Blackwater V: The Fortune by Michael Mcdowell

Author:Michael Mcdowell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, General
ISBN: 9780380827848
Publisher: Avon
Published: 1983-04-30T06:00:00+00:00

Although Frances raised no objection to Billy's going off to Texas, Sister was furious with Miriam for planning such a trip. She claimed she was being "deserted," left alone to the wolves and starvation, and rendered defenseless prey to thieves, rapists, and perhaps even her husband.

Miriam listened to Sister's ravings from the next room as she packed. Queenie sat at the side of Sister's bed patiently taping Sister's clipped recipes to file cards, even though she knew that these dishes would never be prepared.

When Sister's voice had finally given out and Miriam had snapped her bags shut, Miriam entered Sister's room and said, "Queenie is gone take care of you just the same as always, Sister. And Ivey is gone sleep here at night so you won't be alone. You have a telephone on your bedside table and you can call anybody in the world to come and help you if you think you need help."

"Say goodbye to me now, Miriam, 'cause I won't be alive when you get back," returned Sister in a doleful voice.

Sister's accusations and predictions did not deter Miriam one inch from her long-laid plans. "Sister," Miriam said, "you are getting more and more like Grandmama every day."

"I am not!"

"I never thought I'd see it," mused Miriam to Queenie.

Thereafter, Sister voiced no more objections to Miriam's trip to Texas.

Billy and Miriam drove off one Sunday afternoon early in September, with an appointment at the American Oil Company in Houston on Tuesday morning. The Caskeys, still in their Sunday clothes, sat on the screened porch at Elinor's and, with the fragrance of Miriam's soap still lingering in the air, said how lonesome they were already. Oscar stood and yelled out to Sister, dimly visible through the window of her bedroom next door, "Let Bray and Queenie bring you over here, Sister."

"It'd kill me, Oscar! At least have the decency to let me rot in peace!" Sister yelled back.

In the first few days of Miriam's absence, Sister sulked. At times she even sent Queenie away.

One evening Sister had lain alone in her room, leafing through her magazines as usual looking for recipes, clipping them out, arranging them on the bedspread into full-fledged wedding dinners, champagne breakfasts—Sister had never tasted champagne—and country brunches. She avidly read a twenty-year-old copy of Emily Post's Etiquette, wondering at so much silver to be used for a late breakfast, and so much other silver to be used at tea, and the number of glasses for dinner. At ten o'clock she telephoned Queenie and demanded querulously, "What happened to all James's silver?"

"It's right here," said Queenie. "Nothing's happened to it."

"Bring it over here and let me see it."

"Lord, Sister," cried Queenie, "you know how much of that stuff there is! You send me a couple of wheelbarrows, and I'll send them back loaded down."

"Bring me a case or two over here."

Queenie didn't argue. She couldn't begin to think of a reason why Sister would want any of James's silver, yet obediently she went to the pantry where some of it was kept and took out two heavy mahogany boxes.

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