Reckoning

Margaret’s Catholic mother came from West Scotland. In the past, her ancestors fled across the Irish sea to Ireland, fleeing Protestant clans. Margaret told Magda endless stories of her Irish father, Luke, her mother Meg, and Meg’s sister, who used to run from her father’s house with money for Meg and Luke, who were poor; Henry didn’t like Luke, but Margaret didn’t know why. Margaret told of her slew of uncles—proud, musically gifted men, two of whom had lost feet, supposedly to diabetes. She told of the black ice in the winter, and how the tarmac bubbled from the heat in the summer. And she recalled her silly grandmother, Jessie, and Jessie’s Italian father, an artist who was forced to leave Scotland.

Margaret told about her father, Luke—a mischievous yet pious man. Though he was forgiving he was unable to forgive his cousins for not being Catholic. Margaret talked about Meg and her sisters, who were married yet had dirty senses of humor; she told of uncles who returned from the war with PTSD and boys she dated who never came back. She talked about the exiled Polish officers whom the family housed. One of these officers, Peter, bragged that he’d soon parachute back to Poland to keep fighting. After the war, when he could not return to Poland, he married Margaret. Margaret, wearing a dress and shoes her parents made with skills they had learned in the war, ignored Peter’s warning that he was selfish.