Alvin probably could have spoke to him, but it seemed like too much work to open up his mouth and push words out, so he kind of shook his head, slow and gentle.

“You going to die, Alvin?” asked Cally.

He shook his head again.

“Oh,” said Cally.

He sounded so disappointed that it made Alvin a little mad. Mad enough to get his mouth working after all. “Sorry,” he croaked.

“Well it ain’t fair, anyhow,” said Cally. “I didn’t want you dead, but they all said you was going to die. And I got to thinking what it’d be like if I was the one they all took care of. All the time, everybody watching out for you, and when I say one little thing they just say, Get out of here, Cally, Just shut up, Cally. Nobody asked you, Cally, Ain’t you spose to be in bed, Cally? They don’t care what I do. Except when I start hitting you, then they all say, Don’t get in fights, Cally.”

“You wrestle real good for a field mouse.” At least that was what Alvin meant to say, but he didn’t know for sure if his lips even moved.

“You know what I did one time when I was six? I went out and got myself lost in the woods. I just walked and walked. Sometimes I closed my eyes and spun around a few times so I’d sure not know where I was. I must have been lost half the day. Did one soul come looking for me? I finally had to turn around and find my own way home. Nobody said, Where you been all day, Cally? Mama just said, Your hands are dirty as the back end of a sick horse, go wash yourself.”

Alvin laughed again, near silently, his chest heaving.

“It’s funny for you. Everybody looks after you.”

Alvin worked hard to make a sound this time. “You want me gone?”

Cally waited a long time to answer. “No. Who’d play with me then? Just the dumb old cousins. There ain’t a good wrassler in the bunch of them.”

“I’m going,” whispered Alvin.

“No you ain’t. You’re the seventh son, and they’ll never let you go.”

“Going.”

“Course the way I count up it’s me that’s number seven. David, Calm, Measure, Wastenot, Wantnot, Alvin Junior that’s you, and then me, that’s seven.”

“Vigor.”

“He’s dead. He’s been dead a long time. Somebody ought to tell that to Ma. and Pa.”