Confab with Cousin Caleb
Originally posted on September 20, 2008
Caleb: Ah good, the Post.
Annette: Excuse me, I wasn’t finished with that just yet.
Annette: I said, I was not finished. With MY newspaper.
Caleb: The old saying applies in this situation, Ms. Applebaum.
Annette: *wary* What old saying? How do you know my name?
Caleb: ‘Finders, keepers?’ Remember that one?
Caleb: You used to torment me with it all the time – usually while running in the opposite direction after swipin’ one of my toys. An’ I guess I know your name because that’s one thing you always had to share with me, little girl.
Annette: Ca………Caleb?
Caleb: You’ve grown up into a right pretty lady, Nettie-Gal. You must’ve had a heck of an orthodontist. No sign at-all of those buck teeth you used to have.
Annette: *laughing* I never had buck teeth! Oh Caleb, it is you. No one else on God’s green earth ever dared call me “Nettie!”
Annette: *hugs him but has to look way up* Goodness, Caleb! What has Auntie Mae been feedin’ you?
Caleb: Just her usual wholesome country cookin’. I could ask you why you’re still such a scrawny lil’ thing, but I’ll wager what you lack in verticality don’t matter a lick once the fellas ‘round these parts see that gorgeous face.
Annette: Thank you, that’s very sweet of you. So….here……… Why don’t you ‘take a load off and set a spell?’
Annette: What are you doing here? Visiting?
Caleb: You don’t know? Mama wrote Aunt Louise about it a few weeks back. Asked if she’d pass the letter on to you.
Annette: No, she…. I don’t know anything about a letter….. I….I’m not home a lot, and you know how forgetful Mother can be.
Caleb: Your mother never forgets anything, Nettie. But she wouldn’t necessarily consider my arrival good news, so she might not want to bother you with it. Just like she didn’t bother telling you the last two times I was in town.
Annette: You were? She didn’t? Oh, Caleb, why didn’t you write me yourself………..? Oh!…..oh, no, I…. I’m sorry, Never mind, don’t answer that. I……I forgot.
Caleb: No cause to be apologizin’ Nettie. I can see we have a lot of catchin’ up to do. And guess what? We’re going to have plenty of time to do that. I’m fixin’ to stay a while this time; I’ll be finishin’ my last year here at Tech, so like it or not, you’re stuck with me.
Annette: At Tech? Oh that’s super! I can pop down there in no time at all.
Caleb: I’ll sure be delighted if you did that. It will save me the hassle of comin’ out to the estate and hob-nobbin’ with the upper crust.
Annette: My parents? I don’t know – I’d love for you to visit – you could show them yourself what a fine young man you’ve become.
Caleb: In spite of my upbringing, huh?
Annette: No, because of it, silly. So how are Auntie Mae and Uncle Bubba?
Caleb: They’re great. Lovin’ life in Mississippi and getting along just fine with everyone in town. Not like it was here, especially there at the end.
Annette: ?!?!?!
Annette: Caleb, you must come out. You know you’d be welcome.
Caleb: *distantly* Would I really, Annette? You’re sure about that?
Annette: I don’t…. why wouldn’t I be sure? Caleb, what’s going on? You’re family - of course you are welcome. Mother loves to demonstrate her famous hospitality, and my father will want to catch up on what Uncle Bubba’s been doing, and….
Caleb: I doubt that, Cousin.
Annette: *in a small voice* I don’t understand.
Caleb: You really don’t, do you? It’s okay. It’s been a long time and you were just a kid back then. I…. when my parents moved us away, there were things that…. there were good reasons.
Annette: And my parents had something to do with that?
Caleb: They pretty much had everything to do with it. Ah, Nettie, don’t y’all worry about it, okay? Even if the folks never come to terms, it doesn’t mean we can’t hang out, does it?
Annette: We’ve always gotten along just fine. Oh, Caleb, whatever my parents did to make you feel you’d be unwelcome in our home, I wish I knew what it was, or if there was anything I could do to put it right.
Caleb: You would, too, wouldn’t you? I don’t know how you managed to grow up in that house as their only child and not turn into your mother, Nettie-girl, but I’m mighty glad you didn’t.