Page 75 of Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Book
“Wasn’t Taylor a dude?” someone in the crowd whispered a little too loudly.
“A dude? Like acowboy?” Taylor asked. “Oh please. Could adudedo this?” Taylor spun around Linda Carter–style. The black dress flared out and then flew away. When she came to a stop, Moxie was wearing a blue spandex uniform with a giant whiteMin the center and thigh-high red boots. She pulled off the hat and veil, revealing a stunning face, gleaming diadem, and lustrous shoulder-length dark curls. The crowd gasped in unison. Kari Kelly clapped with sheer glee and a few others followed suit.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Moxie Laguerre!” Talia cried. “Georgia’s favorite drag queen!”
A man nearby couldn’t seem to close his mouth, so Moxie placed an elegant finger under his chin and shut it for him. “Buckle up, buttercup, I’ve got more tricks than that tucked away,” Moxie said with a saucy wink. “Sorry it took us so long to get here. We had a governor to deal with down in Florida. Now, gather round, children of all ages! Today’s your lucky day! It’s drag queen story time!”
A woman pulled her child closer.
“Don’t worry,” Talia assured her. “This will be family friendly. As y’all will see shortly,we’renot the ones who hurt children.”
“Oh no!” Moxie agreed wholeheartedly. “As a matter of fact, my story today is about two plucky children who triumph against the forces of evil.”
“Forces of evil?” Talia repeated. “Come on. Mama’s notthatbad.”
“What do you say we leave that up to our audience?” Moxie proposed. Then she clapped her hands together. “Y’all ready?”
They weresoready. You could see it. Never before had there been an audience so eager.
“Okay, once upon a time, there was a pair of twins, Taylor and Talia. They lived in a little town with their mother and father, whom they loved very much. Then one day, their daddy died of natural causes. Their mother needed a distraction from her grief and from all the mean things folks in this town were saying about her husband’s untimely demise. So she turned to her children. She decided her little girl would be a beauty queen and her little boy would be a famous actor. She signed them up for every kiddie pageant and play in Georgia. And she absolutely loved it! The end.” Moxie clapped her hands and smiled broadly.
Talia tapped her shoulder. “Wait, Moxie. How did her children feel about it all?”
Moxie waved off the question. “Oh,them? They hated it.”
“Why?” Talia pressed.
“Because,” Moxie said with a huff, “you did not enjoy being onstage. You did not like fancy dresses and you felt like you were smothering with all that makeup on your face. But no matter how desperately you pleaded, the show always had to go on.”
“It was torture,” Talia said. “What about you, Taylor?”
“Well, see now, I was the one who wanted to wear the dresses. And when I was twelve, I told my mother.”
“And what did Mama say about that?” Talia asked.
“She called me a pervert. Said people in town already treated her like a leper, and she didn’t need me giving them something else to gossip about.”
Talia winced. “That must have hurt pretty bad,” she said.
For a second Moxie broke character. “It did. You know how many twelve-year-old perverts there are in the world, Talia?”
“How many?”
“Exactlynone,” Moxie said, staring straight at Lula. “There are no twelve-year-old perverts. Not a single one. But it took me a few years to figure that out. Then when I was in high school, I met a wonderful teacher who helped me see that there was nothing dirty or depraved about wearing makeup and dresses. It was justfun. So I decided I wasn’t going to give up my passion so my mom could have the kind of son thatshewanted.”
“Meanwhile,” Talia added, “I got tired of pretending to be a beauty queen. So I decided to stop.”
Moxie rubbed her hands together eagerly. “I’m sensing an act of rebellion is coming up, Talia.”
“That’s right, Moxie. And it wasspectacular. Would you like to tell them?”
“Yes, thank you! Well, one day when we were in our teens, my sister and I decided to switch places. I entered a beauty pageant in Florida under her name. I sang ‘The Greatest Love of All’ for my talent. And I won. First place. At the end of the show, right after the tiara had been placed on my head, I ripped off my wig and revealed my true identity. It brought down the house, and the entire family was banned from the Florida pageant circuit for life.”
“Oh my!” Talia exclaimed. “What did Mama do?”
“She marched up to the high school and accused Mr. Minter, the musical director, of being behind it all. She told him if he didn’t stop what he was doing, she’d tell everyone about hisproclivities.”
“That’s blackmail!” Talia cried. “Did it work?”
