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"My memory of these rooms is pretty clear Little Ida, Jas bed with me, as I was already too old for a crib, and Goblin slept with us, and this room here was the playroom and filled with toys of all kinds
"But I was easy with Goblin and he had no reason to be mean
"And gradually, in spite of an to see that Goblin didn't want to share me with the world, and was happiest, by far, when he had
"Goblin didn't even want me to play the harh he loved to dance to the radio or to songs that the wo with him at those times But when I played the harmonica, especially with Pops, I was in another world
"Of course, I learned the knack of playing the har at him (I could wink really early in life, with either eye) as he danced, and so he started to put up with it as the years passed
"Most of the time, Goblin had what he wanted We had our own table up here for crayons and drawing And I let hiht hand on my left hand, but all he'd create was scribble scratch, whereas I wanted to draw stick figures, or figures made of circles, and faces with little circles for eyes I taught hi people, as Little Ida called the round flowers that I liked to do
"It was at this little nursery table that he first demonstrated his eternally feeble voice No one could hear it but ht brightening for an instant in my head I talked out loud to him naturally, and sometimes in whispers which developed intoht
"So to Goblin, Pops or Sweetheart asked , and didn't I kno to talk better than that, would I please say whole words as I kneell enough how to do
"I brought Goblin up to snuff on this, that we had to talk in whole words, but his voice was no estions, and out of sheer frustration he gave up on thisto me, and his voice only returned years later
"But to continue with his infant development -- he could nod or shake his head at s or did things that he liked He was dense when he first appeared to me each day and would beco, increased I had a sense of knohen he was near, even if he was invisible, and during the night I could feel his eht and distinct impression which I never tried, until this very moment, to describe to anyone else
"It'sfaces and cavorting he ier perhaps when he wasn't visible, but if he didn't appear to an to cry for him and become severely distressed
"So the oak tree outside, down by the ce onto me, and I would all the time talk to him, whether he was visible or not
"One very bright day, when I was in the kitchen, Sweetheart taught ood' and 'bad' and 'happy' and 'sad,' and I taught Goblin, with his hand on mine, to write these words as well Of course nobody understood that Goblin was doing the writing sohed, except for Pops, who never liked Goblin and was alorried 'where all this talk of Goblin would lead ¡¯
"No doubt Patsy had always been around, but I don't remember her distinctly until I was four or five And even then I don't think I knew she was my mother She certainly never came up here to my room, and when I did see her in the kitchen I was already afraid that a screa to break out
"I loved Pops, and with reason, because he loved ray hair all the ti, and most of the time with his hands He was educated and he spoke very well, as did Sweetheart, but he wanted to be a country man And just the way the kitchen had sed up Sweetheart, who had once been a debutante in New Orleans, so the farm sed Pops