The Widow Author Dee on 12:08 AM

I knew I was in trouble as soon as Billy ran toward the house. He was going to tell Momma what I'd done and I'd get a whoopin' for sure. Billy is such a tattle tale and he makes it his mission to get me in trouble so I wasn't surprised when Momma yelled for me to come in the house "right this minute." She also used my full name Mary Beth Sanders with the accent on Beth.

Billy is 2 years younger than me but he's got such great ideas and they sound so fun that I always get sucked into doing something I know deep down will get me in trouble and today wasn't any different. When the day started out I told myself that I wasn't going to do anything to get in trouble today. I was going to be perfect but fate and Billy had other plans for me.

We were playing down by the General Store and Billy was imitating the people that walked by. First he imitated Mrs. Johnston and the funny way she walks with her teeny tiny steps. Next came Bobby Perry eating a lollypop. Billy's real good at pretending he's Bobby Perry. Then there was Old Man Ruskin. Billy said he couldn't quite get the feel of him because there was too much that made Mr. Ruskin Old Man Ruskin and he needed some props.

First Billy found stick that worked great as Old Man Ruskin's walking stick or cane as Momma calls it. Then he found a twig that he pretended was his pipe. I thought he was doing real good but something was missing. Maybe it was Old Man Ruskin's hat. We looked all over then Billy remembered Papa has a hat he never wears so we ran home to find it.

When went in for lunch Momma told him he looked almost exactly like Mr. Ruskin and was laughing with us as Billy showed her how he waked using his stick. Later Billy and I tried to think of some more people he could imitate and that's when the trouble started. Miss Adele and Widow Bishop came to see Momma for their weekly quilting and we thought it would be fun to pretend to be them.

Daddy calls Miss Adele an old spinster because she's never been married but Widow Bishop was married once and her husband died a few years ago. I was going to be Miss Adele and Billy was the Widow. He walked on his tip toes and talked with a high squeaky voice but he wasn't happy. He not only wanted to walk and talk like the Widow, he wanted to look like her.

I have to tell you right here, Widow Bishop has hair that's almost white, you know the kind, it's the color of a fresh washed sheets, all curly and Billy wanted his hair to be the color of hers. That was hard, how were we suppose to turn Billy's hair white then I remembered at our school play last year the teacher put powder in Joey's hair to make him look older so we ran to the barn to look for some powder or soap. That's when he saw it, the perfect thing to make his hair white

I didn't want to but Billy talked me into it and when we got done he did he didn't look anything like The Widow. We tried washing it off but that only made it worse and Billy ran in the house crying. That's when Momma called me by my full name and that's why I'm sitting here waiting for Papa to come home. I swear I didn't know paint wouldn't wash off