“What?”

“I know what Mae was like. A drunk and a whore. You got a little of that in you?” She didn’t sound accusatory, just curious.

Dani flushed. She rarely drank, but got drunk the previous night. And she rarely had sex, but had it that morning.

“No.” Her grandmother answered her own question. “A drunk and whore wouldn’t blush like that. You ain’t no drunk and whore. Tell me.” She leaned forward. “Mae still like that?”

What kind of family did she come from? Kathryn would’ve fainted at the nerve. Dani had a hard time understanding her Aunt Kathryn had lived with this woman, as a mother.

“No.”

“What is she then?” She barked out. “What she doing nowadays?”

“She owns a bar. She’s really successful. You should be proud of her.”

“What’s the name of it?” Her grandmomma had hawk eyes. They followed every twitch, every swallow like a mouse two miles away.

“Mae’s Grill.”

“Are you serious?” Dani was startled by the sudden smile that spread over her face. All the wrinkles were pushed back, and her face distorted into a happy human being.

“Yes.”

She tipped her head back and laughed. “All the workers talk about that place. They love it. Once a week they put in orders, and James drives down and gets them. Her food is good. Damn good. Just like my own momma’s cooking. How is Mae?”

“She’s good. She owns the house next door to the grill, and she’s letting me stay at her lake cabin. She’s happy and sober.”

“Still got the men, I bet.” Sandra harrumphed, but there was no condescension behind it. “Tell me about Erica. I want to know about the one who died.”

“I don’t really know who Erica was when she died.”

“Why not? You’re her sister.”

“You don’t know about your own daughters!”

“No.” A breath. “No, I sure don’t, and I’ll tell you next visit why I don’t know them. I want to know why you don’t know your sister now. This visit.”

“Because I left town. Erica was spoiled, a brat, and obnoxious when I left. When I came back—”

“Let me guess.” Sandra didn’t miss a thing. “She changed?”

“She was dead.”

“Death changes you.”

“What?”

Sandra waved at her. “You said you left. She lost you.” The food was brought in. Sandra started with her pudding and then grabbed the ham sandwich. “This is good food. You don’t want to eat?”

Dani shook her head.

“I’m the crazy one?” Sandra laughed to herself. “You’re crazy for not eating, but to each her own.”

Dani had to ask, one more time, “Why are you in here?”

Sandra’s white hair flew around her as she finished her milk. She shook the carton to make sure every last drop fell into her aged mouth. “Because I get real sad. Sometimes I get real angry, and other times I get real violent. I used to hurt myself on a regular basis. I had someone always watching me. They’d sit on a chair and stare at me for all hours of the day.” She put the milk down and frowned. “They changed my meds a few months ago, and I’m a little better. I’m real good today, got a visitor to boot.” She patted Dani’s knee with a shaking hand. “This is a good day. That’s all it is.” She kept going, “I’ll tell you a little something, just enough to whet the appetite. I want you to come back so you can hear the rest. I wasn’t a fit mother. I wasn’t. I’m not going to say there are two sides to the story because I should’ve been my little girl’s momma. I wasn’t. I know, now, that some of it’s from my own momma and her momma before that. You got a different momma, and judging from the looks of you, whatever my little Danny did—it was right by you.”

“Who is my father?”

Sandra shook her head and stood. She shuffled to the door and yelled out, “We’re done in here. Lawrence, you can have my granddaughter’s food. She didn’t eat a bit.”

Lawrence was inside in a flash. Dani thought it wasn’t for the food, but for the room. He grabbed her sandwich and pudding and escaped to the farthest corner.

“That’s your next visit,” Sandra informed her granddaughter. She held out her arm, and Dani sighed. She grasped the arm and walked alongside her grandmother. As they walked past the humming lady, Sandra stuck her tongue out. Dani was shocked to see the lady harrumphed as she stuck her own tongue out.

“She’s a feisty one. She always tries to take my cigarettes. Got the damn staff fooled, thinking all she does is hum. She don’t sit and not think. She’s a feisty one. Smart, too.”

At Sandra’s room, Dani held back in the doorway.

“Next visit, I’ll tell you why you never knew about me.”

Dani waited.

“And the visit after that—I’ll tell you who your daddy is.” She sat down and rearranged a blanket over her legs. Then gave Dani a pointed look. “You can always ask Kathy. She knows who your daddy is, too.”

“Kathryn doesn’t like me much.”

“That’s not surprising. You look like your momma. She didn’t like your momma either.”

Dani left feeling more confused than when she arrived. Not normal. That was what Dani had thought she was, but maybe she wasn’t.