“I caught Brittany’s arm as she drew close. She had heard what we had to say. ‘I will make it up to you, sugar plum, I promise,’ I said. ‘Let me take him now on this trip, and I swear by God I’ll see you get to go too sometime real soon. Cross my heart. I’ll see that good things happen.’

“ ‘Oh, that’s okay,’ she said. ‘Tommy, you go on, you’re the one that’s always talking about books and things.’

“ ‘Brittany, you’re going to have fun in the new house,’ I went on. ‘You’re going to have new playmates and a new school, and there’s going to be a maid to do the work and a nanny to help with the children.’

“She couldn’t absorb it. I could see that plainly. But she was fascinated.

“Terry Sue was headed our way with the baby on her hip. She was dressed up in a pink polyester suit and pumps, and her hair was washed and combed, and she was sporting a brand-new set of drugstore fingernails.

“ ‘Why are you doing all this for us?’ she asked. ‘Pops never did it.’

“ ‘Never mind. Just let me take Tommy to Europe. Let me take him now. All I need is his clothes and his birth certificate. I have to make it to the federal passport office in New Orleans before it closes.’

“ ‘I don’t have no birth certificate,’ she said. ‘Tommy, go get your clothes. Did you say “Europe,” you mean, like in Europe?’

“ ‘Hurry up, Tommy,’ I said. He ran for the trailer. ‘I can get the birth certificate at the courthouse. Thank you, Terry Sue. Here’s five thousand dollars.’

“She stared at the envelope. ‘What’s that for?’ she asked.

“ ‘I was going to give you this if you argued. Seems you ought to get it since you didn’t.’

“ ‘You’re crazy, Quinn Blackwood, just as Pops always said you was. He said you’d never come to nothing, but I tell you, you’re sure somebody in my book!’

“ ‘Well, thank you, Terry Sue,’ I said. ‘That’s really consoling. Someday you’ll have to tell me everything else Pops said. By the way, that’s not his baby, is it?’

“ ‘You’re not getting any complaints from me, are you?’ she answered. ‘I don’t know whose baby it is, hush your mouth.’

“Tommy flew at me at a dead run, with all his books in one arm and a pillowcase of clothes over his shoulder. I backed up, laughing, and threw my arm around him.

“ ‘You mind Tarquin now, Tommy Harrison, you hear what I say,’ said Terry Sue. ‘And you do your homework, too.’

“I put my right arm around her and kissed her forehead. ‘I’ll take good care of him,’ I said. ‘I’ll write the school board. Grady Breen will take care of everything just the way he said.’