Leota's Garden by Francine Rivers Page A

and then shook her head. “I’ve never gone longer than a couple of weeks without seeing some relative or another. We’ve got family coming out of our ears.”
    Annie had met at least three of Susan’s uncles and a dozen cousins during her visits at Susan’s house. She always felt a little overwhelmed when standing in the Carters’ small house, packed from stem to stern with relatives. Everyone talked at once and they were loud. The men gathered around the television to watch whatever sport was in season, while the women gathered in the kitchen to cook and talk and laugh. “Have any of them ever gotten mad at each other?”
    “Oh, sure! Someone’s always ticked off about something. Hottest fights are around the dinner table when Uncle Bob and Uncle Chet get going on politics or when Maggie starts in on equal rights. Daddy’ll jump right in on anything.”
    Annie had met Susan’s older sister only a few times and found her quick-witted and very likable. “Is Maggie a women’s activist?”
    “Only when the situation calls for it, which is every time she comes over for a visit with the folks.” Susan grinned. “Daddy says the only reason married women with children are working is because people are so greedy they want too much. Of course, Mom is working, but that doesn’t count because she has a calling. You never know who will throw the bait first. Maggie’ll come right back at him and say some people would like to have a nice house and live in a decent neighborhood that’s safe for their children, and the only way to afford it is to have two people working. Then Daddy’ll come back and say the neighborhoods would be a lot nicer if the mothers were all home taking care of their children like they’re supposed to. They go round and round about it.” She laughed. “They can get pretty steamed up sometimes.”
    “Do they stay mad at each other?”
    “Not for more than an hour. Funny thing is Maggie told me she and Andy have already decided that when they get pregnant, she’ll stay home. Listening to her talk, you’d think she was for zero population control and government-run day care centers. Truth is she takes after Daddy. They both like nothing better than a good, rousing debate. Daddy loves to play devil’s advocate at the dinner table. Whatever side you’re on, he’ll take the opposite. He says it’s a good way to learn to think. Mental fencing, he calls it.” Susan took a long swig of her soda. “No one gets hurt.”
    Annie couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to debate with her mother just for the fun of it. The combatants would have to wear emotional body armor because any verbal fencing around her house would be done without the safety guards. Two minutes into it, and her mother would turn it into blood sport. “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Whoever came up with that little cliché didn’t know her mother. Nora Gaines could dismember people with her tongue.
    Annie felt almost sick with guilt. What sort of a daughter was she?
    Susan got up. “I’d better put the rest of the stuff away.” She opened the refrigerator, took out a container, and opened it. “Gross! I should take this home for my little brother and let him turn it in as a science project.”
    Distracted, Annie wasn’t listening.
    It was a relatively short distance between Blackhawk on the east side of the hills and Oakland on the San Francisco Bay. There was a tunnel right through the hills at one point. Easy driving, easy distance. Thirty minutes max? Yet Grandmother Leota might as well have lived in New York State for all the time the family had spent together.
    Susan’s voice came from behind the door of the fridge. “What did you do today?”
    “I called my mother.” Annie was embarrassed the minute she said it. She made it sound like it was the biggest chore of the year.
    Susan paused in her hunt for food. “And?”
    And her mother had had a fit. “Have you come