Added to the page 'Short Pieces'.

                 THE PRETTY LADY

 

                    By Joe Cone

 

The pretty lady came to board at the next house. She seemed a long distance away, however, from the fact that we weren’t on speaking terms with our next door neighbors. I never could understand why we didn’t speak to the Olivers, or why they didn’t speak to us. I had never dared question my parents because they frowned so when the name Oliver was mentioned. But I was only 12 years old and wasn’t supposed to know things.

Uncle Jack created consternation in our household by one of his blunt remarks. It was about the pretty lady. He was sitting on the porch. After the pretty lady passed he turned to my mother and said: “Thank heaven, at least there is a handsome woman in town!” To say the least this was not very complimentary to my mother and my two aunts, for they were considered extremely good looking. I had often thought that if I had been a young man when my mother was a girl I should certainly have worshipped at her feet. And next to her came her two sisters, my aunts. They were still in their twenties, and were beautiful to look upon. So, with them, I felt that Uncle Jack’s remark about the pretty lady was unjust and cruel.

Uncle Jack was a bachelor, and was down from the city. He hardly seemed to know what to do with himself until the pretty lady came. After that he appeared to take new interest in country life.

 

                                                                                          (undated)