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"You're confusing him, Fanny," I interrupted. "He's confused enough. It's better his mind is occupied." She turned to me with more characteristic Fanny fury in her eyes.
"I ain't confusin' him "
"She's right," Randall said softly. He looked almost surprised that he had spoken up, but what he saw made him do it. Almost immediately, though, he realized he had brought Fanny's wrath down upon himself.
"Oh, sure, ya'll say she's right," Fanny snapped.
"Ya'll probably always take her side 'gainst me, won't ya?"
"Come on," he said, in a pleading tone, "let's go have something to eat at a restaurant. We'll come back later."
She stared at me hatefully and then her face softened and she put on one of her brilliant smiles.
"Randall's right. I've been so upset about Pa, I couldn't think about food. And I'm eatin' fer two now, ain't I, Heaven," she said as she looked straight at Logan. "We didn't eat a thing since we left Winnerow, did we, Randall?"
"No," Randall agreed, obviously confused by the tension between Logan and Fanny.
"Ya wanna go to a restaurant, Drake, honey?" she asked.
"Fanny, can't you see he's in the middle of eating a sandwich?"
"Sandwich." She put her hand on his head and stroked his hair "Ya'd rather go ta a restaurant, wouldn't ya, Drake baby?"
"I'm not a baby," he said, pulling back.
"Well, I didn't mean yer a baby, honey."
"Fanny, let's go eat," Randall pleaded. "We'll come back."
"All right," she snapped. Then she put on her smile again. "We'll see ya all later on." She knelt down beside Drake and kissed him on the cheek. "Jus' as handsome as yer daddy was," she said. He stared at her as she joined Randall
"We'll see you at the church tomorrow," I said coldly.
"Oh, God, I forgot," Fanny said. "Poor Luke." She threaded her arm through Randall's. "I jest hate thinkin' 'bout it. Lemme borrow that handkerchief again, Randall, honey," she said and dabbed her eyes gently. She lowered her head.
"So long," Randall said.
The moment he and Fanny left the house, I took a deep breath and tried to calm the coiling rage Fanny had aroused in me. I looked at Logan, who wore a guilty, sad expression.
"I'll take Drake's things out to the car," he said, "so we can leave as soon as he's finished."
I nodded and then sat at the table and began wiping Fanny's lipstick off Drake's face.
Early the next morning, with Drake between us, one of his small sweet hands in each of ours, we entered the church, like a family. Luke's circus employees crowded the pews and spilled over into the aisles of the small church. There were giants and midgets; a bearded lady in a long, black dress; animal trainers with their hair so long they looked like bodybuilding rock singers; acrobatic groups who were so in tune with one another's movements, they looked attached; some glamorous-looking women who assisted magicians and the ringmaster; some management types in business suits; and men who played clowns, their faces so ridden with real grief, it was as if they wore their sad makeup clown faces.
All of them knew Drake, and at the sight of him it seemed as if the entire collection sighed and burst into tears at once. We walked down the aisle to the front pew and sat facing Drake's parents' caskets.
"Are Mammy and Daddy coming here?" Drake asked, his big brown eyes looking around anxiously. I felt my heart almost break in two.
"This is a special place to say good-bye to your mommy and daddy," I said, holding him tightly.
He looked up at the stained-glass window, at the candles, at the two caskets sitting side by side. The bearded lady had just walked over to Luke's casket and, weeping profusely, leaned over it and placed a single rose atop it.
"He was so kind to me," she whispered aloud to herself.
"Why is Auntie Martha talking to that box?" Drake asked. "Who's in there? Did Melin the Magician put someone inside there?"
"No, honey," I said. I tenderly kissed his forehead.
