Ozark Trilogy 2: The Grand Jubilee by Suzette Haden Elgin Read Free Book Online Page B

rears, and could of endured a lot more of it, she supposed. Everyone else, however, including their allies the Farsons and the Guthries, was exhausted long before the Closing Prayer. The way some of the delegates had slumped down in their seats by midafternoon had all twenty-seven Grannys still presentand for sure still straight as spikes in their seats-clicking their tongues fit to drown out their knitting needles.
    Responsible was satisfied with the effect. She much doubted that the population had stayed glued to the comsets to watch the proceedings of this day, and she figured to of lost the majority of them well before noon. She doubted even more that they’d tune in their sets to more of the same tomorrow, and that suited her purposes. If there was going to be a battle on the floor of the Independence Room, the fewer Ozarkers that knew about it and had time to get excited about it, the better. And she had seen to it that there were plenty of other ways to spend your time than sit at the comsets, or even in the balcony, while the days of the Grand Jubilee went passing by.
    There were four different plays-one religious, one historical, one comedy, one adventure-going on in Capital City at all times, and enough different ones in their repertoires to be sure there’d be no repetition. Three dance troupes were on duty, two indoors and the other moving around the city, and ordered to make themselves available anywhere they were asked. Four sports exhibitions, including one laid on especially for the tadlings. Checkers tournaments everywhere she had a leftover corner. Two speech competitions, tours through the caves for the romantic of mind and tours through the farms for the practical. Mule races for the daring, and all-day nonstop sermons for the conservative. Down at the Landing there was an inexhaustible picnic, where you could sit and eat in comfort, passing your time in gossip and watching the ships come and go in the harbor. Outside the city borders the largest fair ever put on anywhere would be going on all five days, with every kind of game and exhibit and performance, every variety of food and drink, rides all the way from the sedatest of merry-gorounds to a thing called Circle-Of-Screams that was guaranteed to make you get off and sit down for half an hour to review your sins. She had something for everybody, something for every time, and comcrews everywhere to beam out the doings to those that couldn’t come to Brightwater. The doldrums on the channel given over to the Confederation Hall assembly were not going to be able to compete for attention.
    There’d been plenty of opposition to the scope of the celebration, even from her grandfather, Jonathan Cardwell Brightwater the 12th, who didn’t as a rule care what anybody spent, so long as they extended him the same privilege.
    “Are you sure all that’s needful, Responsible?”
    She’d heard that till the time came when she suggested they get a sign made and save their throats. And she’d ignored it. Yes, it was needful, and furthermore it was the one and the only Jubilee she expected ever to be involved in; she’d not have it said that Brightwater stinted, or offered its guests anything less than the very best there was to offer.
    “Pride, missy!” the Granny had said, shaking her finger. “Just pure pride! And where do you reckon it’ll lead you, one of these days?”
    She took a deep breath, remembering, and then, finally, the Reverend said “Amen!” and it was over, and the delegations began to file out of the Hall. The band in the bandstand at the corner of the lawn struck up a rousing march at the sight of the first man stiff and blinking at the light and the air, and that did get them moving a bit more briskly. The Grannys and Responsible brought up the rear, everybody else having left the balcony hours before, and she made certain that the Grannys surrounded her on all sides. Invisibility was her goal, and she achieved it clear to the gates of