there? Ash is still up in the mountains and the roads are
icy all the way east to Burlington so I made him promise
not to drive till it melts.”
“Of course I’ll take you,” I said.
“Thanks, honey. I do appreciate it.”
(“
thumbing his nose at the preacher.)
When the clock approached noon, I told the warring
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HARD ROW
attorneys to try to work out a compromise during lunch
and recessed fifteen minutes earlier than usual. I called
Aunt Zell again from my car and she opened the door
as soon as I turned into her drive. The rain had slacked
to a light drizzle. Nevertheless, I grabbed my umbrella
to shelter her back to the car.
Aunt Zell is my mother without Mother’s streak of
recklessness or that tart wry humor that kept Daddy off
balance from the day he met her till the day she died.
Although she never had children, Aunt Zell was the duti-
ful daughter who did everything else that was expected of
her. She finished college. She married a respectable man
in her own social rank. She joined the town’s usual ser-
vice organizations and volunteers wherever an extra pair
of hands are needed. She not only lives by the rules, she
agrees with those rules. Never in a million years would she
have shocked the rest of the family and half the county
by marrying a bootlegger with a houseful of motherless
sons. But she adored my mother and she had immedi-
ately embraced those boys as if they were blood nephews.
Furthermore, she’s always treated Daddy as if he was the
same upright pillar of the community as Uncle Ash.
When my wheels fell off after Mother died, she was
the one family member I kept in touch with and she was
the one who took me in without reproach or questions
when I was finally ready to come home.
So, yes, I would drive her to Alaska if she asked me
to, whether or not I had ulterior reasons for going to
Alaska.
Like me, Aunt Zell wore black wool slacks and boots
today, but my car coat was bright red while her parka
was a hunter green. She had the hood up against the
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MARGARET MARON
arctic wind and a halo of soft white curls blew around
her pretty face.
“March sure didn’t come in like a lamb, did it?” she
asked by way of greeting.
