discuss gun control. However, that didn't jibe with Hank's ideas about being a true American, so that idea was not one that made an impression on my aunt and uncle.
After Mariella and Gracie had gotten used to having Tolliver around in his sling, they went off to do their usual things. Mariella had homework, Gracie had a song to learn for chorus, and Iona was finishing up the cooking. Tolliver and Hank went into the family room to watch the news, and I offered to help Iona by taking care of the dishes that had accumulated as she cooked. She smiled and nodded, and I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. This is a job I don't mind. I can think while I do it or talk to a Chore Mate or simply take pleasure in a job well done.
"Matthew was by here today." Iona was stirring a pot on the stove. She'd made chili. "He did call up several days ago, to ask if he could come by. We thought about it. He scared the girls the other day at the skating rink. We thought maybe if they saw him while we were around, they wouldn't be so worried about it. And maybe he wouldn't try to ambush them again, if he knew we'd be reasonable."
This showed good sense on the part of Iona. I found myself nodding at her approvingly, not that she cared whether or not I approved of her. "I'll bet he didn't come just to hang around with the girls and visit with them. What did he want?" Matthew had been a busy bee. I wondered when he found time to work.
"He wanted to take some pictures of the girls. He didn't have any recent ones. We did send him their school pictures, but he said they got taken away in jail. Those men will take anything."
"Matthew is one of those men."
She actually laughed. "Yeah, you're right. Still, if he wants pictures of his daughters, I'm not going to stop him. Though they're our daughters now, and we made sure he knew that."
"Did he talk to them much?" I asked. I was curious.
"No," Iona said. She went to the hall, heard that the girls were playing a video game in their room. She returned to her station at the stove. "That man, I don't understand him. He was blessed with some wonderful children. Tolliver and Mark are both good boys; and he had you and Cameron for stepdaughters, both of you bright and pretty, and no drugs. Then he has these two girls. Mariella's grades are going up. Aside from that one little running-away incident last fall, she's doing good in school. Bless Gracie, she's always a little behind her age group, but she's not a whiner, not a complainer, and she works real hard on her schoolwork. But Matthew don't seem to want to get to know them. He took the pictures, but then he talked to Hank and me. The girls don't know what to make of him."
"I know they don't remember living in Texarkana."
"Not really," Iona said. "Sometimes they mention it, but they never talk about anything specific. Gracie was just a baby, of course, and Mariella was little more than a toddler." She shrugged. "I know there were plenty of times my sister and Matthew weren't there when you needed them."
That was putting it mildly.
"I never said how glad I was you and Hank were willing to take them in," I said, surprising even myself. "It must have been a real shock, going from no kids to two in the blink of an eye."
Iona stopped stirring and turned from the stove to face me. I was drying the dishes and putting them on the counter for Iona to put away in their designated spots. "I appreciate you saying that," she said. "Though I was glad to have them, and taking them into our home was the right thing to do. We prayed about it. That's the answer we come up with. We love these girls like they were our own. I can't believe we're going to have another baby! At my age! Sometimes I feel like Abraham's wife, seventy years old and with child."
Until the meal was ready we talked about Iona's startling pregnancy. We talked about her ob/gyn doctor, special tests she might need as an older first-time mother, and all kinds of pregnancy-related topics. Iona was happier than I'd ever seen her, and anything about her interesting