Chapter 5

“Cease this depravity at once, Penny Dupree!” Auntie Virginia had slapped me then, from her position on the floor, interrupting her godly conversation to do so. “Keep clear of Judah Mobley!”

I must admit, there was no way a five-year-old could recount such a scene verbatim, of course. Perhaps I was melding several conversations into one. I had heard my sisters arguing about “the curse” and what should become of me because of it dozens of times over many years.

“We will not send my Pennsylvania away!” Georgia had shouted, during one particularly boisterous row.

“Where to?” Auntie Virginia spat. “Any sort of boarding school would only encourage the perversion.”

It was yet another exchange I had heard through the ductwork.

“I will make him my life, Virginia,” Georgia had vowed. “I will continue to devote myself, as if he were my own.”