Summary

In the story's present, the narrator is an adult at a fancy party. She is wearing a silk blouse that will not stay in, making her uncomfortable. A woman comes to speak to the narrator, suggesting that Southerners all have charming names and saying that the narrator herself has admirable "courtesy, manner, charm, all of that" (63). The narrator feels disembodied by the woman's comments and in her head, the narrator hears her mother's voice saying, "Yankeeeeeees!" (64).

The narrator flashes back to when she was 16 and worked with her mother at a drugstore (diner) as a waitress. Her mother taught her the ways of being a waitress. She often got out of breath and dropped plate at first. Her mother told her never to serve food to people who saw it fall on the floor. Early in her job, the narrator...