Chapter 3: The End?

I remember the next three weeks as glory days. Sallie begged to participate in all the cooking, jotting notes in a little spiral-bound notebook as they worked together. After two weeks of collaborating, Grandma asked Sallie for a few of her favorite recipes. This left the washing and cleaning up to me, with no objections on my part, of course.

And then, on a Thursday, I waited outside the lecture hall for Sallie’s last class. She came out looking miserable, found me, and fell into my arms. We found a bench, and she pushed her wet face against my chest between the flaps of my jacket. When she relaxed a little, I softly asked for an explanation.

“My mother called Gail to try to find me. I’d gone too long without checking in with her. Gail explained that I had moved out. And that bitch told her I was living with you, not another woman.”

“Your parents didn’t know? You can’t live with men? Even men who wash dishes?”

“Jason, I’m not in the mood for jokes. I haven’t told you much about my parents. I let you assume they were normal human beings.”

“They’re not?”

“Originally, they thought sending me to college wasn’t very useful, since I’m supposed to be an obedient traditional wife and a virgin on my wedding night.”

“Oops.”

“Yeah, Jason. Oops. That little barrier is long gone. But to explain, I first need to tell you an unpleasant family story. Bear with me.”

I said, “Please, I want to know.”

“Only because my cousin Patsy was starving did they allow me to enroll in college. She married a feckless punk who wouldn’t support her or their two kids.”

“One of those guys who makes babies but no money?” I asked.

“Exactly. The kids got older but were small and underweight, and their school called in the authorities. When they came to Patsy’s house, the power was off, the rent was two months late, and she was a skeleton. She weighed only eighty pounds at five-foot-eight. She’d been trying to keep her kids fed by sacrificing herself.”