Presenting the Swaddled Baby

“We’re sorry for your loss, Miss Victoria,” said Mr. White as his color guard presented the flowers. One corner of the arrangement, a casualty of the battle with the threshold, dangled limply.
“Taz was a great man,” he said. “A true pioneer. A patriot.”
Mr. White then motioned for one of the other Klan members to step forward. He ceremoniously unwrapped a medium-sized American flag and presented it to Gammy. She took it in her hands as if it were a swaddled baby.
John Tazwell Latham, Sr. was not known as a “joiner” and had never actually gotten around to officially putting his name on the Klan rolls, although he had attended a meeting or two. This wasn't surprising. T.J.'s grandfather had never been a member of any organization that anyone could remember. He wasn’t even officially a member of his own church. But the Klan (and the church) had assured Mrs. Latham that such formalities wouldn't be necessary. Mr. Latham had been a pioneer citizen, after all.
“Would you say grace for us, Mr. White?” Birdy asked.
This was the invitation Frank White had been hoping for. He assumed the somber, slightly slumped stance one was expected to put on prior to invoking the name of the Lord. But a sudden commotion erupted in the kitchen before he could clear his throat.