The Mandie Collection by Lois Gladys Leppard

Celia. She sat up straight, watched for the judge to enter, and listened for Etta Hughes to come in the door, which was now behind them. Joe sat on her left and Uncle Ned on her right. John Shaw had been the last to be seated, and he was sitting on the other side of Joe, next to the aisle.
    â€œAre you all right?” Joe whispered in her ear.
    Mandie suddenly realized she was almost holding her breath as she waited for the event that was about to unfold here in this room. She took a deep breath and whispered back to him, “Yes.”
    At that moment she heard footsteps in the hallway come to the open door and pause. And at the same time, the clerk entered the room from a door just beyond the door with JUDGE lettered on it. He was middle-aged, awfully tall, rather skinny, and wore spectacles. Walking to his seat at the front, he sat down, opened a book he was carrying, and did not even glance at them.
    In the meantime the footsteps began again, and Mandie could tell the person was coming down the aisle. She became rigid again and almost lost her breath when Etta Hughes came into view across the aisle and sat down on a seat in the front row. Mandie didn’t want to look at her, but somehow her eyes became glued to the woman who so far had not looked at her.
    â€œPapoose,” she heard Uncle Ned whisper as she felt his arm go around her shoulders on the back of the bench. She reached up and squeezed his hand without changing her gaze.
    Etta Hughes was dressed in what Mandie remembered as her Sunday dress—plain brown, without any trim, and a wide-brimmed hatthat hid part of her face as she sat there looking down at the papers in her hands. She was completely ignoring Mandie and the others. And Mandie knew she had to have seen them when she came through the doorway behind them.
    Mandie was so absorbed in watching the woman that Joe had to jerk her hand when everyone stood up as the judge entered and took his seat. She noticed the man wore a black robe and smiled as he spoke, but she was so worried about what Etta Hughes was going to say that she didn’t even hear what the judge said.
    â€œMrs. Etta Shaw,” the clerk was saying, and Etta stood up.
    Mandie gasped in surprise. The woman was not Etta Shaw . She had married Zack Hughes shortly after Jim Shaw had died.
    â€œYes,” she said as she stood there, evidently not knowing what else to say. The clerk took her papers to the judge.
    â€œYou were married to James Alexander Shaw?” the judge questioned. “When he died, you then married Zack Hughes. How can you say you are Etta Shaw now?”
    â€œI have divorced Zack Hughes and taken back Jim Shaw’s name,” Etta said. “I have no home now and would like possession of the house he left me.”
    â€œI believe this is a will,” the judge said, looking over the papers in his hands. “Wherein James Alexander Shaw left Etta Shaw all his property.” He glanced up at her and asked, “James Alexander Shaw died April 13, 1900. That’s over a year ago. Why did you take so long to file this will?”
    â€œI don’t have much education,” Etta said. “I just didn’t know I was supposed to until I heard his daughter, Amanda, was claiming she had a will giving her the house, and I decided then I must do something about it, because that is the real will that you have there, Judge. Whatever Amanda has is not his true will.”
    â€œDo you know the two witnesses on this will?” the judge asked her.
    â€œYes,” Etta said.
    â€œIt will be necessary for you to bring them in,” the judge told her. “That is all right now. You may be seated.” The judge turned to look at John Shaw, and John immediately rose as the judge said his name.
    â€œI am John Shaw, Your Honor,” he said. “I have a letter here written to me by James Alexander Shaw, who was my brother, and wouldask you compare the signature with that on the