The Night I Gave My Best Friend's Brother a Child novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: To the End of the Line

Edith made us all stay for supper.

She said it flatly, and nobody argued.

We ate on the screened porch at a long pine table, with citronella candles burning at each end and the lake going dark behind the mesh.

Edith sat at the head.

Bridget sat on her left, and Rhett across from her, with Effie on a stack of cushions beside him.

I got the seat next to Rhett, because Effie had pointed at it.

Bridget had brought a bottle of white wine, and she poured a glass for everyone but Effie.

"I want to make a toast," she said, standing.

"Sit down, Bridget," Edith said.

"One toast, Grandma. Please. I'm so happy to be here with all of you."

She lifted her glass.

"To Grandma's eightieth," she said. "To Ketterman Freight. And to the Ketterman line." She smiled at Rhett. "Which ends with the two of us, so let's make it a good ending."

She laughed.

Nobody laughed with her.

Effie looked up from her corn.

"What's an ending?" she asked.

"It's when something is all done," Bridget said brightly, and then she heard herself, and sat down.

Edith picked up her fork and put it down again.

I stared at my plate.

I had been angry in my life.

I had never been so angry at someone I loved, and it frightened me.

Under the table, something touched my knee.

I went still.

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