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named Carl after Dad, but the baby only lived two days. She didn’t come home. The grownups paid less attention to us than usual. Coming in from the outhouse, I stopped on the porch and heard Florence, Carrie, and Ep. It was a hot, sticky night. Leroy was on the porch spitting watermelon seeds, so we both sat and listened.
    Ep’s voice sounded like a fuzzy radio show. He sounded worse than when he got cut up. “Carrie, she never told me about no pains. She never told me anything. If she’d let me know how she was feeling, I’d have got her to a doctor.”
    Florence answered him in a calm voice that was even stern, “My daughter, Jennifer, never was one to put herself first. She figured doctors ran too high and whatever was the matter with her had to do with the baby, so it’d be soon gone. Don’t blame yourself, Ep. She did what she thought was right and God knows with all of us working we can’t make hardly enough to keep going. She was thinking about that.”
    “I’m her husband. She should have told me. It’s my duty to know.”
    Carrie came in on it. “Women often get ailments they keep from their men. Jennifer was quieter than most that way. She mentioned to me that she had pains but how were any of us to know she’s shot through with cancer? She didn’t know. You don’t know things like that.”
    “She’s going to die. I know she’s going to die. When it’s all through you like that, you can’t live.”
    “No, there’s no way she can live. These things are in the hands of the Lord.” Florence was resolute. Fate was fate. If God wanted Jennifer then he would have her. Carrie seconded the motion. “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.” It’s not our business, these things, birth and death. We have to keep going on.”
    Leroy looked at me and clutched my arm. “Molly, Molly what does it mean that Mom’s got cancer? What are they talking about? Tell me what they’re talking about.”
    “I don’t know, Leroy. They say Aunt Jenna’s gonna die.” My throat hurt, there was a burning lump in it and I held onto Leroy’s hand and whispered, “Don’t let them know we heard. Nothin’ we can do except stay out of their way and see what happens. Maybe it’s a mistake and she’ll be home soon. People make mistakes sometimes.” Leroy started to cry and I took him out by the lima beans so nobody would hear either of us. Leroy sobbed, “I don’t want my mom to die.” He cried himself sick and then fell asleep. Even the mosquitoes didn’t bother him. After awhile Carrie called us to come in, so I got him up and half carried fat, lumpy Leroy back to the house to his little iron bed. Leroy slept in the same room with Ted, and I slept with Carrie and Carl in my own bed. I’d rather have been in there with Leroy, but people said it wasn’t right, but that made no sense to me at all, especially tonight. “Mom, let me stay in here with Leroy, just for tonight, Mom, please?”
    “No, you’re not sleeping in here with the boysand Ted big enough so his voice is changing. You come where you belong. When you get older you’ll understand.” She hauled me off and I took one last look at poor Leroy, eyes red and swollen and groggy. He was too tired to protest and fell back into a stupor.
    He must have told Ted because next day Ted was more withdrawn than usual and his eyes looked red too.
    Within a week Jenna was gone. The funeral was jammed with the entire population of the Hollow, and people were impressed with the flowers. Ep busted himself on the casket. He got the best there was and nobody could talk him out of it. If his wife was going to be dead, then she was going to be dead right, he said. Florence took charge of everything. Leroy, Ted and I were banished during the preparations and that was fine with us. Everybody got all dressed up to honor the dead. Leroy wore a bow tie, Ted wore a string tie, and Daddy and Ep had long ties on and coats that didn’t match their trousers, but coats