Read Online The Wedding Gift by Kathleen McKenna - Free Book Online

two
pages of the album were stuck together so I unpeeled them real
careful and quiet, and saw that they was wedding pictures, wedding
pictures of poor hot dead Uncle Roger and this really beautiful
girl. Believe me about her being a super pretty girl because, since
I look like I do, I am not one to dish out compliments lightly, but
this girl was a knockout.
    She was real tall and
slender, with long dark hair and she had her just a perfect face. I
couldn’t tell what color her eyes were, but they were big beautiful
eyes ... and even in those old pictures you could see they were
shining, looking at Roger … and him, Roger, well it was real sweet
'cause he was just grinning at her like she was a horse who had won
the Triple Crown. They looked so beautiful and young and filled up
with pride in each other that I felt like starting to cry for some
reason. Standing beside Roger, wearing a pair of too short tuxedo
pants, was George's daddy, old George Sr. But he was just a scrawny
young boy and you would hardly recognize him now. He had on this
big old grin though, like he was happy for the pretty couple. And
standing beside Roger, there were their parents, who did not look
like they were happy at all. Actually, Roger's mama looked like an
egg sick dog, if you want me to be strictly honest, and for about
one second I felt sorry for the bride, even knowing as I did that
she turned into a crazed murderess later on. I could still
sympathize with any girl who had a bad mother-in-law
situation.
    Right then I heard George
stirring and before I could put the album back he asked me what I
was looking at. Since I didn’t see a way out of it, I just took it
over to the bed and showed it to him. He didn’t seem mad ... he
acted like he had never seen it before and he just looked at the
pictures. When he was done he sighed real heavy and closed it. I
knew I shouldn’t ask him, it being something I’m sure was a real
bad subject in his family, but I just had to know, so I did ask
him.
    I said straight out
“ George, Honey, does your daddy ever talk
about his brother and all them kids that got
killed? ”
    He didn’t seem offended,
but he didn’t say much either. He just said that his daddy would
sometimes tell stories about him and his Uncle Roger when they were
kids, but all the stories usually ended about the time his uncle
left Dalton to go off to architect's school somewhere up north. I
know I should have shut up, but that is not my strong suit as
anyone would tell you. So I kept at him, asking if that was where
his uncle had met Robina, and if he had ever seen any other
pictures of her? Were there any pictures of the kids they had? I
could tell he was getting kind of annoyed with me, 'cause he
answered all short, like telling me that yes, he had seen other
pictures of Robina and that for some reason, and
“ No, he sure as hell did not know
why! ” that the pictures were all over the
mansion still, where she and Uncle Roger had lived, along with
pictures of all his dead cousins, and that yes, he had been in the
house a few times over the years with his mama who for
“ some goddamned reason" liked to oversee the upkeep of the place herself
whenever a crew would have to go in for painting and such. George
said he didn’t know for sure if his uncle had met Robina back at
the architecture school, because his daddy would get all red when
he asked questions about her, so after awhile he had stopped
asking.
    I felt real bad then and
told him it was just the same at our house, that whenever Charlie’s
name got brought up, Mama would cry and Daddy would start ranting
and raving. Telling him that was a mistake though, 'cause George
got real curious and asked me why the mention of his dead son would
make my daddy rant and rave?
    Hell, I had stepped right
into that one, as the last thing I wanted to tell George, if he was
not already aware of it, was that my daddy thought his daddy was
“ a negligent asshole ". Worse, even way back after