.
Never hope more than you work.
Animals never make a virtue out of boredom, best you dont, either.
Dont get addicted to the struggle. If that statement doesnt make sense now, it will over time.
There are some people you cant satisfy even if you blow a fan on them in hell. Ditch em. If that person is your boss, start looking for another job.
Corruption is like a lilybrush against it, however lightly, and some of the pollen smears on you. Therefore choose your friends and your employers wisely. When the day comes that some of you start your own businesses and hire employees, concern yourself more with that persons character than their resume. This gets back to the first thing I said: Trust your instincts.
No dog would pay for sex. Humans, mostly men, worldwide, do. And people call dogs dumb animals.
For Gods sake, dont try to be perfect. Its impossible and you will become impossibly tedious.
I have always believed a window into a persons true nature is how they treat animals, children, and the elderly. A person who mistreats animals isnt worth knowing. A person who mistreats childrenespecially those who abuse and kill themshould be shot without wasting any taxpayer money for a trial and for feeding them in prison. When a perpetrator of heinous crimes can live in a climate-controlled environment and eat three meals a day while good people go hungry, something is very wrong. Americans are paying for serial killers, rapists, and child abusers to live better than they do.
She paused for a moment, again swept the room with her eyes, and moved on to less troubling subjects. Fall in love with open eyes. Easier said than done, so should you find yourself in a situation where you love someone who lacks the good taste to return the compliment, move on. Youre better off without him or her.
If your cat or dog doesnt like someone, trust your cat or dog.
Obey the Ten Commandments. And they are the Ten Commandments not the Ten Suggestions.
Having memorized them, I dont recall any exhortation not to smoke, drink, or overeat. Now if you stop smoking and drinking, you may not live longer but it will seem longer.
Any offer too good to be true, is.
Well, Ive rattled on, hopped around, Im not much of a speech giver. I still have goals, old as I am, and hope you do, too. Ive pretty much given up on self-improvement, but there are things Id like to know, such as the fact that cats were worshipped for milennia in ancient Egypt. When did that practice stop? And why dont our cats notice?
Another thing, and this is just something from our community: In 1964 a young blacksmith was found dead in the road. No one ever caught the killer, and Ive always wanted to know who did it. Its our countys Black Dahlia case.
Id like to see one of my horses or one of my nieces horses win the Maryland Cup, which is a steeplechase race. She smiled broadly. Small goals, they wont set the world on fire, but if you have a goal, youll push on.
I wish each of you a long life if you have the will to live it, and life takes will. Perhaps someday something in my ramblings will pop into your head and youll think, She knew her beans.
As for aging, dont fear it. Aging is a return to your true self. The mind understands time, the heart does not. My heart is here at William Woods: the century is irrelevant.
She lifted her right hand, palm open, and gestured to the assembled. Onward and upward.
With that, she came out from behind the podium and bowed, balancing on her cane. The gesture was not lost on her, for in more primitive times, one lowered ones head to the hetman or leader. If your performance displeased, off with your head.
Aunt Tallys remained securely on her shoulders, for the audience cheered. The young people in the audience liked that she spoke to them without a whiff of bullshit. That alone was worth applause.
Inez rose, as did Jahnae. Inez, having lived almost to one hundred herself, agreed with every word Tally had uttered. Shed lived long enough to know that Americans were like Gulliver in Lilliput: tied down by cords of government regulation. And like Gulliver, we must free ourselves, she thought to herself.
One willowy girl in the audience wiped away a tear. Even if she had to stand in line for an hour at the reception to talk to Tally, she would do it.
They filed out of the auditorium to the reception room, where dinner was waiting. Few students could have paid for this special dinner, nor could some of the over-eighty alumnae. Big Mim, asking for anonymity, had paid for the entire feast.
The Ivy Room, decorated in green and burgundy, smelled of roast beef, which was being served buffet style. As freshmen, sophomores, and most juniors were underage, no alcohol was served. However, Jahnae, being a wonderful hostess, had ordered a pitcher with Tanqueray and nestled it in a champagne bucket stuffed with shaved ice. The bucket sported burgundy-and-dark-green ribbons with an enormous bow. A place card reading Tally Urquhart in italics signified Tallys seat at the table. The vermouth was in a silver teapot, and the olives were on a small silver plate, toothpicks spearing them.
Jahnae had arranged for waitstaff to bring filled dishes to the three tables of over-eighty alumnae. Some of the women would not have been able to get the food and carry it. A student waiter was in charge of alcoholic drinks at those special tables. He was amazed at how much those old girls could knock back.
The members of the alumnae board were seated at a table adjacent to Tallys.
Once the room was filled, Jahnae briefly welcomed everyone and encouraged them to enjoy the food. After dessert and coffee, students and friends could speak with their celebrated guest.
At the head table, Jahnae whispered to Tally that the vermouth was in the silver teapot.
Youve thought of everything, Aunt Tally praised her, as she fixed herself a liberal martini, then mixed a second one for Inez and a third for Little Mim. Big Mim rarely drank any form of alcohol and Harry drank only beer.
But the weather, Jahnae laughed.
Aunt Tally offered to mix a martini for Jahnae. The bartenders hand makes a mean martini, she said. In the South, the bartenders hand is the secret ingredient to a perfect drink. Jahnae understood and whispered, On duty. That was easier than saying no, since Tally liked to share. Jahnae wasnt much of a drinker.
Harry held up her drink as Jahnae stood.
To Tally Urquhart, an example to us all, a woman of high intelligence and keen observation and a born hell-raiser. Jahnae laughed again.
Big Mim, looking nothing like her seventy-some years, her jewelry understated but major, held up her iced tea. To my aunt, who so resembles my mother and my brother, Myron, who died on the Bataan Death March: Heres to one hundred more years. Jahnae, might I add that if you had to live with her, the hell-raising might wear on you a bit. Big Mim laughed. Aunt Tally, you really are one in a million.
Another toast and more laughter.
Next, Inez proposed a toast. Here we are in 2009. Seventy-eight years of friendship with rarely a cross word but gales of laughter. May each of you have a friend so dear.
While toasts continued at table one, the alumnae board at table two put on a good face, but they were reeling over Mariahs disappearance as well as at the questioning by the police.
Liz Filmore, whose husband, Tim, sat next to her, moaned, It seems so odd not to have Mariah here.
No one mentioned Pete, since he rarely accompanied Mariah. They usually went their separate ways.
For one thing, its quieter. Flo rose and made her way to the buffet table, which was already jammed with
students.
The students gave way to Flo. They would have in most instances, but Gayle Lampe had impressed upon them to honor the alumnae board. As most of the assembled knew Gayle from the riding program, shed been able to talk to them at the stables. This made her appealher order, reallymore powerful. She had also impressed upon them the need to converse with the over-eighty crowd. Shed quipped, You might learn something.
At the alumnae board table Andrea Rolf, an energetic member from the class of 1989, was nobodys fool. Liz, drop it. We dont want Tally to get wind of it. Not during her time of triumph, anyway.
Liz halfway listened, then asked, Did you like her?
Tally or Mariah? Andrea couldnt help but tease her.
Mariah, of course. Liz had knocked back two well-made daiquiris, and on a blizzard night, no less. Her husband kept a watchful eye without being too noticeable about it. Shed managed to guzzle more drinks when hed been pulled away in conversation. He knew she was unsteady just as he knew no matter how hard he tried, shed knock back the booze.
Yes, I liked her. Her endless drawing of attention to her accomplishments was wearing thin, but I got along with her just fine.
Ill go with. Liz used the Midwestern shorthand for Ill go with you as she rose to accompany her husband to the buffet. A bit of the Midwest had rubbed off on her during her four years in Fulton, as it had on all the graduates.
He put his hands under her elbows, all but lifting her up.
As the Filmores left for the buffet table, DeeDee Halstead, the alumnae member from Los Angeles, class of 1978, picked up her whiskey sour. To Tally.
They stood, holding their glasses, and boomed out, To Tally.
Liz, now at the buffet table, moaned, How could they do that without me?
Tim, hoping to keep her level, said, You can make as many toasts as you want back at the table.
She leaned against him for a moment. Youre right, I can.
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