Nervous Water Read Online Free PDF Page A

Aunt Mary’s baby,” I said. “I remember you and Aunt Lillian took care of her. After that…” I waved my hand in the air.
    â€œMary had that sickness after Cassie was born.” Uncle Moze tapped his temple with his forefinger.
    â€œPostpartum depression?”
    He shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe she was just young and scared. Whatever, she wanted nothing to do with the baby. Didn’t even bother givin’ her a name. We did that. Me and Lillian.” He smiled. “Cassandra. Can’t even recollect how we come up with Cassandra, but it seemed to fit. Cassie Crandall. Lillian used to say it sounded like a movie star. It was just what we decided to call her ’til Mary got back on her feet. I dunno. I s’pose you can understand it. That no-good husband of hers, fuckin’ Norman Dillman, beatin’ her up, kickin’ her out of the house, then gittin’ himself killed, Mary barely sixteen, knocked up, just a baby herself…”
    â€œI remember the day we found Norman’s body,” I said.
    â€œAyup,” he said. “Murdered. Shot in the head and dumped in the river.”
    â€œAnd they never found who did it?”
    He shook his head. “They asked around. Even had some feds involved for a while, on account of his body was found in the river and it involved two states. But nothin’ come of it. Far as I know, they never even come up with a suspect.”
    â€œIt’s a genuine unsolved mystery, then,” I said.
    Moze shrugged. “Norman was a pig. Got what he deserved. Everybody said so.”
    I smiled. “So what happened after that?”
    â€œWell,” he said, “after Mary gave birth, she just stayed in bed, didn’t want to even look at the child. Your grandmother was gettin’ along in years by then, and she had her hands full with Mary, so Lillian and me, we said we’d take care of the baby. Lillian couldn’t have kids, you know. Best thing ever happened to Lil, it turned out, having that little baby in the house. It made her happy, and that made me happy, because your aunt Lillian never was a very happy woman. We thought it was going to be just for maybe a month or two, ’til Mary felt better. But when Mary got back on her feet, she showed no interest in Cassie. Then the next spring Mary run off with that baseball player, never said good-bye, not even to our mother, never come around to see Cassie, and we was, well, that was fine by us. It had got to the point that Lil was all depressed, thinking we’d have to give Cassie back. By then we was loving her, thinking of her as our own. Folks around here, pretty soon they seemed to forget she was Mary’s, or if they remembered they didn’t say nothin’ about it.” He smiled. “Everybody in Moulton has got something in their family they’d just as soon nobody else remembers. We’re all pretty forgetful for each other.”
    â€œSo you adopted her?” I said.
    He shook his head. “That would’ve involved Mary, required her to sign papers and whatnot, and by then she was gone, and we figured it was best to just leave well enough alone. Lillian was terrified that if we raised the subject, Mary would say no, decide she wanted to take Cassie back. My sister Mary could be like that. Perverse. She’d do things she didn’t really want to do just to see if she could piss you off.”
    â€œI guess I didn’t know Aunt Mary very well,” I said. “In my mind, she was a kid not much older than me.”
    â€œYounger than you in some ways. Always pretty innocent.” He smiled. “Well, kinda dumb, actually.” He shrugged. “So anyway, we just went on, Lillian and me, one day after the other, thinkin’ of Cassie as our own, and pretty soon we come to believe it. Soon as she learned to talk, I was Daddy and Lillian was Mommy.” He blinked a couple of times, then smiled quickly and