Understanding Dawns

[Peg Herring]

"I don't know what we're going to do about her, Doctor. Every morning she gets up, packs that suitcase, and away she goes, up and down the streets of Brownsville. Everyone in town thinks she's deranged.

“And don't bother to call her by her name. She only answers to that horrible nickname people used to call her when she was young. My lord, she’s 41 year old and she’ll never get a husband if she doesn’t snap out of it. She doesn't pay me any mind, but she'll answer when her daddy talks to her. Of course he still calls her Baby.

“You know, she did have a suitor once, a real low-life, though. Her daddy hit the roof when he found out they were planning to elope. He ran that man right out of town. I can still see her, packed and waiting, wearing her favorite dress with a red rose pinned on it. When he didn't show, that's when she started acting odd. Not crazy, just odd. A mother knows her own child.

“Yes, Big Daddy ran that fortune hunter off, although the man got even. He took Daddy's blue-tick hound when he left. I don't know why he'd want that dog, probably did it just to hurt Big Daddy. I didn’t mind. I never did like hounds, and since that one disappeared Big Daddy hasn't wanted another one. Says he's afraid that a dog would dig up my flower beds.

“He may be right, now that I think on it. Something certainly dug up my dianthus the night that man disappeared from town. I had a terrible time putting that patch right, but those flowers certainly have grown like crazy ever since.

“So everything would all work out for the good, Doctor, if you could just help us settle our daughter down so we can get her matched with a nice man. You know, Big Daddy and I, we won’t live forever, and our Dawn needs someone who’ll look out for her, bring her home when she goes looking for that dark-haired man who left town so quickly a long time ago.”