“No, Reverend. No, a thank you,” Obadiah says. “She gets like this every now and then. She gets a little addled every now and then, on top of her heart ailments and all.” The lines on his face prove his smile is a lie, and that he is trying to hide his shame. “Nurse!”

The woman sits up on the bed, mumbling about dust; and he goes to the other side of the bed, picking up the pieces of disconnected tube, looking at them, bewildered. He calls the nurse once again.

“Ain’t no cause to be so ill, Amos,” the woman says to him. “I ain’t caused you nothing to fret over. I’m a good wife; I work; I’m a good cook. Oh, yes. A very good cook.”

“Nurse!”

Once again, the woman gets out of bed. Her frenzy is beginning to take its toll, her voice getting weaker, slower.

“No, no, no, Mr. Edmund, I don’t work in no tobacco no more. I give up after my seventh youngin. No, can’t stand it no more, can’t stand the sun and the . . .”

Asa lets out a disgusted sigh. “Can’t somebody, won’t somebody, please, please, shut that woman up?” He speaks louder than they have heard him speak since they have been there. “Mister, I know your mama is sick . . .” He stops to cough. “. . . and I mean no harm. But please, sir: Just try to quiet her. I just can’t take all that fuss.” He looks to his company with that look of personal frustration: “Where is that damn nurse?”

Again the man calls the nurse, his voice now high pitched and cracking.

“Ring your bell.” Tisha Anne pours water for her father to drink.

“My bell?” The man’s embarrassment saddens and angers Ruth.

“Yes, your bell.” Tisha Anne points.

“But I don’t see it. A bell?”

Ruth is no longer able to keep still. “The bell over the bed, you ninny!” Everyone looks at her. Has she spoken too loud?

Asa tries in vain to reach his buzzer. Tisha Anne pushes it for him, but he continues to reach in vain.

“No need, Papa. No need.”

“And I spect the price of corn’ll go up. I bet it will. That’s what Amos said he heard down at the mill. Price gone go up. And hogs gone go up too. Yes, sir . . .”

“Maw, be quiet.”

“I declare.” Zeke scratched his head. “I wonder where that nurse is at.”

“. . . things is looking up. I spect we’ll get ahead for once. For once in our lives. For once. It’ll feel good, too. Sure will. Feel good. Feel damn good.”