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The old man and his wife towered over Vi. She gazed up at them, tears plowing through the dirt on her cheeks.

"Here’s the thing," Rufus said. "We think you were terrific today. Really. Hell, you drew first blood. Unflinching. Brutal. Lovely. But I think Andy has a lot more in the way of potential. He was icy out there. Calm. And he’s a thinker. More than I can say for my own son."

"I don’t understand," Vi said, stroking the nape of her son’s neck. "I don’t—"

"Andy needs our full attention, Violet. It’s just not fair to him to keep you around."

"But I did what you wanted."

"Kiss your son goodbye and hand him back to Maxine."

"You lied."

"Rufus, just a—"

"Andy, don’t make this worse."

Maxine reached down and grabbed little Max under his arms.

"No!" Vi screamed. "Get away from him!"

The baby awoke, emitting a tender cry.

"There, there," Maxine cooed. "Let’s not—"

Vi cocked her right arm and cracked the old woman’s jaw with the back of her fist.

Maxine roared and wrangled the baby away from its mother.

Vi started to rise, but Rufus stamped his boot into her chest and pinned her back against the wall.

"Now you’ve pissed her off," he said.

Maxine wiped blood from the corner of her mouth. Then she took hold of the baby’s ankles and held it upside down, little Max now screaming and flailing.

Vi wailed, too, as Maxine began to spin around, swinging the baby faster and faster.

"Now we start inching toward the wall!" she called out, her faded house dress twirling, her snowy hair whipping around like a shock of white cotton candy. "And after this, we’ll all play hide and seek! See, the fun never ends!"

I lunged for Maxine, but Rufus caught me on the chin with an elbow and my knees buckled.

I hit the ground, Vi screaming, the room spinning, expecting at any moment to hear the fracture of the tiny skull meeting the stone.

Luther caught the baby in his hands and snatched it away from his mother.

In shock, Maxine steadied herself, leveling her gaze on her son.

"Boy, are you loony?"

She grabbed Luther’s earlobe, so short she could only yank down.

"I dare you to hold onto that baby two more seconds," she seethed.

Rufus was in stitches.

As I struggled to my feet, Luther set the infant in the dirt.

When Maxine stooped for the baby, Luther lifted his mother off the ground and slammed her flush into the rock wall. There was a hollow pop when her head snapped back. Luther set her down on her feet, but her eyes rolled up in her head and she dropped.

Rufus charged his son, scooping him under the knees and driving him into the dirt floor. Vi sprang up, rushed over to Max, grabbed him, and scrambled up the staircase.

Rufus’s physical strength was staggering. In a matter of seconds, he’d straddled Luther, one hand on his neck, the other raining blows upon his pale face, laughing while he beat his son, laughing while I lifted the ax and limped toward them.

Luther’s loss of consciousness did nothing to detour his father’s hysterical rage.

Standing behind them now, I hoisted the ax.

It fell, the weight of the head propelling it earthward.

Rufus thought to glance back at me just as the blade clove his spine.

I jerked it back out as he convulsed, toppling backward into the dirt. When he stopped shivering, I thought he was dead, but his eyes blinked calmly, and he grinned at me, arms twitching, legs now and forever inert.

He said, "I can’t move my legs."

"Yeah, I got your spine."

"Beautiful?" he called out. He turned his head, saw Maxine sprawled motionless against the stone. I thought he might call out to her again, but instead he looked back at me, reached out, and grasped my hand.

"I still believe in you," he said. "I know you see past the illusions."

"Had a little regression of our own, didn’t we?"

He grinned and winced, the pain flooding in now.

"Rufus, I just want you to know…" I leaned in close to insure he heard every word. "I think you’re full of shit."

Rufus grunted, shook his head.

"No you don’t," he whispered, then smiled