“Oh, but you’ll spend ten dollars going to a psychic and consider it money well spent?”

“It’s another way to gain self-knowledge, insight, and an opportunity to get to know yourself better.”

“Spare me, would you? Who in the world would know you better than you know yourself, besides me? Have any of them psychics mentioned when you might graduate from college or get a real job?”

“I have a job.”

“No, you don’t,” Shanice blurts out.

“I run a household and I’m raising a child. Look, Mama, I just got here, so don’t start yet, please?”

She rolls her eyes at her daughter, so I decide to cut in. “Shanice, go get Granny’s glass that your Uncle Lewis left sitting in the living room, would you, baby?”

“I poured it down the drain,” Janelle says.

“What? Why?”

“Because the last thing you need right now is beer. Paris was just telling me about this article she read in a holistic magazine about hops—which is the stuff they use to make beer—and a lot of other things asthmatics should stay away from.”

“Paris believe everything she read. Where is she, by the way? Did she change her mind?”

“She and Dingus should be here any minute. Their plane was supposed to land a half-hour or so ago. She didn’t want anybody to pick her up. She’s renting a car. You know how she is.”

“Yeah, I know how she is. Shanice, stand up and let your granny look at you!”

She gets up. All legs. Not a drop of meat on them thighs.

“How come those shorts is cut so high?”

“They’re Daisy Dukes,” she says.

“Daisy who? I don’t care what her name is. You can’t bend over to get nothin’ in those things without your behind hanging out.”

“So?” she says, about as sarcastic as it gets.

I reach over and get my inhaler and take a few puffs. “I don’t wanna see you wearing ’em in my presence or out in public so go take ’em off and put on something decent.”

“It’s all right, Ma?”

“It ain’t all right,” I say. And if I could jump out this bed and slap the taste out of my granddaughter I would, but when I look at her eyes, I realize something is missing. That little smart remark she just made is not the way my granddaughter talks to me. Not using that tone. Something ain’t right. So let it go, Vy. Let it pass. “All right.”

“So—where’s Daddy?” Janelle asks.

I hear engines in the driveway. “Go see if that’s him,” I say, before catching myself. Both of ’em head out toward the living room and I force myself to get up. At first, I feel dizzy, then a little lightheaded, but I’m okay. By the time I get out to the living room, we’re at the beginning of what looks like a Price family reunion, minus two.

Okay. So everybody hugs everybody but don’t nobody act like they really mean it, except for when I wrap my arms around my grandson, who is now some kind of giant. Dingus kisses me on my forehead, then takes me by the elbow and leads me over to the couch. He’s wearing blue jeans and a long red sweatshirt. This boy look good in red. “Should you be up, Granny?”