She made it clear.
"What did she tell you?" she asked, this time almost perfectly.
"That Great-aunt Frances is really my grandmother." I replied. She was blinking fast, and her mouth opened and closed, opened and closed. She struggled to keep herself erect in the chair, and she pounded the arm in frustration. This time the words she wanted to come out were stuck in the mud. She took a deep breath. Then she just nodded.
"Does..." She had to wait, as if the air to make the words had been coming up out of her lungs like a bubble rising to the surface of the ocean. "Father know?"
I shook my head. She pointed at me.
"I didn't tell him," I said. understanding.
She nodded slowly. but I saw how her eyes focused on me, a slight relaxing in the corners. It was hard to tell whether she was smiling, trying to smile, or it was nothing,
"Why?" she managed to ask.
"Because he wants to be your son now," I said. Her eyebrows rose so fast that I thought they would lift off her head.
She pointed at me again. I understood.
"It doesn't matter now whether she's my greataunt or my grandmother. It's too late. but I love her." I wanted to add. "I love her more than I love you," but I didn't.
She sat back, nodding slowly.
"Do you want me to tell Daddy?" I asked. She shook her head and pointed to herself. "Okay," I said.
"Your mother?" she asked.
"She might be getting better." I said. "We're going to visit her. Ian's getting better. too. They moved him to a nicer place. Daddy says."
She nodded, She knew that.
"How long are you going to stay here?" I asked. She looked at me and then shook her head.
"It's a nice place."
She grunted.
"As niiiice as a cema... cema..."
"Cemetery?" Figuring out her words was almost like playing a game.
She nodded.
"You're not dead," I told her. I said it so matterof-factly that her eyebrows rose again, and this time I was positive she was smiling.
"Why did you send me to live with Great-aunt Frances?" I asked. "Did you want me to find out the truth?"
She just looked at me, her eyes saying nothing, her lips crooked, turning in and out.
"Why didn't you want to have your own baby?" She shook her head,
"It was mean to leave her alone there."
She looked away.
"She wants to come to see you."
She looked at me with skeptical eves.