saying so. But Barbara Jean wasn’t wearing it for Clarice. She was wearing it for Big Earl. When she was a teenager and was ashamed of having to wear her mother’s flashy, trashy hand-me-downs, Big Earl made a point of telling Barbara Jean that she looked pretty every time he saw her. Not in a dirty old man way or anything. He would just smile at her and say, “You look divine today,” in a way that made her feel as if she were wearing haute couture. Or he would see her come into the restaurant in one of her mother’s shiny, too-short skirts and he’d turn to Miss Thelma and say, “Don’t Barbara
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