Blackwood Farm - Anne Rice [156]
“ ‘Then we’d have double trouble, wouldn’t we?’ said Jasmine. ‘Men just fall over flat at the feet of Terry Sue.’
“ ‘Well something stands up straight in those circumstances,’ said Aunt Queen.
“ ‘There’s one last thing I should say,’ said Grady, flushed with merriment, ‘and I am taking a bit of responsibility here.’
“ ‘Out with it, man,’ said Aunt Queen gently. She didn’t much care for standing in her spike heels and sat down again.
“ ‘The man that’s living with Terry Sue now,’ said Grady. ‘Sometimes he takes out his gun and waves it at the children.’
“We were aghast.
“ ‘And he did fling little Tommy up against the gas heater and burn his hand pretty badly.’
“ ‘And you mean to tell me,’ said Aunt Queen, ‘that Pops knew of this sort of thing and did nothing about it?’
“ ‘Pops tried to be an influence out there,’ said Grady, ‘but when you’re dealing with the likes of Terry Sue, it’s pretty much hopeless. Now she herself would never raise her hand to those children, but then these men come in and she has to put food on the table.’
“ ‘Don’t tell me another word,’ said Aunt Queen. ‘I have to go home and think what to do about it.’
“I shook my head.
“Little Tommy? A son living in a trailer.
A gloom had come on me, a feeling of unrest, and I knew it was as much from lack of sleep as it was from learning all this and how rich Pops was, and thinking, though I didn’t want to think of it, of those terrible arguments he would have with Patsy when she begged for money.
“Why, he could have set up the band. He could have bought the van. He could have hired the pickers. He could have given her a chance. And as it was, she begged and cursed and fought for every dime, and what did he do, this man whom I had so loved? What did he do with his powerful resources? He spent his days working on Blackwood Farm like a hired hand. He planted flower beds.
“And there was this child, this little boy, Tommy, no less, named after Pops, living on a pittance in the backwoods, with a passel of brothers and sisters in a trailer, a little boy with a psychotic stepfather.
“How had Pops seen his life? What had he wanted from it? My life had to be more. It had to be much, much greater. I would go mad if my life weren’t more. I felt pursued by the pressure of life itself. I felt frantic.
“ ‘What’s his full name?’ I asked. ‘You can tell me, can’t you?’
“ ‘Please do tell us his full name,’ asked Aunt Queen with a decisive nod.
“ ‘Tommy Harrison,’ said Grady. ‘Harrison is Terry Sue’s last name. I believe the child is illegitimate. In fact, I know the child is illegitimate.’
“My mood grew even darker. Who was I to judge Pops, I thought. Who was I to judge the man who had just left me so much wealth and who might have done otherwise? Who was I to judge him that he had left little Tommy Harrison in such a situation? But it weighed on me. And it weighed on me that Patsy’s character had perhaps been shaped by her lifelong struggle against a man who did not believe in her.
“Our farewells were being exchanged.
“I had to come to the surface. And off we went to lunch with Nash at Blackwood Manor.
“As we came out of the office Goblin appeared, attired as I was, my double again, but dour as he had been in the hospital, though not sneering, only solemn if not sad. He walked beside me to the car, and I felt that he knew my sadness, my disillusionment, and I turned to him and put my arm around him and he felt firm and good.
“ ‘It’s changing, Quinn,’ he said to me.
“ ‘No, old buddy, it can’t change,’ I said in his ear.
“But I knew he was right. I had things to do now. Places to go. And people to meet.”
23
“WHAT BROUGHT ME out of my daze about the newfound uncle and Pops’ wealth was the view of all the old wicker, painted white and grouped on the side flagstone terrace to the right of Blackwood Manor, just as it had been in my dreams of Rebecca. This was furniture I’d requisitioned from the attic, but the task of restoration had been completed while I lay in the hospital, and I marveled now to