Pandora's Closet

IRRESISTIBLE by Yvonne Coats

Sandy slumped against the wheel of her old-but-it-still-runs Toyota Celica and tried to figure out how her day had gone to hell. A tap on the window startled her: It was Billy, one of the regulars, smiling at her in a way she’d gotten far too familiar with. Not a bad guy-none of them were bad guys, usually-but she surely did not like that smile.

She rolled the window down a crack, and Billy didn’t say any of the things she’d anticipated, like how unfair it was that she’d been fired. He didn’t ask if she’d be okay, or offer her a loan. What Billy did say was, “I wonder, I mean, could I call you sometime?”

“No. I gotta go now, Billy.” Shit shit shit, she thought as Billy reached for the door handle. She turned the ignition key and had never been more grateful to hear the little Celica’s sewing machine engine turn over.

She pulled away from Billy as fast as she could without knocking him down and zipped through the parking lot and out into the street. She’d made good money serving drinks at the Silver Dollar, but she hadn’t put much away. She didn’t think finding another job would be all that easy, especially since Shelly, the manager, said she’d fired her “cause she couldn’t keep her hands off’n the customers.”

Tears welled in Sandy ’s eyes. It hadn’t been her mauling the customers, but the other way around. I need a drink, she thought when she saw the Handy Pantry sign.

She pulled right up to the door-good, it’s not busy-and went inside for some cheap beer. She hoisted the six-pack onto the counter and rummaged in her purse for her wallet.

“Hi,” the clerk said. He was a skinny redheaded guy who looked about seventeen years old but had to be older if he could sell beer. And he had that smile.

“Hi,” Sandy said, extracting her wallet. “How much?”

“Drinkin’ alone?”

She kept her eyes down but was sure he was still smiling.

“Preferably.”

“Not very friendly, are ya?”

“Sorry. Just tired and not in a very good mood.” She smiled slightly and forced herself to look up. Yup, he was smiling, like a man about to take his first bite of a really good steak. “How much is the beer, please?”

“Onna house.”

Damn. “Come on, how much is it?”

“Onna house,” he said again, louder.

“If you don’t let me pay for it, I’m not taking it.”

When he just kept smiling, Sandy thought, I am not leaving without beer. She pulled out a five, slapped it on the counter, and walked out.

“Hey, wait! This is too much.” The redhead came out behind her, but he was too slow. She had the Celica in reverse and out of the parking lot before he stepped off the curb. In the review mirror, she could see him waving her five-dollar bill.

When she got home, to a former garage some thrifty soul had turned into a dollhouse of a rental, she was glad she lived alone. Right now, she was glad she wasn’t dating anybody. Do Lutherans have convents? she wondered, though she hadn’t been to church since she left home.

She popped the top on one of the beers, took a long swig, and snorted at the brand name, Blitz. How come cheap beers have all the best names? I guess names are cheaper than ingredients.

She flopped down on the squashy red plaid couch, pulled off her spike heels, and rubbed her toes and arches. Groaning, she stood up and peeled off her stockings, tossing her fancy garters on the coffee table and aiming the stockings toward the bathroom.

She sat back down, took another slug of beer, and considered her situation. She had a couple of hundred in checking, nearly seven hundred in savings, maybe two months’ worth of money if she really watched it.

Her gaze settled on the garters. Last week, they’d seemed perfect. Last week, her sister Cheryl asked her to be a bridesmaid, said she’d buy Sandy’s dress-hallelujah-and asked Sandy to find her something “old and blue” that Cheryl could “borrow” and wear on her wedding day next month. Before Sandy could panic about finding something wedding-appropriate, she saw an ad in one of her magazines. There was a tiny photo of a pair of garters, and they sure looked blue. Underneath was printed, “Be irresistible,” and a description of the garters as “antique.”

Sandy had called the phone number, and a soft southern voice answered, “Blue Ridge Bazaar, Rennie McCoy speaking.”

“Um, I’m calling about some garters.”

“I got them when my grandmother died. I believe they’d been in the family for a long time. They’re handmade, probably late Nineteenth Century and, since I assume you want to wear them, the elastic is in remarkably good shape.”

“That’s nice,” Sandy said, in a hurry because it was long distance. “I can’t tell from the picture… are they blue?”

“Yes, royal blue satin with lace trim, which has yellowed a bit, but the garters are quite lovely. My grandmother said they, how did she put it, ‘contributed to a memorable wedding… and wedding night.’ She wouldn’t let my mother wear them at her wedding, though, I remember someone saying…”

“So they really are old. Great. Um, how much are you asking?”

“A hundred dollars.”

“Shit. Sorry. That’s a lot of money.”

Rennie McCoy had listened to Sandy talk about her sister’s wedding and her request, and they had haggled for a couple of minutes. Finally, he’d agreed to let them go for seventy dollars, shipping included. Maybe it had been a great deal, but now Sandy wished she had the money back.

She woke up with a hangover-it’d been a long time since she’d killed a six-pack by herself, and she vowed it would be an even longer time before she did it again. Looking at her dull skin and red eyes in the mirror over the sink, she decided to stay home and clean house before hitting the pavements to find a new job.

She got lucky and found work the next day, glad that Shelly from the Silver Dollar had not, apparently, said anything too awful about her to Kent, her new boss, who owned the Westerner. She still couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong at the Silver Dollar, but none of the men at the Westerner paid her more than ordinary attention. Some harmless flirting, a couple of propositions from guys she expected to pour out the door at closing time-nothing unusual. Nothing weird.

Things went well until Friday. Kent had told Sandy that he wanted her to dress more provocatively on the weekends. “I can buy you gear if you need it, but go ahead and wear your own stuff tonight.”

Sandy looked in the full-length mirror in her bedroom. She’d put her hair up and wore big silver hoop earrings, snug black tank top, bleached denim miniskirt, sheer black nylons, and shiny black stilettos. Maybe a little plain. She pulled one of the blue garters halfway up her left thigh, where it would be highly visible. Not bad, she thought. She wondered if guys would put dollar bills in it, the way she’d seen them do with strippers.

At the Westerner, Kent came across the room to greet her. “Wow. You clean up nice, Sandy.”

“I don’t exactly think of this look as ‘clean,’ Kent.” She liked Kent.

“Guess not.” Then he smiled in a way that made Sandy ’s neck hairs quiver. “Well, we both got things to do, so I’ll talk at you later.”

Sandy nodded. Maybe it hadn’t been that smile after all.

The evening went well, at first. Sandy ’s tips were incredibly generous, which she figured was due to it being a weekend and more crowded. Then she heard one of the other servers complaining about her to Kent, telling him that Sandy was “doing something” because her customers kept asking for Sandy to serve them. Sandy figured she was just a better server, that was all. It wasn’t like at the Silver Dollar. Nobody had groped her. No fights had broken out.

But by ten o’clock, the Westerner was bursting at the seams. Nearly all the single women and couples had left, and the bar was starting to look like a men’s club.

Feeling stupid, Sandy went into the ladies’ room and took off the garter. She wrapped it in a paper towel and stuffed it behind the toilet tank in the back stall. Squaring her shoulders, she walked back out into the bar.

At first, it didn’t seem to make a difference, but within twenty minutes Sandy saw fewer men staring at her. In an hour, enough men had left that couples could get in to dance to the live band that Kent brought in on weekends. Sandy ’s tips went down, but her spirits rose.

She thought about leaving the garter where it was, but in the end she shoved it in her skirt pocket before she left. Kent, who had ignored her all evening, looked up as she crossed the room. He seemed to be thinking about saying something, but she waved and made it out the door before he spoke.

It was nearly three a.m. by the time Sandy got home. She kicked off her shoes, drank a big glass of water, flopped down on the couch, turned on the TV, and fell asleep.

She dreamed about her sister, Cheryl, but in the dream she turned into somebody else and found herself in a heated argument.

“He was gonna marry me, Nancy, and you knows it!” Sandy shouted with another woman’s mouth. She felt small and worn out, and she looked down to see her hands folded on an obviously pregnant stomach.

The other woman, if sixteen years can make a woman, smiled slyly at her.

“Where’d ya put ’em, Nancy? Where?” Sandy felt a stabbing pain in her back and reached around awkwardly to rub her spine. Does pregnancy really feel this bad?

“Whatever do you mean, cousin Roseanna?” The blonde girl simpered and smoothed her pale yellow frock.

“I made them garters, and you knows it. I ’broidered his name and mine, and I done all the carryin’ on like grandmam taught me. They’re mine, and no good can come from your thievin’ of ’em.” Roseanna/ Sandy needed to pee. She felt hot and itchy. She needed to sit down.

In a very low voice, Nancy said, “I took your name off them garters, Roseanna, and stitched in mine. ‘Nancy and Johnse’ is what them garters sez now.” Her face glowed with confidence, and Sandy/Roseanna saw what a child Nancy still was. Big bosoms and a husband don’t make you a woman.

She looked around for the nearest chair and fell into it. Nancy ’s smooth brow creased. “You look awful red, cousin. Lemme go get your mama.”

She was too tired even to protest. She whispered, “I thought I could make it right. I thought, ’cause I loved Johnse, that I could make everybody stop fighting. The magic worked on Johnse. He loved me.” She sucked in air like there suddenly wasn’t enough. “I thought I could work magic on his papa, Devil Anse. Maybe stop the feud.” She felt herself sliding off the chair and came to rest on the hard mud floor, gloriously cool against her face. “I shoulda put the feud first, ahead of Johnse. It ain’t never gonta stop now. That fool girl broke my magic, I don’t know what’ll happen.”

Her ears rang, and she closed her eyes. The ringing continued, and Sandy woke to the answering machine taking a message from somebody selling something.

She sat up, blinking in daylight. Slowly she reached into her skirt and pulled out the wadded paper towel. She unwrapped the garter and set it on the coffee table. After a while, she went and got the other one. She examined them inch by inch, inside and out, but didn’t find anything that looked like lettering, just a few tiny needle holes where, maybe, thread had fallen or been picked out. She grabbed the phone and called Blue Ridge Bazaar with a few questions for Rennie McCoy.

When she’d finished telling him about wearing the garters and about her dream, McCoy didn’t say anything for a moment.

“Hello?” Sandy said.

“You’re pulling my leg, aren’t you?” His voice sounded uncertain.

“I’m not a liar, Mr. McCoy.” Sandy thought she was calm, but her voice shook.

“I’m sorry, it’s just… Does the name McCoy mean anything to you?”

“Doctor, classic Trek.” She thought again. “And the real McCoy, whatever that means.”

“Nothing else?”

She thought hard. “The Hatfields and the McCoys. Hillbillies. They didn’t like each other much.”

She heard a sigh, probably over the word ’hillbillies. ’ Oh well, it’s said now.

“In 1880, Roseanna McCoy and Johnson Hatfield acted out the Blue Ridge version of Romeo and Juliet. They didn’t marry, though she was pregnant and that would’ve been the normal thing to do. A year later, Johnson did marry a McCoy-not Roseanna but her cousin Nancy. There was never a good explanation for why Johnse had switched women, especially after Roseanna saved him from being killed by three of her brothers.”

Sandy looked at the garters, blue satin gleaming in the morning sun. She picked them up, so light, so lovely to be so dangerous.

“Over the next ten years, thirteen people died in the feud, including Roseanna’s sister, four of her brothers, and Roseanna herself.”

“What about the baby, Johnse’s baby?” Sandy remembered being pregnant in the dream.

“Roseanna got measles and miscarried.”

“And I’ve got her garters,” Sandy said. She stroked the smooth satin and thought about Roseanna McCoy.

“Yes, I guess you do.” She heard regret in his voice. “What are you going to do with them? I mean, it’s none of my business, but if you don’t want them, I’d be hap-”

“Well, I’ll have to find something else for my sister, but I plan to keep them.”

She heard McCoy sigh. “Just be careful.”

Sandy laughed. “Worried that I’ll use my powers for evil instead of good, Mr. McCoy?”

He didn’t laugh, but she thought he might be smiling when he said, “Excuse me, your ‘powers’?”

“I really don’t know what use these things are, other than the obvious. I’ll keep them safe, though.” Sandy wondered, “Do you have any other family heirlooms in your store, Mr. McCoy?” Wouldn’t it be great if he did, she thought. I’d love to see what else the McCoy women might have conjured up.

“Call me Rennie. I’m the last of my branch of the family, so I’ve inherited the lot. The stuff from my grandmother’s house was what finally pushed me into opening this store. I wonder what other surprises there might be?”

Sandy thought fast. “I’m going to be traveling soon, and I might be coming your way. If there are other things Roseanna, or anyone else in your family made, things like the garters, it might take a woman to make them work.” She crossed her fingers, hoping that he wasn’t married. He seemed nice on the phone, but even if he looked like Quasimodo crossed with a muskrat, Sandy needed to see what might be in his store.

“Do you know when you’ll be in Kentucky?” he said slowly. She definitely heard a smile in his voice this time.

“Not exactly. But you might want to keep an eye out for a woman in stockings.”