Dinner that night was tenderized venison steaks, that had been hand battered and fried in a heavy iron skillet till golden brown. My Aunt cooked a good many of them, the sides included home-made mashed potatoes made from scratch brown gravy, collard greens seasoned with bits of bacon and of course the staple at many southern tables. Cornbread. The beverage of choice of course was sweet tea for me, my aunt had a glass of red wine and my uncle Sidney had a brown bottle of Yuengling, this was really his third bottle of the evening.

Anyway, once the table had been set, my uncle who was still mad as a hornet took a deep breath and bowed his head. And in a commanding tone of voice, a voice that made my blood turn cold, he looked up and looked my aunt and I in the eye and in a low tone of voice he said.

“Let us pray, and thank God for this bounty he has put before us.” He muttered as he took a deep breath and a few seconds later he started to pray.

“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”

“Amen.” I was repeatedly followed by my aunt.

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” He added after a short pause.

“Amen.”

Then my uncle opened his eyes and focused them on me.

“Your aunt tells me you wish to be called 'Hailey' . I do not understand that desire. But I will honor it. You are still my guest and you are still my kin. You are family, and family does not turn on family.” He said, taking a deep breath.

I nodded my head.

“The Sharbrough Family has striven to maintain order in this area of the Mississippi Delta for generations. I'd hope that by hard work, toil, you will gain a greater understanding of what the founding fathers of this town went through. But since you wish to become a 'Woman' I will turn over your conditioning and training to your aunt. Who I trust will turn you into a proper Southern Belle, befitting your status as a Sharbrough. Do you understand me Hailey?” He said in a rough, commanding tone of voice.

“Yes sir.”

“If you are to remain being 'Hailey' when you leave my household or if you will return to being 'Casper' is up to you, your mother and your father. But, since we are family, if something happens, and you are kicked out of your home. I want you to know you have a home here. With me, and your aunt.” He added in a commanding tone of voice as he started to roughly cut into his steak.

“Yes sir.” I said looking down at my plate

“I'm on the board of directors of Sharkey-Issaquena Academy. I can get you enrolled there with ease.” He said as an afterthought.

“Yes sir.” I said gently cutting a piece of meat before popping it into my mouth.

“Sharkey-Issaquena is an old fashion school. Rich in Southern tradition, it was founded as a segregation academy. Your great grandfather Robert Lee Sharbrough donated five thousand dollars to help buy the land, clear the land and build the building. All Sharbrough's have attended school there. If you attend school there, you will get a fine education. Finer than the education you're getting at that other school.” He said, taking a deep breath.

“Yes sir.” I said, taking a deep breath.

“Rolling Fork is also on par with Yazoo City, if not a little larger.” He paused. “Also I should inform you that your father called me a few moments ago, just before we sat down to eat. He asked how you were doing. I said you were doing good, and you were undergoing a change. He said that was good, he also asked if I would mind keeping you for another three weeks.” He added. “It seems he and his wife have decided to take leave of Mississippi and go explore Europe.”

I blinked.

“Oh wonderful!” My Aunt said. “Oh, Hailey, this wonderful news l! Now I can really turn you into a proper Southern Bell. Trust me Hailey you're going to love it here. And yes Sidney, if push comes to shove we could enroll her in Sharkey-Issaquena Academy. It's such a wonderful school. She'll receive a wonderful, well rounded Education.”

I blinked. It was strange being addressed as 'She' instead of 'He' but it was something I needed to get used too. Because it seemed that I'll be living as Hailey for a lot longer than I first expected. But then again, part of me seemed okay with living as Hailey, but not here, not in this hell-hole where so many would tear me limb to limb for what I was. I wanted to be Hailey somewhere else, like in my hometown, with a population that would dwarf the chief cities and towns of this region. Only Greenville famed throughout the Mississippi Delta as the 'Queen' city was nothing more speck when compared to sprawling Ridgeland or Canton, heck even Clinton was at least twice its size and thrice that of Rolling Fork.

Yes I wanted to go to Hailey somewhere else, somewhere where I could enjoy the thrills of city life. The thought of working at the mall seemed to enter into my mind. Maybe if I was to keep on being Hailey I would find a job working at one of high end fashion boutiques that called North Park the name of our regional mall, its charm and grace.

“Haily.” My Aunt Cat said blinking. “Your spacing out again.. it is becoming for a girl of your statues to space out.” She said as she peered at me. A worried look crossed her face.

“You'll need to teach her better table manners, Cat.” My uncle said with a crossed look on his face. “Or I will.” He said muttering darkly under his breath as he sliced his meat and spooned his potatoes into his mouth.

“She'll learn in time, remember it takes girls a while to get things together.. and one can't make a Southern Belle overnight.” My Aunt said in a pleading tone of voice.

“Make it quick, if she has any chance of making it at Sharkey-Issaquena she needs to learn how to act like the rest of the girls.” He muttered as he reached over and took another swig of his beer. “It's an old fashion school and they believe in applying the strap to the bottom. I have a feeling we'll be enrolling her there in the autumn anyway.”

I blinked and blinked again.

“Your aunt tells me that you've been invited to have tea with her UDC group.” My uncle muttered under his breath. “Don't make a fool of me, or your aunt. Or else I'll give a taste that afternoon of what to expect in the way of corporal punishment, the favorite kind of punishment they use at SIA.” He paused. “And no, just because you're going to a Junior next year means that you're too old to get paddled at school. You have a choice, you can either take the strap or face being expelled from school. If I was you, I would take the strap, it makes it so much better in the long run.”

I nodded my head and returned to my dinner, the meat had grown cold, but I ate it anyway.

“And I still expect you to attend church with us on Sunday. We are having Holy Communion this coming Sunday. So I expect the church to be packed with people.” He added. “And your aunt's UDC friends would expect you to be there. So will you.” He added.

“Yes sir.” I said blushing I had not expected to be ordered to go to church, and with this Sunday being the second Sunday of the month I'd totally forgotten about Holy Communion being offered. You see the Episcopal Church in the Landing, was a small one. While in larger churches Holy Communion might be offered every Sunday or twice a week maybe daily, ours only offered Holy Communion twice a month, that was normally the second and and fourth Sunday of each month.

“I expect you to wear a fitting dress, to mind your manners, to only speak when spoken too by your elders. And most of all to be veiled.” He added.

“Yes sir.” I added.

Then my aunt reached over and squeezed my hand.

“Now, I'm going to go watch the news, Haily help your aunt with the dishes.”He muttered as he stood up. But before he left the kitchen he turned and peered at me. “One last word of advice.” He paused, it seemed the beer was taking effect. “Just because you are a Sharbrough does not mean you can flaunt the rules of Delta Society. We are an ordered society. If you make a fool of me, I promise you, you will pay. You will pay dearly.” He added as he stumbled into the living room. I quickly got up and followed him into the living room. I don't know what overcame me, but I wanted to see what he was doing.

He stumbled around, clearly buzzing, a few seconds later he found his chair and without saying a word he crashed down into his chair and flipped on the news. My uncle has a favorite news station and that is Fox News. He believes that the only News channel that is not into “Fake News” and was the only channel that reported the news that mattered. The rest of the channels including our own local News Channel 12 reported nothing but “Fake News” his words not mine.

“Haily, would you mind helping with the dishes?” My Aunt Cat said to me as she popped her head out of the kitchen.

“Sure Auntie.” I said, taking a deep breath as I returned to the kitchen.

Once I reached the kitchen I started to help my Aunt Cat with the dishes, we worked as a team and soon the whole kitchen was swept, mopped with the dishes having been washed, dried and put away. Once that was done. My Aunt peered at me for a good long minute.

“Come, follow me.” She said, taking a deep breath as she hung up the dish towel to dry. “I have something for you.”

I titled my head to the side and decided to follow her without asking too many questions. We slipped out of the kitchen, and through the living room. My uncle Sidney was out cold, I guess three bottles of craft beer would do that to you. Anyway, we left the living room and started to climb the stairs. A few minutes later we were standing in another room. It was my cousin's room, you could tell it was a girls room by the furnishing and the way it smelled.

“This is your cousin's Cindy room. She left a lot of her old clothes here when she went away to university. You and her are about the same size so you should fit some of her things.” My Aunt Cat said. “I don't think she'll mind you borrowing some of her things till we get you shorted out. Till we figure out a few things.” She said as she walked over to the closet. She pulled the closet door open and reached in.

“Here. This should fit you.” She said as she pulled a solid pink nightgown down from one of the clothes hangers. She tossed it to me. “Tomorrow, we'll get you into a proper dress with matching underwear. That is the first hard rule of being a Southern Belle, you always match. Your bra and panties must match, as it is the same color. That is the first rule girls learn when they start developing and it's one of the core rules.” She said in a lecturing tone of voice. “No self respecting southern women would be caught dead without a matching bra and panties.”

I blinked and blinked again as I caught the nightgown. It was a soft, silken nightgown. I felt my cheeks flush with color.

“Why?” I asked.

At that moment I saw a different side to my Aunt Cat. She turned around and gave me a death glare. “Listen, if you want to act like a man pretending to be a woman, that's on you. Not me. If you go around acting like a teenage boy in a fancy frock at tomorrow's meeting then you're going to find yourself tied up and beaten within an inch of your life. Heck that might rape you for what its worth.” Aunt Cat said, closing her eyes.

I was stunned into silence.

“ Look, I got you into this mess, and I'm going to do my best to keep you alive. Right now, nobody knows what the future might hold for you, your mom and dad might just dump you here. Lord knows they talked about it before.” Aunt Cat seemed to be building a good head of steam.

“So don't ask questions and just follow my suggestions as if they were orders and then we might just get out of this one piece.” She added. “Because if by chance you end up enrolling in SIA. Then you'll need to be on par with the other girls, who have had the advantage of being born women and being taught by old school women how to prim and proper Southern Belles.” My Aunt raged on.
“They would also have the home field advantage of having female cousins or older sisters who have taken them under their wings and helped them form connections. These young women would be well connected with other young, well to do women of the delta. You, my wool headed niece would be a newcomer and a fresh face. Thus a threat to them, somebody who can shake up the well established pecking order. Delta girls like to act sweet, innocent and refined. But they can be cruel, ruthless, and plotting, they are not above setting the girl up to get raped if it means to tarnish her family name.” My Aunt Cat raged on.

I blinked and blinked again.

“The game plan has changed.” Aunt Cat said with a sigh. “Don't breathe a word about being Roman Catholic at tomorrow's meeting, and don't breathe a word about being a democrat. In fact don't even speak until your spoken too.” She added.

I nodded my head.

At this point my Aunt took a deep breath and hung her head down and heaved a heavy sigh.

“I'm sorry for unloading on you like that. I'm just scared of that all, I thought in two and a half weeks you would be gone. Gone back to Canton where you belong.” She lifted her hand and pointed out the window. “There are social and political forces out there that would harm you if not outright kill you if they found out who you were.” She said with tears rolling down her eyes. “The Delta is not a nice place to be for somebody like you. But I got you into this mess, and I'm going to see you through it, if it's the last thing I do.”

I nodded my head.

“Alright enough talking. Go ahead and get some sleep, were both going to need it for tomorrow.” And with that my Aunt left me, standing in the middle of my cousin's Cindy room, holding her nightgown, well clutching it really and wondering what in the world have I gotten myself into. One thing was clear though, there would be no escape for me now. The only path of salvation open for me was to become a true Southern Belle, an reluctant one, but one nonetheless.