ihrt't/o Southern Voices Table of Contents Volume XVII Spring 2005 Short Stories Ashley Jefcoat Elizabeth Wayne Staff Judges Dear Boy . 6 Making Waves . 3 Addie Leak Caitlin Wolfe Beautiful . 13 Ends of Goodbye . 31 WillowEditor Nero ArtShawn and Photography Dickey Judge Essays Assistant Professor of Art Farshad Chowdhury Willow Nero ElizabethAssistant EditorWayne Division of Fine and Performing Arts Hint of Frugality . 42 The Longest Road to Home . 40 Mississippi University for Women Rebekah Garrison Klint Peebles KristinArt EditorKlaskala JamesPoetry Everett Judge Dinner Table Church Service . 36 Feline Philosophy . 9 René and John Grisham Fellow Trey Lyons Khadijah Ransom Playin for the Sanctified . 46 The Blues Is Alright . 29 QuinnonStaff Members Taylor Master of Fine Arts Program Emily Williams University of Mississippi Ashley Mackay Elizabeth Wayne Simple Rain-walk . 27 Hair . 11 ShortJonathan Story and Essay Odell Judge Slip Slidin’ Away . 34 Emma AdvisorRichardson Emily Williams Author of: Rodney Morgan Eating Balled Chicken The View from Delphi A Closed Mouth on a Boht . 17 KristinCover DesignKlaskala (MacAdam/Cage, 2004) Don’t Get Fed . 19 Jimmy Williams “Give It To Me, Son…” . 45 ArtAngie Contest CoordinatorJones Poems Laura Chaires Willow Nero Sweet Nothings . 23 Sarah May . 38 The Last Lament Larry Hawkins of the Little Mermaid . .39 1+1=1 . 10 Passion . 44 Funeral of a Wave . 47 In Memoriam Kristin Klaskala Cotton Picker . 8 Klint Peebles Judith Anne Morris Echoes From the Lake . 26 Addie Leak 1942-2005 Les Yeux . 10 Quinnon Taylor Stains . 28 “And gladly would she learn, and gladly teach.” Ashley Mackay One Once Again . 44 March of Waves . 24 Waterfall . 25 Elizabeth Wayne Yellow House . 21 Hayley Maxwell Dauphin Island, Alabama . 16 Emily Williams On Display . 38 Sister (after Ray Young Bear) . 39 Cassandre Man-Bourdon Broken Nets . 47 Le Debut, Watercolor Bess McCafferty Core of the Jacie Williams Contemporary Character . 22 On A Summer’s Day— . 8 Mexico . 23 Caitlin Wolfe Broken Seal . 7 Making Waves Art Amanda Dew Kristin Klaskala Elizabeth Wayne Cocker Spaniel . 21 The Hunter . 23 Jonathan DuPont Addie Leak First Place, Short Story Competition A Desert Scene . 35 Spirit . 13 The Chris Read Award for Fiction A Reflection on Taj Mahal . 43 Madison LaFleur T he clock strikes 7:30 a.m. as Charlene panorama to be the first thing her customers see Rebekah Garrison Elisabeth . 11 turns on the neon “Open” light illuminat- when they walk into her shop. Mesmerizing A Certain Shade of Green . 22 ing the space around the window of the New Starman . 22 Cassandre Man-Bourdon waves. It had been six years since she bought a lip-gloss boost in your America . 27 Le Debut . Front Cover Image Beauty Salon. It won’t be long before her own hair salon, and though it is modest, she Desert Star . Inside Back Cover Rhonda comes—her first customer of the day. couldn’t have loved it more. Andy Guan Reflections . 23 Charlene grabs a mirror hanging from a nail Charlene always wanted to do hair ever Faith . 15 Patches of Reason . 28 near the door and checks her hair and makeup. since she was little. She remembered those vis- Marilyn Feeling Sexy . 44 “No one wants their hair done by a woman its to the hair salon as a child and how excited Missie Smith who looks as if she’s been through the storm she was to see her beautician, Sherry. Sherry Clarence Holmes Geometric Shapes Still Life . 47 and back now, do they?” She looks down at was a mystery. She was slender with long wavy Car . 18 Trudy, her collie who whimpers at her feet. hair that fell like fluffed flapcakes well below Katrina Vizzini After a few adjustments to the scarf tied her back—a trait she got from her mother who The Blue Girl . 28 around her neck, Charlene takes the broom into was a Choctaw Indian. But that was all anyone Photography her arms and sweeps the linoleum floor of her really knew about her. A few of the townsfolk Hannah Bruce Willow Nero shop, removing the discarded hair from the day said that Sherry once saved a boy from drown- Rover . 12 Fall . 21 before. With motherly care, Charlene tidies the ing by letting him hold onto her hair while she Bee on Flattened Coneflower . 24 Green Oranges . 24 neutralizing shampoos, pulled him to safety— Bumblebee on Shiny Flower . 24 The Cows . 41 scented conditioners, rat- “ ‘The world though Sherry herself would Buzz . 24 trail combs, curling irons, would be a bet- never talk about it. She just Spring . 24 Amanda Novotny oil sprays, and styling gels walked to and from her View through the Stone Window . 24 California Waterfall . 25 that clutter her hair station. ter place if we all salon, stopping at the gro- Popsicle Sticks . 26 Half-dome . 37 She uses the last of the win- cery store for canned goods dow cleaner on the large just made waves, or extra conditioner. Christy Dyess Ashlee Oliver mirror hanging in her stall Charlene had Crowded Beauty . 8 Ford Daisy . 6 and makes a mental note to admired Sherry from the Away from Here . 10 Flower . 24 Charlene, not buy more. Noticing their [ ] moment she met her. She Abandoned Chic . 16 Grapes . 24 Bleeding with Season . 24 Pansy . 24 dull appearance, Charlene storms.’ ” loved the way Sherry Ecstasy . 24 Violet . 24 moves across the room and strummed through her hair Reaching for Roots . 24 wipes all three of her dryers and washed it with her Sturdy Erosion . 39 Jennifer Sloan until they glisten. Though the dryers are old favorite scented shampoo. Ocean Breeze. Then The Serene Disturbance . 4 and tearing, she doubts any of the newer mod- it made Charlene giggle when Sherry dried her Addie Leak Oblique . 20 els would be as trustworthy. Next to the dryers hair off with a towel and let it droop over her The Merits of a Long Hike . 24 Clandestine . 24 is a wooden door with the word “Bathroom” eyes so she couldn’t see. Charlene felt so safe Water Babies . 24 stickered on it in fancy calligraphy. Charlene once Sherry began talking that it didn’t hurt Summer on the Lake . 26 Ryder Taff ducks her head in to make sure there is enough when she combed the tangles out of her natu- A . 7 toilet paper and liquid soap. Seeing that there rally kinky hair. Sherry seemed to possess a is, decides to water the plants that hang in the power of mind, as if by combing hair she freed Laura Beth Moore Memory Lane . 24 front of her shop. Last, she plugs in her most Charlene from her deepest of fears. prized possession: a motion panorama of a Charlene even visited Sherry when she was- beach scene which, whenever she plugs it in, n’t doing her hair. She helped Sherry around makes soothing noises as the animated ocean her shop, sweeping the floors and bringing splashes onto the shore. Charlene wants the magazines to her customers while they waited. 3 Then after hours, Sherry told stories while grass to the yellow sunflowers that lined the Charlene listened intently. There was rarely a sidewalk leading to the stairs of the front door. silent moment between them. What Sherry liked best about the beach house But Charlene remembered one occasion was the backyard which was an open stretch of THE CHRIS READ AWARD FOR FICTION when Sherry was unusually silent. There were sand and ocean. no giggles or towels drooping over her eyes Despite the glamour, the Utopian getaway The Chris Read Award for Fiction, instituted with the 1994 issue of Southern Voices, hon- that day, only the sound of Sherry’s comb plow- couldn’t mask her parents’ unhappiness, ors a member of the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science’s Class of 1991. ing through Charlene’s hair. Charlene grew Sherry told Charlene. Sherry never under- Christopher David Read was an active leader at MSMS as a member of Emissaries, the Debate fidgety but was too afraid to say anything. stood why they were so angry at each other. Club, and the Southern Voices staff. Chris’s first love, however, was writing. Southern style. Finally Sherry spoke. Perhaps it was from the alcohol which they Chris often wove his Southern tales late at night. Chris would compose either on the com- “Do you know how tides are formed?” always drank before they started yelling. At puter or on (his favorite) the old, brown Royal typewriter he had bought from the pawn shop Sherry asked. There were few lakes in Neshoba any rate, Sherry retreated to the ocean when- County, Mississippi, let alone an ocean. ever they drank, spending hours making sand down 13th Street South. Faking sleep, I would watch the grin on Chris’s face as he worked Charlene had only read about tides in her sci- castles and letting the water tickle her sun- out the next great story. When he finished, Chris would always “wake me” and excitedly read ence book. burned toes. his new story to me. He never knew that I had been hiding, watching his creative process But Sherry had seen the ocean. When she Charlene sat quietly, listening to Sherry’s with admiration. I was not the only one to admire Chris’s work. This award stands as testi- was twelve years old, she said her family had words. She didn’t care much about tides but mony to the admiration that we all held for Chris and his work and as a memorial to the won a radio contest, and as a prize they’d spent longed to break the silence.