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On the third Thursday in the month of November the USA celebrates a day of Thanksgiving.
***
"TWO KIDS AND ONE ADULT, please," Hollin Clocke said, pulling a twenty out of her wallet and handing it over to the lady in the ticket booth.
"Three kids," her Grandma Mae corrected. "And the movie's my treat, remember?" She reached around Hollin with her credit card.
Hollin blocked it with her shoulder. "I'm sixteen, Grandma. Two kids and one adult," she repeated and thrust her twenty into the teller's hand. But she smiled diplomatically. "This way they'll owe me." She nudged her little cousins. "Ya'll can be my gophers when I'm making fudge tonight, right?"
"Fuuuuuudge!" said Roy and Hill together.
Mae gave a snort but she gave this small victory to Hollin. She turned around, probably to do a head count of the long line of Clockes, Yohos, Greens, and Andersons that made up the family.
Hollin felt a tug on her wallet. Roy asked, "Is that your driver's license?"
"It is," Hollin turned it to the sun so the holograms flashed.
"Cool! Cool eagle."
"Cool," she agreed. Eagles and all, it gave her a thrill. She had an after-school job, a driver's license, and in two more years she'd be able to vote as she swanned off to college. "I'm in the big leagues now."
"Can we sit up front?" Hill asked, elbowing his brother in the back for no reason. Roy shoved him away.
"Do I have to sit with you?" she asked, taking her tickets and leading them into the matinee.
"Yes!"
Hollin groaned while the boys grinned up at her. "Okay," she said and felt popular as they cheered. It was going to give her a headache and her neck was going to break but she'd endure. "Now both of you go to the bathroom."
"I don't have to go."
"You'll miss Thor giving someone a beating if you leave during the movie," she reasoned.
Roy headed inside anyway. "Someone'll take the good seats!"
"You won't get in without these," Hollin said, holding up the tickets.
"I don't have to..."
Strike three. Hollin whipped out the Voice of Death. "Go pee right now! And I'll wait for ya'll right here!"
They went, pushing each other the entire way.
Hollin pulled out a compact and checked her face as her family trickled in the door. Great Aunt Maud, Great Uncle Newt, Grandma Mae, Uncle Hal, Aunt Viv, her cousin Ellery, Hollin's parents, Aunt Marty...
Aunt Marty was frowning already. Usually the woman waited until the previews started before she began to complain about the movie. She had her baby riding on her hip and heaved him from one side to the other.
Dale was such a cute baby! He was staring up at the lights in the ornate ceiling of the old movie house and smiling. Hollin looked up, too. The golden baroque ceiling was bright, shiny, and beautiful.
She jumped when Marty barked at her, "Hey! Take Dale. I'd like to enjoy a movie for a change."
"I can't, sorry, I'm watching Roy and Hill." Hollin clicked her compact closed and put it away.
Marty scowled. "Take him, I said. He's perfectly quiet."
"Then you can handle him just fine." Why did Aunt Marty bring a baby to the movies just to try to get rid of him? There were a few Greens still at the house, watching football. She could have left him with them. It made no sense.
Marty's face was turning into a thundercloud and Hollin's spine straightened. She rested her weight on evenly spaced feet, one foot slightly behind the other. The confident power pose her Grandma had taught her when she was five. Bring it, auntie.
Marty didn't like to be faced. Her own feet scraped the floor as she heaved Dale to her other side again. "What did you say?" she finally asked.
Hollin was about to repeat her NO loudly enough for Australia to hear but a muscular boy at the entrance interrupted.
"We're heeere!" he screamed and everyone in the lobby turned to gawk. "Let's get this party started!"
Hollin dismissed Marty by giving her full attention to the distraction. The noisemaker was her cousin, Ned. He'd escaped Duke University for Thanksgiving after all. He strutted up to his parents and his little sister like a king conferring a favor. Hal and Viv hugged him. Ellery was less pleased, especially when Ned tried to give her a noogie greeting. She batted him away.
Hollin noticed a tall guy in Duke blue trailing behind. He was tall but not skinny. His shoulders were wide...
Marty stomped off. She plowed past Hal, stepped on Viv's foot, and practically threw Ned's friend out of her way as she went inside.
"Ooh," Hollin groaned, embarrassed.
As if the stranger heard he looked over. Then he looked again, his eyes widening. Yes, I'm pretty and you know it, Hollin thought as she casually studied the baroque ceiling again as if it were an art display in the Louvre.
"You shut up!"
"You shut up!"
Her dear little cousins were back. "Both of you shut up," Hollin said. "And please tell me you washed." Roy and Hill swore they had. She hoped they were telling the truth. Their mother would smell their hands to make sure but Hollin wasn't about to do that. "Let's go."
She turned around and ran into a wall of Duke blue.
Ned's tall friend rocked on his feet and held out his hands to steady her, apparently with the power of his mind because he stopped just short of making contact.
"I'm sorry," he said. He had a wide, cheerful smile.
Hollin pulled on her hair. "I'm sorry, too," she said. "Didn't see you there."
"You okay?"
"I'm fine."
He had grey eyes. The sort of light, brilliant grey she thought existed only in romance novels. And his hair was brown and thick. Well, well, well. The heart of her did a cautious little flip of interest. "Hello," she said.
He jammed his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt. "Hi. I, ah, came into an inheritance so I can treat you to some theater candy?"
Hollin said, "Well, that sounds..."
Roy interrupted. "Hollin has M&Ms in her bag!"
"Not so loud," Hill pushed him.
Roy pushed him back and elaborated, "Yeah, and we've got Cokes, too. Those little half ones."
Hollin pointed at her cousins. "This is Roy and this is Hill."
"Hey, down there." The twins didn't answer. He didn't notice. "Your name's Hollin?" he asked. "I'm..."
Another shout from Ned disturbed the entire lobby. "Hollin, Hollin, Hollin!"
Hollin startled and watched Ned as he wandered over with a smirk on his face. His sister, Ellery, was lurking in his shadow. "Duuude!" he called to his friend, as if he'd just escaped from California instead of Raleigh, North Carolina. "This is Hollin. She's what happens when cousins marry. Her dad's a Clocke, her mom's a Clocke..."
"Very distant cousins, Ned," Hollin said, frowning.
"She had her extra thumbs removed." Ned laughed hard at his little joke.
College wasn't improving him at all. "And this is?" Hollin prompted, inclining her head towards the dude.
She waited but Ned just stood there, grinning like an idiot. Before she could hit him, his friend spoke up for himself. "I'm Justis MacNair. I'm his roommate. I didn't have any plans so Ned invited me down for Thanksgiving."
Hollin smiled up at him but stopped herself just short of batting her eyelashes. "Well, welcome to Swanhaven."
Roy stepped in front of her, his little chest inflating as he faced the intruders. "We're sitting up front!" He grabbed her hand and pulled.
"I don't think so," Ned said, breaking them apart with a chop of his arm. "You two sit up front with Ellery and Hollin will sit with us. Right, Justis?" He tipped him a cartoonish wink and Hollin was gratified to see Justis was about as impressed as she was.
Ellery was glowering, too. She was twelve and very touchy about her maturity despite still carrying a Sesame Street bag.
"Let's go, gang!" Ned clapped his hands at them.
Hollin turned away. Dead Ned the Head thought he ruled the world. "Sorry," she said. "All the cool kids are sitting up front. B'bye." She swept Roy and Hill ahead of her and went in without looking back.
"B'bye," echoed Justis.
Hollin could feel him following behind and was glad.
"Wait for me!" Ellery followed Justis.
"Hey, come on!" Ned called after them but no one turned back. "Dorks." Ned slumped in behind Ellery.
*
Prep
*
"OKAY, WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Justis whispered to Ned as the cooks of the clan flew around the kitchen. "Thanksgiving's tomorrow."
"Yes, but the cornbread for the dressing and the dough for the rolls need to be made today," Mae answered and moved to the side as another set of twins, tiny girls this time, almost ran her down as they flew past the small audience gathered in the doorway of the kitchen to their mother.
"And the desserts need to be made today." Alex Yoho said. He seemed to be about thirteen and was almost on his toes, trying to appear taller. Justis thought he looked like a stretched squirrel.
"Right?" Alex said. "The desserts?"
Ned shrugged. "Aunt Sarah's bringing the pies later." He faced Justis and his eyes bulged. "Aunt Sarah's pies. Oh. My. God."
Alex backtracked, "I didn't mean the pies! I meant the desserts. Like the banana pudding and the fig cake and the..."
"Aren't pies dessert?" Justis asked, hating the feeling of missing something.
"Not these pies. You just wait."
Justis didn't understand how Ned could be bowled over by pies when he was faced with a feast like this. He watched as Ned's dad, Hal, pulled out a giant metal mixing bowl from an overhead cabinet. He set it down on his mother-in-law's Boos Block cutting board and it chimed like a bell. Another woman was peeling potatoes at the sink like a slicing machine.
Justis almost stepped back in awe. "This is better than the Food Network."
"You and your Food Network," Ned said. "Bores me to death."
"Your sports bore me to death." Justis noticed Ned's grandmother, Mae, was staying well out of the way. He wondered at that, too. Weren't all grannies supposed to cook?
"I love your house," he said to her, hoping a little flattery would smooth his way in this strange place.
"Do you?" Mae smiled thinly. "Thank you."
Great, what did he say? The girls ran back through, shrieking with laughter and the noise drilled into Justis's brain.
"I'm going to get my camera," he said. "'Scuse me."
Justis's phone was his camera and it was in his pocket but he needed air. Right now. He backed out of the press of way too many people and walked through the living room. A football game was on and there was a small crowd gathered around the TV. Uncle Clyde, no, Carl, was talking over the play, trying to be the life of the party.
"What kind of antique TV is this? It's made of glass and barely thirty inches tall," Carl said.
"Just like you," said an old man.
"Uncle Newt!" somebody hissed and the sports lovers snickered.
Justis smiled, too, but he didn't stop walking. He passed a large display cabinet full of trophies, tiaras, crowns, sceptres, and satin ribbons. The dazzle called for a closer look but not now.
He opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch.
He gently shut it behind him. Shut it on the noise and the heat of so many strangers. He breathed in the cool Autumn air with relief and sank onto a grey rocking chair that looked to be four times older than he was but it wasn't falling apart. It didn't even creak. The porch, too, was well-built. It was painted a smooth and soothing blue, pretty against the white of the house.
A fat yellow labrador came out of his barrel-shaped doghouse at the end of the porch and waddled over to make friends without a single growl or bark. Justis was glad to see him. "Hey, hey, hey! You're a real watch dog, huh?"
The yellow behemoth flopped over onto his back and pedaled his paws through the air as Justis drummed his hands along his belly. His tag read Mr. Barkis. "You're a good boy, Barkis! Yeah, you are."
Mr. Barkis agreed, stretched, and waddled back to his house. Justis could just see a thick, clean cushion inside. "Nice place you got, dog."
Nice place all around.
None of the paint was bubbling or peeling away into lead-based flakes.
The yard was wide and the grass was dry and green. Nothing marred it. No rusting beer cans, no carpet of cigarette butts, no countless piles of animal crap. (And with a dog as fat as Mr. Barkis that was impressive.)
The trees were showing their brightest Autumn colors, yellow on the pecans and bright scarlet on the maples, and the fallen leaves swirled past.
But there was no white picket fence. No white pickets at all! Just a chain-link fence about five feet high to keep Mr. Barkis inside the yard. How dare these Clocke people? That's it. Justis's Thanksgiving was ruined. He might as well leave.
He grinned and took out his phone to send a text to his best friend.
MacDaddy to Flam-bee, "I have infiltrated Walton's Mountain and been accepted into their culture. So wholesome. So clean. Taking copious amounts of notes." He waited less than thirty seconds and an answer appeared.
Flam-bee to MacDaddy, "Share your findings!"
"I will," he promised.
"Their not fake sweety sweet are they?" She included an emoticon of a little yellow man vomiting.
"No. I've counted three jackholes."
"You ned and who else?"
"Har har," Justis said, smiling. He loved it when the Bee Girl made a joke. She usually had a serious soul. He texted, "Ned, Aunt Marty, and Uncle Carl. They're going to be fragged by their own troops."
"Good. I hate that ken and barbie happy family garbage. Are they feeding you or do you have to pay for fast food?"
Justis's thumbs almost went through the plastic. "THE FOOD!!! ITS FANTASTIC!!! And I haven't even tried any!"
He paused. Should he mention Hollin? No, too soon. Just because she shared her M&Ms with him during the movie didn't mean she wanted his babies or anything.
"Pictures on the way," he typed. "I'm going back in."
"Kiss Laura Ingalls for me."
"Will do," Justis agreed. He put the phone back in his pocket and took another deep, strengthening breath. Yeah, the Clockes were okay so far. Except for Marty the crab and Carl the pig.
And surprise! Hollin. Auburn curls and sweet lips that quirked up at the corners. And she was pure cake.
Clearly Justis was hungry. Will do, he'd said. Well, will certainly try. "Come to me, Princess!" Mr Barkis poked his head out of his house. "No, not you." The dog yawned and went back to his nap.
Justis laughed at himself and went back inside.
The audience had moved into the kitchen and was seated around a large breakfast nook that was nearly a dining room on its own. Justis rejoined Ned in time to hear Hal say, "Get out the celery and onions for me, please, somebody." He was sharpening a knife and the zing! zing! zing! sound was even cooler in person than it was on the cooking shows.
"I'll get 'em," Alex jumped into the fray. He navigated past two ovens, a range with six burners (where Hollin was boiling an enormous pot of iced tea) an island with a dishwasher, and a fridge that could house a family of four. Rows of gleaming copper pots and fanciful molds shone out from the cream colored walls or was suspended over the island. But everyone seemed to be cooking with stainless steel and iron.
Justis decided to try Granny again. "What would you do if anyone tried to cook with the copper?" he asked Mae, nodding his head towards the decor.
Her eyes went wide. Then she slid her finger across her throat.
"Oh, ouch."
"Are the onions in the pantry?" Alex asked.
"In the crisper." Mae brightened and smiled. "I have celery, onions, cranberries, Romaine lettuce..." She waved her hands at her double-doored fridge. "I have everything."
Alex opened the tight crisper and the swampy smell of spoiled greenery tainted the entire room. "Um, Grandma?" Alex held up what used to be a bunch of celery. It was as limp as a dead octopus.
Justis gasped. His Food Network-loving soul was dismayed. He ignored Ned looking at him strangely.
"Oh, no," Mae groaned. "Anne! Check the rest."
The chopper left her potatoes to dart over. Showing more bravery than Alex had, she dug through to the bottom of the crisper. "Yuuuck, even the onions are bad to the core, Mama."
Mae held up a hand. "They can't be! I bought them just a few days ago."
Alex found a sticky receipt attached to the celery and read it out. "Dick and Mary's Market. October thirty-first. Paid in cash."
"Mama!"
"Halloween?"
Mae said, "Well, they were on sale. You know how Dick and Mary jack the prices up towards Thanksgiving." She put her hand to her forehead and groaned.
"We can get more, no big deal," Hollin said soothingly.
Mae wasn't comforted. "They're our only real grocery store in Swanhaven. And it's closed for the holiday already."
Justis wanted to put his arm around her shoulders. What a disaster. But he was new here. He didn't move.
Hollin stepped in again. "Then we'll go to another town," she said. "It's not like we travel by train." Hollin left her bubbling pot to hug her granny. "No big deal," she said again.
They made a great picture and Justis captured the moment with his phone. Alex leaned out hopefully and waggled his octopus. Justis obliged with another flash.
Mae calmed enough to laugh and patted Hollin on the back. "Don't let the tea turn to prune juice."
"Sure." Hollin went back to the stove and took the stock pot off the burner.
"Maybe if we cut the ends and stick it in water it'll firm back up?" Anne asked, poking at the mass of what used to be celery.
Justis entered the arena to inspect it and shook his head. "No, it's slimy. It's an ex-parrot." He took it from Alex and made the limp stalks sway and dance. "I am a Buffalo Soldja! Dreadlock rasta!" he sang. "Fighting on arrival! Fighting for survival!" .
"Damn it!" Now Mae was angry.
Justis froze but she wasn't talking to him.
"This makes me sick, this just makes me sick. I'm getting senile," Mae said.
Anne soothed her. "You were busy, Mama, it's okay. The next town is what? Souls by the Sea?"
"'Fraid so. God, I hate to go there," Mae held up her hand again, fingers splayed. "But they have five grocery stores and plenty of little hobby farms. We'll be able to get an onion or two there, I'm sure."
"Oooh, the Big City," Hal said.
Anne nodded. "Somebody dump all that down the garbage disposal and we'll be right back," she said just in time for her sister-in-law to overhear as she walked in.
"What's wrong? What is that?" Marty gasped and then she rushed to the fridge as if it needed the Heimlich. She jerked it open. "The vegetables? Mae! What have you done! You said you were ready! You said...!"
"Relax," Hal said, frowning.
"Thanksgiving is tomorrow." Marty slammed the fridge door shut and the cookbooks on top almost slid to the floor. "Great. Just great." She turned on the old woman. "What're we going to do now, huh?"
Clang! Clang! Clang! "We're gonna die! We're all gonna die!" Hollin yowled, banging the side of her pot with a wooden spoon.
The tension in the room broke and Justis was relieved.
"Stop that!" Marty shouted, her hands over her ears.
"We're not going to die?" Hollin asked, doing a drumroll on the counter now.
"No, stop it, I said!"
"You fooled me," Hollin laughed as she dropped the spoon. Marty was offended and she gave Hollin a cold, hard look. The girl ignored her.
So did everyone else. Hal said. "To the big store!" and the older generation walked out, Mae still shaking her head. Justis wondered why were they all going?
Why not? They swept Alex away with them.
Hollin was stirring her tea, the steam was swirling through the curls of her hair.
Ned turned back for Justis. "No, you go ahead," Justis frantically waved him out. Ned gave him another idiotic wink and went.
Marty stomped out behind him.
"Kids!" Hal called back over his shoulder. "We're off. Come on if you're coming."
"We're fine here. Let Aunt Anne drive!" Hollin answered as she poured the dark tea into two Igloo jugs.
"Just because I get lost everywhere I goy oy yoy yo! Damn you, Justis, I'm going to be singing that song all day. Hauled in from Africa! To the heart of America! Oy yoy yo!"
Justis realized Ned had inherited Hal's voice exactly. A perfect match but Ned was bossy while Hal just stated what he was going to do and did it. Justis liked Hal's style. And Hollin's.
When the herd had moved off she turned to him. "Aunt Marty loves to make a noise. It makes her feel important. Just ignore her."
"I've seen worse." Justis shrugged.
"Oh, good. I mean, not good," she laughed and Justis laughed, too, to keep her company. Justis took a step closer and tried to think of something profound and witty to say.
"I like pie."
Brilliant.
He was considering which kitchen implement would kill him the quickest as Hollin nodded.
"Well, you'll love Aunt Sarah's. They're...they're gourmet. Hey, Mama."
Justis was grateful for the interruption and turned to see a large, good-looking woman sauntering into the kitchen. Hollin introduced her mother, Catherine Clocke.
"Call me Cathy," she said to Justis. Then she squinted at her daughter. "Marty just tattled on you," Cathy said and her voice became shrill. "Rude kids reflect badly on the entire family, y'know."
"I was rude?" Hollin asked Justis.
"You wasn't rude at all," he loyally answered.
Cathy smiled. "I know, I know. But now the Drama Llama has been unleashed so I apologize in advance, Justis."
"He's seen worse," Hollin said.
Cathy directed a laser sharp look from his shoes up to the top of his hair. "I bet he has," she said.
Justis felt a stab to his self-confidence. What? What did she see in him? He was fine. His clothes were fine. He'd said nothing wrong. He was no different from anyone else.
Justis forced a smile of his own. "What kind of name is Marty, anyway?" he asked.
"Short for Martine. Marrrtiiine," Hollin answered and violently threw ice into the jugs. Justis felt his equilibrium seep back in as he watched her make a splash. Martine the Mouthy Aunt? The horror, the horror.
"Don't let her get to either of you," her mother soothed. Then she smiled with her tongue between her teeth. "By the way, what's for dinner?"
"Uncle Hal is making seafood Alfredo."
"Hal's gone. It'll be two hours before he gets back and I'm hongree nowww," Cathy whined in perfect imitation of Roy and/or Hill.
"Uh!" Hollin looked at Justis in a panic.
"Pizza," Justis suggested.
"No, I can do something," Hollin said.
"What can you do, kid? Pizza's good. Call Pizza Hut," Cathy said.
"I can do plenty," Hollin said and Justis heard her irritation. Cathy was still smiling. "Eggs," Hollin said. "Wait. Justis? Does Grandma have eggs?"
He walked to the fridge and checked. "Four dozen," he announced.
"How about sausage or bacon?"
He found two packages of Neese's sausage in the freezer. He clacked them together in triumph and held them up in the air. "I'll be your sous chef."
She smiled at him. "Good." Hollin turned to her mother. "Tell everybody we're having a farmer's breakfast for dinner," she announced and went back to her steaming jugs. "With iced tea."
*
AFTER DINNER IT WAS time to be social. Half the family was socially glued to the TV in the living room, screaming at one sports team or another, and the other half had drifted into the kitchen for a board game.
Justis had wrangled a seat next to Hollin. Her mother had said nothing. Apparently she felt that Hollin was safe in a crowd.
She was wrong.
Hollin had honey-brown eyes. Warm eyes. They did it for Justis. Did it for him entirely and he could feel the warmth of her all the way down his side.
"Inept is not a word!" Carl Yoho shouted. "I never heard that word before in my life."
""But it fits you so well."
"Uncle Newt!"
"Devon's cheating," Carl accused and flipped through the dictionary as the young woman in question swept the scrabble game away with a smirk but no comment.
"Inept is spelled with an 'I'," Newt helpfully whispered. "I-N-E-P-T."
Carl found and read the definition. Justis share a snicker with Hollin as the petulant man slapped the dictionary down. "Let's play something else," Carl said.
The old man was smiling like a shark. "Let's play I Apologize, Devon."
Carl got up. "This is stupid, I'm going back to the football."
"The living room is through there," Devon pointed at the only door to the kitchen. "And keep going."
Carl stamped out.
Justis was pretty sure he didn't imagine the groan that welcomed him back.
"Grown man. Grown man with a wife and three kids," Great Aunt Maud muttered.
Justis noticed Alex Yoho had gone red to his ear-tips.
Maud's manicured hand covered her mouth as she noticed, too. She brought it down and picked up her cocktail. "Honey, try some of this for me. I think my Ameretto Sour has too much sour."
Justis though Alex's mother would squawk but Anne didn't say a word. Alex took a polite sip and his face twisted. He coughed. "Yeah, that's pretty awful," he gasped.
"Let's go make me a new one. And one for Grandma Mae. She looks like she needs one."
"Oh, I do not."
Maud smiled at everyone as she and Alex got up to remix her drink. Justis decided Great Aunt Maud really was a great aunt. She was in her seventies but she still dyed her hair jet black. Her clothes were silk and her jewelry was copper. The turtle medallion around her neck was almost the size of a hubcap. Shed caught Justis staring at it. "Y'gotta love the understated jewelry," she'd said.
And he felt for Alex. What joy it is to have a father you can be proud of.
Justis realized he was leaning so hard against Hollin she was practically holding him up. He straightened quickly.
"Well, what'll we play now?" Devon asked. "Scattergories? Spoons?"
Everyone shouted for Spoons. Justis had never even heard of Spoons and had a moment of stark fear but Hollin taught him how to play in about thirty seconds.
And he discovered a new passion for silverware. Get four of a kind, grab a spoon, preferably from someone else. And guard them! And get four cards of a different kind! And don't get knocked out of your chair!
Justis realized he was having fun. He needed to share the fun. He pulled his phone out of his back pocked.
"Justis, no phones at the table!" Hollin elbowed him.
"I just want a couple of pictures..."
Hal was so wrapped up in his cards he didn't notice all his spoons were gone. Nobody told him either and the cards flew around and around the family circle.
Justis got off a final shot with his phone as Hal finally noticed he'd lost. He threw his cards into the air and the game started over.
"We go a little nuts when we all get together," Hollin laughed. "Doesn't your family?"
Justis shrugged. "They go nuts, all right."
Anne Yoho had provided a great platter of snacks, mostly leftovers, and Justis picked up his third piece of cornbread. It was soft in his hand. He savored the smell a moment, then took a deep bite. It wasn't anywhere near as sweet as cake but it was denser, more filling, more wholesome. It was melting Justis. "This is great."
Wholesome! Wholesome was the word he was looking for.
Newt shoved his spoons back in the pile with one hand while he pointed at Justis with the other. "Sugar in cornbread is for old women, children, and wussies."
"I'm all three," Justis declared and took another big bite.
"Grandpa used to love it plain and crunchy," Hollin said, smiling. "He'd tear it up in a glass of milk and eat it with a spoon."
"Don't mention that sumbitch where I can hear you," Mae said.
Newt coughed but he didn't say anything.
"Sorry, Grandma."
Mae grumbled a bit, then Roy and Hill went tearing past. She jumped up to chase them down before they ran into something hot or sharp.
Mae was a little more natural looking than her twin, Maud, not as thin, her hair a lovely salt 'n pepper, but she was just as vital. Justis found it easy to imagine her with relationship problems. He leaned over to Hollin and whispered, "Bad divorce?"
Hollin sadly shook her head. "Grandpa died," she whispered back. "Along with my Uncle Christopher, Marty's husband."
Justis looked at Mae who now had Roy gripped and was swabbing his face with a dish towel. "Her husband and her son?" he whispered. "At the same time?"
Hollin nodded. "Just over a year ago."
Justis felt a bolt of sympathy. And surprise. Tragedy intruding on this fairy land? Was it possible?
Hollin went on. "There was a storm and running water was flowing over the Redbird Creek bridge. They tried to cross anyway. They were big, manly men in a big, manly truck. I guess they thought they could make it." She shook her head. "Grandma's still mad at them." She flicked her fingers at the walls of the house. "She and Grandpa found their dream home together, they fixed it up together, but they'll never enjoy it together."
Hollin was drifting into sadness. Time to lighten the mood. "He needs to come back and haunt her, then," Justis said, smiling. "Mah phantom lovah. It'll do her good."
Hollin laughed.
"Talk about something else," Grandma Mae ordered, sitting down again.
"Oh, brother," Newt answered, sneaking a spoon away from Hal. "How 'bout them Mets, then?"
Marty came in with little Dale on her hip. He was a Buddha Baby, chunky, placid, and smiling. Justis studied Marty closely. A widow. And raising the kid by herself?
His sympathy fizzled as Marty squeezed in between him and Hollin, elbowing them both for more room. He shared an annoyed, amazed look with Hollin.
Dale waved at him, opening and closing his chubby hand. Justis waved back. Cool kid. With a mother like that he was going to need all his Zen.
"Hey, Justis!" Ned called out from the living room. "Duke just fumbled! Again! You're missing the show!"
"No, I'm not!" Justis answered. "Believe me."
"You don't like football?" Newt asked. "I thought Duke students were required to love it. And basketball. And Coach K."
"I lied on the entrance essay."
"Good for you. What are you studying?"
"Graphic design."
Newt took a long swig of his iced tea. "The hell's that?"
"That's like art but I can make money off it."
"Just how?" Mae asked, her eyebrows going up.
Justis didn't take offense at either of them. Old people were blunt. They didn't have time to waste on roundabout niceties. He said, "I can make logos, websites, or cereal boxes. Anything that needs to look good, I can make it look good. Except portraits. I can't draw people for shi...to save my life."
"I can't draw anything else," Hollin said. "People are easy."
"Hollin's artistic, too," Newt said, looking a little sly. "She scribbles crazy women and puts 'em online."
"I draw a web comic," Hollin said, giving her great-uncle the hairy eyeball. "Bette Bloom, Dark Detective Beauty Queen." She sounded very casual and a little hopeful?
Justis choked on his fourth piece of cornbread. "You do Bette Bloom? That's great!"
For the first time since he'd met her Hollin was flustered. It made her even prettier.
He didn't much appreciate it when Mae spoke up, practically twinkling with mischief, "Careful, honey," she warned. "He's just buttering you up."
"Yeah?" Justis took a deep breath. "Queen Bette! And her sidekick, Junior Miss, fighting crime in Glitter City with boomerang tiaras. Story and pictures by Queen H. I really liked the one where they beat the Elder Gods, by the way."
Hollin was practically clutching her chest with delight and Justis congratulated himself. Mr. Smooth brought it home with, "I am such a fan."
"Oh, it's gettin' deep, now. Look out, Hollin," Hal said.
Justis decided asking for her autograph would be pushing it, although Flam-bee would have liked one, and he laughed with the rest. It really was a good, funny, imaginitive comic but her backgrounds were terrible. A kind person would say minimalist.
Hollin said, "So! I can draw people and you can draw scenery?"
"By their powers combined..." murmured Hal. "It's fate."
Justis just barely managed not to do a victory lap around the kitchen. "I can draw some buildings for Queen Bette to swing from?" he offered.
Hollin nodded. "Sold. That'd be great, thank you."
"Are you making any money off it?" Justis asked, rolling his hands over one another with theatrical greed.
"Not a dime but they love me in Australia," Hollin said loudly over the chorus warning her again.
"And they love you at Duke. I'll do it," Justis promised and held out his hand. She shook it.
Hot damn, on top of everything else he liked about Hollin Clocke she also had a firm handshake. Justis hated dead, fishy hands. And her skin was smooth, warm.
And so soft. Stroking her fingers in the middle of a game of Spoons wouldn't be kosher and he reluctantly let her go.
Hollin was almost blushing.
Newt rolled his eyes. He asked Hal, "So what's Ned studying?"
Hal let out a rude snort. "He's getting the basics out of the way while he decides. He's got 'til the end of the year and then I'm pulling him out. I'm not paying for him to have a good time." He snatched up a card, almost tearing it. "Justis, you better not be yanking your parents around."
Justis concentrated on his cards a moment before he answered. "I'm on a scholarship. My parents have nothing to worry about." Which was true enough.
Dale suddenly jumped ship from Marty to Hollin's lap. Hollin startled and caught him. Dale wrapped his strong little arms around her neck and dropped his head on her shoulder. "Awww." Hollin hugged him back. "'Allo, mon ami, “she said.
"I'm looking forward to you taking him off my hands at dinner tomorrow," Marty said. Another child shrieked from one of the upstairs rooms. Marty scowled at the ceiling. "Dale and all the others."
Hollin's face drained of the pleasure of the past few minutes. "What do you mean?" she asked warily.
Marty smiled. "Damn near everybody's here. I don't know if the kids' table will be big enough to fit all of you this year," she said breezily.
Hollin patted Dale on the back as she studied her aunt. "There's going to be plenty of room for the kids," she said. "Since I'm going to be gone."
Marty chuckled. A phony heh heh heh. "Really, Hollin? Where will you be?"
Hollin let out a cool heh heh heh of her own. "I'm going to be right next to you. At the adult's table."
Marty's jaw tightened. "You can't be serious. Who's going to watch the children while they eat?"
"Alex," Hollin said and the boy came to attention. "He's the next oldest."
"Oh, god, that's right," Alex said. "I forgot you're sixteen now, Hollin."
Justis noticed Newt and Mae looking closely at him. He could guess why. "I'm seventeen," he clarified. "I graduated high school early."
They relaxed.
Hollin was smiling at Alex. "You're the boss now, Alex, I'm passing my reign on to you." She crowned him with a gentle fist-bump to his head. "The Queen is dead. Long live the King."
Alex's eyes gleamed. Justis didn't know if he was power-mad or scared to death.
Mae studied him. "He can't do it," she decided. "He's a boy."
"That's sexist, Mama," Anne said. "He can do it."
Alex nodded. "I can. I watch my little sisters all the time." He threw his shoulders back. "I'm thirteen."
"Practically old enough for the draft," Newt said.
"I don't want Alex watching Dale," Marty said. "Hollin can sit at the big table next year," she decided.
Hollin's voice firmed. "Nooo, I'm sixteen and I'm going where I belong."
"No, you're not," Mae said.
"Yes, she is," Anne and Alex answered in unison.
Justis leaned towards Newt and whispered, "Is this going to be a problem?"
