Janelle fold up his letter and then get up and hand it to him, but Lewis got his head down. She put her hand on his shoulder and then kiss the top of his head. “It’s okay, Lewis,” she say.

And he just nod his head up and down and say, “I know. I know.”

“It’s on me now,” Charlotte says, “so sit your butt back down and listen. Wait. Y’all is . . . I mean, has everybody been paying attention to the dates on Mama’s letters?”

“Yep,” Lewis say. “Mine was pretty obvious.”

“She wrote mine right after we left Vegas,” Janelle say.

“Well, mine is dated the day she left,” I say.

“The day she left to go where?” Janelle ask, and then, I guess before somebody get a chance to say a word, she say, “Strike that. I didn’t mean it. I know exactly what you meant, Daddy. Sorry. Go ahead, Charlotte. When was Paris’s written?”

Charlotte looks down. “Hers got two dates on it. Just the months March and April 1994. Okay, can I start today?”

“Wait a minute. I wanna take this sweater off,” Lewis say. “I’m burning up.”

Everybody watch him, and I just wanna see if he got on a undershirt or not. He do. But if Vy was here I know she would snatch it off his back and go soak it in some light bleach water, ’cause that thang so dingy it look light gray. “Okay,” he say.

“Wait a minute!” Now Janelle got two cents to throw in. “I forgot to tell you that when we finish we’re going to draw names.”

“Oh, yeah,” Paris say.

“For Christmas. The four of us will draw a name and we have to make each other a handmade gift. The kids’ll do the same thing, except they can buy theirs, but they can’t spend more than ten dollars. Tops. And they absolutely positively have to reach the person on or before Christmas Eve—got that, Charlotte?”

“I heard you! And don’t worry. Mine will be on time.”

“One more thing,” Lewis say like he deep in thought again. “This may sound stupid to y’all, but, speaking of Christmas, this will be the first one we can’t send our mama a card, but I was thinking that maybe we still should.”

“What?” Janelle ask.

“What I’m saying is, we can still send her cards for Christmas, her birthday, and Mother’s Day, like we always did.”

“And send ’em where?” Charlotte ask.

“To heaven, where else? Just don’t put our return address on the envelope. This way we can keep her posted on what’s going on in our life.”

“I like that idea,” Paris says.

“Me, too,” Janelle says, now that it sunk in.

“I couldn’t agree more,” Charlotte says. “Right on, Lewis. Brilliant idea. Now, sit your behinds down so I can read this. I wanna hurry up, ’cause it feels like it’s almost time for round two for the grub. I’m reading right now, so everybody shut up.