Blackwood Farm - Anne Rice [155]
“ ‘That’s impossible!’ I said. ‘He would never have been unfaithful to Sweetheart!’
“ ‘It wasn’t a thing he was proud of, Quinn,’ said Grady. ‘Indeed, he was not proud of it, and he was deeply concerned that the rumors about it would never disturb his family.’
“ ‘I don’t believe it,’ I said again.
“ ‘DNA has proved it, Quinn,’ said Grady. ‘And Terry Sue of course has always known it, and out of affection for Sweetheart, for whom Terry Sue did baking, you know—.’
“ ‘Those big Virginia hams,’ I said. ‘She’d soak them and scrub them and bake them.’
“ ‘What tenderness,’ said Aunt Queen. ‘Seems she soaked and scrubbed something else. But Grady, you have a point to make with this revelation, don’t you, dear fellow?’
“ ‘Indeed, I do, Miss Queen,’ said Grady. ‘Pops was in the habit of taking an envelope of cash over there to Terry Sue every week or so, and though whatever man she’s with tends to run off the old ones, no one was ever tempted to run off Pops with his envelope. It was about five hundred a week that he gave her. And this keeps the boy in a good Catholic school—St. Joseph’s over in Mapleville—and that was the one term exacted for it, as far as I know. The boy’s nine years old now, I believe. He’s in the fourth grade.’
“ ‘We’ll continue this, of course,’ said Aunt Queen. ‘Can we see this child?’
“ ‘I recommend you do,’ said Grady, ‘because he’s a beautiful boy, handsome as you, Quinn, and he’s bright too, and Terry Sue, for all her faults, is trying to bring him up right. His name is Tommy. One thing that might help, if you’ll take my suggestion. Now Pops never would but . . .’
“ ‘But what is it?’ I asked. I was flabbergasted by all this.
“ ‘Give her enough money to send all those children of hers to good schools,’ said Grady. ‘Equalize things, you know what I mean? If you take toys or video games or what have you out there, take it for all the children.’
“ ‘I see, yes, I understand,’ said Aunt Queen. ‘You’ll have to give me a written report as to the size of the family and then we can arrange . . .’
“ ‘No, I wouldn’t do it in writing, Miss Queen,’ said Grady. ‘I wouldn’t put anything in writing at all. There’s five little ones out there now, no, six as of this morning, and the latest boyfriend is a piece of trash, pure trailer trash, I should say, and in fact they do live in a trailer, the whole gang, and such a trailer you wouldn’t believe, and there are the proverbial rusting cars up on blocks in the yard, it’s just a classical situation out there, a regular motion picture set—.’
“ ‘Cut to the chase, my man,’ said Aunt Queen.
“ ‘But there is that little boy whose father was rich, and he’s growing up out there and Terry Sue is doing the best she can, and this new baby, this new baby makes six, I figure. I’ll take the envelopes of cash for you, that much I can do, but don’t put anything in writing.’
“Of course Aunt Queen and I both understood this. But we were eager and curious about this little boy, still unbelieving though I was emotionally. A little brother, no, a little uncle, named Tommy and with Blackwood genes in him, and maybe a resemblance to the many portraits all over the household.
“It being agreed that we were finished, Aunt Queen had risen and so had Jasmine, who had remained subdued throughout, and I was still sitting there, deeply preoccupied.
“ ‘Does the little boy know?’ I asked.
“ ‘I’m not sure,’ said Grady. He looked to Aunt Queen. ‘You and I can discuss this further.’
“ ‘Oh, indeed, we should; we’re talking about a family of six children living in one trailer. Good Lord, and she’s so beautiful. The least I could do would be to purchase the good woman a decent house, if it wouldn’t offend the pride of anyone squeezed into the trailer.’
“ ‘How come I never heard of her?’ I asked. And to my