BLACKWATER:The Mysterious Saga of the Caskey Family by Michael McDowell

headache was worse, "everybody in town thinks you are crazy out of your mind for not taking Miss Elinor to your heart. Everybody in town thinks the world of her."
    "I don't!"
    "Everybody but you, Mama."
    "Bray doesn't!"
    "Mama, I'm gone tell you something—"
    "What?"
    "Mama, I think you better start liking Miss Elinor."
    "Why is that, Sister?"
    "Because Oscar is gone end up married to her."
    Mary-Love drew back from the window with a deep breath.
    "I would be surprised," continued Sister unmercifully, "if he has not already asked her."
    In fact, Oscar was circuitously asking that question at the very moment that Miss Elinor was spooning out English peas onto Grace's plate. He said, "Miss Elinor, you know what?"
    "What?" said Miss Elinor.
    "I've been thinking about Zaddie."
    "You are running that girl to death!" said James at the head of the table, laughing. With Elinor there every night, and Oscar there most, James felt a little of what he imagined it might feel like to have a real family.
    "That's what I was thinking," said Oscar.
    "Zaddie has got more money than any other little girl in Perdido, white or colored." Miss Elinor sat up straight, and cut into her ham. "Every time you see her coming, Oscar, you give her a quarter. And I do, too."
    "But her legs are tired," said Oscar.
    "What do you expect Elinor to do about Zaddie's poor old legs?" asked James.
    Zaddie, who had been listening to this conversation from the kitchen, appeared in the doorway and lifted her skirt to show that her legs were not worn down at all.
    "Miz Digman will not let me put a telephone in my classroom, Oscar. If you continue to send me notes, then you will have to have someone to deliver them."
    "My legs are fine," began Zaddie, but Roxie grabbed her by the skirt and dragged her back into the kitchen.
    "White folks don't like to look at a little colored girl when they are eating," said Roxie sententiously, "unless she is bringing in a plate of something hot." The door of the kitchen was pushed shut and Zaddie, for a time, heard no more.
    "But what if we were married?" said Oscar. "Then I wouldn't have to send you notes."
    Elinor looked up. Then she looked at James Caskey. "Mr. James," said Elinor, "I think Oscar is making a proposal of marriage."
    "Are you gone accept him?" said James, with every indication of pleasure in his face.
    "What do you think, Grace? Should I get married to your cousin Oscar?"
    "No!" cried Grace, with distress written all over her countenance.
    "Why not?"
    "I don't want you to leave!"
    "Well, where would I go?" She looked up at Oscar. "Oscar, if I married you, would you take me away?"
    "I'm not ever gone leave Perdido, Miss Elinor!"
    "I mean out of this house, Oscar. Where do you propose that we would live?"
    "I don't know," said Oscar after a moment. "It only just occurred to me this minute—while James was talking about not getting a letter from Genevieve— that I ought to be married myself. And I looked up and there you were, just sitting there not married. I really haven't had time to consider everything. I have not yet bought a ring, Miss Elinor, so you needn't ask me to produce one. I couldn't do it even if you held a knife to my throat and demanded it."
    Grace picked up her knife and waved it in the air as if to tempt Elinor to put it to just such a use. Her father spoke Grace's thoughts.
    "Oscar," said his uncle, "I don't hardly think it would be right for you to take Miss Elinor away from Grace and me."
    Oscar turned in his chair and peered out across the yard at the lighted kitchen of his own home. He could see his mother standing in the window, looking out at them.
    "I don't think Mama's gone be any too pleased either, when it comes down to it."
    "Oscar," said Elinor, "Miss Mary-Love is not pleased when you have anything to do with me. She will certainly not be looking forward to your walking me up a church aisle."
    "Elinor," cried James Caskey, "haven't you ever been to a wedding? In a wedding, the groom is