Bobby pins

Library of Virginia, Thalhimers, shoes, 1957

The Easter Bunny brought Gretel a macrame purse. Inside was a tiny baby Jesus she touched with her fingers, soothing him so he won’t cry during the Easter service. She was all dressed up with her white straw hat decorated with yellow flowers but took it off during the prayer because it was hot. Her dress was heavy and stiff, and the lace of her socks tickled her ankles.

When she got home from church, she stood in her room with her mother, the sun streaming through the high window, the yellow canopy of her bed casting a golden glow around her room. She would be there alone, reading her a Jenny Linksky the cat book, if her mother were not there wearing her angry face, if her mother were not there gripping her clear plastic hairbrush. Her mother said it was wrong of her to take her hat off in church. Her mother said she looked awful and ugly. Her mother said she had not acted like a lady.

Gretel thought of tiny Jesus still in her purse as her mother spanked her backside with the hard plastic. She would feed him from a tiny bottle because she didn’t want him to be hungry and cry. She whispered hard in her thoughts as the brush stung her legs: “It’s ok, Jesus. I will take care of you.” Grown-up Jesus who hung from the Easter cross would have been upset about her bobby pins. She was glad Jesus was still little.