Uncle Ray

Now, my late Uncle Ray was never at a loss for a story. The veracity of those tales was never really the point. You just took them at face value and, if you were wise, savored them for the telling itself.

So it came to pass that after Ray's mother (my grandmother) died at a relatively early age, his father was remarried, to a local widow. By any account, this was not a happy union. It so happened that Ray's father passed away after a time. Ray's stepmother quickly remarried. One day Ray ran into her "latest." After a few exchanged words Ray sidled up to the newly married man and whispered: "She puts the poison in the meat."