The Sand Castle Read Free

she called it.
    Leroy hugged the blanket tighter, “I’m not going in the water.”
    â€œNot now anyway. Sunrise is breakfast time for everyone and your little toes would look so tasty.” Mother teased him.
    â€œI’ll keep my sneakers on,” he replied solemnly.
    Louise laughed, bending down to kiss hischeek. “Don’t do that. By the time the water warms up you’ll be safe.”
    He nodded but clearly did not believe this.
    â€œWho’s hungry?” Mother took Leroy’s blanket and spread it out.
    Louise spread out my blanket and within minutes ham biscuits, cheese, little apple tarts, and deviled eggs graced the center of the blankets.
    Mother poured hot tea for herself and me. Aunt Louise liked coffee, as did Leroy, so they drank from her green thermos, which had thin red concentric pin stripes. Co-colas and 7 UPs nestled in the cooler since no one in our family could survive long without one or the other. Occasionally, Mother would knock back a jigger of whiskey followed by a Co-cola but not often. When she did it was usually in winter after she’d trudged in from finishing her chores. No one in our family was a drinker except for PopPop, who came back from Verdun a changed man. He was good to me and let me sleep with his foxhoundsas well as play with them—but sleeping with them was the big prize. Mother and Louise said he was never the same after the war. He drank off and on but when he was on, he’d drink a fifth of whiskey a day. Yet the minute he knew I was coming to stay with him he stopped. I didn’t understand it.
    Uncle Ken seemed the same after World War II, at least on the outside. Louise said that Ginny told her he’d wake up crying in the middle of the night. I never saw it myself. It was kind of funny, too, because he was proud to be a marine but said over and over he never wanted Leroy to go to war.
    Once I told Uncle Ken I wanted to fight.
    He put his hand on my shoulder and leaned down to whisper, “You would, too, but put it out of your mind.”
    Mother and Louise talked about the fall clothing coming into the department store on the downtown square. The colors proved a big topic,with Mother liking the plaids and Aunt Louise getting particular about what kind of plaid.
    Since at that point I didn’t know the difference between clan MacLeod and the tartan of the clan Lamont, I focused on Leroy. “You think a shark will eat you?”
    â€œHow about a manta ray?” His blue eyes widened.
    â€œToo far north.”
    â€œHow do you know?” he challenged me.
    â€œCause I read
National Geographic
, that’s why.”
    He whispered, ham biscuit crumbs on his rosy lips, “Aunt Louise won’t let me read it. Naked women. I saw one once and she had rings around her neck and her neck was long as a giraffe. No clothes hardly.” He then covered his mouth with his hand and giggled.
    I whispered back, “I saw that issue, too.”
    Mother had taught me to say, “issue” for periodicals. A stickler for proper identification of everything, she’d bang on me until I got it right.
    â€œCow udders.” He giggled louder.
    I whispered louder as I looked down at my flat chest, “If I grow lung warts like that I will die. Really and truly, Leroy, I will die.”
    We both turned our eyes to look at Mother and Aunt Louise’s breasts which stood out nicely in their camp shirts, they each had a light sweater thrown over their shoulders, pressed shorts on their shapely legs. Men always looked at their legs so I guessed they were special. Then we giggled more.
    â€œWhat are you two giggling about?” Mother reached over to playfully swat my head.
    â€œNothing,” I lied, and we laughed even harder.
    This made Mother and Aunt Louise laugh and then we all laughed although by now we didn’t know why. It didn’t matter.
    â€œJuts, remember Aunt Doney’s bathing