Southern Discomfort by Margaret Maron

hon?"
    "You're not feeling well?" I asked him.
    "I'm fine. Just a little stomach virus I can't seem to shake. It comes and goes."
    My eyes met Nadine's. "It comes more than it goes," she said. "Awful cramps. He had a real bad spell Monday night after your swearing-in, but will he see a doctor? I think it's a bleeding ulcer, but he won't let me look at his stool and—"
    "Oh, hey now, woman!" Herman had an old-fashioned delicacy about some things and he fumed in embarrassment. "Deb'rah sure didn't come over here to listen to us talk about something like that."
    Unspoken was the sudden question of why I
had
come.
    "Actually, I guess I'm here for the same thing you and Annie Sue were fussing about before," I told Herman. "I was hoping you'd let me borrow some of your tools Saturday morning. Uncle Ash is so picky and I'm supposed to work on that WomenAid house, too. What about you, Nadine?"
    "Oh, I'm not doing any building, but I did say I'd help some of the other ladies with the picnic lunch."
    "What sort of tools?" asked Herman cautiously.
    "Just a hammer," I assured him. "Maybe a nail apron if you've got an extra."
    "I reckon I could do that right now Annie Sue, you want to look in that side bin for your aunt?"
    "Or I could just drive the truck over Saturday and Deborah could help me string wire."
    "Annie Sue—"
    Anger was tightening his jaws, but she couldn't let it alone.
    "I just don't see why's it such a big deal that I don't have a license. Don't I work for you, too?"
    Normally I don't get between my brothers and their children, but I thought Annie Sue was being reasonable.
    Each company has to have at least one licensed electrician on staff, and the others are empowered to work under that. Sometimes though, the person who holds the license never does a lick of field work. In fact there's a company at the other end of the county that occasionally swaps work with Herman. Their holder of record is the owner's wife. He can put electricity anywhere you want it, but he couldn't pass the written examination. She could. And did.
    "So are y'all furnishing any of the materials?" I asked, hoping to find some ground for compromise.
    "They're buying the fixtures and outlets, but we had some extra coils of wire left over from another job," Herman grunted. "I told Lu I'd just donate it. Along with my services," he added heavily.
    "But don't you see, Dad?" Annie Sue broke in. She sat with her heels resting on the edge of her chair, her hands clasped around suntanned legs drawn up in front. "It's supposed to be only women that's building the house. To make a statement."
    "And just what kind of statement, daughter? That women don't need men for anything?"
    "Oh, now, hon," said Nadine as I stirred uncomfortably in my chair. "She didn't mean that."
    "Yes, ma'am, she did. Just look at her."
    Annie Sue had showered since work and was dressed in a cool blue sundress because she had a date later. White sandals on her feet, pale pink polish on her nails, her shining chestnut hair clipped up off her neck. A stranger might have seen only a sturdy young woman who hadn't yet lost all her baby fat, sitting in respectful silence; but there was nothing respectful about the set of her lips or those hot blue eyes.
    I waded in with flags flying. "And just what's wrong with women proving they can be self-sufficient?"
    His big hand tightened around his glass of half-melted ice. "Now don't you start on me, Deb'rah."
    The exact tone of defensive exasperation, even his choice of words, made me smile. "You sound just like Daddy when he gets cranky."
    The anger went out of Herman's jaw. He loves our father. So does Annie Sue. She put fresh ice cubes in Herman's glass and filled it up again with tea.
    "Look," I said. "What I'm hearing is that you're afraid it'll endanger your license if Annie Sue screws up the wiring, right?"
    "No, it's because I don't want another Mary Dupree on my conscience." As soon as he'd blurted it out, I could tell he wished he'd kept