Dwight, too,” Miss Phyllis said wisely. “You’ve both
suddenly become full-time parents without the usual
nine months to get used to the idea.”
“There are times when I wish I could ask Mother
how she did it,” I admitted. “At least Dwight and I
have known each other long enough to be used to each
other’s good and bad points, but how on earth did she
find time to get to know Daddy with eight young boys
in the house?”
51
MARGARET MARON
“You’ll figure it out,” said Mr. Frank. “You’re a lot
like Sue, isn’t she, Zell?”
Aunt Zell smiled and squeezed my hand, then we got
to work unpacking the lunch. I filled the five glasses
with ice cubes and poured tea while she set out a large
earthenware casserole, a side dish of baby butter beans
that she’d frozen last summer, and a basket of fresh hot
yeast rolls. Miss Phyllis brought in butter and a dish of
crisp sweet pickles.
By the time we sat down at the table, I had heard all
about the severed hand Taffy found.
“I let her out as usual around seven this morning,”
said Miss Phyllis. “Most days, Frank and I will take a
cup of coffee and walk around the edge of the woods
with her, but it was so raw and wet this morning that
we let her go alone. I have no idea where she went, but
as muddy and drenched as she was when she came back,
I’m sure she was over splashing in the creek.”
“She’ll do that if we’re not with her,” said Mr. Frank,
smoothing down silky white hair that still bore the
marks of the hat he must have worn earlier. “Doesn’t
matter how cold it is.”
“She was out there a good forty-five minutes,” his
wife continued, “and I was loading the dishwasher when
I saw her, through the kitchen window, coming across
the backyard with something in her mouth. At first I
thought it was somebody’s old brown leather work
glove or an oddly shaped piece of wood. As soon as I
opened the door for her, I told her to drop it because
whatever it was, I didn’t want it on my clean floor. She
left it on the step and came on in. I keep an old towel
out there on the sun porch to wipe her off if she comes
52
HARD ROW
back muddy and she knows to stand still for me, but this
morning, she kept nosing at the door like she wanted
her find.
“I finally opened the door to see what was so inter-
