The note was written in a scrawl

Chapter 11) Joddie comes for Sunday dinner
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Maggie woke up late the next morning not believing what happened the night before in Crook's Tail.
She overslept church. Just as well, she couldn't face her parents.
Joel let her sleep in, mostly because he was afraid to ask what happened. Something bad was going on. He knew it, but as long as his daughter was safe at home, she was okay.

It was the 3rd Sunday of the month, and impossibly, Joddie and Bob were coming to dinner that afternoon.
What could Maggie say?
She wanted to ask her oldest sister Becky about Joddie, but with the new baby and Howard working with her father ... it was impossible.

She looked out the second-floor bedroom window and saw her mother working in the garden.
The rows of sunflowers, beans and carrots were getting bigger.
The tomatoes were turning red.
The rabbit fence, hand pump with galvanized watering cans, cement cistern, ligustrum hedge, clothesline, the stone sidewalk out to the garage where the neighborhood tomcats lived, the garden swing they built after the outhouse was torn down ... it looked so normal.

Through the transom above the door she could hear her father walking downstairs.
Maggie could feel him thinking about her. She sat back on the bed and quietly got dressed.

Maggie finished and ran downstairs, yelling on her way out, I'm going to Becky's.
Joel got to the front door in time to see his daughter running down the street.

She felt bad leaving her mother to finish the dinner. Maybe she could get back in time to help and decided to come in the back door to avoid her father.

River Boy woke up late. He was supposed to get up early and go fishing with Grandpa.
He would catch up later.
 
Maggie was on his mind. She was beautiful and he liked pushing her knees up and opening her breasts to the night sky, but she was too noisy. Crooks Tail offered no mercies in the night. They were lucky the men in the parking lot didn't beat him and take her off on the ground. Even more lucky that Maggie was with him later when Ranny and Dack saw them in Top Hat's car.
Both protected the other, but she did more for him, and it only happened because he made a mistake.
It was bad to push luck that far, but the promise to get Joddie out of Crooks Tail all the more foolish.

Bob and Joddie got there shortly after two.
They stepped out of a big new Buick.
Joddie wore a tailored blue dress. She absolutely sparkled in the sunlight. Her white skin against the dark dress and her mother's cross replaced by a silver and opal pendant.
She and Bob were a spectacle walking up the stone steps with his sequined suit, shiny shoes and jet black hair, and a smirk on his face to match.
Joel knew something was wrong. The pressure of two daughters in trouble was becoming hard to manage.

Joel and Bob sat down in the parlor, choosing opposite chairs waiting in a war of silence while Maggie and Joddie helped set the dining room table.
A late church function kept Howard and Becky away.

Bob was exposed by the alcohol and careless manner of his life, each day wondering how big his score would be, never bothering to add up the losses.
He wanted and loathed what Joel had. The wood floors, plush centerpiece carpet, high ceilings, and formal chandelier ... it was not a standing. Not an accomplishment. Nothing to Bob. He wanted to go outside for a smoke.

Formal meals were always served at great grandmother's oak table. They had the carpenter glue one of the legs that got loose and the upholstery man recovered the chairs with a floral silk fabric the year before.
The china and polished silver service were handed down from Joel's mother before she passed. It was displayed behind the glass doors of the china cabinet that stood against the wall. His family brought it over from France in the 1700's when they settled in Louisiana.

The table was laid perfectly with flowers in the center, fresh turkey from the butcher and buttered green peas from the garden. Maggie's mom spent all day Saturday getting it ready. Making the breaded dressing and gravy. The potato salad came from her secret recipe using farm eggs, milk, butter, ketchup dressing, mayonnaise and onions. Lunch was topped off with fresh-squeezed lemonade. It was the family's favorite when the girls were little.

Maggie sat across from Joddie and kept seeing the tragedy in her eyes.

After lunch Joddie wanted to talk on the side porch.
She and Maggie walked down the hall, away from the kitchen and dining room and went outside, shutting the door behind them. The porch had a varnished beadboard ceiling that needed a bit of repair in the corner because of a leak. Joel and Howard had it on their schedule, but with work and the new baby expected soon, there wasn't time.
Sheltered from the rain and summer heat, the porch used to be a beautiful place for evening sits, but the family stopped going after the brother's death.
Joddie chose the large double seat at the far end and Maggie sat down next to her. The smell of roses came through the screen.

Maggie couldn't hold back, she whispered, what are you doing?
Joddie said, Bob takes me there.
What? He doesn't care?
He takes me there. You were there. What were you doing?
Maggie couldn't think what to say. It's not the same.
Yes it is.

There was silence for a long time.
Neither could remember the last time they talked.
Their mother brought out lemonade. Maggie got up and closed the door after her mother left.

Maggie said, it's not the same because a friend took me there. Did you tell Bob that I saw you?
No.
How many times you been there?
It's none of your business. How many times you been there? And who were you with?

Maggie said, that was the first time and I'm never going back.
Joddie looked away.

There were no words. Joddie couldn't separate sex and life.
She wanted children. She wanted a family. She wanted all the things they used to dream about as kids.

Maggie could see her sister starting to cry.
She reached out and Joddie leaned her head on Maggie's shoulder. They hugged and sobbed away the glitter of Joddie's disdained life, but it would never be enough.
Her mother heard them. Joel and Bob were in the kitchen washing dishes in an impossible cooperation of duties.
Inside the house was quiet.

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