“He put his lips to my ear. I heard his telepathic voice in my head, a thin ribbon of words under the thunder of the shower: Pops does this. Clem, Felix, men do this. Love me. Not love Rebecca. No Rebecca.

“Again I felt his left arm around my shoulder, and when he drew back I kissed him openmouthed and lusty and closer to him than to any living thing, and then I shuddered.

“I pushed him with all my strength and of course my mental strength went behind that physical push, and he dissolved, and to my faint horror steam rose where he had been, as if a fissure had been opened in the floor to emit that steam, and then there was nothing.

“There came a pounding on the door. I heard Big Ramona say,

“ ‘Tarquin Blackwood, come out of there!’

“She knows, I thought, the whole world knows. Angry, I toweled dry and opened the door for her because she wouldn’t stop pounding.

“ ‘Good Heavens,’ I said. ‘Is this house on fire again?’

“Then I saw the tears on her cheeks.

“ ‘It’s Pops,’ she said. ‘He’s been fighting with Patsy, out yonder by the gates. That damned Patsy. Come on, son! Come on, you’re the man of the house now, they need you!’ ”

CHAPTER 16

16

“THERE ARE two sets of gates to Blackwood Farm—the formal gates that lead to the lane of pecan trees which come up to the front porch, and the other larger gates, way off to the east, for the caterer trucks, deliveries and tractors.

“It was out there, beside the big gates, that Pops had planted two big oak trees in memory of Sweetheart.

“He had apparently driven out there, sometime in the afternoon, with a flat of multicolored impatiens to plant around the trees, a project he’d mentioned on and off for a while now. And the Shed Men said later that he seemed confused and strangely unconcerned about the goings on at Sugar Devil Island. One side of his face had not looked right, and they had meant to go check on him.

“Patsy had gone out there, in her new truck, to talk to Pops, cursing to the Shed Men that she had to ask Pops for money again and she hated it, it wasn’t fair and all that. She’d left Seymour behind because he didn’t want to see any more scenes. And he’d been drinking beer with the Shed Men.

“It was Patsy who came screaming back, having already called for emergency help on her car phone, and the Shed Men drove out with Patsy to find Pops dead right by the flower bed. His hands were caked with earth.