— My God, just hand me that bag of Tater Skins and a napkin, do I have to do it myself like everything else around here? and over a shoulder as she reached the hall — Lily, we'll eat when we usually do if he can make it to the table, put the ham in when the oven gets hot and then read the directions and some yams in with it, they're in that bag on the floor. Bake uncovered on a rack in preheated 325° oven ½ hour to the pound, remove 1 hour before it is done and cut away rind, score with diagonal gashes, dot with cloves and glaze with 1¼ cups brown sugar, 1 tsp dry mustard, 2 tblsp vinegar, garnish with pineapple slices.
— But what about the gravy?
— There wasn't any, there was just this what looked like this little piece of tar in the bottom of the pan so I threw it out.
— Well we've got to eat, get him in to the table will you Lily? And you can start carving this thing Oscar, I mean there's no sense hauling it in there it's enough for an army, hand me a glass will you? And where's the scotch, I mean I don't dare take it in to the table for obvious reasons God, I wish Harry were here, don't cut yourself. Has she put out the silver? And for God's sake keep the wine at your end of the table, we'd better put it in a carafe just the sight of a bottle could, oh Lily. Are we ready?
— He's asleep.
— Well wake him up!
— I can't. I poked him a little and he just sort of moaned with that empty bag of Tater Skins in his hand, he looks sort of yellow.
— I mean you don't think he's had a seizure or something do you? did you feel his pulse? Oscar go and see.
— No I just, I didn't want to touch him it's sort of spooky, he…
— Don't be ridiculous, Oscar put that knife down and do something.
— I am not going in there and feel his pulse Christina. Why did you give him that whole bag of Tater Skins, no wonder he's turned yellow, you can take these plates in Lily I'll bring the…
— Why on earth should she take the plates in, I mean we can sit down and eat right here in peace and quiet now can't we? Whatever made me think I could sit down with him in there to straighten out these papers we have to sign for Father's estate, every time he dug for them in that awful Gladstone bag he came up with something else, didn't we fix a vegetable? I thought we had some peas, those instructions he gave the jury over that wretched child that drowned letting Jesus in at the back door when he'd just finished throwing God out of the courtroom when that odious dog was killed? I mean Harry thought they'd be livid when he practically indicted Jesus for manslaughter but they came out singing his praises for respecting their intelligence of course they hardly understood a word he said, throwing in a Latin phrase or two they thought he was speaking in tongues, Jesus he talked English didn't he? her voice rising to the nasal cadences of far off Stinking Creek — right there in the Bible where he cast those devils into a herd of swine that ran into the sea and drowned just like the time those pigs old Jim Harps had to run and get drowned right there in the Pee Dee where the county agent said it was probably swine fever got to them, did you take those yams out? They're probably burnt to a crisp, not that it matters at this point pour some wine will you, Lily? Talking to them in their own language with that story about the bonfire sparks blowing over and setting the neighbor's house afire same thing with old Frank somebody, set a trash fire blew right over and burned Goody's corncrib down to the ground wouldn't pay him a red cent, I can't possibly eat all this Oscar here, take it back. They liked how he got at them Catholics too, baptising their young before they're hardly off the tit I mean my God, respecting their intelligence? Just a good thing they had a fine man like the Judge to hold this trial, had it down there at Wink County Court with some jury from Tatamount and Stinking Creek where everybody knowed how Billye Fickert shacked up with that fertilizer salesman before she married Hoddy Coops after Earl took off for Mississippi when they run him out for throwing lye down Roddy's well a jury like that would have give the whole store away, can you tell me how Father could have put up with that for thirty years? can you?
— No wait Christina, that doesn't make sense giving the whole store away to somebody who…
— That's what I'm telling you! None of it makes sense, naming this, this babbling lunatic his executor? I mean you think there may not be something to it? that talk about madness running in the family when that loathsome Senator Bilk was ready to impeach him? burning his effigy down there one day and what a great man he was the next when Bilk feels the wind change blowing his trash fire over to burn down Goody's corncrib so he grabs Father's ghost for his reelection campaign while his law clerk sits in there eating Tater Skins with a spicy story about Old Lardass he wanted to tell me when I finally gave up, you can try again in the morning I simply haven't the strength.
— No but wait, don't you want…
— I'm exhausted Lily, I can't eat another bite just hand me my glass, I'm going up the back way and if Harry calls? already slipping off her shoes — will somebody wake me?
— I never even knew those stairs were back there.
— But then you never had servants either did you, oh and Oscar? pausing there in the shadows — for the love of God, make sure he's got no cigarettes when you put him in the library for the night, I mean he'll burn it down and then tell us it's just like a great man dying.
— It's spooky she whispered, to the fading creak of treads and risers gone so long untrodden up the dark stairs, taken up when darkness had stilled through the kitchen itself and the bare floorboards of the halls, the hesitant opening of a bathroom door and the wavering trickle that followed, the shuffle of carpet slippers and the distant clatter of a fallen spoon pulling the pillow over her head till at last the eery light of the fishtank yielded to the sunroom reclaiming its name with a day soft as spring and the echo of raucous laughter down the hall.
— What in God's name is that.
— He's in there watching a game show.
— At this hour? Oscar take him some coffee and get him started digging out those papers we're to sign before he gets his hands on that vile green sock again, Lily? What's this mess on the stove.
— He must have made Cream of Wheat when he was up in the night.
— And the ham, did we leave the ham out? It looks like somebody'd gone at it with an axe.
— Maybe it was these mice that I…
— Lily there are no damn mice you're just seeing shadows, I mean did you hear him out there?
— Maybe he didn't turn the light on, I heard these noises and this shuffling in the hall when the bathroom door squeaked and this trickle trickle trickle every time he went in there because he left the door open, it was spooky.
— Well it's more than spooky, as soon as Oscar digs out these papers to sign we can drive him to the airport, I mean we can't live huddled here in the kitchen like hostages while he sits in there looking like death warmed over cradling that sock in his lap watching game shows and, Harry hasn't called has he?
— That was Reverend Bobby Joe about Daddy, where he just got out of jail down there? banging the saucepan in the sink, scraping the dregs, muttering — they ought to of kept him there.
— Your daddy's full of surprises isn't he, you can throw out those yams too they're burnt to a crisp.
— It's not him no, it's Reverend Bobby Joe that was in jail for yelling at that trial of that boy that got drowned when Daddy was coming up here to get reconciled? So now he can't come because he's going in the hospital for this big operation where Reverend Bobby Joe's down there giving him all this spiritual comfort getting him right with the Lord in case the Lord calls him and if I should go down there and…