“How many will be joining you, Mrs. Schlafly?”
“Five, including me.” Phyllis smiles at her housemaid where she sits behind her word processor.
Willie nods and leaves the room.
“You could let her go home instead of making her work tonight,” a voice speaks from the doorway. John Schlafly crosses his arms.
“Willie has a job to maintain, unlike you, buster.” Phyllis chuckles behind her plastic frames which annoys the firstborn.
“Haven’t you heard of a ‘time off’?” John questions.
“The least you could do is give Willie the rest of the month—”
“What’s special about this month?” Phyllis denands.
“February is Black History Month,” John explains. “I think the family should give Willie and Leonia appreciation on the work they do in the house.”
Phyllis stares at her son as if she never saw him before. The same way she found out about his sexuality. John waits for a response, but there’s none. He raises up his hands in defeat.
“Forget I said anything. Why bother?”
He leaves her thinking at her desk.
Phyllis still becomes lost in her thoughts during that evening with the four other women and her son. Jacquie stuffs her face with a powder sugar cookie that were set inside a tin dish on a table in the den. Lottie begins shuffling a deck of cards bridge style. Mary Frances keeps batting her eyelashes towards John—jabbing him with her manicured nails. Rosemary appears to be the only one looking bored. She balances her glass of water on both bare kneecaps, huffing and puffing, like the wolf in the children’s storybook—The Three Little Pigs.
“We all could do without this rain!” Jacquie exclaims.
“I’ll say,” Lottie grunts. She sideglances over towards Phyllis.
Willie enters the room holding a pitcher to pour more refreshments. She gets a head turn from Rosemary, a few giggles from Mary Frances, and a glare from Lottie.
“Bring another batch, dear!” Jacquie shakes the empty cookie dish.
“There isn’t any left, ma’am,” Willie speaks carefully.
“What kind of get-together is this?” Jacquie snorts, practically shoving the box into Willie’s apron.
“What good are you for then?”
Phyllis overreacts the question, making everybody look at her direction.
“Willie brings out the best in this house.”
John smiles and his mother returns it. Willie just stands there above them bewildered from hearing such praise.