“ ‘You threw that stuff into my bedroom!’ Patsy screamed. ‘You had them cart it out and shove it into my closets like it was trash.’

“ ‘You sold your mother’s wedding dress, you sold her diamonds!’ Pops roared. ‘You’re a monster. You should never have been born.’

“I ran between them and pleaded with them to stop, claiming that the guests in the house could hear them; this had to come to an end. Pops shook his head. He went out the back door. He went towards the shed, and later I saw him out there in a rocking chair, just smoking and looking into the dark.

“As for Patsy, she moved some clothes of her own out of the upstairs front bedroom, where she stayed from time to time, demanding that I help her, and when I demurred—I didn’t want to be seen with her—she called me a spoilt brat, a Little Lord Fauntleroy, a sissy and a queer.

“ ‘It wasn’t my bright idea to have you,’ she said, and then she headed for the spiral stairs. ‘I should have gotten rid of you,’ she hollered out over her shoulder. ‘Damned sorry I didn’t do what I wanted to do.’

“At that precise moment, she appeared to trip over her own feet. In a flash I saw Goblin near to her with his back to her, smiling at me. She let out a loud ‘Ow!’ The clothes fell down on the staircase, and with great difficulty she caught herself at the top step. I rushed to steady her. She turned and glared at me, and the dreadful realization came over me that Goblin had pushed her, or in some other manner made her trip.

“I was horror-struck. I picked up all the clothes quickly and I said, ‘I’ll go down with you.’ The expression on her face, the combination of wariness and excitement, of morbid respect and detestation, is something I’ll never forget. But what was in her heart I don’t know.

“I was afraid of Goblin. Afraid of what he might do.

“I helped Patsy load all her things in the van so Goblin would know I meant her no ill will. And then Patsy was off, declaring that she was never coming back, but of course she was back in two weeks, demanding to stay in the big house because she ran out of money and there was no place to go but home.

“That night, as soon as Patsy was safely away, I demanded of Goblin, ‘What did you do? You almost made her fall!’ But I got no answer from Goblin; it was as though he was hiding, and when I went back upstairs to my room and sat down at the computer he at once grabbed my hand and typed out,

“ ‘Patsy hurt you. I don’t like Patsy.’

“ ‘That doesn’t mean you can hurt her,’ I wrote, speaking the words aloud.