The last streusel crumb had been scraped from the plate and everyone had pushed their chairs back and made their way out of the dining room. Vivian stayed behind to help her mother clear the table and then brushed the dish towel dramatically back and forth across the rough grain, making a great show of cleaning up, getting a rare smile from her mother and a pat on the head from her Uncle Frank.

“Attagirl!”

Pawpy gave her a wink and then grabbed her mother by the hand, dragging her out to the living room while she protested. He’d never let her mother do the dishes right after a Fish Fry meal and she’d complain that the crud was going to set on the plates and pans if she didn’t get to them right away. Vivian held on to the back of a dining room chair and rocked back and forth, toes to heels, toes to heels, as the grown-ups settled themselves in the living room. She waited until she heard the swinging rhythms and blaring horns of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra coming from the radio, and then she sneaked back into the kitchen. She reached for one of the empty water glasses next to the sink, wiped the rim on the hem of her dress, and tiptoed quietly up the stairs to the bedroom she shared with Violet. When the weather was nice, like it was tonight, Violet liked to play with her dolls in the backyard after dinner, so Vivian had their room all to herself.

Pawpy and Henry’d put the screens in the bedroom windows a couple of weeks ago, and Vivian could smell the neighbor’s freshly cut grass and hear the crickets chirping. She could also hear the faint, faraway sound of Violet’s little voice as she sat under the clothesline and talked to her dolls.

Vivian carefully laid the empty water glass in the middle of Violet’s pillow before easing herself onto the narrow bed. It had to be Violet’s bed because that was the one pushed against the wall between their room and Vera’s. Vivian held her breath and moved slowly enough so the bedsprings wouldn’t creak. Vera had ears like a bat. When she’d crawled herself into a comfortable crouch on her knees, she lifted the glass from the pillow and put the mouth of it against the wall, lining it up with the old faded plum-and-evergreen stripes of the wallpaper, and when she was pretty sure the glass wouldn’t move, she squished her ear right up against the bottom.

It wasn’t like being in the room with them, but the glass-against-wall worked just fine to help her eavesdrop on her older sister and cousins. They spent hours gossiping in Vera’s room about the girls and boys in their classes at school. Ruby and Opal went to high school in Apple Creek and Vivian didn’t know any of the girls or boys they talked about, but she still gasped quietly at the stories, which she could hear just a little bit better with the glass.