Shiloh and Other Stories - Bobbie Ann Mason [74]
Waldeen shudders when she thinks of Joe Murdock. If he weren’t Holly’s father, she might be able to forget him. Waldeen was too young when she married him, and he had a reputation for being wild. Now she could marry Joe McClain, who comes over for supper almost every night, always bringing something special, such as a roast or dessert. He seems to be oblivious to what things cost, and he frequently brings Holly presents. If Waldeen married Joe, then Holly would have a stepfather—something like a sugar substitute, Waldeen imagines. Shifting relationships confuse her. She tells Joe they must wait. Her ex-husband is still on her mind, like the lingering aftereffects of an illness.
Joe McClain is punctual, considerate. Tonight he brings fudge ripple ice cream and a half gallon of Coke in a plastic jug. He kisses Waldeen and hugs Holly.
Waldeen says, “We’re having liver and onions, but Holly’s mad ’cause I won’t make Soybean Supreme.”
“Soybean Delight,” says Holly.
“Oh, excuse me!”
“Liver is full of poison. The poisons in the feed settle in the liver.”
“Do you want to stunt your growth?” Joe asks, patting Holly on the head. He winks at Waldeen and waves his walking stick at her playfully, like a conductor. Joe collects walking sticks, and he has an antique one that belonged to Jefferson Davis. On a gold band, in italics, it says Jefferson Davis. Joe doesn’t go anywhere without a walking stick, although he is only thirty. It embarrasses Waldeen to be seen with him.
“Sometimes a cow’s liver just explodes from the poison,” says Holly. “Poisons are oozing out.”
“Oh, Holly, hush, that’s disgusting.” Waldeen plops the pieces of liver onto a plate of flour.
“There’s this restaurant at the lake that has Liver Lovers’ Night,” Joe says to Holly. “Every Tuesday is Liver Lovers’ Night.”
“Really?” Holly is wide-eyed, as if Joe is about to tell a long story, but Waldeen suspects Joe is bringing up the restaurant—Bob’s Cove at Kentucky Lake—to remind her that it was the scene of his proposal. Waldeen, not accustomed to eating out, studied the menu carefully, wavering between pork chops and T-bone steak, and then suddenly, without thinking, ordering catfish. She was disappointed to learn that the catfish was not even local, but frozen ocean cat. “Why would they do that,” she kept saying, interrupting Joe, “when they’ve got all the fresh channel cat in the world right here at Kentucky Lake?”
During supper, Waldeen snaps at Holly for sneaking liver to the cat, but with Joe gently persuading her, Holly manages to eat three bites of liver without gagging. Holly is trying to please him, as though he were some TV game-show host who happened to live in the neighborhood. In Waldeen’s opinion, families shouldn’t shift membership, like clubs. But here they are, trying to be a family. Holly, Waldeen, Joe McClain. Sometimes Joe spends the weekends, but Holly prefers weekends at Joe’s house because of his shiny wood floors and his parrot that tries to sing “Inka-Dinka-Doo.” Holly likes the idea of packing an overnight bag.
Waldeen dishes out the ice cream. Suddenly inspired, she suggests a picnic Saturday. “The weather’s fairing up,” she says.
“I can’t,” says Joe. “Saturday’s graveyard day.”
“Graveyard day?” Holly and Waldeen say together.
“It’s my turn to clean off the graveyard. Every spring and fall somebody has to rake it off.” Joe explains that he is responsible for taking geraniums to his grandparents’ graves. His grandmother always kept them in her basement during the winter, and in the spring she took them to her husband’s grave, but she had died in November.
“Couldn’t we have a picnic at the graveyard?” asks Waldeen.
“That’s gruesome.”
“We never get to go on picnics,” says Holly. “Or anywhere.” She gives Waldeen a look.
“Well,