The Cotton Queen Read Online Free PDF Page B

color and description were crowded around. I couldn’t look at it. I fixed my gaze beyond the scene to the long row of cars parking along the driveway.
    I felt a hand slip into mine. I glanced over. It was Aunt Maxine. I almost shouted with joy as I hugged her. Uncle Warren was beside her. They were strong and solid and dear. I’m not sure I would have made it all the way to the end without them.
    When they handed me the folded flag and the minister had spoken the “amen” I feared that they might leave me alone with the Hoffmans again. Uncle Warren did manage to get away, but I grasped Aunt Maxine’s arm.
    “Can Laney and I stay with you,” I said.
    “What?”
    The question clearly surprised her and caught her off guard.
    “We’ll need a place to stay for a few days,” I explained. “I was hoping that we could stay with you.”
    “Well...ah...I...” She fumbled around for a long minute.
    “Just for a few days,” I pleaded. “Just until I figure out where to go and what to do.”
    “Well I... The Hoffmans have so much more room than we have, Babs,” she said. “We’ve got the boys doubled up in one bedroom and the twins in the other.”
    “Laney and I can sleep on a pallet in the living room,” I assured her.
    “I don’t know if that would be good,” Maxine said.
    “It’s just for a few days,” I assured her again. I leaned closer, whispering so that I wouldn’t be overheard. “I can’t go back to that house. Please Aunt Maxine. Don’t make me go back to that house.”
    Of course she didn’t.
    Neither she nor Uncle Warren could understand why I couldn’t just stay out at the farm, but they wouldn’t force me. I drove from the cemetery with them. We picked up Laney and our suitcases and drove to their house. They put a camping cot in the twins’ room for Laney and suggested that I sleep on the living room couch.
    “This is just a temporary arrangement,” Uncle Warren said sternly.
    I nodded.
    “I know I need to get out on my own and I will,” I promised him.
    There is nothing like desperation to push people into unexpected choices.

L ANEY
    L IVING WITH Uncle Warren and Aunt Maxine was great. He seemed as constant and dependable as a rock. She was a font of sweetness and simply doted on me. My cousins were great, too. Renny and Pete were in high school. Both were tall and athletic. They didn’t pay that much attention to me, but Pete would sometimes give me rides on the handlebars of his bike. And Renny would give me nickels to buy candy. The twins, Joley and Janey, were twelve and they loved the idea of having a younger sister. It seemed like every day we played school and I was the student.
    On Sunday afternoons Uncle Warren would drive me out to the Hoffman farm. Most times, I’d get to play with Cheryl and Nicie. Even if neither of them were available, there were always grandkids around. The Hoffmans made a fuss over me, too. I knew I was special. Both because my daddy had died and because everybody was mad at my mother. I didn’t know what had happened, but I overheard plenty of snide comments made between my aunts and uncles.
    Ned told me directly.
    “Your mother is selfish, disrespectful and she never really loved your father.”
    I didn’t really know what the first two things meant, but I knew she did love my dad, so Ned was either lying or the Hoffmans were wrong. I never gave Ned much credit for honesty.
    But beyond the few worrisome undertones, my life was great. I had lots of cousins to play with, pretty clothes and plenty of attention.
    It didn’t make up for the fact that Daddy was gone forever, but it helped.
    So, it was unbelievable to me when, just as things were going so well, Babs comes home with the news that we’re moving to Dallas. Overnight the homey house filled with comfy furniture and happy people was replaced by a sad little duplex apartment. The entire neighborhood of green grass was exchanged for one small patch between the duplex’s two back