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He shakes his head and so with you if it weren’t for the Grierson heritage that needs overseeing

You got your ot mine There ain’t no use drea her a glass of bourbon and raising his own, you can drink with me anytime It’s an honor

Thanks, she says and drinks Next tih this way I’ll stop in and say hello to the family

The estate, no doubt, will be intact

To Granny Grierson, she says and raises her glass

To Granny Grierson

To Richard the gentle piano player!

To Richard!

They go on to toast his father and Johns and Maisie and the dummy and each other and anyone else they can think of, and they kiss once, he with an arh and start all over again with the toasts, and by the tihts are thick and soupy and once inside her rooet an hour’s sleep, but she knows if she did she oes to the bathroom sink and splashes some water on her face and opens theand walks around the room a few times and waits for time to speed back up to where it should be

EXCEPT HALF an hour later when she’s getting ready to make her escape, there’s a knock on her door and it’s Ja wretched and holding a highball in one hand and a revolver in the other

Need a favor, he says, his words slurring together You knohat? I don’t think Sarah Mary Williaot secrets--but it doesn’t matter Will you do hta be layin down before the floor flies up and hits you in the face

It doesn’tYou’ll leave The Griersons will hold sway over the valley and the mead

Co to do with that gun?

Gun?

He looks surprised to find the pistol in his hand Then it comes back to him

Oh, this is for you I want you to killin the doorway, one hand grasping a glass of bourbon and the other la his ar him back down the hall to the library, where she lets him fall back on the couch She takes the bourbon and the pistol and sets theet so to do it, aren’t you? he says You have to do it You’re the only one It’s spite and shaood mananyway, a decent man It’s shamefulness He doesn’t deserve it

I don’t reckon he cares much either way, truth be told But if you want to put him down so bad, why don’t you do it yourself?

He looks at her, his face contorted, his eyes blasted--they have witnessed the worst kind of ignominy He tries to raise hiain

He says finally, He’s my father

She studies him He despises the very fa, abject, glorious, inutile and perverse

All right, she says All right, dang you

She stands, and he covers his face with his hands

Thank you, he says Thank you, thank you Keep your secrets, Sarah Mary Williams You are owed

She’s almost out of the rooun on the end table Don’t forget this

Never oddarn house

IN THE basee door and exchanges a long gaze with Randolph Grierson, who sits sluy to pull himself up His eyes have all the red-rimmed sunkenness of an ancient aniotta say it don’t feel exactly right

The fingers of his hand grasp weakly at the air, and for a , dreaht, she continues, the destruction of what a family loves--or even what a faot its own spooks, and it ain’t for strangers to coh the chicken wire, and he struggles to move a little in her direction

Yeah, I know, she says You don’t care one way or the other, do you? All you want is a little chuot a whole household can’t let go of you--one generation on either side that can’t bear either to look at you or forget you That’s a lot of passion you got stirred up around here, Mr Grierson And you’re off beyond the pursuit of itsI reckon there’s a kind of freedom to it

She leans forward now, her elbows on her knees

Beyond the pursuit of ood and evil too, she says See, it’s a daily chore tryin to do the right thing Not because the right thing is hard to do--it ain’t It’s just cause the right thing--well, the right thing’s got a way of eluding you You give ood frohteous truth But thes are a slippery business, and tellin theuess

She stands and undoes the latch on the cage and swings the door open She advances two steps in and stands over the slow, grasping figure of Mr Grierson and unsheathes the gurkha knife

And soet tired of pokin at the issue Those are the ti because you’re tired of thinkin on it And that’s when the devil better get his pencil ready to tally up a score, cause the tione And you think, that’s it for ht then, hell is s it down

ON THE way back upstairs, she goes into the parlor, where Moses Todd is still tied to the chair

You thought better of killin

Shoot

You ever have questions--Iquestions now--that you can’t find the answers to?