Suncatchers Read Online Free PDF Page B

iced tea for the men in the middle of the afternoon, and he just fell in love with her laugh, he said, and she always said she was sure glad that rooster had flapped its wings and scared that fat man or else Daddy never would of heard her laugh. She always dreamed of marrying and having babies but never thought it would come her way. I don’t know how many times I heard her recite that verse when we was kids, ‘He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.’ She was sure a fine, fine mama, she was. And I never once looked at her and thought she was ugly.” She shook her head briskly. “No, sir, not a bit of it. To me she was the prettiest mama in the world!”
    Perry looked down again at the photo of Eldeen’s family. If he wrote something like this in a work of fiction, he could never get away with it. A mother who would name her kids Needle, Iron, Milk, and Okra spelled backwards would be just too weird.

3
    Decorative Trinkets
    As Jewel had promised, the meal wasn’t fancy. The four of them ate at a dinette table in the kitchen, and Perry was glad to find out that it wasn’t as hot in the kitchen as it was in the living room. Afterward he felt slightly stunned from the whole experience. It wasn’t the food exactly or his three dinner companions or the conversation or the kitchen itself. It was just everything together. He had never spent an evening that so overloaded his senses.
    The food was better than any he had eaten for a long time, but the combination was unusual. Jewel had made a ground beef and macaroni dish that she called Burger in a Skillet, though it was in a Pyrex dish, and with it she served baked squash, hashbrowns, black-eyed peas, applesauce, corn bread, and iced tea. No one else seemed to think it funny that all the food was a shade of brown or gold. Even the dishes were tan with a sprig of golden flowers painted in the middle.
    Jewel asked the blessing, concluding with “And we pray your loving watchcare, Lord, on this, our new neighbor, and your hand of success on all his daily endeavors, in the dear Savior’s name, amen.”
    No one spoke at first, and Perry busied himself arranging his napkin in his lap.
    â€œWhat exactly do you write, Warren?” Eldeen asked as she handed him the Burger in a Skillet to start around.
    â€œWarren’s his last name, Mama,” Jewel said. “Remember, it was Beth’s last name, too. His first name’s Perry.”
    Eldeen emitted a noise that was part laugh and part snort. “Now aren’t men’s names funny that way?” she said. “My first husband had a name like that. Norton Malcolm. And people used to get it mixed up so much that half the time I forgot whether I was Eldeen Malcolm or Eldeen Norton. I had a uncle the same way. His name was Palmer Westwood, but it could just as easy been Westwood Palmer. And I had a second cousin once named McLeary McSpadden of all things. They used to call him Big Double Mack, but that was way back before them hamburgers came along. He was the tallest man you ever seen! And there’s that poor old man at church named Mayfield Spalding. You know, Jewel, the one who sits in the back that I think looks a little like Barney Fife. Anyway, it sure was a relief when I married Jewel’s daddy and got somebody with a name you could keep straight—Hiram Rafferty. Least I never heard of anybody with the last name Hiram, though I reckon somewhere on God’s green earth there’s probably a Mr. So-and-so Hiram. Maybe over in one of them Arab countries.”
    Perry glanced at Jewel and noted her bland expression as she passed the hashbrowns to Joe Leonard, as if all she heard was some background music on the radio. Eldeen’s speech rolled on.
    â€œBut when I work on remembering a name, I can usually do it. Perry Warren, not Warren Perry. Perry Warren. Perry Warren. I’ll put it in my