Bulls Island Read Online Free Page A

incorrectly.”
    It appeared that perhaps I had shortchanged myself in the cocktail department.
    “May I freshen up your glass?”
    “You cert’ly may!”
    I nearly collided with Rosie and the sandwiches on the way back to the kitchen.
    “I’ll be right back,” I said to her, and she nodded, understanding from my tone that a skirmish was about to ensue.
    Rosie was a silent veteran but a witness nonetheless of many family differences of opinion. Sure enough, when our paths crossed again in the next minute or so, she asked to be excused for the night.
    “No problem,” I said. “Give my best to Mickey. Ask him if he wants to go fishing tomorrow. Early, before it’s a thousand degrees.”
    She smiled at me and once again I realized I had crossed the line, encouraged a personal relationship with her via her son. My early-warning system told me this was dangerous. Not my type, but a nice gal. I ignored my conscience and smiled back at her.
    “I will. Thanks. I’ll put the rest of dinner in the fridge, and if you could just turn the dishwasher on…”
    “I can do that! You go on and have a pleasant evening now…” She was a nice gal. Around Valerie’s age.
    “Good luck!” she whispered, with the crisp understanding that while my mother was taking polite bites of tomatoes on white bread with basil mayonnaise, she was also poised to sink her talons into my jugular. Rosie never missed a trick.
    “All right, Mother. Here we are,” I said, putting her drink before her and taking my seat yet again.
    “There is something I want to say, so I am just going to say it.”
    Incoming. I took a huge bite of my sandwich and gave her my most innocent look.
    “Go ’head,” I said.
    “Don’t speak with a full mouth, J.D. It’s very impolite.”
    “’Kay.”
    “Now see here, J.D., I know that you have concerns about Valerie. I share them. Her inability to conceive is a cause for grave concern. And your father…”
    “Where is Big Jim tonight?”
    “Down in Savannah at a business meeting.”
    “Oh.”
    We both knew that meant he was visiting the strip joints he owned with an anonymous U.S. senator on the border and very likely on the receiving end of the intimate favors of a pole dancer.
    “Listen, son. I understand that you want children, but you must also understand that this land has been in our family’s blood since the days of King Charles II. Why, we even own Cavalier King Charles spaniels! It is our bloodline that has worked this land, fought to hold on to it, and our blood that cares so much about it. You cannot, simply cannot, bring in some foreign child born to some drug-addicted prostitute and call that child our blood!”
    “Oh.” I waited a few seconds and then said, “Why not?” I tried to maintain a placid expression to minimize the scuffle.
    “Have you and Valerie both gone completely insane?”
    “Mother?” I wiped my mouth, put my napkin on the table, and sat back in my chair. “Plenty of people adopt wonderful children who grow up to do great things! I must say, you surprise me. How can a woman like you continue to be so narrow-minded?”
    “Narrow-minded? Me? Not in a million years and you know it!”
    “Was not our Lord adopted by Joseph? And what about Moses?”
    “Beside the point…”
    “And Dave Thomas?”
    “Who in the world is Dave Thomas?”
    “Founder of Wendy’s?”
    “You mean that fast-food establishment?”
    “Yes. That fast-food establishment. And President Gerald Ford? Art Linkletter? Even Eleanor Roosevelt, Mother. I mean, come on!”
    “Well, I can see you did some homework, J.D. You did some homework. You’re just like your father! Always have to have the last word!”
    “Come on now…let’s be civilized about this.”
    “I just want you to be careful, that’s all.”
    “I am, Mother. And I always have been.”
    “Don’t you worry about Valerie’s headaches, too? Heavenly days, it just seems to me that she has a litany of maladies, J.D. Don’t you