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"At that moment, I kneas true, these words; she was my mother They had an echo for me somewhere, and I felt a potent curiosity about Patsy, and I wanted to ask Pops what he meant I also felt a hurt, a pain in ht that Patsy didn't love me, whereas before I don't think that I had cared

"At that , 'You're an unnatural mother, that's what you are, and a tra knife She ran at Pops with it and Pops took ahold of both her wrists in one hand The knife fell to the floor and Patsy told Pops that she hated him, that if she could she'd kill him, he'd better sleep with one eye open, and he was the one who didn't love his own child

"Next thing I kneas outside with the electric light pouring out of the shed, and Patsy was sitting in a wooden porch rocker before her open garage studio and she was crying, and I went to her and kissed her on the cheek, and she turned to edto pull atPatsy, I didn't want her to be so unhappy I told Goblin to kiss Patsy

" 'Stop talkin' to that thing,' Patsy cried She changed into a different person -- rather, an all too fa atI can't stand to be around you when you talk to that thing And then they say I'ave allin her lap I liked being rocked by her She sarette And in e of sorts

"But there wasto Patsy I felt so like despair I've been told I couldn't have felt such a thing at that age, but that's not true I felt it I clung to Patsy, and I ignored Goblin even though he danced around and tugged on my slee

ve

"That night Patsy came up to watch television in here with Goblin and me and Little Ida, an unprecedented event, and we had a riot of laughter together, though e actually watched I don't recall The impression made upon ht she was very pretty, I always had thought she was very pretty, but I loved Pops too and could never choose between the two

"Fros and kisses for each other, if not anything else Hugging and kissing have always been big on Blackwood Farm, and now Patsy was in the loop, as far as I was concerned

"By age six or so I had the run of the property and kneell enough not to play too near the swamp that borders us to the west and southwest

"If it hadn't been for Goblin, my favorite place would have been the old cereat-great-great-grandinia Lee

"As I've described, the guests adored the place, and the tale of how Mad Manfred restored every toinia Lee The elaborate little cast-iron fence that surrounded the place had all been patched and was kept painted jet-black, and the small stone shell of a pointed-roof church ept clear of leaves every day It's an echo chao in there and say 'Goblin!' and hear it coles

"Now the roots of the four oak trees down there have buckled soular tombs as well as the little fence, but what can anyone do about an oak tree? No one kin to me would ever chop down any kind of tree, that's for certain, and these trees all had their name

"Virginia Lee's Oak was the one on the far side of the ceht beside it, while on this side there was Williae heavy arround

"I loved to play down there, until Goblin started his can

"I hosts in the cemetery, and I can see this very vividly now as I speak Goblin and I were rollicking down there, and a long way off I could hear the thu of Patsy's latest band We had left the ce armlike branches of Ora Lee's Oak that is closest to the house, though not really all that close to the house at all