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Emelina collected the plates and cups She stood up and tied on an apron over her bathrobe, hout the operation

"Well, you’re no worse for the wear of five children in fourteen years," I said, and she laughed, probably not believing it Emelina was noticeably pretty That combination particular to Grace, the pale blue eyes and black hair, never failed to be arresting, no enetic anomaly-in the first hours after birth, the really pure speciene pool were supposed to have whitish, marblelike irises I’d seen pictures Doc Homer had written it up for the Ao

"And John Tucker’s a teenager," I said "Are we that old?"

"I am You’re not" She started to clear the table with one hand "Every minute in the presence of a child takes seven minutes off your life" I took the baby from her and she said, "Don’t say I didn’t warn you"

"They’re your treasures, E to show for yourself"

"Oh, yeah I know," she said

The baby’s na but "the baby" I’d read soer than four-that’s why Social Security and phone numbers are subdivided; possibly four children’s names were the limit on parental memory I sat in the rocker and settled nah bones exactly accoth

Emelina scraped toast corners into a blue enamel pail and ran a sinkful of hot water "I don’t think I could stand to let Mason go off to kindergarten next year if it wasn’t for the baby It kills you to see theuess it would kill you quicker if they didn’t"

"I re it quits after four"

"Famous last words"

While I watched her led with the pleasure of stroking the baby’s fine black hair It was longer by several inches than his big brother John Tucker’s; soeance Probably Emelina A woman who beheaded her own chickens would cut her kids’ hair herself

Emelina washed and rinsed the plates and set theh Nicholas see asleep on row heavier, as if relaxation allowed them to be flooded with extra substance A constriction ran acrossa baby of ht of it now so rarely that the notion of uard

In spite of the heat outside, E theA little collection of potted plants stood in a row on the sill Prayer plants I was struck with a sudden, forceful randmother’s house Hallie and I called her Abuelita too, though of course she was no relation, and the old woht we could understand Spanish The house had a stale, old-lady smell, but we loved her boxes of "pretties": cast-e washers and carriage bolts, every species of unidentifiable metal part Her dead husband was a blacksmith There were also boxes of ancient dress-up clothes in satiny fabrics as brittle as paper Our best playroom was the sunny alcove crah the parlor pallamorous than Beryl Markhaed to be in their dreaers in the for heavy, breakable pots and fragile plants The African violets were furred like pets, and the prayer plants had leaves like an old woman’s hands, red-veined on the back, that opened wide in the sun and folded priether in the shade Abuelita instructed us to sit and watch the their leaves Hallie alaited the longest, patient for enlighten after Emelina and I had returned to our rowdy diversions

"You know, I’ me back "I think he’d be underfoot if he were here I’d give us about ten days, then I’d probably shoot him Husbanda question, however circu has he been on the railroad?"

"Just since the lass she was drying, decorated hite pigs in red bow ties "Ten years, about"