“That Patsy, she’s a liar. Sure, she cried over that little twin. She knew it was going to die. It’s easy to feel sorry for something that doesn’t have a chance, something that’s not going to live a week. It’s a lot harder to be a real mother. And Aunt Queen did feel sorry for her and gave her money to start her band. And then she didn’t stick around to—.”

“I understand,” I said. “I just wanted to know.”

“Aunt Queen never wanted you to know,” said Big Ramona gently. “Like I said, there was no call for anybody to tell you. Pops and Sweetheart didn’t want you to know either. Pops always said it was best forgotten. That it was morbid, and he used another word too. What was that other word?”

“Grotesque,” said Jasmine. “He said it was morbid and grotesque and he wasn’t telling you about it.”

“He just never found a good time to tell you,” said Big Ramona.

“Sure we thought Goblin was that twin’s ghost,” said Jasmine, “some of the time, at least, and some of the time we didn’t. And I guess, most of the time, we didn’t think it mattered.”

Big Ramona got up to stir the pot of beans on the stove. She heaped some onto Tommy’s plate. My son, Jerome, had peach cobbler all over his face and his plate.

“Now, if when you’d come home from Europe,” Big Ramona said, “Goblin had been a big nuisance again, maybe we would have told you about that little twin—you know, to have some sort of exorcism. But you never mentioned Goblin again.”

“And then out of nowhere he came,” said Jasmine with a catch in her throat, “and he made Aunt Queen fall.” She started crying.

“Now don’t you start with that,” said Big Ramona.

“It’s my fault what happened,” I responded. “I’m the one who brought him up and made him strong. Whether he was a ghost or spirit doesn’t have a whole lot to do with it.”

“Then it’s not your fault either,” said Big Ramona. “And now we have to get rid of him.”

I felt a faint breeze in the air. The blades of the overhead fan started to whirl though the fan had been turned off. Jasmine and Big Ramona both felt it.

“Stick together,” I said, “and don’t look at him, or at any of his tricks. Now I have to go and talk to my friends. I have to talk to them about getting rid of him.”

A plate came off the pantry shelf and was smashed on the floor. Jasmine moved shakily to get the broom. Big Ramona made the Sign of the Cross. So did I.

Nash put his arm around Tommy. Tommy seemed thrilled. Little Jerome ate his peach cobbler as if nothing was happening.