“I got Delmonica on my hands whether I like her or not. She ain’t got no place to go home to. Her folks got kicked off the place for voting. They got mixed up with that mess at the Greenville Air Force Base.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Well, don’t go talking about it now. Go on to sleep. You needs to get your sleep before the morning. No telling what the morning’s going to bring.” She went over to my suitcase and got out my nightgown and handed it to me. She watched while I undressed and put it on, then she put me into the bed and pulled the covers up around me. “Go on to sleep,” she said. “I’m right here.” She turned off the lights and pulled the lounge chair up beside the crib and sat back in it and folded her hands. “What about your children?” I asked. “Who’s taking care of your little girl and boy?”

“They gone up to the country for the summer. They won’t be back till almost school.”

“Who’d they go to see?”

“They went to stay with my momma up on Cockleshell. There’s work for them up there hoeing cotton. You go on to sleep, Rhoda. Don’t talk to me no more.”

“Okay,” I said. I curled my legs up into my stomach and fell into a deep sleep.

I woke up once in the night to go to the bathroom. Klane was still there, asleep in the chair beside the crib. I suppose the nurses came in and out, checking on us, but I don’t remember hearing them.

“Lethargic,” I heard a male nurse say. It was sometime in the early morning. I sat up in the bed and realized I had a nightgown on. I wrapped the sheet around me and got up and began to look for my robe. Two nurses and a resident were hovering over the crib.

“Your maid said to tell you she’d gone home to see about your husband and your other child,” the resident said. “She said to tell you she’d check with you later.”

“What are you doing?” I went to stand by the crib. Jimmy was awake, basking in the attention he was getting.

“You might want to get dressed,” the resident said. “They’ll be in before too long to prep him.”