Page 153 of Ripped & Shipped
Then Mabel gets up there. She pulls the mic too close to her face and it squeals a little.
“Sorry, people. Technical difficulties! Am I right, Ella Mae?”
I nod. Having Mabel up there feels more comfortable somehow. She doesn’t owe me an apology. She’s been a real friend and always saw the best in me.
“I don’t reckon I owe you an apology, Ella Mae, but if I do, I’m quite sure you’ll tell me. But I didn’t want to be left out when I found out what they were planning for you.”
Mabel turns and addresses the group. “Ella Mae here taught me how to get on social media and then she taught me all them TikTok dances, and she even comes by once a week to help me out. I bet most of you’uns didn’t even know that.” She gives the group a scolding look which makes me smile.
“For a special treat, I’ve asked Memaw and Esther to join me up here.”
Memaw and Esther stand up and take their places on either side of Mabel.
The songI Like Big Buttscomes on, and the three of them start dancing along to the music, doing all the motions, and turning so their rear ends face the audience at the moment the lyrics say,I like big butts.They shake their hips from side to side and the room erupts in laughter.
This town.
I’ve always said we’re a dysfunctional family of twenty-five hundred. If these three seniors doing that dance doesn’t prove it, I don’t know what does.
When the dance is over, Mabel takes the mic and says, “And if you want to follow me on TikTok, I’m at Bordeaux Granny’s Got Back.”
She gives me a thumbs up.
I give one back to her.
As she passes by me and Chris, she leans in and stage whispers, “Just like you taught me, Ella Mae. I didn’t pass up the opportunity to give ’em my handle.”
“Well done,” I say.
People continue to filter up to the mic, and then there’s a little commotion at the back of the barn.
I turn with everyone else to see what’s going on, and my hand grips Chris’ knee when I see who’s standing between the barn doors.
My dad.
He makes his way up to me. I’m unable to move. He doesn’t take the mic. Instead, he stands right in front of me, glancing over at Chris, and then meeting my eyes. “Ella Mae, I’m a private man—and a man who’s seen the worst this town has to offer. If it weren’t for the store, I might’ve moved years ago. And that’s an awful thing to know about myself—that I’d stick around a town that looks down on me just for the sake of a store. Especially when I didn’t have it in me to stand by my daughter. I don’t know what to say to you, except I’m proud of you and all you’ve done. And I wish I had more of whatever you have in you, in me. I’m sorry my mistakes made your life hard. I’d like to think they helped make you into the kind of woman who doesn’t let the opinions of others determine her life.
“I am truly sorry. I don’t know what I can promise you, but I wanted you to know all that.”
He turns to leave, obviously intending to walk out of the barn and go home now that he said his piece.
I stand up. “Dad?”
He slowly turns around. “Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
I want to run to him and give him a hug, even with everyone standing here witnessing one of the most vulnerable moments in my life.
I can’t, though. Maybe I’ll just go by the shop more often. Or maybe …
I’m in the middle of trying to figure out how I can show my dad I accepted his warped apology—the best one he was capable of making, when he does the most unexpected thing. He takes a hesitant step, and then he walks back toward me. When he’s right in front of me, he reaches out his arms and draws me into a hug—the hug I’ve apparently been waiting to experience for nearly twenty-five years. I melt into him and he holds me.
The barn is silent.
My tears fall onto my dad’s shirt.
He steps back and looks me in the eyes. I smile at him. He gives me a soft nod and then he turns and walks out of the barn.
