“ ‘Pops tried to be an influence out there,’ said Grady, ‘but when you’re dealing with the likes of Terry Sue, it’s pretty much hopeless. Now she herself would never raise her hand to those children, but then these men come in and she has to put food on the table.’

“ ‘Don’t tell me another word,’ said Aunt Queen. ‘I have to go home and think what to do about it.’

“I shook my head.

“Little Tommy? A son living in a trailer.

A gloom had come on me, a feeling of unrest, and I knew it was as much from lack of sleep as it was from learning all this and how rich Pops was, and thinking, though I didn’t want to think of it, of those terrible arguments he would have with Patsy when she begged for money.

“Why, he could have set up the band. He could have bought the van. He could have hired the pickers. He could have given her a chance. And as it was, she begged and cursed and fought for every dime, and what did he do, this man whom I had so loved? What did he do with his powerful resources? He spent his days working on Blackwood Farm like a hired hand. He planted flower beds.

“And there was this child, this little boy, Tommy, no less, named after Pops, living on a pittance in the backwoods, with a passel of brothers and sisters in a trailer, a little boy with a psychotic stepfather.

“How had Pops seen his life? What had he wanted from it? My life had to be more. It had to be much, much greater. I would go mad if my life weren’t more. I felt pursued by the pressure of life itself. I felt frantic.

“ ‘What’s his full name?’ I asked. ‘You can tell me, can’t you?’

“ ‘Please do tell us his full name,’ asked Aunt Queen with a decisive nod.

“ ‘Tommy Harrison,’ said Grady. ‘Harrison is Terry Sue’s last name. I believe the child is illegitimate. In fact, I know the child is illegitimate.’

“My mood grew even darker. Who was I to judge Pops, I thought. Who was I to judge the man who had just left me so much wealth and who might have done otherwise? Who was I to judge him that he had left little Tommy Harrison in such a situation? But it weighed on me. And it weighed on me that Patsy’s character had perhaps been shaped by her lifelong struggle against a man who did not believe in her.

“Our farewells were being exchanged.

“I had to come to the surface. And off we went to lunch with Nash at Blackwood Manor.