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"Thank you, Grandpere."
"I guess you cleaned up my shack some, too, didn't you?" I nodded. "Well, thanks for that."
He reached for the cord to pull and start his motor.
"Grandpere," I said, approaching. "You were talking about someone who was in love and
something about money, last night after we brought you home."
He paused and looked at me hard, his eyes turning to granite very quickly.
"What else did I say?"
"Nothing. But what did you mean, Grandpere? Who was in love?"
He shrugged.
"Probably remembered one of the stories my father told me about his father and grandpere. Our family goes way back to the riverboat gamblers, you know," he said with some pride. "Lots of money traveled through Landry fingers," he said, holding up his muddied hands, "and each of the Landrys cut quite a romantic figure on the river. Lots of women were in love with them. You could line them up from here to New Orleans."
"Is that why you gamble away all your money? Grandmere says it's in the Landry blood," I said.
"Well, she ain't wrong about that. I'm just not as good at it as some of my kinfolk was." He leaned forward, smiling, the gaps in his teeth dark and wide where he had pulled out his own when the aches became too painful to manage. "My great, greatgrandpere, Gib Landry, was a sure-thing player. Know what that was?" he asked. I shook my head. "A player who never lost because he had marked cards." He laughed. "They called them 'Vantage tools.' Well, they certainly gave an advantage." He laughed again.
"What happened to him, Grandpere?"
"He was shot to death on the Delta Queen. When you live hard and dangerous, you're always gambling," he said, and pulled the cord. The motor sputtered. "Someday, when I got the time, I'll tell you more about your ancestors. Despite what she tells you," he added, nodding toward the house, "you oughta know something about them." He pulled the cord again and ,this time the motor caught and began to rumble. "I gotta get goin'. I got some oysters to catch."
"I wish you could come to dinner at the house tonight and meet Paul," I said. What I really meant was I wish we were a family.
"What do you mean, meet Paul? Your grandmere invited him to dinner?" he asked skeptically.
"I did. She said it was all right."
He stared at me a long moment and then turned back to his motor.
"Got no time for socializin'. Gotta make me a livin'."
Grandmere Catherine and her friends appeared on the road behind us. I saw Grandpere Jack's eyes linger for a moment and then he sat himself down quickly.
"Grandpere," I cried, but he gunned his motor and turned the dingy to pull away as quickly as he could and head for
one of the shallow brackish lakes scattered through the marshes. He didn't look back. In moments, the swamp swallowed him up and only the growl of his motor could be heard as he wound his way through the channels.
"What did he want?" Grandmere Catherine demanded.
"Just to get his dingy."
She kept her eyes fixed on his wake as if she expected he would reappear. She glared and narrowed her eyes into slits as if she were willing the swamp to swallow him up forever. Soon, the sound of his dingy motor died away and Grandmere Catherine
straightened herself up again and smiled at her two friends. They quickly returned to their conversation and entered the house, but I lingered a moment and wondered how these two people could have ever been in love enough to marry and have a daughter. How could love or what you thought was love make you so blind to each other's weaknesses?
Later that day, after Grandmere Catherine's friends left, I helped her prepare our supper. I wanted to ask her more about Grandpere Jack, but those questions usually put her in a bad mood. With Paul coming for supper, I dared not risk it.
"We're not doing anything special for supper tonight, Ruby," she told me. "I hope you didn't give the Tate boy that impression."
"Oh, no, Grandmere. Besides, Paul isn't that kind of a boy. You wouldn't even know his family was wealthy. He's so different from his mother and his sisters. Everyone in school says they're stuck-up, but not Paul."
"Maybe, but you don't live the way the Tates live and not get to expect certain things. It's just human nature. The higher you build him up in your mind, Ruby, the harder the fall of disappointment is going to be," she warned.
