Vernell Paskins, Mobile Home Queen

By Pamela King Cable

What type of person lives in Needmore, North Carolina and do they really . . . need more? A woman with little education most people would look at and call “low life” or “white trash.” Vernell struggles to make a way where there seems to be no way . . . living from paycheck to paycheck (like so many women I know), the deck is stacked against her. From the book: Southern Fried Women

• Language: English
• Publisher: Satya House Publications Inc.
• Release date: Jan 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781935874157

Pamela King Cable

Born in West Virginia, Pam claims a tribe of wild Pentecostals and storytellers raised her. Southern Fried Women was a finalist in Fiction and Literature-Short Story category, Best Books of 2006 Book Awards sponsored by USA Book News and a finalist for ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year. Invited to speak at the Southern Festival of the Book in Memphis, and by the First Ladies of West Virginia and Mississippi, she has become a speaker in much demand. Pam’s passion and inspiration for overcoming life’s insurmountable obstacles is evident in her performances at bookstores, women’s groups, on the radio, for churches of every size, civic groups in major cities and throughout the rural South.

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Vernell Paskins

Mobile Home Queen

by

Pamela King Cable

Copyright 2006-2012 by Pamela King Cable. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. For information address Satya House Publications, Inc., Post Office Box 122, Hardwick, Massachusetts 01037

ISBN: 9781935874157

Published by Satya House Publications, Hardwick, MA, a boutique publishing company, specializing in books that just might change your life or the way you think about it. www.satyahouse.com

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Vernell Paskins, Mobile Home Queen is one of the stories in the award-winning book, Southern Fried Women, which is available in print directly from the publisher, Satya House Publications, your favorite on-line reseller, or, ask for it at your local bookstore. Cover photography and photography restoration by Michael Cable.

Vernell Paskins

Mobile Home Queen

I gaze up at the sky and wonder if it’s rain or pee from Victoria’s diaper that’s dripped on my leg. I hold my ten-month-old grandchild on my hip and pull out a nice rose-colored quilted bag to show my next customer.

The clouds that’ve rolled in this afternoon look like handfuls of dryer lint from a load of blue jeans. I hate bad weather. I won’t make much money if it rains. I’ll have to dip into my savings next week for the rent. It’s money I got from Floyd’s employer when I sued him for exposing my husband to asbestos, and it’s dwindling.

Victoria rubs her eyes and kicks her feet into my side. Her legs have rolls — they’re biteable. So damn cute. I call her Mamaw’s little tubby tuba. Still cutting them back teeth. Got a touch of diarrhea and a raw bottom. I need to rub Jack Daniels on her gums when I get her home. Maybe stop at the drug store for some Paregoric. Help her sleep. Hell, help us both sleep. She smiles up at me; I imagine she’s done forgot her Momma by now. She looks like Vernise and I choke back a few tears. What’d I do wrong? How’d I end up 40 and raising a baby again? Mmm-mmm.

Two women stop at my table. Typical city gals. They talk in circles and say things like, Carolyn, I can make these purses and sell ‘em at our Christmas church bazaar! Opening the bags, they check out my double knot stitching. Damn snooty women come to waste my time asking stupid questions. Ain’t going to buy a blasted thing. Not a stitch of their padded blazers, linen trousers, or leather loafers comes from the Wal-Mart. Real