“She said you acted like a fool and went spouting off about driving fast. Those people could sue me for everything I own. Do you know that, Sister? Goddammit, you’re the most selfish little girl I’ve ever seen. Your mother said you were spouting off about how fast you were driving with everyone listening. I don’t know, Sister. I just don’t know.” He shook his head, then continued. “I brought you back here where you could be somebody. Your ancestors came here as pioneers and made this country for you. My people have been respected down here for two hundred years and you and Dudley are going to ruin all that for me, it looks like. You’ve been running all over town with that Waters boy, he’s a queer duck if I ever saw one. Everybody in town talks about how crazy you talk and act. I just don’t know, Sweet Sister. Well, I’ll get some applications to the university and maybe if you go down there you’ll settle down. Maybe you got all those crazy ideas up at Vanderbilt. I hated having to raise you kids in the North but I had to do it until I could make my stake. I’ve been working twenty hours a day all my life to give you a chance to make something of yourself and this is how you pay me back.”

“It’s your fault,” I screamed. “You’re the one who did it. Every time I start doing good you make me move. You made me leave Harrisburg and you made me leave Franklin. Now you want me to leave Vanderbilt. I don’t know what to do. I’m tired of trying. I can’t start over every time I turn around. I don’t want to go to Tuscaloosa. I want to go back to Vanderbilt and finish my life there.”

“I thought you hated it so much. You said you hated the sorority. You told me I’d ruined your life by sending you there. Now you’re going to change your mind about that? Is that the ticket now?”