"Who's Nancy?"
"Grandmother Emma's maid and cook.'
"Oh. Good. I'm glad you learned how to make things. We'll help each other. I just love having you here. When Emma's lawyer. Mr. Pond, called to tell me about Emma and how she was sending you to live with me. I thought, finally, finally my family remembers me. I thought I had been put on a raft and shoved out to sea. I can't remember when I last got a telephone call from anyone in my family.
"So," she said, folding her hands together. "Where do you want to start?"
"Start?"
"With yourself, talking about yourself? You can start as far back as you remember. I don't care. I love stories. Oh. I have all the soap opera magazines, so you can catch up and watch them with me. I also love to watch Yesterday's Hungry Heart. It's about romance during the time when there were lords and ladies, knights and princesses. You'll be home from school before it goes on. too. I checked the time, The moment the bus drops you off, just come into the living room and we'll watch it together. okay?"
I didn't know what to say. I never watched television right after school at Grandmother Emma's house and certainly never watched a soap opera. I couldn't imagine doing it instead of schoolwork, and I could never imagine Grandmother Emma watching such a thing.
"You look so serious. Oh. I know. You're worried about doing your homework, but you don't want to start right in on schoolwork after you've just come home from school, do you? I never did. Emma did." she revealed. "She always addressed her responsibilities before anything else. She loved to say. 'If you do what's expected of you, you'll do what you expect of yourself.' Well. I never expected anything of myself." She laughed. "Whenever I told her that, she would get so angry that her ears would turn red." She leaned toward me to whisper. "You know what Emma's fond of telling people about us?"
I shook my head.
"She's fond of saying we're so different we're like night and day. It must have been another postman. Do you know what that means?"
I shook my head even harder.
"Good. Don't ask," she said, pulling back. She began to eat her peaches and cream, obviously savoring every bite.
I tasted mine and thought it was delicious even though it was probably not the proper thing for lunch.
"Do you like it?"
"Yes."
"Good. We only do things we like here. Na one tells us what to do, what to eat, when to go to sleep and get up and what to wear."
She paused, as if she was afraid someone was listening, and then she added in another loud whisper. "No one except Emma, of course. Emma always told everyone what to do, even our mother. But let's not think about it." she followed quickly. "Let's not think about anything unpleasant. Happiness and joy," she said, holding up her child's charm bracelet. "That's what each of these means. This is a smiling face. See?"
I nodded.
"You saw my Christmas stockings hanging on the fireplace, didn't you?"
"Yes, why are they there now?"
"Every day is Christmas in my house." she said and leaned toward me. "And here, we can still believe in Santa Claus if we want to."
She laughed and continued to eat.
She was right, I thought. She and Grandmother Emma were like night and day. Whatever "it must have been another postman" meant, it was probably right,
"Where's your other earring?" I asked her, now that she was showing me her jewelry.
She put her hand to her ear.
"Did it fall off again? We'll have to go on a treasure hunt. Later, we'll try to find it, and whoever finds it gets a prize. What will the prize be?"
"A clean towel," Mae Betty said, returning with two more bags of garbage, which she had picked up from the living room. "In this house, that's a prize."
Great-aunt Frances laughed.
"Oh, don't exaggerate. Mae Betty," she said, waving at her.
"You can wash up your own lunch dishes at least," Mae Betty muttered at us as she went by.