Chapter 30

Mom moved back home without so much as a squeak. And since Prudie had given him instructions on how to remodel the house down the last detail, I wasn't surprised. She was happy. Dad was happy. And I was back home. All was right with their world, again.

On Friday night, the day before I was not taking Beth out on our date, Maggie and her family came to the house for supper. Mama cooked meatloaf, mashed potatoes with the peelings left in them, corn on the cob, and homemade rolls. Dessert was one of her apple pies with vanilla ice cream.

Maggie had planned with George for him to kidnap Beth in some romantic scheme with Elvis in the wee hours of Saturday morning and he wouldn't be bringing her home 'til Sunday afternoon. They were going to be spending the weekend at a bed and breakfast owned by a friend of George's step dad. With that taking place, Beth and I naturally wouldn't be going out on a date.

After we ate and Maggie helped Mom in the kitchen, Mom and Becky started a game of Monopoly with the kids and Dad and Leldon asked Maggie and me to outside with them. When Maggie and I got settled in the swing, Dad sat in his chair and rocked in silence and Leldon sat down on the top step.

Dad hadn't mentioned the previous Sunday to us and I figured he was about to make the plunge and I didn't rush him. Maggie took my lead and didn't say anything to him, either.

"There's something you two need to know," he said after what seemed like years. "You're not the first ones in the family to fall in love with each other. In fact, it happens every fifty years when a niece and an uncle are born in the same year."

I was too stunned to speak, but Maggie, who was Leldon's daughter, had no problems with her voice. She said, "Grandpa are you saying that you and Grandma are uncle and niece?"

Dad guffawed and replied, "Not us, honey. Your Aunt Prudie and Uncle Vaughn. He died not long after ya'll were born. Everyone thought they were brother and sister and didn't think anything of them living together."

"What about the family?" I managed to say.

"Why, Son, they accepted them the way they were, the way a family is supposed to. Their friends did the same. Of course, even the majority of them thought they were brother and sister. This was true in a way. Prudie's parents were killed in that fire when Prudie was just a baby and Vaughn's folks took her and her sisters into their home and raised'em with their kids."

"So Bob and I were destined to be with each other?" Maggie asked.

"You bet," Dad replied. "Ya'll and the ones before you bring prosperity to our family; and we ain't about to mess with something that's meant to be."

Leldon said, "The reason I put ya'll in the basement was because I was afraid ya'll were about to mess things up. You were fussing and carrying on and this contest was going on and Maggie has been seeing George and I was concerned that Bob would decide to go with one of the other girls."