Free Miss Julia Delivers the Goods by Ann B. Ross

the sin, putting a great strain on her testimony as she tried to figure out where the lines were drawn. Mildred Allen was the only one whom I figured would wave off the whole matter. But, of course, she almost had to since she’d fairly easily come to terms with her only son having had a remarkable and surgical transformation into a woman.
    I couldn’t even imagine what the verdict would be among the members of the Lila Mae Harding Sunday school class, to say nothing of the garden club and the book club, all of which Hazel Marie belonged to. It’s a settled fact that groups of women were influenced by the loudest and most unforgiving talkers among them.
    Of course, I thought, as I rubbed my forehead almost in despair, none of that spoke to my own feelings. I was as rigorous and unbending as the worst of them when it came to expecting others to do as I did, which entailed following the rules and traditions of a moral society. But when it came to people I cared about who’d started down that slippery slope, why, I could find all kinds of excuses for them. Fact of the matter, I was swinging back and forth between being torn in two with anger at Hazel Marie and Mr. Pickens, but mostly at him since he ought to’ve known better, and being protective of her and that innocent baby.
    “Julia?” Sam said, sliding an arm around me and pulling me close. “Are you all right?”
    “I’m not sure. I’m having trouble taking it all in, plus trying to figure out how to handle those two bullheaded people. Mr. Pickens is moving away, if he hasn’t already, and Hazel Marie wants to move somewhere where she can pretend to be a widow. I ask you, Sam, is that a solution to anything? I’d be tempted to help Hazel Marie do exactly that, if she wouldn’t take Lloyd with her but you know she would. And what would that do to him? He’d be leaving the only decent home he’s ever known, changing schools, and having to aid and abet his mother’s pretense. I can’t have it, Sam, I just can’t. We have to get Mr. Pickens back here and lay down the law to him.”
    “I agree,” he said, running his hand up and down my back, a gesture that soothed my soul. “But there’ll be no need to lay down the law. Pickens won’t have to be forced to do the right thing. My concern is Hazel Marie. She’s raised one child on her own. She may feel she can do it again, especially since she has money coming in from Lloyd’s inheritance. It would be a whole lot easier this time.”
    “I’ll take care of Hazel Marie, don’t worry about that. You handle Mr. Pickens. Frankly, I don’t care if they never live together or even see each other after they’re married. They can divorce the day after the wedding for all I care. But they’re going to put things right for the sake of that baby and for Lloyd or I’m going to know the reason why. And if either of them balks at a shotgun wedding, I can point out three or four couples in town who had seven-pound premature babies—Binkie and Coleman, for one—and their marriages are still going strong. I mean, you do what you have to when the circumstances demand it, and these circumstances certainly demand it.”
    “All right,” Sam said, shifting to stand up. “Let me get started trying to find Pickens, while you get Hazel Marie ready to see him. But I’m only going to locate him, not tell him anything. She’ll have to do that. Anyway, I don’t think there’ll be a problem with him, but, like I said, I’m not so sure about her.”
    I waved my hand. “All Mr. Pickens has to do is be sweet to her, tell her he loves her and ask her to marry him. Believe me, she’ll fall all over herself agreeing to anything he says. After all, that’s what got her into this condition in the first place. You just make sure that he knows he might have to do a little courting, but she’ll come around.”
    “I hope you’re right, and I hope we’re doing the right thing. I’m never comfortable interfering in the lives