The Turkey Wore Satin Read Online Free Page B

shoes. “Who asked you to bring us the
cheese platter up to us?”
    “ The lady of the house, of
course.”
    “ You mean
Iris?”
    A deep flush took over Brykia’s cheeks and
she looked down at her feet. “Yes.”
    Grandma Iris huffed and puffed and pounded
her cane on the good hardwood floors. “You will not accuse me
murder in my own home!”
    Jack laughed. “Wouldn’t be the first
time.”
    Her elderly body shot arrow straight and her
lips pursed, but it was Angela who defended the matriarch. “My
mother is not a man-killer.”
    “ No, just a ball-breaker,”
Tyrone chuckled.
    Jonnie’s body tensed, and he took his turn.
“Marty, look, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, here, but my
mother’s not a murderer and neither is anyone else in this family.
George got bit by a spider and he didn’t call an ambulance. He died
for drag. Simple as that.”
    “ I think I’m starting to
agree with Jonnie,” Cousin Beth said, her cheeks streaked with
tears. “Anyway, we’ll know more when Professor Turquay gets here.
He’ll be able to tell us what kind of spider bit Daddy.”
    Suddenly, Cousin Georgette shot up from the
couch and shouted, “Turquay! T-U-R-Q-U-A-Y!”
    Everyone turned to look at her.
    “ I knew I’d seen that name
somewhere. It was spelled funny and it made me laugh.” Georgette
turned to her mother, and her face fell with an expression of deep
shock.
    “ What’s wrong?” Marty
asked. “Where did you see the professor’s name?”
    “ It was on that shipping
box when we got here,” Georgette murmured. “Remember, Mother? It
was on that package from the university.”
    Cynthia waved a dismissive hand in her
daughter’s direction. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,
child. What shipping box?”
    “ It was addressed to you,”
Georgette went on. “Sent here care of Grandmama. I asked what was
in it, but you didn’t answer. You just picked it up and took it
away…”
    “ I saw that box too,” Beth
said, quietly, like she was in a trance. “It had one of those ‘live
animal’ stickers on it. I was about to ask what it was when
Grandmother yanked me into the front room and called for
tea.”
    “ The spider!” Tyrone
gasped, covering his pink lips with bright purple
fingernails.
    “ Where?” Jack squealed,
jumping onto the nearest chair.
    Tyrone tsked. “Not in here. In the box! The
live animal box. Honey, keep up. We ain’t slowin’ down for
y’all.”
    “ Mother!” Beth
cried.
    But Tyrone obviously craved his moment in
the sun, because he stood and pointed an accusing finger at
Cynthia, and said, “Honey, you killed your husband.”
    Cynthia’s eyes filled with tears, but she
blinked them away. “Well, that’s the silliest thing I’ve ever
heard! Me, kill my husband? Why-ever would I do such a thing?”
    “ Money?” Tyrone asked.
“Rich man like that’d probably leave his wife a tidy
sum.”
    “ Maybe he was cheating on
you,” Marty proposed.
    “ Or because he looks
better in a dress than you!” Jonnie said.
    “ Don’t be vile,” Cynthia
replied. “George always looked atrocious in women’s wear. How he
managed to win the drag competition year after year, I’ll never…”
Her lip began to quiver as she said, “…I’ll never know.”
    Georgette stroked her mother’s back. “Daddy
was funny on stage. That’s why everybody voted for him. He made us
all laugh.”
    “ That’s right,” Kristin
and her mother both said.
    Jack relented. “We’ll all miss the guy’s
drag performance. I can’t deny that.”
    Cynthia’s stiff upper lip broke and she
wailed as she said, “It wasn’t my idea!”
    “ What wasn’t your idea?”
Marty asked into the microphone.
    “ It was Mother! Mother
insisted! She said I had to carry on the Mayfair family
tradition!”
    “ Hush, Cynthia,” Grandma
Iris chastised.
    “ What Mayfair family
tradition?” Marty asked. “You mean the drag show?”
    “ No,” Cynthia sobbed.
“There’s another one, an