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I just sat and watched her examine their calf muscles I took the three she didn’t want Our family is like that—waste not, want not

When Margaret came home from Norway, Grandmother pursed her lips and stared her up and down I ashing dishes, careful not to clink the plates Grand

“I’ve always suspected our fa last “On account of the twins being so tall Mind he wipes his feet—there’s ginger cookies in the jar”

On the day before the wedding, we all gathered in the front room for iced tea and aard conversation We stood around, cubes gently reen and no stockings and delicate little bits of silver at our throats and ears Volgnir’s people came in bronze and horsehair, burnished and I’h shine We all avoided looking at each other, unsure of hoere ress Grandiants and clipped it back with diamond clasps that looked very like clusters of icicles One of Volgnir’s sisters eyed thely, as the ice on her shield cracked and broke Everyone ignored the sound What could you say? Margaret seehted at every moment; the more uncomfortable we all were, the wider she smiled I could see, when she sat, that her ankles had little sheens of ice on either side, like anklets

Finally, ht this was grand We took our shoes off to feel the den between our toes; my cousin Rose made lemonade with fruit froes, a few chicken breasts and soy chops for the out-of-towners Lucas felt at home, with a steel spatula like a spear in his hand, and sloe becaossip weddings encourage Little Shana’s off to college,in biochemistry Her boy’s run off with her—very romantic, but he can’t do the nant again? Modern science is a wonderful thing, I told them

It caic poses, balancing paper plates on one silk-clad knee with a glass of tea or le in one hand The Hriaret called them—we all took it to be rather an over-stuffed surname, but no arian secretary At least there were a feels to spare this tirill, their nostrils flared huge and dark, sniffing the last smoky wisps off of the ether

“Don’t you want to eat?” Lucas called in his friendly, bear-bellow voice

“Don’t be ignorant,” snapped Margaret “They are eating”

When I was little, I wanted to be like Aunt Margaret She wore flowers in her hair every day, and the flowers always s, even when it inter—then, she wore Japanese bittersweet in her brown curls, and flaance She kne to ride a horse, and ebra in her head She knew about engines and crocheting and , and once in her twenties she wrote a potboiler novel about a , and I loved her Once she went to Tibet and cas for rape blossos and tell stories about the snow-maidens that lived on Mt Everest, ould only love humans who could climb all the way to the top

It’s important to marry someone, she said Not because you need theht to be someone’s wife by hook or by crook It’s just that worlds want to combine, they want to marry, and they use people to do it, the way yousweet, so it’s easy to s That’s e have to have all those silly things: a frilly dress and so blue and a bachelor party and a priest Just so that a boy and a girl can live together and , and they need the pomp

Aunt Margaret talked like that a lot She left a few days later to learn about Norwegian investone I picked a little bouquet of blown dandelions and sto

od next to my favorite maple tree in the meadow beyond our house and put my hand on its bark I swore to love it forever

The wind h for me

The Hriht fermented milk and honey to the bachelor party

Of course, that’s just e call it, but it’s not your usualstrippers-and-gin-and-no-women affair We don’t really kno to separate like that So ere all there, girls and boys and grandfathers and grand tins full of beer and yelloine, and just about everyone with the ood bit of noise Lucas spun his double bass, Rose tweedled her flute, there was a dru—Evan and Lizzy and Katie thu leather with the heels of their hands Aunt Betsy squeezed her black cello between her knees Myout a little ht out her best violin Me, I sing It’s the only tiaret