“Anyone gonna get that?” I hollered when the knock sounded again.
Momma sat on the bed, defeated.
“Wait a minute,” I said. “Let’s wait and see what we can talk out.”
Momma’s eyes were shiny. I could see that sadness all over her.
Like with JimDaddy.
I ran down the hall, ran past everyone. Aunt Odie was in the kitchen, tinkering with something and holding Baby Lucy in one arm. “The door,” I said to her, and she looked at me like someone from a dream.
Tommie floated around her father, who sat on his recliner. Not all relaxed, but head in hands. “I can do it,” he was saying. “I can do it.”
“The door,” I said, but no one answered.
There in the foyer was Buddy.
“Evie,” he said. “Lookit. I wanna talk to you.”
I tilted my head at him. “Why didn’t you open the door?”
He shrugged. “It’s not my house.”
The knock sounded again.
I unlocked the door and threw it open wide.
“Paulie!” I said.