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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