Daniel was rolling flour barrels from the rail platform into the back of the Wright’s store. He heard his aunties calling out over at the depot and he stopped, surprised by their loud voices.
“What’s going on?” he asked his uncle Sylvester, who was carrying a crate of yams in the back door.
“Rose Winter, James’ daughter, is arriving today,” Sylvester told him. He put the crate down, wiped his dark forehead with his sleeve. “She’s coming to stay with us a while.”
Daniel saw two figures step down from the train.
“Isn’t that your Granny Goins?” Sylvester asked, but Daniel never heard him. He could only look, now, the young woman on the platform caught all his attention. She crossed the platform to his aunts, who quickly surrounded her and began hugging her and exclaiming so loudly Daniel could hear them from the Wright’s platform.
“Those two are carrying on as if that girl was the prodigal,” Sylvester joked.
Daniel watched as his aunts and the young woman moved across the platform and down to the road. He watched the girl, tall, taller than his aunts, her hair braided and the braids pinned in a crown around her head. He wondered if she’d be friendly, thinking she might be beautiful up close. She looked beautiful, from here. The last female cousin who’d come to stay, Marlene, was beautiful but quite haughty, curt with the younger children and stinging with some of her remarks. Marlene regularly reduced their cousin Roy to red-faced silence with her sharp words.
“What do you think?” Sylvester asked, picking up his crate. “You gonna supervise the proceedings, or can we get back to work now?”
“You sound like Marlene,” Daniel said, and laughed. “Sorry, I was just thinking about her. Maybe she gets her sass from you.”
“She can put on a tone, that’s for sure,” Sylvester nodded, laughing with Daniel. “Learned it from her mama, Willa Retha, and was I glad when that woman left home to be married? Used to be all six sisters in the house, all fighting and yelling, all day long. You’d never know it, but Beauty and Happy, they were the quiet ones. Now come on, let’s finish up. I need to get out to Uncle James’ place and get the trap line checked.”
Daniel started rolling his barrel, wondering again about the new girl. He glanced over one more time to watch the group of women but they were gone, up the road towards home.