A Gone Pecan
by
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“Elmyra Holstead has completely lost her mind!” Mother ranted as she entered my house through the kitchen door, returning early from her weekend trip to the opera in
That’s my mother, Alsace Lorraine Metcalf Ripley, whom everyone calls Mama Rain. Well, except for the ladies her age. They don’t call anyone ‘Mama’; they just call her Rain. She’s been living with us since her housekeeper and best friend, Covaletta Turnage, died and left her alone. Daddy died back in 1978, so it’s just been her and Covaletta all these years. She decided to come live with us as she doesn’t trust anyone with her things because everyone is ‘just trash’. Besides, she’s afraid no one else could keep the secret of where she hides her pocketbook (in the vegetable crisper – she read it in Erma Bombeck – but don’t tell her I told you).
Excuse my manners; I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Cady McIntyre. Actually my full name is Catherine Dyanne Ripley McIntyre, but everyone calls me Cady; pronounced like lady, of course. Normally, my life is about as exciting as canning peaches, but today looked as if it was starting out to be another story.
“What’s she done now?” I asked, knowing full well that her best friend has a tendency to commit faux pas.
“First of all,” she fumed, sitting down at the whitewashed shed door I had made into a table in the breakfast nook, “she shows up in a sundress with a dickey, looking like who’d-a-thought. Then she has the gall to make me sit next to Geneva Landrews, who swears she has prostate cancer and wants to describe the symptoms to see if I agree. Finally, she conveniently forgets to tell everyone that there’s been a change of plans and we’re not seeing ‘Carmen’!”
“Well, what did you see instead?”
“’Oh Caltucker’ or somesuch!”
“You mean ‘Oh,
“If it’s got all the naked people”, she frowned, “then that’s the one. Then she was so moved, she said, that she jumped up onstage and took off all her clothes! Well, except for the dickey; her hair was too big.” Mother, although petite (5’2”) is a spitfire. She doesn’t really look like anyone famous so she’s hard to describe. If you were kin to me, I could just say she looks a lot like Great Aunt Frankie, except for thinner, but that’s not going to help you one bit unless you’re from
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About the Book
A Gone Pecan is the rollicking, hilarious tale of reluctant Southern sleuth Cady McIntyre whose quirky descriptions of eccentric friends, relatives, enemies and acquaintances in
Dr. Bridget Smith Pieschel, author of Loyal Daughters and Golden Days
About the Author
Dustin (Dusty) Thompson is the middle child of nomadic Southern Baptists who grew up in the boonies in several Southern states, including Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Mississippi. A proud graduate of Southwest Mississippi Community College ('90), Mississippi University for Women ('93 - where he was, interestingly enough, elected Man of the Year) and the University of Mississippi ('98), Dustin is a Program Analyst with the Department of Veterans Affairs and resides in Alexandria, VA. His hobbies are, of course, writing, singing, telling stories (look for his YouTube video) and color-coordinating his ties and socks. He is donating 10% of his royalties from the sale of his book to the Thompson Scholarship for Student Leaders at SMCC which he founded in memory of his mother.