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"When I got to the car Allen was shaking his head

" 'I hope you don't want us to clean up this place,' he said 'That septic tank in back is overflowing so awful ¡¯

" 'So that's what that smell is,' I said 'I didn't know ¡¯

"As soon as I reached Aunt Queen on the car phone I described the situation to her and asked if I ht instruct Grady Breen to purchase a decent house for Terry Sue and her children The title should be in our name with full insurance of every sort, and the woman would need furniture, appliances, new kitchenware, the works

" 'You can't iine this level of poverty,' I explained 'And this woure what to do about that except it ht stop if the house and the conditions were improved At least I hope so As for Tommy, he's brilliant ' I filled in all the relevant details

"Of course she wanted to call Grady herself But I said it was so I had to do It was a job of maturity and it was important

"Within half a reed that the woman's house had to be in a moderately priced new develop the ideal tract according to Grady, with all new construction, new appliances, new pots and pans, new everything, and that she had to have a full-ti woman and a full-time nanny for the children

"Grady would becouardian We'd pay the taxes, insurance, utilities, television cable and hired help direct And of course Terry Sue had to have an income, and we decided upon one that was about equal to what she would have earned as a secretary in Grady's office We thought that would give her a real spiritual lift

" 'It's foolproof,' I said 'The nanny and the cleaning wo for you, and Terry Sue will have no call whatsoever to hit her kids In front of those people she probably will be ashamed to hit her kids ¡¯

"Meantime Brittany would switch over to the Catholic school that To, the only Catholic school in Mapleville and one with the cachet of a private prep school, and we'd get soirl Bethany, who didn't talk

"As for the mysterious Charlie who had walked out of Terry Sue's life, according to Grady, he wasn't 'all that bad by any stretch,' but the baby in Terry Sue's arusted that the real father hadn't stepped up, and who that ht be was open to question

"I advised Grady to have a DNA test done to determine if this baby had been fathered by Pops I felt it was only right to do so I had a deep suspicion that Pops was the father, that the baby had been conceived in the aftermath of Sweetheart's death, and that Charlie didn't knohat to do about it

" 'Look, Grady,' I said, 'this is a situation that's never going to be perfect, but I think we can do these things to o in this new house there's nothing we can do about it At least we have made Terry Sue independent She doesn't have to put up with anybody whom she doesn't want Just keep her income steady and what she does with it is her business If she starves her children, then we give the housekeeper roceries And the nanny cooks and serves We'll fix it till it's not broken anymore ¡¯

"What I didn't confide to Grady was that I had dreams that Tommy would come someday to live at Blackwood Manor I had dreams that Tommy would someday travel the world with me and Mona and Aunt Queen and Nash I had dreams that Tommy would someday become a brilliant scholar and, who knows, maybe even a brilliant painter Maybe Todom of Atlantis In essence I had dreams that someday Tommy would become an official Blackwood

"I also didn't confide to Grady howhis son, Tommy, in this mess, and how loveless he had been to this woman Terry Sue But then, maybe there was more to it than I in my youth could understand