Uncle escaped. He took a handgun and descended into the cellar, and the air resonated with the muffled sounds of a car backfiring. I hardly knew either of them, he or Auntie. Daddy said he did it to get away from her. That may be. Anyway, he left a fortune. A million, Daddy said, at a time when a new Cadillac could be had for less than four grand. Today a Caddy is forty grand, …showed first 75 words of 730 total…

…showed last 75 words of 730 total…The roast pan that rode home with us was old, the porcelain chipped away in places. Almost rusty. Years later, the last years of her life, I was informed that Auntie roamed the halls of her abode, mindlessly, her existence of no more value to her than the waste that she lived among. I didn't mind. And if that dooms me to regions inhospitable, I'll know how to enter, won't I? With grace and humor.