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She died from an aneurysm and they laid her on a table in the front parlor For two days the town stopped by and paraded across the front porch, through the foyer, through the parlor for last respects, then to the dining room for punch and cookies Ray and Forrest hid in the attic and cursed their father for tolerating such a spectacle That was theirwoman now pale and stiff in an open coffin

Forrest had always called it Maple Ruin The red and yellow maples that once lined the street had died of some unknown disease Their rotted stue oaks shaded the front lawn They shed leaves by the ton, far too ather And at least twice a year the oaks would lose a branch that would fall and crash soet removed The house stood there year after year, decade after decade, taking punches but never falling

It was still a handsoian with columns, once a monument to those who'd built it, and now a sad re to do with it For him the house was filled with unpleasant memories and each trip back depressed him He certainly couldn't afford the financial black hole of ht to be bulldozed Forrest would burn it before he owned it

The Judge, however, wanted Ray to take the house and keep it in the faue tere to ask, "What family?" He had no children There was an ex-wife but no prospect of a current one Sairlfriends and a current housing arrangement with Ellie, a three-hundred-pound painter and potter twelve years his senior

It was a biological miracle that Forrest had produced no children, but so far none had been discovered

The Atlee bloodline was thinning to a sad and inevitable halt, which didn't bother Ray at all He was living life for hilorious past He returned to Clanton only for funerals

The Judge's other assets had never been discussed The Atlee fa before Ray There had been land and cotton and slaves and railroads and banks and politics, the usual Confederate portfolio of holdings that, in ter in the late twentieth century It did, however, bestow upon the Atlees the status of "family money"

By the time Ray was ten he knew his fae and his home had a name, and in rural Mississippi this meant he was indeed a rich kid Before she died his mother did her best to convince Ray and Forrest that they were better than most folks They lived in a mansion They were Presbyterians They vacationed in Florida, every third year They occasionally went to the Peabody Hotel in Memphis for dinner Their clothes were nicer

Then Ray was accepted at Stanford His bubble burst when the Judge said bluntly, "I can't afford it"

"What do you mean?" Ray had asked

"I mean what I said I can't afford Stanford"

"But I don't understand"

"Then I'll o to Sewanee, then I'll pay for it"

Ray went to Sewanee, without the baggage of family money, and was supported by his father, who provided an allowance that barely covered tuition, books, board, and fraternity dues Law school was at Tulane, where Ray survived by waiting tables at an oyster bar in the French Quarter

For thirty-two years, the Judge had earned a chancellor's salary, which was a the lowest in the country While at Tulane Ray read a report on judicial coes were earning fifty-two thousand dollars a year when the national average was ninety-five thousand

The Judge lived alone, spent little on the house, had no bad habits except for his pipe, and he preferred cheap tobacco He drove an old Lincoln, ate bad food but lots of it, and wore the sa since the fifties His vice was charity He saved his ave it away

No one kne e donated annually

An autoot two thousand dollars a year, saifts were carved in granite The rest were not

Judge Atlee gave to anyone ould ask A crippled child in need of crutches An all-star tea to a state tournament A drive by the Rotary Club to vaccinate babies in the Congo A shelter for stray dogs and cats in Ford County A new roof for Clanton's only museum

The list was endless, and all that was necessary to receive a check was to write a short letter and ask for it Judge Atlee always sentso ever since Ray and Forrest left home

Ray could see hi out short notes on his Underwood and sticking them in his chancellor's envelopes with scarcely readable checks drawn on the First National Bank of Clanton - fifty dollars here, a hundred dollars there, a little for everyone until it was all gone

The estate would not be complicated because there would be so little to inventory The ancient law books, threadbare furniture, painful faotten files and papers - all a bunch of rubbish that would make an impressive bonfire He and Forrest would sell the house for whatever itfrom the last of the Atlee family money

He should call Forrest, but those calls were always easy to put off Forrest was a different set of issues and proble, reclusive old father hell-bent on giving away hisdisaster, a boy of thirty-six whose al substance known to American culture

What a family, Ray mumbled to himself

He posted a cancellation for his eleven o'clock class, and went for therapy