"And you're no spring chicken, Samuel," the judge retorted. They both laughed. Then the judge turned with interest toward me. "Well now, Sara, you've got another chick under your wing, I see. And a pretty one at that."
"Yes, Judge." Aunt Sara put her hands on my shoulders and pulled me forward. "This is Melody. Haille's Melo
dy."
"Looks just like her," the judge said, nodding. "Just as I remember her at that age. Hello, Melody," he said.
"Hello."
"How old are you now?" he asked.
"I'll be sixteen in a few weeks."
"Oh, that's nice. Another June birthday celebration."
"Kenneth's a Gemini, too, isn't he?" Aunt Sara asked the judge.
"Oh Sara, not that astrology again," Grandma Olivia warned. Aunt Sara shrank back.
"Well, he was born June eighteenth. Does that mean anything?" the judge asked.
"Geminis are May twenty-first to June twentieth,"
Aunt Sara said in a small voice, her eyes full of fear as she glanced quickly at Grandma Olivia.
"I see," Judge Childs said. "I'm afraid I don't keep up with that star business." He shook his head at Grandpa Samuel and Grandma Olivia. "My maid Toby won't start her day without first checking those predictions in the newspaper."
"Nonsense and stupidity, ramblings of the idiotic," Grandma Olivia said.
"I don't know," Judge Childs said shrugging. "Sometimes, I wonder what's better. Most of the fishermen I know are quite superstitious. Speaking of that, how's the lobstering been so far this year, Jacob?"
"Erratic," Uncle Jacob said. "With all the pollution, the oil spills, I doubt if my grandchildren will be doing much lobstering."
The judge nodded sadly. Aunt Sara directed Cary, May, and me toward the settee as the butler approached to see what sort of cocktail Uncle Jacob wanted.
"I don't drink," he said sharply.
"You oughta ease up on that, Jacob," Judge Childs said. "Doctors are now saying a drink a day is good for the heart. I know I followed that prescription even before it was the fad."
"My son's afraid to cloud his judgment," Grandpa Samuel said.
"And he's always had good judgment," said Grandma Olivia. "Especially moral judgment," she added, sending sharp arrows his way with her eyes.
Grandpa nodded. "That he has, that he has."
I noticed that throughout most of the conversation Judge Childs kept his attention fixed on me and held that soft, small smile on his lips. Finally, as though no one else were in the room talking about anything else, he asked me how my mother was doing.
"How would she know?" Grandma Olivia snapped. "Haille's off to be a movie star."
"Is that right?" the judge asked, still directing himself to me.
"Many people have told my mother that she was pretty enough to be a model or a movie star," I said. "She has auditions and meetings in Hollywood."
"Is that so?"
"Likely story." Grandma Olivia looked at Uncle Jacob, who nodded and sneered with a face that was nearly a replica of his mother's. My daddy had taken after his father much more than his mother, whereas it was the exact opposite for Uncle Jacob.
"She was one of the prettiest girls in