Free Flowers in the Snow by Danielle Stewart Page B

I won’t leave either.”
    “I know I’m supposed to scold here, but as a lawyer I’m impressed with her argument,” Michael interjected as he dodged a glare from Betty and a slap to the ribs from Jules.
    “She does have a point,” Piper added. “There’s no one on this porch more like you than Frankie. I think it’s important for her to hear what it was like for you back then.”
    Betty downed the last sip of amber liquid in her glass and groaned. “Piper and Michael, you’re the biggest troublemakers. I feel like we should just get that out now. When you two are together I always know I’ll be dealing with nonsense. But let’s hear what her mama thinks about it.”
    Jules shifted in her seat, her eyes darting between a pathetically pleading Frankie and everyone else on the porch. “It’s a part of Edenville’s history. It happened. Whether she learns about it on this porch or out in the world, she’ll hear it eventually. I’d rather have her here where she can ask questions and understand what that time was really like.”
    “Good,” Frankie said victoriously but toned it down instantly when her mother shot her a look of warning.
    “Do any of y’all have any questions for me?” Betty asked, holding her glass out so Clay could refill it.
    “I do,” Piper interjected. “The first time I sat at your table you told me your recipes were handed down from past generations, and your mother was the first person to put sour cream in her potatoes. But you just said Winnie taught you to make her special potatoes.”
    “I’ll never take away the fact that my folks gave me life. They brought me into the world, and I truly believe they did the best they knew how. But when I close my eyes and think about a mama I think of Winnie. That’s where I learned to cook. That’s where I learned how to be a person, a real human being. There’s a big difference between a mother and a mama. Those recipes, the ones I said were handed down . . . they were Winnie’s.”
    “How did you get to be nearly a teenager and still not know what was going on in the world?” Jules asked. “It was such a tumultuous time throughout the country, but you didn’t seem to realize it.”
    “I sure didn’t know what the hell was happening. Edenville was very insulated and my household even more so. We didn’t have a television, and my parents could hardly read, so we weren’t much for sitting around with the paper. Once I started to learn more about it from Winnie, things I’d heard in the past started to make sense. I guess I just didn’t know people had that capacity to hate each other. But once I knew, there was no turning back.”
    “I thought the Supreme Court ruled on segregation in the late fifties. You’re talking about four or five years later.” Bobby shook his head as though the entire idea of the history of Edenville made him feel ill.
    “I don’t know the legal mumbo jumbo of it all. I just know Edenville held out until they couldn’t anymore. But that night the people stormed through what was known as the west side shacks and wreaked havoc. They made it clear while the courts had ruled it illegal to keep blacks out of their white school, they weren’t going to swing their doors open and give a warm welcome.”
    “People must’ve been so scared back then,” Frankie remarked quietly as she squeezed in tighter to her mom. “I can’t imagine having to sit in our house while a bunch of angry people came shouting at us for something we didn’t even do. You wouldn’t let that happen would you, Daddy?” Her eyes were wide and begging for Michael to assure her he’d always be there to protect her.
    He stopped short of a blind assurance made just for the sake of comforting her. Betty knew Michael to be rooted in reality, and his answer was no surprise. “You never know what the world is going to bring, but that’s why I work so hard. The law is there to protect us and make sure things like that never happen