The Wedding Gift Read Free Page A

…well, I don’t like to look at it at all. I kind of
always expect to see something too, but it's not ladies in hoop
skirts.
    There is a room on the
second floor of that house, and when you walk by you get this
feeling like you want to look up at the window, but I never do … I
can't even say why. But I’ll tell you this, it's not my brother's
face I think I’ll see if I do ever get brave enough to look up. I
think it’s her face, Robina. Jessie said she saw her up there once,
and now I wouldn’t look up for all the tea in China.

Chapter 2

    Darn it, I have gotten all
off track here. What I meant to be writing about is my story, not
about some creepy old murders and a haunted house.
    My Grandma Belle gave me
this journal when I told her about me and George falling in love
and planning to get married and all, and she said I should
“ Write down my story for future
generations of Worthier-Willets to read .” I
thought that sounded fine and, besides which, if I write down my
story, the real story, then no one will have to rely on Miz
Willets’ version, which might not be so nice, if you know what I am
saying. So this is the true story of me and George, and the babies
we are going to fill up our townhouse with.
    My name is Leeann Corrine
Worthier. I was born right here in Dalton, Oklahoma to Charlie and
Elma Worthier. My mama and daddy sure weren’t expecting me; they
had their two boys, Charlie and Randy, who were already thirteen
and twelve. Mama always said she had been done with babies for
years, and since her boys were mostly grown, Mama had even started
working for Miz Willets two days a week as a part-time maid to
bring in more money. Mama said she started feeling peculiar and
believed that the change had come upon her early, but it hadn’t …
it was just me.
    Now I don’t know if they
were happy right off the bat about a surprise baby, but I know that
my daddy has been crazy about me as long as I can remember. Anyway,
my mama always said that if it weren’t for me, she would have gone
crazy after Charlie died. She said me being born gave her a new
reason to live and that she has thanked the Lord above for me every
day since I got here, which to be strictly honest, I never get
tired of hearing.
    I know my brother Randy
loves me, too, but he isn’t so good at showing it … not to me or to
his wife, Sarah Beth, either. Mama says Randy used to be the
sweetest, most affectionate little boy in the world, but that he
got real withdrawn and quiet after he lost his big brother and he
ain’t never been the same since.
    I don’t know about any of
that; it's hard for me to imagine people being any different than
how I have always known them to be. Anyway, after Charlie died, my
Grandma Belle was so worried about Mama’s fragile mental condition,
that she is the one who got her started entering me in beauty
pageants as a way to interest her in new things. Since my mama is a
genius at making fancy clothes, she sewed all my dresses for the
pageants and then, after a little while, the other mamas started
asking her to make their daughters some dresses too. So before you
knew it, Mama had a little business going - 'Elma's Pageant Dresses
and Gowns' - and heck, now she has a web site.
    All the pageant stuff was
real good for a couple reasons: first off Mama got happy and
involved in the world around her again, and also Elma’s Pageant
Dresses and Gowns has mostly supported our family since daddy has
only worked a little off and on since losing Charlie. But the point
about all that is that, as you can see, my coming saved the family
in many ways, and they have always treated me like a princess on
account of that; well saving the family, and then …well, don’t
think I’m being just terrible for saying this, but it’s also on
account of how I look. If my mama ever read this, she would say God
would strike me down for my pride, but if I want to be strictly
honest here, then I have to talk about the way I look. And