Ella paid the taxi driver and went into the house. The television set was on, loud, and she could see the gray-thatched top of Gramp’s head in the easy chair.

“Well, how is he?” the old man said, not bothering to turn.

Ella had stopped crying in the taxi, but for some reason Gramp’s voice started the tears again, and she could not answer. She stood in the center of the living room, by the couch, her head bowed and her hands at her sides.

“Goddamnit, you gone deaf? I asked a question.”

She tried again to answer, but could only succeed in making a choking sound.

Gramp twisted his head around, stared for a moment, then snapped the television set off and got up. “You look beautiful,” he said. “Your face all red and snot running down your nose, you look beautiful. Ain’t you got a handkerchief?”

Ella took a handkerchief from her purse and blew her nose. She saw Gramp and the furniture and the house, but all this time she also saw her father in the hospital bed, and the corridors of the hospital, and the fat, efficient nurse.

Gramp came closer. “What’d she do,” he demanded, “tell you not to talk to me?”

Ella shook her head.

“Well, then, for Christ Almighty’s sake, answer my question. Is he alive?”

“Yes.”

“Well, go on, go on!”

“He had four broken ribs and—and—”

“Shit! You’re just like your mother, you want to keep everything to yourself. Well, I happen to live here too, young lady. I got a right to know what the hell’s going on. Four broke ribs and what else?”

“Internal injuries. And they hurt his eye. Doctor Hill says—”

“Yes?”

“Daddy might lose his eye.”

“Anything else?” David Parkinson waited; then he made a snorting sound and shuffled into the bathroom. He opened a small box and took three red pills out of it. He swallowed the pills. “Well,” he said, “he was goddamn lucky.”

“Lucky?”

“That’s right! In my day they’d of strung a man up for doing what he done. And I’d of helped with the rope, too! What’s the matter with him, anyway? Has he gone cuckoo? Shit, I knew he was spineless and I always guessed he was a lot fonder of them niggers than he let on, but I never thought he’d go and disgrace us like this. How’m I gonna face my friends now? Huh? I ain’t never been so embarrassed in my whole life!”

Ella could not believe the things she was hearing. Even from Gramp, it seemed impossible.

“Dad’s hurt,” she said, stunned.