Dorothy Garlock - [Route 66] by Mother Road

…ma'am—”
    “I only pick them if they're three inches long,” Leona rushed on. “I'll not get to the other two rows this week. By then they'll be old and tough.”
    “I sure do thank ya.”
    “No thanks are necessary, Mrs. Oliver. There's some green onions and radishes on the end of the rows. I planted them as an afterthought. Take some of those, too. My, I don't know why I get so carried away when I plant a garden.”
    “I'll take the boys. They'll pull weeds while I pick the beans. We'll be careful of the plants.”
    “If there's anything I hate to do it's pull or chop weeds, and the girls are too young yet to turn loose in the garden. I'd better get back to the house and snap the beans I picked if we're going to have them for supper.” Leona lifted her hand in farewell and hurried away.
    She went through the house to the washstand on the back porch, splashed water on her face and blotted it with the slightly damp towel that hung on the nail above the stand. She held it to her face for a hazy, unreal moment, inhaling the sharp, unfamiliar masculine scent, and couldn't really define how it made her feel.
    “Aunt Lee, Uncle Virgil is here.”
    Leona froze. Guilt at being caught smelling the towel Yates had used was replaced quickly by apprehension.
    Oh, no! Not today!
A confrontation with her brother was always unpleasant.
    “Uncle Virgil is here,” JoBeth said again.
    “I heard you, honey.”
    Trying her best to prepare herself for the scene that was sure to follow, Leona hurried through the house to the porch to make sure her brother didn't come into the house. Virgil's friend Abe Patton had driven around the garage and had stopped his car just a few feet from the porch. He and Abe were getting out when Leona came through the door.
    “What's goin' on out here?” Virgil demanded the instant he saw her. He was a tall, thin man with stooped shoulders and thinning hair. The voice coming from the thin, bony face was loud and belligerent. For the hundredth time Leona wondered why he never spoke in a normal tone of voice.
    “Hello to you, too, Virgil. I'm fine, thank you.” Leona's voice was heavy with sarcasm.
    She stepped out into the yard, not wanting to give him an excuse to even come up onto the porch. She knew why he was here. He'd been to town and heard the news about Andy, and no doubt Mr. White had spread the news about Andy's
cousin.
    “What's this about Andy bein' bit by a skunk?”
    “It's true. He's in Oklahoma City getting the rabies shots.”
    “The Lord works in mysterious ways to punish the doers of evil.” He lifted his eyes to the heavens, then turned them on his sister, who stood with her arms crossed over her chest. “Get yore thin's. Yo're comin home. Abe'll make ya a good man. Yo're long past marryin.”
    “I'll…not…go.” Leona spaced the words for emphasis.
    “Mind me now. I ain't takin no sass from ya.”
    “I'm not going, Virgil. I'm staying right here. You might as well go crawl back into the hole you crawled out of and take that poor excuse for a man with you.”
    “Hush yore mouth! Hazel is willin' to take the girls in—”
    “That's good of her …considering she's living in my mama's house and refused to even give me or Irene a picture of her or our father.”
    “That's enough out of ya! I ain't havin' no backtalk from no split-tail gal who fornicates with every man that comes down the highway!” Virgil shouted. “Hazel's a good Christian woman while you're nothin' but a Jezebel livin' in sin first with that heathen and now spreadin' your legs for some other jaybird.”
    Leona's temper flared. “Don't you dare say those things to me, you dirty-minded, sanctimonious pile of horse manure! You and Hazel are the heathens. Neither one of you have an ounce of compassion in your damn miserable hearts. You didn't even come to see your dying sister because she was married to Andy, who loved her with all his heart. Something you'd not understand. You hated him because he