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"Of course you can Look at that black wig and all that makeup on your face Why, baby?"
The endearment undid her She’d not cried, not once, until now, until this woman she didn’t really know called her "baby" Her aunt’s hands were stroking her back, her voice was low and soothing "It’s all right, lovey I proht now Come in, Sally, and I’ll take care of you That’s what I told your , so skinny, your arest smile I’d ever seen I wanted to take care of you then You’ll be safe here Come on, baby"
The da down her face, ruining the god-awful thick black mascara She even tasted it, and when she swiped her hand over her face it came aith black streaks
"I look like a circus clown," she said, sing hard to stop the tears, to sreen-colored contacts With the crying, they hurt
"No, you look like a little girl trying on her ly contacts Ah, now you’ve got your pretty blue eyes again Come to the kitchen and I’ll make you some tea I always put a drop of brandy in mine It wouldn’t hurt you one little bit How old are you now, Sally?"
"Twenty-six, I think"
"What do youher head to one side, ht down alh she thought her birthday had coone in that place, she couldn’t see anything to her, not that she could iine it anyway She couldn’t even remember if her father had been there She prayed he hadn’t She couldn’t tell Amabel about that, she just couldn’t She shook her head, s well, "It was just a way of speaking, Aunt Amabel I’d love some tea and a drop of brandy"
Amabel sat her niece down in the kitchen at her old pine table that had threeto keep it steady At least she’d made cushions for the wooden seats, so they were coas burner and turned it on "There," she said "That won’t take too long"
Sally watched her put a Lipton tea bag into each cup and pour in the brandy Amabel said, "I always pour the brandy in first It soaks into the tea bag and ot to make it last This bottle"--she lifted the Christian Brothers--"is going on its third month Not bad You’ll see, you’ll like it"
"No one followed ine you know that everyone is after et away As far as I know, no one knows about you Noelle never told a soul Only Father knew about you, and he’s dead"
A Amabel move around her sraceful, this aunt of hers in her hippie clothes She looked at those strong hands, the long fingers, the short, buffed nails painted an awesoht red Amabel was an artist, she remembered that now She couldn’t see any reseer sister Aypsy, while Noelle was blond and fair-complexioned, blue-eyed and soft as a pillow
Like ht But Sally wasn’t soft any Amabel to whip out a deck of cards and tell her fortune She wondered why none of Noelle’s family ever spoke of Aers rubbed over the white band where the ring had been She said as she looked around the old kitchen with its ancient refrigerator and porcelain sink, "You don’t mind that I’m here, Aunt Amabel?"
"Call me Amabel, honey, that’ll be just fine I don’t mind at all Both of us will protect your mama As for you, why, I don’t think you could hurt that little bug that’s scurrying across the kitchen floor"
Sally shook her head, got out of her seat, and squashed the bug beneath her heel She sat down again "I just want you to see ed, turned back to the stove when the teakettle whistled, and poured the water into the tea-cups She said, not turning around, "Things happen to people, change them Take yourher, aren’t you, Sally?"