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Woman To Woman
Chapter 7


A few hours later, Aunt Bee returned carrying an enormous wicker basket. “Alright now, all you men clear out!”
“Alright, Warden Bee,” Andy grinned. “I’ll go put Opie to bed. Otis is due in sometime this evening.”
“I know.”
“You know he’s still scared of you.”
“I won’t even look at him,” she promised. “As long as he behaves himself.”
“Otis always behaves himself. There’s no viciousness in his character.”
“Remember the cow?”
“Aw, that was a mistake, Aunt Bee! Anyone coulda made that mistake.”
“Well, Otis was the only one who did.”
“Well, I don’t expect him to bring a cow in here tonight. Now, I’ll be right back.”
“Andy,” Sydney said, “may we return later as well?”
“Why, shore! We could have us a little music. Do you play any instruments?”
“No, unfortunately. I would have liked to have learned violin, but I have never had the opportunity.”
Broots and Miss Parker both stared at him. “Really?” Broots said. “I never knew that, Syd.”
“It never came up,” Sydney shrugged.
“Well, Debbie is learning the piano—that’s my daughter. She’s a bit older than Opie. But I can’t play anything.”
“That’s a big shocker,” Miss Parker said. “You guys better come back later, or I’ll hunt you down.”
When the four men had left, Aunt Bee said, in a lowered tone, “I didn’t want to ask in front of the men, but do you have a nightie with you?”
Miss Parker laughed. Boy, this was a step back in time! “Yes, I have pajamas with me. Broots brought me my suitcase.”
“Oh, good. I did bring you a nightgown in case you didn’t have one, but it’s always better with your own.”
“I hardly think one of your nightgowns would fit me.”
“Oh, of course not! I didn’t bring you one of mine. I brought you one of Andy’s.”
“Andy’s! A nightgown?”
“It’s a gentleman’s nightgown,” Aunt Bee explained stiffly. “Very decent and clean and neat.”
“I swear this town’s a joke. I must be on Candid Camera.”
“You are certainly very candid, but there are no cameras in this jail. Now, if you’ll give me a hand, we’ll hang up this curtain over the bars to give you a bit of privacy.”
They hung the curtain in silence, Aunt Bee’s dignified, Miss Parker’s oddly uncomfortable.
“Look, I didn’t mean to insult your town. I’m not used to all this.” She swept her hand around at the doilies. “The place I work is like a small town where people are ready to kill each other to move up in rank. They don’t bring their prisoners home-cooked meals and their nephew’s nightgowns. I don’t think any of the men even wear nightgowns. Except maybe Mr. Raines.” She almost chortled at the thought of Raines in a long, white nightgown, with lace at the neck.
Aunt Bee gave her a friendly smile. “Well, Andy really only wears this one when he’s called on to officiate at a midnight wedding.” She did not notice Miss Parker’s uncomprehending stare. “Now, I brought you an extra pillow and some nice-smelling soap, and in the morning I’ll see about Andy letting you go over to the hotel for a bath. This place just isn’t fit for a woman. I think you may be only the third or fourth woman I’ve seen in here.”
“Quite a change from your normal moonshiners and chicken thieves,” Miss Parker said contemptuously—but keeping the contempt to a far lower level than she would have used on Broots. There was no fear of her in Aunt Bee. That alone was a novelty. She was not used to being spoken to like another one of the girls.
“Oh, yes, quite a change. Though really these cells are empty more often than not. Andy is such a good sheriff that Mayberry has the lowest crime rate in the state.”
Maybe we should more the Centre here, Miss Parker thought, amused. “And his deputy, Barney Fife, is a great help, I’m sure.”
Aunt Bee drew herself up and looked her straight in the chin. “You may say what you like about Barney, but there’s no one more loyal, Miss Parker!”
“Oh, quite. What can you tell me about Jarod?”
Aunt Bee’s whole face softened. “Oh, such a nice young man. He would have fit in here perfect, Miss Parker. He told me he loved Mayberry from the moment he first set foot in it. He said he felt like he’d come home. That’s what Mayberry is: home. Some people don’t like our quieter pace of life, but most people find it soothing, and Jarod was one of them. He seemed to need an awful lot of soothing, poor boy.”
Don’t we all, Miss Parker thought bleakly. “Did he happen to mention where he was going next?”
A strange look came over Aunt Bee’s face. “Oh…no—no, he didn’t. all I know is he set out to walk to Mount Pilot yesterday to catch a bus. It woulda been a long walk—it takes an hour to drive there—and he could’ve caught a bus here, or Andy or Barney woulda driven him, but he said, no, he wanted to walk and think about things. He was a little strange that way.”
“A little strange? The ways Jarod is strange would fill a library. And he didn’t say where he was going?”
“No…” Aunt Bee said, still with the same expression. Miss Parker decided she must not be comfortable with lying.
“Well, did he read any newspapers while he was here? Any out of town papers?”
“The only ones we get are the weekly newspapers from Mount Pilot and Raleigh. No—wait. The schoolteacher gets one he’d borrow from her…what is it? Some fancy paper from New York City.”
“The New York Times?”
“Yes, that’s it! Fancy you knowing that!”
Miss Parker bit back a sarcastic comment. New York Times. We need to get Angelo to look through the last few weeks’ New York Times, pinpoint exactly what Jarod would be interested in there. Where are Syd and Broots? If we can get on it fast enough, we could have sweepers there before he knows what hit him…









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