Soli Deo gloria

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own The Help. So The Help is such a clever book with the narrating personalities all so separated but recognizable. It's one of those books you wish you'd written, right? Here's a little one-shot because Aibleen's and Mae Mobley's relationship is precious.

(FYI, my writing style here is typified by how Aibileen's voice was in the novel. :))

~ Aibileen's POV ~

The last thing I spected to see on my stoop this morning is a blonde hair white lady. She shift from foot to foot, nervous-like, and knock after a few minutes. I just bout ready to head up town to the Jackson Journal, got my Miss Myrna article to turn it to Mister Golden fore he bark at me. That man's got that habit of drinking too much, which make me popping mad. I don't do well with any drinker, that fo sure. But I like eating and the paper job ain't so bad, really.

I dress in my white dress that just little too small, making me creak when I turn and bend over. I peek outta my window, wonder why there be a white woman on my step. Been twenty year since my book came out. Miss Hilly gwine and made sho nuff that it never be Jackson we been writing bout. So why she be here?

I breathe in fast, move the door open and say, "Ma'am, I ain't a maid no more, if that why you here."

The lady probably twenty-something, white chubby face, blonde curls running down pass her elbows. A fat bow on her head, like a lil girl's. Long green dress, stockings and boots. Wear makeup like she just discover it and don't know how to put it on right.

And darn, but her big eyes fill with tears, and her chin wobble as she say, "Aibie?"

'Aibe?" Ain't no one call me that fo years. Minnie's kids nevva call me that; only my white babies. She . . . Oh, she still got that big ol bald space all frame by hair on top a her head.

"Mae Mobley?" I ask, fraid it ain't her. Can it be my baby girl?

She grin so happy her face bout burst. "You said you remember all your children," she say, and we hug like color just don't matter. Don't matter much, now it the 1980s and our friendship still as fresh as a spring peach just picked. I hold her close like she three year old again and she my little baby.

When we pull apart, she wipe hair outta her eyes and say, "They call me Mae now. Momma said that Mae Mobley is too Southern."

I scoff. I can't help it. I know Miss Hilly tell Miss Leefolt to change her name so it more modern. Miss Hilly still ordering around her ladies like she always have. "Let me look at you," I say, smoothing hair outta her face. Tears just pour out of her like a fountain and she say, "You're so old, Aibie."

Course I got old. Twenty year never made me young. I got salt-and-pepper hair, all specked and sorta gray. Wrinkles cover my face til I ain't got no more smooth skin. I got rheumatism in my hand but I still put down my prayers ever night on my pad a paper. "I still same ol Aibie, though," I say to her. "Haven't change in twenty year. C'mon in, Mae. Tell me things." Like how you find me.

She step in and kinda gaze round, amazed by what she see. "You've lived here all this time?" she ask. I point her to a kitchen table seat and she take it.

"Sho," I say. "I haven't moved my butt from this place for forty year." No soda pops in the fridge, but I ask her bout coffee. Imagine, asking Mae Mobley, my little baby girl, bout drinking coffee! She nod and I start it up on my stove, get out mugs.

"How you find me?" I ask once I set myself down, put down my skirts. I still got time fore Mister Golden spect me. Not near nuff time to talk bout important things with Mae, but what else I got?

"Momma," Mae say. "See, I found this ol book by her nightstand." She pull out my book, the white dove little grey, the blue edge all frayed. But still first edition of my writing. My heart beat hurt but with pride. I love that book like it a person. It full a stories, like a person. "I searched through it, read it all in one night. Anything to get away from Momma." Her voice hurt. She never got right with her momma. I wish she had and I glad she ain't. Or she'd be like Miss Leefolt. "I recognized the part about the L-shaped crack. Momma always tries to hide it. But I know it and I read about a little blonde-haired baby who liked Martian stories who her own momma didn't like and I realized who you were talking about." She sigh real heavy-like. "I asked Momma about it. She was talking to Hilly on the phone and she dropped the phone and Hilly screamed out of it at her."

The coffee percolator brew with steam and I sit spellbound by Mae, who stare at me with the same old eyes from a baby, asking me why her momma gotta be like that and why things were like that.

"Now I know why Momma fired you," Mae say slow. "Cause of the book. Miss Hilly and everything. Momma explained. Tried to tell me it was the right thing to do. She only thought it was the right thing to do cause Miss Hilly told her to." She blink tears and say, "I told her when I was all mad how I was so mad at her. She never understood me like you did, Aibileen. Momma didn't raise me but her maids did. Her maids never liked me much except you, though. You saw me as someone worth a bother about, Aibileen, and as soon as I found out bout you I had to find you. To thank you."

Everthing I did paid off. She see the lines, Mae, cause her momma put them up. Now she tear them down. I feel tears in my eyes, brush em off with a napkin next to me. I say, "Still member our words, Mae?"

Mae smile, like she knew I was gwine ask her that and is happy she remember. "You is smart. You is kind. You is important," she say clear.

I bout sob cause it do my poor ol heart good to know that I left a good impression on my last baby.

We sorta forget bout the ol clock announcing me here and there for a good long time. We chat bout everthing we can think of. Lil Man is studying at LSU. Mae say her parents say she too dumb for college. She got a job as a secretary at a campaign office for Miss Hilly. Mister Holbrook outta the running for senate but his son is going up and up, high and high in politics. "I hate my job. I only took it 'cause Momma told me to take it," Mae say. "Said nobody else was dumb enough to hire me, might as well take the only job that'll want me."

I catch her hand up in mine and press on it and smile real bright but stern at her. I ache cause she say that. "Any job'd be proud to have you, Mae. Does Aibie ever lie?" I demand.

She shake her head, look just as in awe of me as she was twenty year ago.

"You gwine find a job you like and never mind what your momma say," I say. Miss Leefolt never cared bout her little girl, just like shoving her round. My Mae Mobley don't deserve that. Mae know that. I know that. Now Miss Leefolt gotta be told that.

"Aibileen," Mae say, take a sip of her coffee that don't dye her black, "whatever happened to that woman who collected all your stories?" She ask when I done tell her bout the stories. There ain't so much danger now as there were. Twenty year and a bunch a laws done changed bunch of things.

"She move to New York City. Got a job at a publishing company. She got married a decade ago, got a coupla blonde childs," I say. I can't help but smile when I think of Miss Skeeter and how she happy for once. Her ailing momma's dead and gone and her poor papa look forward to her annual return to Jackson. So do I. Ol New York did a world a good to that woman.

"Was she awful brave, Aibie?" Mae ask.

I lean forward, say real slow, like she still a child, "Ever one a us was brave, Mae."

She nod real fervently, and she look older, my baby girl.

An hour be gone before I get a call from a yelling, barking Mister Golden, wondering where am I, shouting cuss words at my ear. I put the phone down and Mae say, "I didn't know I was holding you up."

"Don't worry bout it, Mae," I say. I pick up my purse and my hat and my fan and we walk onta the porch. Mae look out and help me down the steps and offer me a ride in her car to the newspaper office. Sure would feel good on my feet, so I says yes and she pulls up a bright red convertible. Roll down the top, get me in and say, "They got me a pretty car since no college."

I run a hand down the sleek metal. "Sho is nice."

Mae grin big and take her seat and her seat belt. She say, turning to me with a bright face, "It was nice seeing you, Aibie. After so many years, it was nice to know where you ended up."

I ended up just where I was twenty year ago. Refused ever offer from Minnie to move in wit her and her sister. Stayed on my newspaper job and an occasional job at the Benefit, though I avoid Miss Hilly's eye. I stay same and Mae gone and grown up.

It kind a remind me a Miss Skeeter, how her momma threw out Constantine and she never got to say goodbye to her. Mae found out bout me and when she searched, stead of half-answers like Miss Skeeter, she found me. And she thanked me. My last white baby grown up and she grown up just fine.

I real pleased with her. Pleased that she grown up good spite her momma, and pleased that my words to her actually meant something. That a good feeling.

Thanks for reading! God bless you!