Alafair Tucker 01 - The Old Buzzard Had It Coming

morning only patches remained under the trees and in the shady spots, and anomalous drifts on the north sides of buildings.
    It was young Frances Day who spotted her father’s ear protruding from the melting snow that drifted against the house. She sat for several hours next to the wall in the sun, playing with her corn cob doll and watching fascinated as the rest of the man emerged from the snow. He was lying on his right side with his hands pillowing his head, as though he had lain down against the house for a little nap. When he was pretty much uncovered, Frances notified her mother that she had found Daddy.
    Not that they had been looking for him. Harley made a habit of going off on a drunk for a week at a time, which was always a nice respite for Mrs. Day and the children. He had been missing for five days this time, ever since the evening of the big snow. Now a general atmosphere of relief prevailed among the surviving Days once it had become clear they no longer had to anticipate his return.
    ***
    Monday was washday in Alafair’s scheme of things, as it had been with the women in her family since time out of mind. The clothes were gathered and the beds stripped while breakfast was being made. After breakfast and before her help was called away by the demands of work and school, Alafair and the girls separated the clothes while Shaw and the boys toted her iron cauldron and wash tubs and hand-cranked wringer into the yard for her. Alafair started the fire as the girls formed a loose bucket brigade between the pump and the kettle.
    After Shaw and the kids had left, Alafair was joined by the wife of one of their tenants, a Negro woman by the name of Georgie Welch, whom Alafair paid to assist her in doing the laundry for eleven people. Georgie was a pleasant, talkative, competent young woman with an infant of her own. Alafair enjoyed her company and loved playing with the baby, a boy named Doll, whom Georgie kept in a large, willow-lath basket while they worked.
    While the water was coming to a boil, Alafair dumped a measure of soap and the whites into the cauldron, which she agitated with a broom handle for a while, then left to soak in the soapy water while Georgie prepared the smaller tubs for scrubbing, rinsing, starching, and bluing.
    While the whites were being boiled and stirred to Alafair’s satisfaction, she and Georgie scrubbed and rinsed the clothing, and starched selected Sunday pieces as stiff as wood. As she finished each piece, she rolled it up and placed it into a wicker basket. When the basket was full, the women stirred the sheets for awhile before pouring the bluing water into the cauldron. It took a lot of stirring and bluing and boiling before the whites were eye-piercingly white enough to suit Alafair. When that moment came, Alafair threw a bucket of soapy water on the fire, and the women carried their baskets to the clothes line to hang clothes while the sheets cooled enough to rinse and wring.
    Alafair was thankful that the freeze was over and the wind was moving, though the air was moist and it would take the clothes longer to dry than usual. She rather enjoyed hanging clothes, since it gave her time to socialize, or when she was on her own, to think. As she hung the clothes, she took inventory of all the new holes and stains and rips that she had missed while sorting, planning her mending and deciding who needed a new shirt or skirt and what items were almost ready for the rag bag.
    After the clothes were hung, Alafair and Georgie returned to the cooling kettle and lifted out the sodden whites with the broom handle. Wringing and rinsing and wringing and rinsing the unwieldy pieces of cotton big as sails was the most tiresome part of the job. When they finally got the things draped over the remaining clothesline and a couple of spare bare bushes, they were tired, and allowed themselves a couple of gusty sighs before they dumped the used water in bucketsful at the bases of the shrubs and trees around the yard. Alafair raked out the fire and Georgie rinsed and cleaned the smaller tubs, and returned them to their places on the work benches on the back porch, but they left the big iron kettle for Shaw to move back into the shed. Alafair paid Georgie a quarter and two quarts of canned apples, played with the baby in the kitchen for a few minutes while she caught up on Georgie’s family, then both women retired to their respective domains to start dinner for their families.
    Dinner on wash