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She was at least seventy-four, I knew that, crinkled, old and gray Sometimes her hair was jet black, and sometimes it had two inches of white near the roots Bart said it ht her hair was so slick she kept it oiled But I thought she looked wonderful when she threw her ared cheeks She didn't even give Bart a glance

"Jory, Jory, how handsouessed it ht be false

"Can I call you Grandmother e're not in class?"

"Sure, yah," she agreed, nodding like a bird "But only when nobody else is around, you hear?"

"There's Bart," I said to remind her to be polite-- which she seldoave Bart a brief nod, then casually dismissed him as if he didn't exist

"I'lad to have a few moments alone with you,"

Madaain She pulled ether we sat while Bart stayed in his dim corner "I tell you, Jory, when you wrote and said you weren't coain this summer, I felt ill, really ill I h of this once-a-year grandson, and I was sellingout here to help your mother Of course I knew she wouldn't wantto see randchild

"The flight here was ghastly," she went on "Turbulence all the way They searched me too before I boarded, like some criminal Then we had to circle round and round the airport, waiting our turn to land It h to vomit Finally, just before our plane ran out of fuel, we landed--buht my neck would break Great God in heaven, you should have heard what that ht I was made of money Since I've come to stay, I decided then and there I'd buy a car of my own Not a new one, but a nice old one that Julian would have loved Have I told you before your father loved to tinker around with old cars and fix them up so they'd run?"

Boy had she told me that before

"So, I paid those crooks the exhorbitant price of eight hundred dollars, and stepped intoaI felt so happy to be on e's only heir Why, it was just like it used to be when your father was an adolescent, and he'd rush home so proud to take ed from the city dump"

Her sparkling jet eyes seeain with her affection, her praise "and like old ladies everywhere, you have to understand once I get started thinking backward all sorts of randfather felt so happy the day Julian was born I held your father in my arms and stared up at my husband as so handsome, like Julian, like you, and I could have burst with the pride I felt to give birth at e for the first time with so little difficulty And such a perfect baby your father was, so wonderful fro"

I wanted to dare and ask how old she hen my father was born--but I didn't have the nerve Somehow the question must have shown in my eyes "None of your damn business how old I aain "My, but you are even better looking than your father was at your age, and I didn't think that possible I always told Julian he would have looked better with a healthy suntan, but he'd do anything to defy -- even keep himself unnaturally pale" Sadness clouded her eyes Totoo--and another surprise, he seemed interested

She still wore the sae, and over that she wore a ratty old leopard- skin bolero that had seen better days "No one really knew your father, Jory, just as no one really possessed him That is, no one but your mother"

She sighed, then went on as if she had to say it all before my mother appeared "So, I've determined I have to know my Julian's son better than I knew him I've decided too you have to lovemyself that the son born of the union between my son and your mother would have to -ups Your h she refuses to believe that I admit I used to be nasty to her sory because she never seemed to appreciate my son"

Uncomfortable with this sort of talk, I shifted away from her; my first loyalty was to ardless: