“Suddenly, and with surprising verve, I wanted to escape this place. If Jasmine was going to resist her ‘destiny,’ I wanted a chance to talk to her. The simple fact was that Jasmine did run Blackwood Manor to a large extent, and though I wasn’t so all-fired sure of her brother Clem supporting her, he might become a second-string supervisor for the men—a job that Pops’ helper, Allen, had done directly. I wanted desperately to get back.

“Besides, I wanted to see Jasmine all got up in a Chanel suit.

“(In my fiendish eighteen-year-old heart, I wanted a second shot at Jasmine.)

“ ‘All right, I’ll see the panel of doctors,’ I said. ‘But I want my own clothes. I don’t intend to run off. I just want my Armani duds, one of those handmade shirts you keep sending me from Europe, and my lucky Versace tie. Oh yeah, and my Johnston & Murphy shoes. I want to look sane if nothing else. And also Goblin likes those clothes. Whenever I dress up for an event at home, he’s delirious.’

“ ‘That’s very reassuring,’ she said. ‘I’ll see to it at once. And really you should wear your Church’s shoes. And can we expect Goblin to be with you at this meeting?’

“ ‘Of course,’ I said. ‘You think I’d cut him out? Besides, I can’t always control what Goblin does. He’s been quiet here in this place. He’s put up with a great quantity of contemptuous dismissal.’

“ ‘I suppose so,’ she said, and I saw that she was staring right at the spot where Goblin stood staring at her in the same cold remote fashion.

“What I couldn’t tell her was that Goblin had been acting strangely throughout the hospital stay. Also his appearance was no longer a duplicate of mine, though it might be when I was outfitted for the psychiatric panel.

“On the contrary, he didn’t wear the hospital gowns or flannel nightshirts that I wore. He wore the jeans and shirts that were back home—an amazing development.

“But it was the ever-shifting expressions on his face which most frightened me. I was definitely seeing his entire visage in greater detail. And there was a frigid quality to him and a despairing look at times, and it was rarely if ever a mirror of my feelings.

“After all, I hadn’t felt the usual spells of panic in the hospital. I felt a cowardly sense of safety. There was too much going on, what with Aunt Queen ordering high tea to be served in my room and Big Ramona dropping in with fancy nightshirts for me and Sweetheart’s beloved sister, Aunt Ruthie, coming by with gourmet chocolates, and guards poking their heads through the door and various cousins coming to pay their respects, though what they thought had happened to me, I don’t know.