Remembrance: The Descendants

Martha reached over and rested a hand on Jessica’s. “That’s how we met. I lived two houses down from Jess and Eddie. We’d stay at her house or mine, together with the kids, while the guys went out. Commercial fishing. They would have to leave at three to get out on the water. We felt better being together than a woman alone with little ones in the house.” Fingers wrapped around her bright red mug, Emlen took a sip of coffee and let the women talk. Another one of those trade secrets she learned early – get the ball rolling and let them spill.

Nudge the ball back on track if it went too far off course, yet you never knew what kind of info that ‘of course’ might bring out. Truth, for her, was easy to spot. It was in spoken words, facial expressions, body language, and gestures. One of her friends had said it was uncanny how accurate Emlen was regarding checking out liars. Big lies, little lies, it didn’t matter. She could tell. Eh, some people were good at math, and Em was good at reading people. Susan had been quiet the longest as she picked at the Danish remains on her plate.