I lifted my glass and drank it off. Then I picked up the bottle and filled my glass again and waited while she drank hers and filled it. “We might as well finish off this little bit. What the hell, we’ve had a pretty terrible week. God, I almost died when I had to come and see you in that cell. Goddammit, Klane. I was so scared. Weren’t you scared to death?” She kept on looking at me. I reached over and took her hand. “You never have to go back in there,” I promised. “There is no way on earth that anyone will put you back into a jail.” I drank my second glass of wine. Sun poured in the window. “Listen, Klane,” I went on. “Edmund said there was nothing for you to worry about. He said there is no way on earth they are going to put you in jail and leave your little children with no one to take care of them.” A very slight breeze blew in the door, harbinger of rain coming from the Gulf. I felt very old suddenly, mean and powerful and cynical and old. I could make too many calls. I could pull strings. Robert owned the newspaper. My new friend, Speed, owned all the real estate downtown. There wasn’t any justice anyway, or any law, there was only this, knowing people and making calls and getting all the men to be in love with you. “You’re safe,” I added. “I swear you are.” I poured us a third glass of wine. “You wouldn’t believe how interesting it is to read this stuff about the brain. We just walk around all day and we don’t even know what’s up there. I mean, we all have a brain and we don’t even understand the parts of it.”

“I believe I’ll make Mr. Malcolm a gumbo for his supper tonight,” Klane giggled. “And some of them little short biscuits from that recipe his momma gave us. You ought to be nicer to him, Rhoda. He’s twice the man of Mr. Haverty. Mr. Haverty don’t ever even go to work. When I used to work for them he used to stay in bed half the day.”

“I’m nice to him. I’m nice as I can be. Well, I got to go take a bath and get dressed. I might go on over to the library as soon as it opens.” I stood up. Drinking wine in the morning was a wonderful idea. Having Klane back in the kitchen was wonderful. It was a wonderful world and the sun was shining and would probably go on shining until two or three o’clock that afternoon. I bent down and kissed Klane on the cheek. The babies appeared in the door. They had climbed out of their beds and come to see what was going on.

“Cereal,” Jimmy said. “Cereal, potato chips.”