On the drive back to the Old Home Place, Dr. Watkins sat in the back seat filling the car with talk while Cheryl stayed up front with Frank, her face angled into the stream of cool air pouring out of the air-conditioning vent. Whenever a fresh wave of nausea welled in her stomach, she held […]
“Cher, wake up,” Frank whispered, shaking her gently. “It’s late.” She opened her eyes and the bedroom filled with bright morning sunlight. At first she saw only the empty room, her clothes on the floor, the sheet she’d thrown over Frank the night before bunched at the bottom of the bed. Her back ached from […]
For the next hour Shaw v. Reno was forgotten, and in response to Cheryl’s steady prodding, Frank told her how his grandmother had used her position as the wife of a prominent local doctor to chip away at segregation in Lathrop, Virginia. Once, in the early sixties, he told her, when the city closed the […]
Out front, the lobby was mercifully empty, and she was about to start up the stairs when the bellman slipped in from the dining room, pulling the door softly shut behind him. Seeing her, he whirled around, whipping his hands behind his back as if she’d caught him stealing. “Evening, ma’am,” he said, bowing quickly. […]