A Little Royalty

Nana came downstairs, resplendent in a gold evening gown and matching slippers and carrying a tiny gold and completely impractical evening bag.  She looked all the world like Glinda, the Good Witch of the South and it wouldn't have surprised me if a flock of singing munchins had suddenly materialized on the stairs.

My daddy, equally elegant in white tie and tails and looking - well, there was no other word for it except dashing - made an extravagant bow and offered her his arm.  She smiled, pulled on her immaculate elbow length white gloves and slipped her arm through his.

Your carriage awaits, madam, he said.

And indeed it did.  I had seen it for myself, a long and sleek black limousine sitting imperiously in the driveway, complete with a uniformed chauffeur standing at attention.

Oh, Good Lord,Guy, my grandmother protested, The Lincoln would've done just fine!

For a Worthy Grand Matron? my daddy exclaimed as he draped her mink stole over her shoulders, Oh, I think not.

I didn't know much about the Eastern Star or the Masons except that my parents and grandparents were heavily involved and that Worthy Grand Matron was a Big Deal.  I'd once stumbled across a small ritual book - and gotten a serious slap for it - but it was written in hieroglyphics and odd symbols and didn't interest me.

Not for your eyes! my mother had snapped before snatching it from me and delivering a healthy backhand which had nearly rocked me off my feet, Learn to mind your own business!

I remembered about that forbidden little book as I watched my daddy escort my grandmother to the waiting limousine - it was a little like watching royalty - and wondered if there might not be a copy of it tucked inside that silly little gold evening bag along with her Kent 100's.  Having learned a little more about fraternal societies since finding the little book, I'd come to accept that secrecy was simply a fundamental part of their being and I'd had to give up the romantic notion that I lived in and was being raised by a nest of spies.

The limousine eased out of the driveway and drove away smoothly and I went back to making grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup in the Worthy Grand Matron's immaculate kitchen.