Chapter 12: Shakespeare And Oil Wells

Billy sat in the back seat of the Packard, directly behind Clarence. Colleen sat next to Billy and looked out of the front windshield and then the side windows. Billy reached over and hugged her shoulder. He grinned and pointed out Delmar Dean and his two friends.

As soon as Delmar Dean became aware of the car and its inhabitants, he pointed at them. Colleen stuck her tongue out at the three boys in a very un-princess like way.

Billy laughed at her and asked, "Where did you ever pick up such bad habits? Nice princesses don't stick their tongues out at people."

Colleen cocked her head back a little and turned to look down her nose at Billy. "I learned it from you, Billy. You make me feel very unladylike." She paused and added, "Well, I'm only unladylike at odd moments." She smiled a royal princess smile at him.

"Well, me, I'm unladylike all th' time. I mean us fellers have to have standards to live up to. I'm going to be a manly man all the time, just for you."

"Thank you Billy. And I'd like you to know that I'll always be ladylike for you as well. We both have high standards."

Clarence listened to the two young people and worked hard not to laugh. "Those two are truly something to behold," he whispered to himself.

"Look right up ahead there on the left," Colleen interrupted Clarence's musings. "See that tailor sign? That's where we're going."

"Colleen, that was my place, to give directions," Billy said. "Men is supposed to give directions and women are supposed to carry them out."

"Billy Joe Summers! Don't you ever think you can give me orders and I'll follow them. Mother gives orders and men follow them. I'm going to be just like my mother."

Clarence parked in front of the tailor shop. The two squabbling youngsters got out and ran to the front door. Mister Weiss looked up and smiled when he saw Billy and Colleen enter. Billy held the door open like the young gallant he worked hard to become. Colleen swept in with all the mannerisms of the young princess she had become. Clarence followed along behind.

"Billy!" Sol Weiss exclaimed with much feeling. He was truly glad to see this young man who had started life as an unwashed, unkempt street urchin. "My, it is so wonderful to see you again. And young Miss Summers, how nice it is to see you as well."

Sol looked at Clarence and his manner changed, "And you are?" he asked.

Colleen spoke up before Billy could, "Mister Weiss, may I present Clarence? He has been employed by our mother to drive her around and protect her." She gave Billy a superior smile, proud to have outdone him."

Billy refused to be outdone by a mere female. "Yeah, Mom said that we was supposed to get Clarence some suits."

This was most unusual. Sol frowned slightly and asked, "Are you certain that Missus Summers meant for you to bring him here? After all, people don't order tailor made for the N..." He caught himself and said, 'colored help, ' instead."

Of course, Clarence caught the implied slur. His lips tightened for a moment, then relaxed. He remained silent. He had a hunch Mister Weiss was going to say "Negro," rather than "Nigger." He was determined to not let his temper betray him again.

"Oh yes," Colleen began, "Mother was quite specific that we bring Clarence to you. She mentioned you by name."

"Yeah," Billy added, "She said skinny coloreds can't look good in White man's suits. They're too skinny."

He looked up at Clarence and told him, "Well, you're not fat anywhere I've seen. That's okay, Cook and Matilda will make you fat as a Christmas turkey. You'll see."

"Mister Billy," Clarence dropped into his role of a colored servant addressing a White boy with a joke, "Experts have tried to fatten me up."

"Billy, we are here on serious business," Colleen reminded him.

She turned to the tailor and asked, "How long will it take you to make four properly fitted suits? They must all be black and of a fine weave that won't wrinkle easily. She and Billy and I shall travel to Tulsa tomorrow and Clarence must look his best."

"Oy! Tomorrow?" Sol Weiss was beside himself as he tried to think how this could be done. It takes a week to create just one suit, if it is to be properly fitted and sewn. Tomorrow?"

"Oh, I didn't realize," Colleen began.

Billy thought and then asked, "Hey, you got any old suits that you can maybe alter, like you did my pants that time?"

"Why no," Solomon Weiss started to answer. Then he thought of one possibility. "Well, I do have one suit that I special ordered for a gentleman of dubious reputation. He never lived long enough to pick it up. I used a cotton and wool blend imported from Scotland."

"Can you have it ready by this afternoon? We shall probably leave quite early." Colleen was positive that anything could be accomplished if one asked properly.

"Well, The suit is not quite as stylish as Missus Summers would like, and it's a dark brown and black blend, rather than black that she seems to insist on," said Weiss.

"If you can get it to fit him good and have it ready by six o'clock, we'll take it," Billy said.

"Billy, you interrupted me again and that is very impolite." Colleen looked ready to do battle again.

"Aw, cool down, Sis, you were taking too long. I just wanted to hurry things up. Clarence and me, well we're both real hungry. See how skinny he is? We're going to fall over from hunger if we have to wait for you to stop talking."

Colleen's eyes began to tear up, "Billy Joe Summers, you're just mean and hateful." She turned around and ran out the door.

"Dad gummed females," Billy started to say, when he heard Colleen scream. He ran to the door. Two of the boys that he had fought to protect Colleen from had her backed up against the side of the Packard. She bit one and the other drew back his fist.

"Get out of my way, Princess. I get to whip these two!" Billy yelled and exploded into a whirlwind of action.

He grabbed the one who had doubled up his fist by the hair and dragged him backward. The other one turned and started toward Billy. Colleen grabbed him by his shaggy hair and pulled herself up until she could bite his cheek.

"Look out, Princess, I'll whup up on these two." Billy kicked the one he had pulled over backwards in the side and stepped on his face as he hurried to the aid of his "princess."

Colleen clamped down on his neck and bit again. "Mama!" the boy screamed and tore himself away from the little demon who refused to act like girls were supposed to.

"Daddy!" the other one cried and rolled to his feet. He ran away after his friend.

"Thank you, Billy." Colleen wiped her bloody lips on the sleeve of her dress. "We are a great team, aren't we?" She spat on the sidewalk and added, "He tastes terrible."

Clarence had barely come out the door before the action was all over with and the two young people were again a team, rather than fussing brother and sister."

"Yup, we're still a team. Nobody gets to hit you but me." He laughed at her expression. "You better ask Mister Weiss if you can wash your face. You look like a vampire. Hey, let's ask Mom if we can go see that Bela Lugosi movie next Saturday."

"Billy, it isn't ladylike to watch vampire movies." She reconsidered, "Okay, let's ask Mother. I've never been to a movie before."

They turned together. Colleen asked, "Mister Weiss, have you started on Clarence's suit yet?

Billy added, "We don't have much time, you know."

Colleen asked, "May I use your facilities to wash my face?"

Billy told her, "Come on, I know where it is. I'll show you."

"Come with me, Clarence, I'll dig out that suit and try to make you look presentable. It would be best if you don't tell anyone where you got this suit."

"I understand, Mister Weiss. It might cause trouble for you." Clarence smiled at the tailor who was afraid he might offend someone. "In France I can walk in the front door of an establishment and demand the best service I can afford. Here I must act the servile underling."

Clarence stood quiet while Sol Weiss dug through a bin. All at once he declaimed, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts..." His voice trailed off.

Sol, not to be outdone, "That was Jaques from 'As You Like It.' He was a sad man."

"Yes," Clarence agreed.

Saul then quoted, "If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not seek revenge?"

Clarence thought back to his recent troubles that caused him to flee to his family in Oklahoma. He shook his head no. "I have found that revenge destroys the wronged as well as the man who committed the wrong."

"You are well read and wise, you are so much more than your station in life might suggest. Here, try this on."

Sol handed Clarence the pants. He tried them on and handed them back. "They fit fine."

Sol nodded. "Now try on the coat. Here is where we might have a few problems."

"It seems a bit loose," Clarence told him. Clarence had a forty-two inch chest and the coat was for a man with a forty-six inch chest.

"I was afraid of that." Sol handed Clarence a white shirt and a bow tie. "This is the best I can do."

Billy came in from the front room and told them, "We'll take 'em. After all, Clarence is supposed to whup up on the enemy, not astound them with his satirical splendor."

"You mean 'sartorial' splendor, Billy." Colleen came into the dressing room in time to correct her knight in shining armor.

"You missed a little blood on the side of your mouth there, Princess. Let me kiss it off." He made a big show of puckering up.

This time Colleen grabbed his ears and planted a big smooch on Billy's cheek. "Hah!" she exclaimed and hurried back into the front of the store again.

"Well, it sure looks like she done infected me that time," Billy said with a solemn look on his face. "These women." He shook his head and joined Colleen.

Clarence joined them with a cloth bag in one hand. "Are you ready to go?" He followed the pair out the door. He started to open the rear car door.

Bill beat him to the door handle. "I got that, Clarence. The Princess is my responsibility." Billy bowed Colleen in.

"Oh Billy, you are such a gentleman, when you care to be. "They snuggled together in the back seat and began to make faces at each other.

As soon as Clarence brought them into the house, Millicent told them, "Mister Weiss telephoned me a few minutes ago and told me you two were in a fight with two much older boys. He said your face was battered and bleeding, daughter. I don't see any blood. Where are your bruises?"

"Well, you see, Mom," Billy began.

"You keep quiet and let me tell this, Billy," Colleen told him in no nonsense voice. "After all, I was the one they assaulted."

"Well, you just better remember that I'm the one that pulled your fat out of the fire," Billy reminded her. "After all, if I hadn't stepped in, you would have a big bruise right in the middle of your kisser."

"Billy, please speak properly when you address me."

"Both of you stop it," Millicent told them. "Now with no more bickering from either of you, please tell me what happened. Colleen you go first.

"Billy made me angry and I left Mister Weiss's tailor shop to go outside. I intended to sit in the car. The same two who attacked me that morning out toward the Roadhouse grabbed me and shoved me against the Packard and I bit one. And one of them started to strike me with his fist and just as I was about to tend to him, Billy interfered and beat on them and I bit the one who shoved me a second time, this time in the neck and he bled and tasted terrible. He never bathes. The other one ran off." She smiled at Billy.

"Billy?" Millicent prompted him. She had a small smile to go with the question.

"Well, that's the way it happened, except that Little Miss Prissy Britches was about to get slugged hard, until I grabbed hold of his hair and pulled him over backwards and kicked him where he kicked me that other time. Then I kinda accidentally stepped on his face and went after the other one."

Billy laughed, "Oh, you should have seen him when Princess here bit him on the neck and got his blood smeared on her face. I mean he went bawling like a bull calf for his mama. Then I told Princess she looked like a vampire and showed her where to wash up while Mister Weiss dug out a pair of real nice pants for Clarence to wear."

"Mother, Clarence doesn't really need a coat tomorrow, does he? Mister Weiss gave him a very nice shirt and a bow tie. It will be very hot in the Packard."

"Dear daughter, we shall take the Stutz and we'll leave the top down. Remember?"

Billy excused himself and went into the parlor. "Dad, How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Better, Billy, a little better. Now I worry about your mother and sister on the trip tomorrow. I am impressed with that colored your mother hired and I know he'll do the best he can. However, you must never completely rely on them. You make certain you always have a weapon near at hand, just in case things turn ugly."

Billy felt a little sad as he heard Martin's words. This was the first time he felt his hero was wrong about anything. Then he decided that perhaps the head injury caused him to think wrong. "Don't you worry a bit, Dad. I'll keep careful watch over everything. Colleen will too. We're a good team."

Then he related their adventures when they visited the tailor shop. "See, that's exactly what I mean about them. You just make certain you stay alert at all times.

"I'll do my best," Billy answered.

Colleen had listened to the exchange between her father and Billy. "Don't you worry, Mother shall be amply protected at all times." Martin nodded and closed his eyes.

Colleen tiptoed out first, followed by Billy. "Billy, Father was wrong about Clarence."

"Yeah, and he lumped Matilda and Sissy in with him. Now I know that Matilda is brave and loyal." He laughed and added, "We're going to have to buy her a new skillet. She's got that old one about wore out, what with all the thumpings she gave out."

Colleen got caught up in the silliness. "Perhaps we should give her a gold plated cast iron skillet for her next birthday, just to show here we appreciate her like we do."

Billy thought it was a great idea. "Let's talk to Mom about it. I bet she knows where we can get a real good one."

"Come, Billy, let's go out on the front porch and sit in the swing. I'd like to discuss something with you." Colleen led the way.

As soon as they were seated side by side, Billy asked, Okay, Princess, what is it?"

Colleen placed a hand on his left shoulder, "Billy, some times when you tease, you hurt my feelings more than you seem to realize. Please treat me with more consideration."