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

standing at the front, and the bride and her father come down the aisle. You say your daddy is dead, I guess I'll have to take his place."
    "Mr. James, please remember I have not said yes to Oscar!"
    "Don't say yes!" cried Grace. " I want to marry you!"
    "Darling," said Elinor with a smile to the child, "if girls married girls, then I'd marry you. But girls have to marry boys."
    Oscar grinned and waved to his mother. Mary-Love disappeared from the window.
    "Oscar," said Elinor, "I guess you and I will have to have a wedding, since I'm not allowed to marry Grace. But I want you to know right now, I'd rather have Grace."
    Grace lowered her head poutingly onto her fists and wouldn't look higher than the edge of her plate.
    Later that night Oscar told Sister of his engagement and Sister told Mary-Love. Mary-Love shut the door of her room and didn't come out again for three days. She feigned a nebulous indisposition of her bowels. Sister had to make all the preparations for Thanksgiving dinner, and that included inviting James and Grace and Miss Elinor to join them.
    On the holiday morning Mary-Love looked wan and sad, as if she had just heard not only that her favorite cousin had died, but that he hadn't left her any money. She opened the door for James and Grace and Miss Elinor. It was the first time Elinor Dam-mert had entered the house. "Sister tells me you and Oscar are going to be married," Mary-Love said.
    "Oscar didn't tell you?" asked James.
    "Sister told me," said Mary-Love.
    "Sister was right," said Elinor, unabashed. "Oscar and I are getting married. He was afraid that he was going to wear down Zaddie's legs sending me so many notes. Married people don't have to send notes."
    "Zaddie," said Mary-Love, "might have better things to do than traipse around town delivering notes. Zaddie might do a little something or other around the house. I wonder why we pay her at all. I wonder whether Zaddie wouldn't appear to better advantage on the back of Creola Sapp's old mule." When she was distressed, Mary-Love's speech tended toward the emphatic.
    There was no triumph in Miss Elinor's demeanor at Thanksgiving dinner. Neither did she quail beneath Mary-Love's baleful eye. She seemed perfectly at her ease, and actually laughed aloud at a joke that James told Sister.
    For dessert there were two cakes, one chocolate and one coconut, and three pies: Boston cream, pecan, and mincemeat. Sister and Miss Elinor cut them up and served out slices.
    Mary-Love got hers and said, "Sister says no date has been set for the wedding."
    "That's right," said James. "Of course, everybody wanted to talk over the plans with you, Mary-Love."
    "Elinor's family should make all the decisions," said Mary-Love.
    "All my family are dead," said Elinor. Everyone at the table looked at Elinor in great surprise. No one but James had heard this before, and he had forgotten it. Everyone had supposed that she had many relatives still in and around Wade.
    "All of them?" asked Sister.
    "I'm the last one."
    "Then, Mama," said Oscar, "you're gone have to help us."
    "First thing to do,""said Mary-Love quickly, "is to set the date."
    "All right, Mama," said Oscar eagerly. During the course of the meal, Mary-Love had addressed several remarks to Miss Elinor, but none to her own son. Once when Oscar asked his mother a question she pretended not to have heard him and didn't answer.
    "One year from today," said Mary-Love.
    Miss Elinor stopped directly behind Mary-Love, holding a plate of pie intended for Grace who was vainly reaching for it. Elinor looked steadily at Oscar but said nothing.
    "Mama," cried Oscar, "that's a long time away! Elinor and I were thinking more like maybe February. You're talking—"
    "Miss Elinor, you and Oscar don't have anyplace to live, do you?"
    Elinor finally came around with the pie and set it before Grace. "No, ma'am," she said, "not yet. But I think it will be easy enough to find something."
    "Not something suitable," said Mary-Love, staring