Mamie Verde

The relic of the potlucker clan, Mamie is so old she is rumored to be unaware of her surroundings. The long years have rendered her unable to speak, and require her to lean on her protégé Ratta to shuffle about the dye room. Completely dependent upon Ratta, she sits in her chair by the window only rousing herself when Ratta brings her meals or leads her to bed.

Cronelike, Mamie has a hairy upper lip and when she does come out of her trance she mouths words in a hoarse whisper, trying several times before she can make something come out. She has only wisps of white hair and weighs almost nothing. As she is constantly cold, she dresses in long house dresses with lap robes thrown over her chair. She favors shrugs and shawls and sometimes it is hard to find her buried in all that clothing.

When she does utter a phrase, Mamie often surprises the others with mystical truths she would have no apparent way of knowing. Maybe Mamie knows what happened to her friend Traces of Teal . The other potluckers have either forgotten Mamie exists or are a little afraid of her, except Ratta without whose careful attention she would have died in an old age home years ago.