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"For a while, a brief while, it seeht The joy had not quite fled Blackwood Manor Goblin behaved hi conflict The fear inning over my mind

"What was I afraid of? Death, I suppose I longed to see Little Ida's ghost but it didn't happen, and then there was Big Raone to Heaven, unless they had a powerful reason for coli to appear, but I had so she'd been dead in my bed

"Meantime, Blackwood Manor went on

"Big Ramona, Jasmine and Lolly ran the kitchen to perfection as they had always done, handling the tours with equal aploe of repairs and renovations to keep himself exhausted all the tiht o'clock

"Big Ra all her 'secret recipes' and even cajoling Patsy into staying with me for dinner a few times (when Pops was absent on errands), as if she felt that I needed Patsy, which frankly I did not

"So letters, and Easter Sunday did see an enormous buffet with people from miles around and music on the lawn

"Pops didn't help much with this Easter banquet and everyone understood why He did appear, dressed in a fine white linen suit, but helifeless, as though his spirit had fled His eyes were sunken His skin had a yellowish tinge

"He was like a man who'd seen a vision, and for whom normal life held no charm

"When I looked at hi I could hear it in my ears The sky was a perfect blue, the air was mild and the music of the little orchestra was lovely, but

"Out in the center of the dance floor, Goblin danced He was very solid, outfitted in a three-piece white suit just as I was He didn't see his way in and out of the dancers Then his eyes fixed on me and he became sad He stood still and reached out to me with both are, because I knew my face was blank with fear

" 'No one can see you!' I whispered under my breath, and quite suddenly everyone there seemed alien to me, the way people had in the church at Lynelle's Memorial, or rather I felt myself to be a monster that I could see Goblin, a monster that he was my familiar, and there seemed no possibility of comfort or warmth in all the world

"I thought of Sweetheart in the crypt in New Orleans If I went to the gates of the crypt, would I s worse?

"I drifted away I went down to the old ce about down there, and Lolly was passing ahosts in the ce Cousins of Sweetheart's talked toupstairs to Pops' bedroo it to ht:

" 'If you do that, this terror will end ¡¯

"Then I felt Goblin's invisible arms around me I felt him wrap himself around me There came what seemed a heartbeat fro for uilty Only just now it seemed desperately important