“Now, Uncle Ash, you know well and good that my
daddy wouldn’t do anything illegal like that,” I said,
unable to control my own grin. “Besides, to run a car,
it’d have to be a hundred-and-ninety proof, almost pure
alcohol. I don’t think he ever got anything that pure.”
“Would they really legalize the home brewing of
something that potent?” asked Reid, helping himself to
another wedge of cornbread.
“If gas keeps going up, who knows?” said Uncle Ash.
“Soon as you mention alcohol, though, lawmakers get
nervous. It’s like when they made farmers quit growing
hemp about seventy years ago.”
97
MARGARET MARON
Industrial hemp was one of Uncle Ash’s favorite
hobby horses and he was off and riding.
“We spend millions importing something that we
could grow right in our own country, right here in
Colleton County. You can make dozens of useful things
from it—paper, food, paint, medicine, even fuel. And
they say that hemp seed oil is one of the most balanced
in the world for the ratio of omega-sixes to omega-
threes. It’s friendly to the environment, doesn’t take a
lot of water or fertilizer to grow, and it’s easy to harvest.
But those spineless jellyfish who call themselves states-
men? Soon as they see the word ‘hemp,’ they’re afraid
their voters will see ‘cannabis.’ ”
“Ash, dear, you’re raising your voice again,” said
Aunt Zell.
“Sorry,” he said sheepishly and got up to help her
make coffee and bring in the pecan pie I had seen cool-
ing in the kitchen earlier.
“So what’s with you and Flame Smith?” I asked Reid
as I set out coffee cups.
“You know her?”
“Not me. Portland. She ran into us at lunch yester-
day. Just before you got there. Please tell me you’re not
putting the moves on your client’s girlfriend.”
His blue eyes widened innocently. “It was strictly
business and excuse me, Your Honor, but should we be
having this
I hate it when he scores a legal point off my curiosity.
I was home by nine and immediately switched on the
hockey game. Amazing how much easier it was to fol-
98
HARD ROW
low now that I’d attended an actual game. During the
commercials, I managed to wash and dry two loads of
laundry and had piles of folded underwear on the couch
beside me by the time Dwight and Cal returned. The
