Carnal Innocence

Darleen Talbot coming in with her baby.” She sniffed and sucked her Coke dry. “There’s trash and there’s trash, I say.”
    Josie’s gaze flicked up as Darleen walked by to settle herself in a booth. “Billy T. Bonny, huh?”
    “Speaking of trash.” And Crystal dearly loved to. “Just like I told you, I saw him saunter right on in Darleen’s kitchen door not ten minutes after Junior went out the front. And all she was wearing was a little pink baby-doll nightgown when she let him in. I saw them clear through Susie Truesdale’s kitchen window. There I was, rinsing Susie’s hair in the sink. Now, that Susie, she keeps a spotless kitchen, let me tell you, even with all those kids. If her youngest hadn’t had a sick stomach, she’d have come on in the shop for her usual wash and style, and I wouldn’t have seen a thing.”
    “What did Susie say?”
    “Well, her head was in the sink, but when I was blowing her dry, I mentioned it, real casual like. And I could see by the way she looked that she knew. But she just said she never paid any mind to what went on next door.”
    “So Darleen’s cheating on Junior with Billy T.” Josie’s lips curved around her straw. Her eyes took on that deep, faraway glow that warned Crystal something was up.
    “You’re thinking, Josie.”
    “I was doing just that, Crystal. I was thinking that Junior’s got a sweet face even if he is a little bit dim. And I’m real fond of him.”
    “Shoot.” Crystal poked at the remains of her tomato. “Far as I know, he’s about the only man in town between twenty and fifty you’ve never looked twice at.”
    “I can be fond of a man without wanting to do it with him.” Josie examined her straw. There was a smear of red on the tip. “Seems to me somebody ought to give him a little hint about what’s happening in his own house when he’s not around to see it.”
    “I don’t know, Josie.”
    “I know, and that’s enough.” She dug in her bag for a pad and pen. “Let’s see now. I’ll just write him a little note, and you can get it to him.”
    “Me?” Crystal squeaked, then looked guiltily around. “How come I have to do it?”
    “Because everybody knows you stop at the station on your way home to buy yourself a Milky Way bar.”
    “Well, sure, but—”
    “So when you go in,” Josie continued, busily writing, “all you have to do is distract Junior while he’s got the cash register open. Then you drop this on in and scoot out. Easy as pie.”
    “You know I always get a rash under my arms when I get nervous.” Crystal thought she could already feel her skin prickling.
    “Two seconds, and you’re all done.” When she saw Crystal wavering, Josie brought out the big guns. “I told you, didn’t I, how Darleen was saying that color you used on her hair turned brassy and she was going to save her money by doing it herself with Miss Clairol? She said right out that it was a crime for you to charge seventeen fifty for a color job when all anyone had to do was pick up a box for five dollars and do it themselves.”
    “That little bitch has no right talking that way to my customers.” Crystal was fired up now. “Why, she’s got hair like a Brillo pad, and if I’ve told her once, I’ve told her a thousand times, she’s got to have a professional tend to it or else it’ll start falling right out of her head.” She sniffed. “Hope it does.”
    Josie smiled and waved the note in front of Crystal’s nose. Glaring, Crystal snatched it.
    “Just look at her,” Crystal continued. “Sitting there putting on lipstick while that baby smears ice cream all over itself.”
    Casually, Josie turned her head. She started to remark that Darleen would look better herself, smeared with a little cherry vanilla. The glint of the gold case on the tube of lipstick stopped her.
    “Now, isn’t that funny,” she murmured.
    “What?”
    “Nothing. I’ll be right back, Crystal.” Josie rose, and trailing a finger over the back of the booths, strolled up to Darleen. “Hey, Darleen. This baby of yours sure is getting big.”
    “He’s eight months now.” Surprised and flattered that Josie had come over, Darleen set the lipstick aside to wipe ineffectually at Scooter’s face with a paper napkin. Infuriated by the interruption, he howled. Josie eyed the lipstick case while Darleen and the baby fussed at each other.
    It wasn’t a mistake, she thought. No indeedy. She’d bought that lipstick in Jackson, at the