Dorothy Garlock - [Dolan Brothers] by With Heart

answer, but he asked anyway.
    “No. I wanted to surprise her and Emily. I brought presents for Emily’s birthday.”
    “Isn’t Emily’s birthday on the Fourth of July?”
    “So they’re a little late. A kid don’t care. It’s a hell of a lot more than I got on my birthday. I was lucky to get a piece of corn bread with syrup on it.”
    “It was worse for a lot of kids. Some were starving. Your folks did the best they could by you.”
    “Well, dog my cats! There it is. The old dump looks the same.” Clara’s quick dry laugh spoke of her contempt. She opened the door when the truck stopped, and slid out, her skirt slithering up to mid-thigh.
    Johnny lifted the bag off the truck bed and followed her up the walk to the porch. Clara opened the screen door and went inside.
    “Mama, I’m home. Put my suitcase in my room, Johnny.” She winked at him. “You know where it is.”
    Johnny set the bag down beside the door just as Hazel came from the back of the house wiping her hands on her apron. When she saw Clara her face lit up like a full moon.
    “Clara? Honey, is that you? I thought I heard you call, but I wasn’t sure.” Hazel folded her daughter in her arms. “Oh, honey, I’m so glad to see you. Here, let me look at you. My, but you’re as pretty as ever. Emily will be beside herself. She been asking about you a lot lately.” Hazel hugged Clara again. “I’ve been so worried. Why didn’t you write?”
    Clara twisted out of her mother’s embrace and dropped down onto a chair.
    “Don’t start in on me, Mama. I just got here.”
    Hazel drew in a deep breath. Then, “Hello, Johnny. I didn’t see you at first. I was so excited to see Clara.”
    “Hello, Mrs. Ramsey. I met her out on the road. Where do you want me to put the suitcase?”
    “Put it in my room,” Clara said. “Where else? I see you’ve got the door shut, Mama. I used to love havin’ the door shut, but you’d come along and open it to see if I had a boy in my bed.” She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling.
    “Clara, honey, I rented out your room. You’ll have to sleep on the couch here, or back on my bed with Emily. I’ll take Emily’s bed.”
    “You what?” Clara jumped to her feet and stormed across the room to throw open the door. She looked around the room with her hands on her hips. “Well, I swan. You really want me out of here, don’t you? You rented out my room so I’d not have a place to come back to.”
    “It wasn’t like that at all. I needed the money. I couldn’t make enough by ironing to keep us going.”
    Clara picked up Kathleen’s brush and flipped it over onto the bed. She pecked at the keys on the typewriter, pulled open the drawer in the table, and attempted to lift the lid on the trunk, but it was locked.
    “What’d she lock the trunk for? She think you’re goin’ to steal somethin’?”
    “You’ve no right to meddle with her things, Clara.”
    Clara ignored the rebuke. “You never kept it like this when I was here. Who is she? It is a
she.
I’d not be lucky enough for it to be a good-looking
he.
”
    “Her name is Miss Dolan, and she works for the newspaper.”
    “Now ain’t that just a fine kettle of fish?” Clara brushed by her mother as she left the room.
    Hazel closed the door and eased herself down onto a chair as if a sudden move might break her in two.
    “What was I to do, Clara?”
    “Oh, hell, I don’t know. Whine, whine. It’s all I ever get when I come back here.”
    “Then why don’t you leave?” Johnny said quietly. “I’ll take you to the highway.”
    “Oh, no, Johnny. Not before she sees Emily. It would break the child’s heart.”
    “All you care about is that kid. Isn’t that right, Mama?”
    “That’s not true. I—”
    “—Mrs. Ramsey,” Johnny interrupted. He had to get out of there before he shook the stuffings out of Clara. “Miss Dolan will not be here for supper. She asked me to tell you.”
    “You
feed
her, too,” Clara spun around and glared