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his sister. “Pure Vermont maple syrup. At least someone in the Hill family knows how to live.”
    If there is anything my aunt knows, it’s food. Her husband travels in his work all the time. She stays home and eats. My aunt is as big as a house. She is still kind of pretty, though.
    â€œJust wait until you sink your teeth into the fried cornmeal mush I’m going to cook,” she promised Gaten. “Remember how Mama used to let the cooked mush set overnight in the cold on the back porch so it would slice good the next morning? We would drench those crisp golden brown fried slices with fresh butter and molasses. But you haven’t tasted anything until you’ve had it with pure maple syrup.”
    Gaten laughed. “We only had it if it was cold weather. Mama never realized the refrigerator would have done the same job. She had to do it the way her mama did.”
    It was so good between the two of them, remembering the times when they were young. If only it had ended there. But Ruby Helen had to keep on running her mouth and jump back on the lady he had dinner with.
    I had no idea what my aunt meant when she said to my daddy, “Well, there is certainly nothing wrong with a one-night stand. At least it didn’t used to be, but these days,” she paused and raised her eyebrows, “a decent family mansort of stays away from that kind of thing.” She piled more pancakes on my plate. “If you catch my drift, big brother.”
    I didn’t know what she meant then. I still don’t know. But what I did know was, I didn’t believe anyone had ever made Gaten so mad before. He put his knife and fork on his plate. In the right position, of course. Gaten eats very proper. He learned all that stuff in college. “Thanks for breakfast, Sis,” he said.
    If my daddy hadn’t been so mad I believe he would have broken down and flat out cried.
    I suppose whatever that one-night stand business was about, my aunt shouldn’t have said it, or at least not in front of me. Anyway, I know that was what caused Gaten to end up cutting our visit a little short. Again, I didn’t get a chance to see the White House.
    â€œIt’s amazing,” Miss Kenyon said, “how one single turn in your life will lead you down a road of no return. How one, single unintentional act can affect you for the rest of your life.”
    Miss Kenyon looked at Ruby Helen. “I don’t know why you would let your brother get all tied up with a woman like her in the first place. Gaten should have sense enough to know that kind of a marriage never works out.”
    My aunt shrugged. “Who says he is going to marry her?”
    â€œYou know full well he will.” Miss Kenyon’s voice is sharpand cutting. “And you and Jim Ed will stand by with your hands folded and let it happen.”
    Ruby Helen squeezed her eyes into narrow slits. “Merlee Kenyon, tell me you are not accusing me of getting my brother and that white woman together. I may look like I’m crazy, sound like I’m crazy, but listen up, honey, and listen good, I am nobody’s fool.”
    Miss Kenyon dropped her head. “I’m sorry, Ruby Helen. So very sorry. I’m not blaming you. There is really no one to blame but myself. Me and my big mouth.”
    She moved to the curtained dining room windows, and stood peeking out at Gaten and Sara Kate.
    A group of women dug through mounds of filled green plastic trash bags, carefully examining rolled and wadded paper napkins. Poking with sticks through chicken and rib bones. They were searching for Cousin Amphia’s false teeth, of course. Every year she takes them out to eat, wraps them in a paper napkin and they get lost every time.
    Amphia appears to be lost too. Wandering around worrying over her teeth. Her bright red toenails stick out of her open-toed sandals. Her toenails look as if she painted them with a spray can.
    Miss Kenyon looked so