Chapter 56

Pentwater is a village ... in the winter.

Everybody knows everybody and their sister ... aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, parents, grandparents ... even unto the tenth generation. “Who are your people?” is a commonly asked question.

It means who are you as defined by your ancestors.

“Ginny Jo Jean Beckwith,” would mean ... your ... I don’t know how many times removed ... grandma (Alice Jo Jean Beckwith) and my grandma (the aforesaid Ginny Jo Jean) were sisters in 1779 ... and you are family. It don’t make a damn if they hated each other ... it doesn’t even matter that the same boy knocked ‘em up ... way back in 1781. It makes no never mind that he didn’t marry either of them. One out of four babies were illegitimate before and after the Revolution. (George Washington wasn’t the father of our country ... Ben Franklin was ... randy old fucker.)

And here I was, Surprise Me Flintkote ... from ... of ALL places ... Virginia ... Home of the Confederacy ... a REBEL.

“And it makes no never mind that JoeBob beat his wife and children with a switch ... He was a ‘Good old Boy’ and from here. And a damn rebel shot him ‘cause he shoved her. Didn’t die and court didn’t work out like the judge and the chief planed... ‘cause that down state lawyer got the judge, a relative, dismissed and the Chief arrested, tampering with evidence. And Cousin Cecil, the deputy, couldn’t keep his hands to himself and it all showed up on the DVD. And the bitch cost the county 26 million dollars ... which she used to bribe the Immigration folks to keep her Hiss - panics, can’t call ‘em Spicks or Wetbacks... ‘cause they’ll sue and the town lawyer got disbarred for ‘collusion’ with the Chief ... whatever that is ... illegal is what.