Everyone dresses inperiod pieces. Magnolia branches and flowers grace the window sills andthe mantle over the fireplace. Candlelight flickers. I belie...ve yourfather fell in love with your mother on the night of the MagnoliaBall."I smiled and closed my eyes. The music of the Tennessee Waltz filled myear, and I could see Momma with her red hair in ringlets and a whiteoff-the-shoulder dress dancing with Daddy. "I remember them dancing inhere. I wasn't supposed to come down and look but I did. ?Cory, he came down here and did all this this. I never agreed to anything nor did I encourage him. In fact, I tried to stop him but he was too strong.? Katie told her step sister in a panicked voice?Face it Katie you are nothing more than a teasing little slut.? That was all Cory said to Katie before turning to George she said ?Flip her over and tie her arms behind her back.?Now George had that evil little glint in his eyes too. He pounced on Katie and had her flipped onto her stomach faster. My husband will see to it. For now, we will make ourselves comfortable as we can.”I asked, “Am I to stay here with you?” She nodded her head yes.She told me about her husband and herself and how he came to power. She told me that the world had become very political, and England had made the colonies a mess. He had to travel back and forth from England all the time, and she barely saw him.I asked her, “Do you have any children?”She grinned at me and sarcastically said, "I think you need to have. He had not been part of the dream. His aroma spread across the street towards her. He smelled of death and decay, of something lost beneath graven soil.He beckoned to her and inside Elly felt frightened and delicious. Her skin burned under his gaze and something deep in her belly unfolded. She stepped forward as the man opened the door and as Tom screamed in the back of her mind she moved fluidly into the bar. She went in because the dream and the darkness always began this way and she.