Summary

The narrator is back home in Greenville, South Carolina visiting her older cousin Temple. Temple tells the narrator she does not visit home enough. Temple tells her that they do not have outdoor plumbing, and the narrator is uncomfortable that they do not have indoor plumbing yet. Her house is dilapidated and the narrator notes it would not "stand up to a northern winter, a Yankee tax assessor, or an estate sale" (180). She tells the story of Temple, who married late in life, to a good man who never cheated on her. As a child, though, Temple's mother gave her daughter to her grandmother. Now, Temple is an adult with graying hair. She has a "wolf grin" (180) The narrator tells Temple that Temple is "finally getting old" (180). Temple tells the narrator that she still has "more left to me than most people get to...