Read Online The Rampant Reaper by Marlys Millhiser - Free Book Online Page B

and Helen are sort of the last of the female line in the responsible generation, them responsible for the last generation and all before that,” Uncle Elmo explained to Charlie as Cousin Helen and Edwina fought it out in the kitchen at the home place. “All you folks who go off to California, or whose parents do, don’t know what’s going on back at the home places in the country. What’s happening is the old folks are stacking up knee-deep, what’s happening.”
    They kicked around, literally, inside the rickety barn, stirred up mice and dust and probably memories for him and her mother, who was too busy fending off guilt and cousins to enjoy them. Charlie was beginning to see why she was needed here. Edwina needed her help in a gargantuan struggle with guilt instilled in a childhood so long ago that she couldn’t remember half of it. But the residue clung like Kenny Cowper.
    â€œEvery generation—” Uncle Elmo looked up at disgruntled pigeons in the rafters and the sky between the roof that
was there and the roof that wasn’t “—people live longer and more of them live longer. Always been people over a hundred—just damn few.”
    â€œBut all those women here at the dinner last night, surely they don’t need Edwina, too. They live here. She hasn’t for years.”
    â€œThey all got other branches of older Staudts and in-laws to see to. Your mom and Helen are all that’s left of the direct issue of the Myrtle Staudts.”
    â€œWhy does it have to be women? Look at the marshal.”
    â€œDoesn’t have to be women, but they’re more likely to live long enough to see the older generations cared for properly. They’re also more responsible as a general rule for seeing to the needs of others.”
    â€œAnd more responsive to the agonies of guilt if they don’t.”
    â€œImagine a California girl learning about real life. Miracle. Women don’t do what’s expected, they don’t get to enjoy life anyway—might as well knuckle under. And the marshal went off and left a wife and three children when his folks were and are still seeing to the past generations. Plus which, he’s got a sister-in-law in town.”
    â€œSo what’s Edwina’s guilt-ridden role in all this family stuff?”
    â€œSomeone’s got to see to Abigail. And nobody wants anything to do with her and her bossy piety. Spent the last sixty years making enemies of her family and the town. Helen’s got her hands full with me and a bunch of Staudts at the Oaks. Time your mother took on her fair share.”
    â€œShe works full time, what can she do? She’s got at least five more years before retirement and could work longer—which she probably will. She loves her work.”
    â€œShe’s widowed. Her child is grown and on her own. Who better? She’s going to put rats and bats before family?” Edwina was a professor of biology at the University of Colorado, specializing in rats and bats of the high desert plateau.
    â€œHer job means nothing because she’s a woman. Time she
gets ahold of reality and her role. Don’t you see how ridiculous that sounds to the modern world? She could lose what is meaningful in her life, and her means of paying for her retirement. And her mind as well. Who would want to live with Great-aunt Abigail, for godsake?”
    â€œDon’t matter. Edwina was born and raised here. It’s in her blood to do the right thing. You already did what was in your blood.”

    It was early evening when Charlie and Edwina drove Cousin Helen home. Apparently, Helen didn’t drive. Buz drove her to work and back. Theirs was a nice house for Myrtle, well kept. And not three blocks from the entrance to the Oaks. They weren’t invited in.
    Edwina had changed since her confrontation in the kitchen at the home place. It was in the air and her mood had lifted, while Charlie’s