Read Dorothy Garlock - [Dolan Brothers] for Free Online

matter of opinion what’s trash and what isn’t. She came as a friend. I’m warning you. One nasty word to her and out you go!”
    “I ain’t sure ya can do that.” A cunning look came over the girl’s face making it hard to believe she was only fifteen. “My name’s Henry same as yores even if ya do got it twice. Mama said she named ya Henry to get back at the old man for puttin’ ya in her belly. Who’s to say the old man didn’t make a visit to Mama now and then. They was still married, wasn’t they?”
    Henry Ann looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. She had a sly smile on her face and a crafty look in her eyes. It took all Henry Ann’s willpower to keep from slapping her face. Henry Ann remembered the muttered words her mother’s last lover had said on the day of the burial when Isabel had shown no sign of grief.
    “The girl’s trouble. She ain’t got no conscience at all.”
    At the time Henry Ann hadn’t thought much about the statement. Now she wished she’d had more conversation with the man.
    “Yes, they were married, Isabel. Papa believed in keeping his marriage vows. Mama didn’t. Get it through your head right now . . . you have no claim here.”
    “We’ll see.” Isabel tossed her head. “Me’n Johnny’s got as much right here as you have.” She stepped off the porch and walked out into the yard toward the outhouse.
    * * *
    Leaving Henry Ann free to sit beside her father’s bed, Aunt Dozie quietly and efficiently took over the work. She cleaned the kitchen, started a batch of bread to rise, put potatoes on to boil with the peas, and ran the milk through the separator. She sang softly while she worked.
    “Sw . . . ing low, sweet char . . . i . . . ot—
    Comin’ for ta carry me ho . . . me.
    The sound was comforting to Henry Ann. When she was small, Aunt Dozie would sit in the old rocking chair, take her on her lap, and sing to her. She had been a young woman then, widowed before she could have children of her own. She had focused her motherly love on Henry Ann and that love was returned.
    A few months before, when Dozie’s mother died, Ed Henry had taken a smoked ham and a peck of potatoes to the house to feed the mourners. Henry Ann and her father were the only white people at the burial in the cemetery behind the small Free Baptist Church. She was not surprised that he would confide in Aunt Dozie.
    She left his bedside and went to the kitchen, where her dear friend sat in a chair working the dasher up and down in the churn. She placed her hand on Dozie’s shoulder.
    “It’s good to have you here, Aunt Dozie.”
    “Where else would I be when my babe need me?”
    “What’ll I do? I don’t know if I can cope with Isabel and Johnny.”
    “Ya will. Ya’ll knows whats to do when de time come.”
    “Isabel is sly and sneaky. Johnny is just irresponsible. I’m afraid of what’ll happen if he gets thick with the Perrys. They’re the biggest bootleggers in the county. I don’t know why the sheriff doesn’t do something about them.”
    “Ya ain’t the boy’s mama. He be a man now. Old enough to fight in a war if there was one. Ya jist do de best ya can, but don’t take no sass off ’em. Dey get de upper hand and dey run ya to de ground. See’d it done many a time.”
    Henry Ann heard a horse nicker and went to the door. Johnny and Pete Perry were putting their horses in the fenced area attached to the cow lot. Ed had given Johnny the black-and-white pinto a few months after he arrived. The boy had taken to riding as if he were born to it. Henry Ann had come to believe that the horse was the only thing in the world that Johnny loved.
    As Henry Ann watched, Isabel came around from the front of the house and went toward them. They leaned against the corral rails and eyed her. Under their gaze she began to swing her shoulders and skinny hips to match her steps. She lifted a hand to her hair and tucked one side behind her ear. It was obvious that she