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"The boardinghouse was now her private home, she had two maids and a driver to take her around town in a Cadillac whenever she felt the desire She'd enjoyed it i any questions about theWynken I had two more books of Wynken by that time and et to that later on
Just keep Wynken in the back of your mind
"Mybedroom upstairs now to herself She said she talked to all the others who had gone on ahead, her poor old sweet dead brother Mickey, and her dead sister, Alice, and her ht say¡ªto whom the house had been willed by the crazy lady who lived there Mya lot to Little Richard That was a brother that died when he was four Lockjaw- Little Richard She said Little Richard alking around with her, telling her it was time to come
"But she wanted me to come home She wanted me there in that room I knew all this I understood She had sat with boarders that were dying I had sat with others than Old Captain So I went home
"Nobody knehere I was headed, or what my real name was, or where I came from So it was easy to slip out of New York I went to the house on St Charles Avenue and sat in the sickroo her spittle, and trying to get her on the bedpan when the agency didn't have a nurse to sendWe had help, yes, but she didn't want the help, you know She didn't want the colored girl, as she called her Or that horrible nurse And I ust me much I washed so many sheets Of course there was a ed them over and over for her I didn't mindMaybe I was never normal In any event, I simply did what had to be done I rinsed out that bedpan a thousand times, wiped it off, sprinkled powder on it, and set it by the bed There is no foul smell which lasts forever after all "
"Not on this earth at least," I murmured But he didn't hear me, thank God
"This went on for teeks She didn't want to go to Mercy Hospital I hired nurses round the clock just for backup, you know, so they could take her vital signs when I got frightened I played s, said the rosary out loud with herUsual deathbed scene From two to four in the afternoon she tolerated visitors Old cousins caht "
"You weren't torn to pieces by her suffering "
"I wasn't crazy about it, I can tell you that She had cancer all through her and no amount of money could save her I wanted her to hurry, and I couldn't bear watching it, no, but there has always been a deep ruthless side to me that says, Do what you have to do And I stayed in that rooht till she died
"She talked a lot to the ghosts, but I didn't see theet her Uncle Mickey, if she can't coet her '
"But before the end came Terry, a practical nurse, as they called theistered nurse because they were in such demand Terry, five foot seven, blonde, the cheapest and oods I had ever laid eyes on Understand This is a question of everything fitting together precisely The girl was a shining perfect piece of trash "
I sernails, and wet pink lipstick " I had seen her sparkle in his mind
"Every detail was on target with this kid The chewing guold anklet, the painted toenails, the way she slipped off her shoes right there in the sickrooe showed, you know, under her white nylon uniform And her Stupid, heavy-lidded eyes beautifully painted with Maybelline eye pencil and mascara She'd file her nails in there in front ofthat was so completely realized, finished, ah, ah, what can I say! She was a masterpiece "
I laughed, and so did he, but he went on talking
"I found her irresistible She was a hairless little ani it with her every chance I had While Mother slept, we did it in the bathroo up Once or tent down the hall to one of the empty bedrooms; we never took more than twenty minutes! I timed us! She'd do it with her pink panties around her ankles! She smelled like Blue Waltz perfume "