"Guess you won me," Martha said as she dropped a duffle bag on the hall floor. "What do I got to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"Janet says I got to earn my keep. Chores and stuff. I clean pretty good but I don't want to have to do the 'death' room."
Dean and his wife looked at one another. "Feed Mrs. Lincoln," Dean offered as his cat rubbed a welcome against Martha's legs.
"And water Alice," Cynthia added, returning to the room. Alice was a geranium Cynthia had lovingly rescued from certain death by frost last September when the rest of their first year garden succumbed to the advancing seasons.
God, remembered Dean. I've killed Alice! He'd forgotten the scraggy thing while Cynthia was away. He was sure by now it was a brown tangle, ready for the trash heap.
"I saved your butt," Fred muttered, as if reading his mind.
Cynthia took Martha by the hand and led her back to the small first floor bedroom, recently vacated by Ryland. Just then, the front door opened. It was Donald Ryland, Franny and Donnie. All three looked like front of the liners at a Santa Claus hand-out.
"Donnie wanted to say good bye to you," Ryland said as Donnie came up to shake hands with first Dean, then Cynthia and Fred.
"I'm sorry about your mother," Dean said. The young boy scampered back to Ryland's side, still smiling.
"Donnie's going to get lots of help now," Franny said. "There's a real good chance he'll be living with us! Donnie's mother's family is providing for him. It has something to do with a trust fund. We talked on the phone half the day, to some lawyer guy. And, it looks like we're going to have custody!"
"That's great!" Cynthia said as she joined the group, absent Martha, who Dean could hear opening drawers and unpacking in her new room.
"What about Jerome?" Fred asked. Franny just shrugged, as if she didn't want to say anything in front of the boy.
"I'm sure Mr. Shipton will want to see Donnie, from time to time," Ryland offered half-heartedly. Donnie just grimaced, an acknowledgment that he was paying attention to what was being said, and harbored no desire to see his stepfather.
The boy took his small note pad from his back pocket and carefully wrote, "What happened to Annie?" Just then, Martha came into the room. She made a choking, gagging motion at her throat in answer to Donnie's written question. It was Dean's turn to grimace at the untimely reference to death by hanging but Donnie seemed not to understand or make the connection. His face lit up in a smile at seeing his friend and the two bounced over to the sofa together. Then he looked back at Dean, perplexed.