Later, after we had done the dishes and drank all the coffee and listened to the Ninth Symphony again, Charles William walked me to the car. He paused at the end of the brick sidewalk and took both my hands in his. “Be careful with Jim, Rhoda. You aren’t divorced yet. Don’t get in too deep.”

“I want to be in deep. Besides, it’s not because of him.” Charles William smiled. “Well, it’s not. It’s because of Klane. I wouldn’t go down there except for her. I have to save her. I told her I would. I promised her. You like Jim, don’t you? Don’t you think he’s nice?”

“He’s more than nice, Dee. It isn’t that.”

“What is it then?”

“Well, you aren’t divorced. Be careful, honey. Malcolm’s a killer. I roomed with him, remember?”

“What could he do to me?”

“He could take the kids. This is Alabama, honey. They don’t take adultery lightly. Especially with a civil rights worker who lives in a black project in Montgomery.”

“Nothing will happen. Malcolm doesn’t even like the kids. All he thinks about is making money. He’ll do whatever Daddy tells him to to keep from paying me child support.”

“I wouldn’t . . . well, never mind. Just be careful, Dee. Be careful until you get the divorce.”

“I will. Well, look, I have to go. The house is beautiful, Charles William. It’s perfect. So were the waffles.” We hugged each other again and I got into the car and drove away. He stood at the end of the driveway waving until I was out of sight. And in the light of all that love I was emboldened. I could do anything I wanted to. I was a part of the pantheon. Child and friend of gods.

As soon as I got home I packed a suitcase and sneaked it down the back stairs and hid it in the trunk of my car. Then I took Little Malcolm and Jimmy out to the country club and spent the afternoon teaching them to swim. They were my children. Water babies from the word go. I let them stay in the water until their fingers shriveled and their lips turned blue. Then I dragged them out and dried them off and fed them bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches and signed the chits with my daddy’s name.