was filling up her plate, she wasn’t so sure anymore. She bit into a biscuit and surveyed the numerous pig products on the table uneasily. “So,” she said, “what’s gonna happen to my piggy namesake after she grows up?”
“Same thing that happens to most pigs, I reckon,” Ed said, spearing a sausage patty.
“Oh.” The thought of the little piglet surviving a difficult birth only to wind up on someone’s breakfast table depressed Lily. The piglet’s plight seemed similar to Mimi’s. Lily mourned for small creatures who had no control over their destinies. She was embarrassed to feel a tear sliding down her cheek.
“You city girls get softhearted about animals, don’tcha?” Ed asked, pouring gravy over a split biscuit.
“Sorry,” Lily said, feeling foolish. “It just struck me as sad, is all.”
“Well, shoot,” Jack said, helping herself to a third fried egg. “If you’re gonna get that upset about it, I reckon Ed and Vina can just bring Lily the pig out to me after she gets weaned. I’ll pay as good a price for her as they will at the meat market, and I reckon I’ve got room on my farm for a pig.”
“You and your farm,” Vina laughed, emptying the second pan of biscuits into the bread basket.
“Ed and Vina always make fun of my farm,” Jack began. “Of course, I reckon they’ve got a right to. It’s more of a petting zoo than a farm. I’ve got half a dozen dogs — some I found on the side of the road, some I took away from people that was mistreating ’em; five cats; an old swaybacked horse I saved from getting shot; and a goat with just one horn. You oughta bring your little girl out to see ’em.”
Lily smiled. “I’ll have to do that.”
“Anyway,” Jack said as she spooned up another serving of grits, “I reckon I got room for a pig in my collection, if you and Mimi promise to come visit her.”
“I promise.”
“It sure takes a lot of money to feed all them animals without you making any profit off ’em,” Ed said, pushing his plate away.
“Aah, it’s not that expensive,” Jack said. “Besides, I gotta spend my money on somethin’. It’s not like I go out and blow it on new dresses.”
Ed and Vina laughed. Lily was amazed at how comfortable they were with Jack’s masculinity.
When they climbed into the truck to go home, Lily said, “Thank you for the pig.”
“It was no skin off my nose. I’d been thinking about getting me a pig anyhow.” She started the truck. “And I can understand why the thought of slaughtering that pig bothered you. I mean, I’m no vegetarian, but it does seem like a shame that a critter has such a hard time coming into the world, only to get taken out of it so quick.” She watched the road for a minute. “There was somethin’ I wanted to ask you, though.”
“Yeah?”
“About that joke you made when you were about to invade that sow’s privacy.”
“Oh, that. I hardly even knew what I was saying. I’m always make dumb jokes when I’m nervous.”
