WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.670 align:middle line:84% Nanci Kincaid grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. 00:00:03.670 --> 00:00:07.620 align:middle line:84% She earned a BA from Athens State College in 1987, 00:00:07.620 --> 00:00:13.350 align:middle line:84% an MFA in Fiction from the University of Alabama in 1991. 00:00:13.350 --> 00:00:16.860 align:middle line:84% She's the author of two novels: Crossing Blood 00:00:16.860 --> 00:00:23.760 align:middle line:84% in 1992, about which Henry Louis Gates said, finally, 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:28.710 align:middle line:84% a southern novel that a Black person can love and believe. 00:00:28.710 --> 00:00:30.870 align:middle line:84% Crossing Blood signals the arrival 00:00:30.870 --> 00:00:34.470 align:middle line:84% of a major talent among American novelists. 00:00:34.470 --> 00:00:40.500 align:middle line:84% And Balls in 1998, a life story set in the college football 00:00:40.500 --> 00:00:42.510 align:middle line:90% culture of the South. 00:00:42.510 --> 00:00:47.430 align:middle line:84% A topic about which Ms. Kincaid has had ample opportunity 00:00:47.430 --> 00:00:51.480 align:middle line:84% for research as both her ex and her present husband 00:00:51.480 --> 00:00:54.540 align:middle line:90% are college football coaches. 00:00:54.540 --> 00:00:57.120 align:middle line:84% Her short story collection Pretending the Bed 00:00:57.120 --> 00:01:00.000 align:middle line:84% is a Raft earned critical acclaim. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.890 align:middle line:84% Kirkus Review, notoriously tight fisted in handing out laurels, 00:01:04.890 --> 00:01:07.680 align:middle line:84% called the story dazzling, exquisite, 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:10.660 align:middle line:90% and Kincaid a vigorous talent. 00:01:10.660 --> 00:01:12.930 align:middle line:84% Her work has appeared in many distinguished journals 00:01:12.930 --> 00:01:17.700 align:middle line:84% including the Oxford American, Missouri Review, and Ontario 00:01:17.700 --> 00:01:18.780 align:middle line:90% Review. 00:01:18.780 --> 00:01:20.820 align:middle line:84% Among her honors she received a fellowship 00:01:20.820 --> 00:01:22.980 align:middle line:84% from the National Endowment for the Arts 00:01:22.980 --> 00:01:24.970 align:middle line:84% and the coveted Bunting Fellowship 00:01:24.970 --> 00:01:27.150 align:middle line:90% from Radcliffe College. 00:01:27.150 --> 00:01:29.700 align:middle line:84% This semester she's teaching in our creative writing 00:01:29.700 --> 00:01:33.270 align:middle line:84% program for which we are immensely grateful. 00:01:33.270 --> 00:01:37.350 align:middle line:84% I was fascinated to learn that while Kincaid was enjoying 00:01:37.350 --> 00:01:40.920 align:middle line:84% the artistic and intellectual luxury of her Bunting 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:43.920 align:middle line:84% Fellowship, she became friends with Carol 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:47.460 align:middle line:84% Gilligan, the renowned Harvard psychologist who 00:01:47.460 --> 00:01:51.990 align:middle line:84% has done groundbreaking work on the moral development of women, 00:01:51.990 --> 00:01:54.210 align:middle line:84% published in a book I'm sure many of you know: 00:01:54.210 --> 00:01:56.820 align:middle line:90% In a Different Voice. 00:01:56.820 --> 00:02:00.780 align:middle line:84% That affinity strikes me as a significant detail 00:02:00.780 --> 00:02:05.880 align:middle line:84% in Kincaid's biography as is of course her propensity 00:02:05.880 --> 00:02:08.759 align:middle line:90% to team up with coaches. 00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:13.050 align:middle line:84% It is easy to say that Balls is a novel about football, 00:02:13.050 --> 00:02:16.230 align:middle line:84% but also it is a story about football 00:02:16.230 --> 00:02:20.970 align:middle line:84% as a microcosm for our culture's dominant values. 00:02:20.970 --> 00:02:25.200 align:middle line:84% It's the story of women finding their own honest voices 00:02:25.200 --> 00:02:26.940 align:middle line:90% in such a culture. 00:02:26.940 --> 00:02:30.600 align:middle line:84% And it is the story of one woman's hard won 00:02:30.600 --> 00:02:33.990 align:middle line:90% self-definition in a male world. 00:02:33.990 --> 00:02:36.616 align:middle line:90% Please welcome Nanci Kincaid. 00:02:36.616 --> 00:02:40.088 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:02:40.088 --> 00:02:44.060 align:middle line:90% 00:02:44.060 --> 00:02:44.687 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:02:44.687 --> 00:02:45.770 align:middle line:90% Can you hear me all right? 00:02:45.770 --> 00:02:46.437 align:middle line:90% Should I adjust? 00:02:46.437 --> 00:02:52.710 align:middle line:90% 00:02:52.710 --> 00:02:53.280 align:middle line:90% How is that? 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:54.074 align:middle line:90% Is it better? 00:02:54.074 --> 00:02:54.574 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:02:54.574 --> 00:02:58.322 align:middle line:90% 00:02:58.322 --> 00:02:58.822 align:middle line:90% Whoops. 00:02:58.822 --> 00:03:02.140 align:middle line:90% 00:03:02.140 --> 00:03:03.090 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:03:03.090 --> 00:03:05.580 align:middle line:84% Well, thank you all for coming tonight. 00:03:05.580 --> 00:03:07.920 align:middle line:84% This is sort of a thrill for me because I've 00:03:07.920 --> 00:03:12.300 align:middle line:84% given I think two readings in Tucson 00:03:12.300 --> 00:03:16.640 align:middle line:84% and usually only my blood relatives come. 00:03:16.640 --> 00:03:18.290 align:middle line:84% So this is a real pleasure to read 00:03:18.290 --> 00:03:19.933 align:middle line:90% to people that don't know me. 00:03:19.933 --> 00:03:21.350 align:middle line:84% And I want to say a special thanks 00:03:21.350 --> 00:03:23.370 align:middle line:84% to my students who are here tonight, 00:03:23.370 --> 00:03:24.890 align:middle line:84% especially after class today, which 00:03:24.890 --> 00:03:29.750 align:middle line:84% was a long, grueling class and it makes for a long day. 00:03:29.750 --> 00:03:32.750 align:middle line:84% I'm really smart enough to know that a fiction writer should 00:03:32.750 --> 00:03:39.210 align:middle line:84% always read something funny, work in progress, 00:03:39.210 --> 00:03:40.800 align:middle line:84% and sometimes it's really a mistake 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:42.330 align:middle line:84% to do because in the past I've read 00:03:42.330 --> 00:03:45.300 align:middle line:84% from a work in progress only then to go home and throw it 00:03:45.300 --> 00:03:46.167 align:middle line:90% away. 00:03:46.167 --> 00:03:48.000 align:middle line:84% It's going to all depend on how you guys are 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:51.690 align:middle line:90% breathing while I'm reading. 00:03:51.690 --> 00:03:55.590 align:middle line:84% And this is part of what I'm thinking 00:03:55.590 --> 00:03:58.950 align:middle line:84% of as a trilogy of novellas, which I will call Three 00:03:58.950 --> 00:04:02.910 align:middle line:84% Wives, which sounds like Dick should have written, 00:04:02.910 --> 00:04:04.650 align:middle line:90% but nonetheless. 00:04:04.650 --> 00:04:08.280 align:middle line:90% [CHUCKLES] Just teasing. 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:09.450 align:middle line:90% But it's Three Wives. 00:04:09.450 --> 00:04:14.010 align:middle line:84% The first story, the first novella is titled For a Little 00:04:14.010 --> 00:04:18.339 align:middle line:84% Light Reading Try the Sperm Catalog. 00:04:18.339 --> 00:04:21.250 align:middle line:84% And it's a woman who's getting a divorce and has two children. 00:04:21.250 --> 00:04:23.110 align:middle line:84% Her husband has left her for a younger, more 00:04:23.110 --> 00:04:24.382 align:middle line:90% interesting woman. 00:04:24.382 --> 00:04:26.590 align:middle line:84% Meanwhile, her best friend, who's never been married, 00:04:26.590 --> 00:04:28.870 align:middle line:90% decides that she wants a child. 00:04:28.870 --> 00:04:30.030 align:middle line:90% So she sends off-- 00:04:30.030 --> 00:04:31.870 align:middle line:84% these women, all my women live in Alabama. 00:04:31.870 --> 00:04:33.610 align:middle line:84% I don't know, they can't help it. 00:04:33.610 --> 00:04:36.550 align:middle line:84% So they send off to California for a sperm catalog 00:04:36.550 --> 00:04:39.430 align:middle line:84% because they don't want to mix with relatives, right? 00:04:39.430 --> 00:04:42.940 align:middle line:84% And they get this sperm catalog and it's 00:04:42.940 --> 00:04:46.300 align:middle line:84% about reading about men as in the way 00:04:46.300 --> 00:04:47.560 align:middle line:90% that they're summarized. 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:49.180 align:middle line:84% One woman in particular, she almost 00:04:49.180 --> 00:04:51.370 align:middle line:84% has every man in the book memorized. 00:04:51.370 --> 00:04:55.580 align:middle line:84% And how after a while the men who only have numbers, 00:04:55.580 --> 00:04:57.110 align:middle line:90% they don't have names. 00:04:57.110 --> 00:05:00.550 align:middle line:84% The men in the sperm catalog become more real to them 00:05:00.550 --> 00:05:02.542 align:middle line:90% than the men in their lives. 00:05:02.542 --> 00:05:04.000 align:middle line:84% And this story, which even though I 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:07.060 align:middle line:84% told my students to title everything no matter what. 00:05:07.060 --> 00:05:09.730 align:middle line:84% The story I'm going to read from tonight is untitled. 00:05:09.730 --> 00:05:12.640 align:middle line:84% And I won't give you much feedback about it 00:05:12.640 --> 00:05:15.950 align:middle line:84% except that it takes place in Butler County, Alabama. 00:05:15.950 --> 00:05:19.953 align:middle line:84% A fictional county, I hope, that has no town in it. 00:05:19.953 --> 00:05:21.370 align:middle line:84% It's one of those kind of counties 00:05:21.370 --> 00:05:24.902 align:middle line:84% where you go across the line to the neighboring county's mall, 00:05:24.902 --> 00:05:26.110 align:middle line:90% you know that kind of county. 00:05:26.110 --> 00:05:28.240 align:middle line:84% Where people build houses when they first get married 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:29.823 align:middle line:84% and the rest of their lives they spend 00:05:29.823 --> 00:05:32.840 align:middle line:90% finishing them, adding on. 00:05:32.840 --> 00:05:37.420 align:middle line:84% That's just a kind of happy rural southern setting, 00:05:37.420 --> 00:05:40.360 align:middle line:90% I guess you could say. 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:43.090 align:middle line:84% I also want to say a little thanks to my mother-- 00:05:43.090 --> 00:05:46.120 align:middle line:84% [AUDIO OUT] from my mother in my fiction. 00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:48.580 align:middle line:84% And I'm not always conscious of it at first. 00:05:48.580 --> 00:05:51.100 align:middle line:84% And I never have-- had her read anything 00:05:51.100 --> 00:05:53.170 align:middle line:90% before I went ahead with it. 00:05:53.170 --> 00:05:56.680 align:middle line:84% And she always pretends she does not recognize herself at all. 00:05:56.680 --> 00:05:58.242 align:middle line:90% And I think she really doesn't. 00:05:58.242 --> 00:05:59.950 align:middle line:84% Although there are six kids in the family 00:05:59.950 --> 00:06:02.590 align:middle line:84% and all the rest of them really recognize them. 00:06:02.590 --> 00:06:05.740 align:middle line:84% But in this story I have borrowed one of her boyfriends 00:06:05.740 --> 00:06:08.900 align:middle line:90% who was a guy named Happy Cat. 00:06:08.900 --> 00:06:10.730 align:middle line:84% Happy Cat she met at the Elks Club, 00:06:10.730 --> 00:06:14.990 align:middle line:84% where she was a great card player, and he was a mail man. 00:06:14.990 --> 00:06:17.138 align:middle line:84% And in the summer when she had off from school 00:06:17.138 --> 00:06:18.680 align:middle line:84% she would get in his mail truck which 00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:21.980 align:middle line:84% is absolutely against the law, which was quite a thrill, 00:06:21.980 --> 00:06:24.650 align:middle line:84% and go on his mail route with him. 00:06:24.650 --> 00:06:26.570 align:middle line:84% So I borrowed Happy Cat and I don't know 00:06:26.570 --> 00:06:27.695 align:middle line:90% how long I'm going to read. 00:06:27.695 --> 00:06:30.680 align:middle line:84% I hope I'll read far enough to introduce you to Happy Cat. 00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:34.190 align:middle line:84% But don't mistake being of the character here for my mother. 00:06:34.190 --> 00:06:37.176 align:middle line:84% She's got a lot of kids but that's the only similarity. 00:06:37.176 --> 00:06:51.064 align:middle line:90% 00:06:51.064 --> 00:06:57.090 align:middle line:84% There is always kind of a logistical thing here. 00:06:57.090 --> 00:06:59.940 align:middle line:84% "Lord, Eddie had gotten tired of watching his mother, 00:06:59.940 --> 00:07:02.460 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] sit in the yard in a folding chair 00:07:02.460 --> 00:07:05.640 align:middle line:84% with all the mismatched laces unraveling. 00:07:05.640 --> 00:07:07.710 align:middle line:84% Just sit there with a cup of coffee in her hand 00:07:07.710 --> 00:07:10.650 align:middle line:84% and contemplate the sorry shape of her life. 00:07:10.650 --> 00:07:12.420 align:middle line:84% Her head bowed low in something that 00:07:12.420 --> 00:07:15.870 align:middle line:84% looked like defeat or prayer, since the two can 00:07:15.870 --> 00:07:18.270 align:middle line:90% look the same from a distance. 00:07:18.270 --> 00:07:20.880 align:middle line:84% But Eddie had a pretty good idea that no prayer was going on 00:07:20.880 --> 00:07:21.960 align:middle line:90% out there. 00:07:21.960 --> 00:07:24.420 align:middle line:84% He figured it was more like an endless question and answer 00:07:24.420 --> 00:07:27.300 align:middle line:84% session with a God she had once believed in 00:07:27.300 --> 00:07:29.850 align:middle line:84% and tried to make all of them believe in, 00:07:29.850 --> 00:07:33.510 align:middle line:84% a long, long time ago before everything got so messed up 00:07:33.510 --> 00:07:36.390 align:middle line:90% and she got so tired. 00:07:36.390 --> 00:07:37.950 align:middle line:84% It was just in the last year when 00:07:37.950 --> 00:07:40.950 align:middle line:84% things should be back to normal that [? Bena ?] had begun 00:07:40.950 --> 00:07:43.980 align:middle line:84% to sit alone in the yard drinking her morning coffee 00:07:43.980 --> 00:07:46.290 align:middle line:84% and waiting for the sun to come up before going off 00:07:46.290 --> 00:07:48.240 align:middle line:84% to work over at the school administration 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:51.870 align:middle line:84% building, a filling out government forms. 00:07:51.870 --> 00:07:53.790 align:middle line:84% She waited for the sunrise, the way 00:07:53.790 --> 00:07:56.430 align:middle line:84% a person waits for a big disappointment, 00:07:56.430 --> 00:07:59.250 align:middle line:84% and then is not surprised when it comes, 00:07:59.250 --> 00:08:02.400 align:middle line:84% because it proves the ongoingness of disappointment, 00:08:02.400 --> 00:08:06.180 align:middle line:84% like one thing in this world you can count on. 00:08:06.180 --> 00:08:09.280 align:middle line:84% The rest of them had more or less bounced back, you know. 00:08:09.280 --> 00:08:13.200 align:middle line:84% The flat way a ball with not much air in it bounces. 00:08:13.200 --> 00:08:16.320 align:middle line:84% But still, they had stopped looking behind them 00:08:16.320 --> 00:08:19.560 align:middle line:84% and started looking ahead into that magic place everybody was 00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:21.390 align:middle line:90% always talking about. 00:08:21.390 --> 00:08:26.970 align:middle line:84% The future, where everything was not only possible, but likely. 00:08:26.970 --> 00:08:29.640 align:middle line:84% Hadn't his mother spent the last decade trying to make sure 00:08:29.640 --> 00:08:32.549 align:middle line:84% they all believed in that, the future? 00:08:32.549 --> 00:08:34.919 align:middle line:84% The future was her God, wasn't it? 00:08:34.919 --> 00:08:37.850 align:middle line:90% And now here she was giving up. 00:08:37.850 --> 00:08:39.600 align:middle line:84% When she got home from work in the evening 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:42.630 align:middle line:84% she microwaved a cup of leftover morning coffee 00:08:42.630 --> 00:08:45.960 align:middle line:84% and sat right there again in that same damn chair, 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:48.690 align:middle line:84% this time turned to face the sunset. 00:08:48.690 --> 00:08:51.300 align:middle line:84% Sometimes she sat there until after dark, 00:08:51.300 --> 00:08:54.570 align:middle line:84% until Eddie, her youngest son called out to her. 00:08:54.570 --> 00:08:56.310 align:middle line:84% What are you doing out there, mama? 00:08:56.310 --> 00:08:59.370 align:middle line:84% Are we going to have any supper or what? 00:08:59.370 --> 00:09:00.870 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] would rise like a zombie, 00:09:00.870 --> 00:09:02.828 align:middle line:84% and come inside, and bang around in the kitchen 00:09:02.828 --> 00:09:05.880 align:middle line:84% until she had produced plates of eggs and toast, 00:09:05.880 --> 00:09:09.835 align:middle line:84% or spaghetti, or a couple of chicken pot pie. 00:09:09.835 --> 00:09:11.460 align:middle line:84% Gone were the days when [? Bena ?] used 00:09:11.460 --> 00:09:13.860 align:middle line:84% to clip recipes out of the Sunday paper 00:09:13.860 --> 00:09:17.400 align:middle line:84% and try out weird but delicious casseroles on the family 00:09:17.400 --> 00:09:20.040 align:middle line:84% as if they were a bunch of Guinea pigs. 00:09:20.040 --> 00:09:22.680 align:middle line:84% She had the pig part right, Eddie thought. 00:09:22.680 --> 00:09:25.890 align:middle line:84% He could not remember a time when he wasn't hungry. 00:09:25.890 --> 00:09:28.710 align:middle line:84% With five kids in the family and him the youngest, 00:09:28.710 --> 00:09:31.260 align:middle line:84% Eddie had learned to grab and gobble. 00:09:31.260 --> 00:09:33.720 align:middle line:84% "Slow down Eddie," his mother used to say. 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:35.670 align:middle line:90% "We got plenty son." 00:09:35.670 --> 00:09:39.150 align:middle line:84% But he had never been sure of that. 00:09:39.150 --> 00:09:41.580 align:middle line:84% Now, [? Bena ?] cooked exactly the same way a person 00:09:41.580 --> 00:09:42.750 align:middle line:90% fell asleep. 00:09:42.750 --> 00:09:45.907 align:middle line:84% She just got in position and let herself go 00:09:45.907 --> 00:09:47.490 align:middle line:84% and before she knew what was happening 00:09:47.490 --> 00:09:49.410 align:middle line:90% she had supper on the table. 00:09:49.410 --> 00:09:54.270 align:middle line:84% It was both totally predictable and also a little like magic. 00:09:54.270 --> 00:09:55.320 align:middle line:90% They sat down. 00:09:55.320 --> 00:09:57.990 align:middle line:84% Eddie asked to sing song Grace he had memorized 00:09:57.990 --> 00:10:01.530 align:middle line:84% as a child, the only real poem he knew by heart, 00:10:01.530 --> 00:10:03.510 align:middle line:84% and they ate whatever food [? Bena ?] 00:10:03.510 --> 00:10:07.200 align:middle line:84% had caused to appear before them. 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:09.900 align:middle line:84% Eddie had plans to go off to college in the fall. 00:10:09.900 --> 00:10:13.350 align:middle line:84% He had surprised everybody and gotten a track scholarship. 00:10:13.350 --> 00:10:15.630 align:middle line:84% Up until then, [? Bena ?] had thought 00:10:15.630 --> 00:10:17.880 align:middle line:90% Eddie was more or less lazy. 00:10:17.880 --> 00:10:19.800 align:middle line:84% She knew he liked to run but she didn't 00:10:19.800 --> 00:10:23.140 align:middle line:84% think of running as something good to do with your life. 00:10:23.140 --> 00:10:26.790 align:middle line:84% In fact, it bothered her seeing Eddie run so much like he was 00:10:26.790 --> 00:10:30.042 align:middle line:84% trying to get away from something but couldn't. 00:10:30.042 --> 00:10:31.500 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] knew he counted the days 00:10:31.500 --> 00:10:34.410 align:middle line:84% until he could leave home and move into a tiny 8 00:10:34.410 --> 00:10:38.250 align:middle line:84% by 8 dorm room with some strange boy he didn't know, 00:10:38.250 --> 00:10:40.320 align:middle line:84% perhaps the long distance runner, one 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:43.590 align:middle line:84% of those real skinny boys from some exotic land, 00:10:43.590 --> 00:10:49.840 align:middle line:84% and start at last to be really truly happy for a change. 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:52.710 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] wondered when exactly happiness 00:10:52.710 --> 00:10:56.250 align:middle line:84% had started to be something that happened far away from home, 00:10:56.250 --> 00:10:59.130 align:middle line:84% something you had to leave home to go get. 00:10:59.130 --> 00:11:01.950 align:middle line:84% And how had all [? Bena's ?] his children managed to figure that 00:11:01.950 --> 00:11:05.100 align:middle line:90% out when [? Bena ?] hadn't. 00:11:05.100 --> 00:11:07.710 align:middle line:84% "Too much thinking is not good for a person, mama." 00:11:07.710 --> 00:11:09.120 align:middle line:90% Eddie said. 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:11.280 align:middle line:84% "I'm not exactly thinking out there son," 00:11:11.280 --> 00:11:12.810 align:middle line:90% [? Bena ?] told him. 00:11:12.810 --> 00:11:14.580 align:middle line:90% "I'm meditating. 00:11:14.580 --> 00:11:17.370 align:middle line:84% They say you should sit quiet and meditate to start your day 00:11:17.370 --> 00:11:19.690 align:middle line:90% out and to finish it up." 00:11:19.690 --> 00:11:21.240 align:middle line:90% "Who says that?" 00:11:21.240 --> 00:11:23.250 align:middle line:84% "All the people on the talk shows. 00:11:23.250 --> 00:11:24.900 align:middle line:90% All the health books. 00:11:24.900 --> 00:11:27.970 align:middle line:84% They say it's good coping strategy." 00:11:27.970 --> 00:11:29.220 align:middle line:90% "So How's it going then, mama. 00:11:29.220 --> 00:11:31.020 align:middle line:90% How are your coping?" 00:11:31.020 --> 00:11:33.090 align:middle line:84% "My mind just wanders over the same stuff 00:11:33.090 --> 00:11:35.255 align:middle line:84% when I meditate as it does when I think. 00:11:35.255 --> 00:11:37.380 align:middle line:84% It feels like I've got a broken record going around 00:11:37.380 --> 00:11:38.967 align:middle line:90% in my head." 00:11:38.967 --> 00:11:40.800 align:middle line:84% "I think you need to forget about meditating 00:11:40.800 --> 00:11:42.060 align:middle line:90% and take up a hobby, mama. 00:11:42.060 --> 00:11:44.250 align:middle line:90% It's good to keep busy. 00:11:44.250 --> 00:11:46.050 align:middle line:84% "I wish I had a dime for every hobby 00:11:46.050 --> 00:11:47.960 align:middle line:90% I've taken up over the years. 00:11:47.960 --> 00:11:50.460 align:middle line:84% Remember when I used to make those Christmas decorations out 00:11:50.460 --> 00:11:51.960 align:middle line:90% of egg shells?" 00:11:51.960 --> 00:11:52.620 align:middle line:90% "Heck, yes. 00:11:52.620 --> 00:11:56.370 align:middle line:84% You used to make me and Joe suck the egg out first." 00:11:56.370 --> 00:11:59.590 align:middle line:84% "You were supposed to blow," [? Bena ?] said, "Not suck." 00:11:59.590 --> 00:12:00.090 align:middle line:90% "Yeah. 00:12:00.090 --> 00:12:01.920 align:middle line:90% Well, now you tell me." 00:12:01.920 --> 00:12:03.570 align:middle line:84% "They sure were pretty, weren't they? 00:12:03.570 --> 00:12:06.720 align:middle line:84% All those sequins and the little deer I used to glue inside. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:08.098 align:middle line:90% You remember that?" 00:12:08.098 --> 00:12:10.140 align:middle line:84% "I thought you were going to kill me and Joe when 00:12:10.140 --> 00:12:12.990 align:middle line:84% we fell under the Christmas tree and crushed those ornaments. 00:12:12.990 --> 00:12:15.090 align:middle line:90% I never seen you go so crazy. 00:12:15.090 --> 00:12:17.950 align:middle line:84% First you were screaming then you were crying. 00:12:17.950 --> 00:12:20.280 align:middle line:84% "Y'all shouldn't have been roughhousing in the living 00:12:20.280 --> 00:12:21.030 align:middle line:90% room. 00:12:21.030 --> 00:12:23.520 align:middle line:84% It might be funny now but at the time 00:12:23.520 --> 00:12:25.170 align:middle line:84% it almost broke my heart to see you 00:12:25.170 --> 00:12:27.300 align:middle line:90% knock that tree over like that. 00:12:27.300 --> 00:12:30.600 align:middle line:84% I'd worked so hard on that tree, staying up late at night 00:12:30.600 --> 00:12:33.030 align:middle line:84% after all your kids were asleep, trying 00:12:33.030 --> 00:12:34.675 align:middle line:90% to make everything just right. 00:12:34.675 --> 00:12:35.175 align:middle line:90% Do you know? 00:12:35.175 --> 00:12:37.680 align:middle line:90% The perfect Christmas. 00:12:37.680 --> 00:12:40.350 align:middle line:84% It was the first Christmas after your daddy died. 00:12:40.350 --> 00:12:43.500 align:middle line:84% I guess I was a little crazy then." 00:12:43.500 --> 00:12:45.960 align:middle line:84% Eddie didn't like to talk about his daddy dying. 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:48.983 align:middle line:84% He hardly ever even thought about it anymore. 00:12:48.983 --> 00:12:50.400 align:middle line:84% And if it weren't for the pictures 00:12:50.400 --> 00:12:52.500 align:middle line:84% his mother saved in the photo album 00:12:52.500 --> 00:12:55.890 align:middle line:84% he would have already forgotten what his daddy looked like. 00:12:55.890 --> 00:12:58.020 align:middle line:84% It seemed like a long time ago that his daddy had 00:12:58.020 --> 00:13:00.300 align:middle line:90% tried to ruin all their lives. 00:13:00.300 --> 00:13:03.210 align:middle line:84% Maybe his sisters still liked to discuss the matter, 00:13:03.210 --> 00:13:04.500 align:middle line:90% but he didn't. 00:13:04.500 --> 00:13:06.490 align:middle line:84% "I still say you need a hobby, mama." 00:13:06.490 --> 00:13:07.830 align:middle line:90% Eddie said. 00:13:07.830 --> 00:13:10.590 align:middle line:84% "Lord knows I need more than a hobby, son." 00:13:10.590 --> 00:13:12.240 align:middle line:90% "Like what?" 00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:14.040 align:middle line:90% "I don't know exactly. 00:13:14.040 --> 00:13:16.740 align:middle line:90% Some good reasons or something." 00:13:16.740 --> 00:13:18.840 align:middle line:84% "Well, I can't help you there," Eddie said. 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:20.520 align:middle line:90% "I'm fresh out." 00:13:20.520 --> 00:13:22.290 align:middle line:84% He stood up and rinsed his dishes 00:13:22.290 --> 00:13:24.300 align:middle line:84% and put them in the dishwasher and kissed 00:13:24.300 --> 00:13:25.890 align:middle line:90% [? Bena ?] on the cheek. 00:13:25.890 --> 00:13:27.840 align:middle line:84% "I'm out of here for a while," he said. 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:30.243 align:middle line:90% "Going to Anna Kaye's." 00:13:30.243 --> 00:13:30.743 align:middle line:90% [? 00:13:30.743 --> 00:13:33.210 align:middle line:84% Anna Kaye ?] was Eddie's girlfriend. 00:13:33.210 --> 00:13:35.460 align:middle line:84% She was the kind of girl who was so cheerful 00:13:35.460 --> 00:13:37.650 align:middle line:84% that it was a wonder nobody had killed her yet. 00:13:37.650 --> 00:13:41.010 align:middle line:90% [CHUCKLES] 00:13:41.010 --> 00:13:43.170 align:middle line:84% But if anybody ever did kill her it 00:13:43.170 --> 00:13:45.840 align:middle line:84% wouldn't be Eddie, that was for sure. 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:46.713 align:middle line:90% He loved [? 00:13:46.713 --> 00:13:48.540 align:middle line:90% Anna Kaye's ?] cheerful way. 00:13:48.540 --> 00:13:50.580 align:middle line:84% He wished everybody would take a lesson from [? 00:13:50.580 --> 00:13:53.250 align:middle line:84% Anna Kaye's ?] positive attitude because then, 00:13:53.250 --> 00:13:57.000 align:middle line:84% to his way of thinking, this would be a better world. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:13:59.940 align:middle line:84% He had made a personal decision never to voluntarily 00:13:59.940 --> 00:14:02.940 align:middle line:84% become involved with a woman who was not cheerful. 00:14:02.940 --> 00:14:04.350 align:middle line:84% His mother and sisters had almost 00:14:04.350 --> 00:14:06.150 align:middle line:84% run him crazy with some heartache 00:14:06.150 --> 00:14:08.460 align:middle line:90% and bouts of moral outrage. 00:14:08.460 --> 00:14:10.410 align:middle line:90% He liked simpler women better. 00:14:10.410 --> 00:14:11.100 align:middle line:90% He liked [? 00:14:11.100 --> 00:14:14.760 align:middle line:84% Anna Kaye, ?] who as far as he could tell woke up happy, 00:14:14.760 --> 00:14:17.550 align:middle line:84% and went to bed happy, and experienced nothing 00:14:17.550 --> 00:14:19.890 align:middle line:90% but happiness in between. 00:14:19.890 --> 00:14:22.500 align:middle line:84% He was real lucky to find a girl like that. 00:14:22.500 --> 00:14:31.830 align:middle line:90% 00:14:31.830 --> 00:14:33.810 align:middle line:84% When [? Bena's ?] husband, Bobby, 00:14:33.810 --> 00:14:37.350 align:middle line:84% had been killed 10 years ago, it had put [? Bena's ?] life 00:14:37.350 --> 00:14:39.840 align:middle line:84% on a path that she had not chosen 00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:42.300 align:middle line:84% and didn't know how to get off of. 00:14:42.300 --> 00:14:44.580 align:middle line:84% Looking back, it seemed [? Bena's ?] life 00:14:44.580 --> 00:14:46.313 align:middle line:84% had more or less belonged to her right 00:14:46.313 --> 00:14:47.730 align:middle line:84% up to the minute Bobby [INAUDIBLE] 00:14:47.730 --> 00:14:50.250 align:middle line:90% died and took it away. 00:14:50.250 --> 00:14:52.410 align:middle line:84% With Bobby in the grave [? Bena's ?] life 00:14:52.410 --> 00:14:56.100 align:middle line:84% had quickly become about doing what Bobby wasn't there to do. 00:14:56.100 --> 00:14:57.690 align:middle line:90% Like keep the lawn mowed. 00:14:57.690 --> 00:14:58.710 align:middle line:90% Keep the car running. 00:14:58.710 --> 00:15:00.660 align:middle line:84% Pay off the mortgage and raise his kids 00:15:00.660 --> 00:15:02.610 align:middle line:84% right so that they would all turn 00:15:02.610 --> 00:15:07.890 align:middle line:84% out decent, reasonably athletic, and honest, which she had done. 00:15:07.890 --> 00:15:10.320 align:middle line:90% Not a criminal among them. 00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:12.730 align:middle line:84% They were serious children now, maybe that was true. 00:15:12.730 --> 00:15:14.730 align:middle line:84% When [? Bena ?] looked back she thought probably 00:15:14.730 --> 00:15:16.770 align:middle line:84% they hadn't laughed enough or ever 00:15:16.770 --> 00:15:20.040 align:middle line:84% found the pleasure of pure out and out silliness. 00:15:20.040 --> 00:15:23.235 align:middle line:84% But on the other hand, not a one of them was mean. 00:15:23.235 --> 00:15:26.130 align:middle line:90% 00:15:26.130 --> 00:15:27.900 align:middle line:84% It was years ago now but sometimes 00:15:27.900 --> 00:15:31.500 align:middle line:84% it still seemed like yesterday, the news, which is 00:15:31.500 --> 00:15:33.480 align:middle line:90% how they talked about it still. 00:15:33.480 --> 00:15:35.100 align:middle line:90% The night we got the news. 00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:36.930 align:middle line:90% When he told mama the news. 00:15:36.930 --> 00:15:39.820 align:middle line:84% When the news hit school, et cetera. 00:15:39.820 --> 00:15:42.630 align:middle line:84% For [? Bena ?] and all her kids, the news 00:15:42.630 --> 00:15:45.750 align:middle line:84% would always be something that happened 10 years ago. 00:15:45.750 --> 00:15:48.360 align:middle line:84% Not something they tuned into nightly on TV, 00:15:48.360 --> 00:15:50.370 align:middle line:90% or read about in the newspaper. 00:15:50.370 --> 00:15:52.950 align:middle line:84% That stuff is just a bunch of current events most of which 00:15:52.950 --> 00:15:55.660 align:middle line:84% barely had a thing to do with any of them. 00:15:55.660 --> 00:16:01.060 align:middle line:84% But the news was and always would be personal. 00:16:01.060 --> 00:16:04.890 align:middle line:84% [? Bena, ?] honey, there's been an accident. 00:16:04.890 --> 00:16:09.150 align:middle line:90% It's Bob, killed and rollover. 00:16:09.150 --> 00:16:12.750 align:middle line:90% And [? Bena, ?] now, not alone. 00:16:12.750 --> 00:16:15.720 align:middle line:90% There was a woman. 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:18.510 align:middle line:84% The news had come at once like that, 00:16:18.510 --> 00:16:20.220 align:middle line:90% packaged in sentence fragments. 00:16:20.220 --> 00:16:22.560 align:middle line:84% And even after all these years, [? Bena ?] 00:16:22.560 --> 00:16:26.843 align:middle line:84% had never really sorted it all out and made any sense of it. 00:16:26.843 --> 00:16:28.260 align:middle line:84% She had been at home with the kids 00:16:28.260 --> 00:16:30.000 align:middle line:90% that night, the five of them. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:31.830 align:middle line:90% Eddie, the baby, was just 8. 00:16:31.830 --> 00:16:34.770 align:middle line:84% And Sissy, the oldest, was a senior in high school. 00:16:34.770 --> 00:16:37.680 align:middle line:84% The TV was on and every radio and stereo in the house 00:16:37.680 --> 00:16:40.440 align:middle line:84% was blaring out some competing noise. 00:16:40.440 --> 00:16:42.930 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] was grading papers at the kitchen table. 00:16:42.930 --> 00:16:45.060 align:middle line:84% She had the kind of mind that could cut right 00:16:45.060 --> 00:16:49.380 align:middle line:84% through the distractions of life and stay focused on her tasks. 00:16:49.380 --> 00:16:51.630 align:middle line:84% She was a sixth grade teacher then. 00:16:51.630 --> 00:16:52.808 align:middle line:90% A good one. 00:16:52.808 --> 00:16:55.350 align:middle line:84% That was before she found out they would pay her better money 00:16:55.350 --> 00:16:57.600 align:middle line:84% to fill out government forms than they 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:01.602 align:middle line:84% would have to teach the children anything about the government. 00:17:01.602 --> 00:17:03.060 align:middle line:84% That was back when [? Bena ?] still 00:17:03.060 --> 00:17:06.032 align:middle line:84% believed that certain things were worth doing. 00:17:06.032 --> 00:17:07.740 align:middle line:84% And then there came the knock at the door 00:17:07.740 --> 00:17:09.869 align:middle line:84% that changed everything, in the police 00:17:09.869 --> 00:17:12.630 align:middle line:84% car with its flashing light parked in the yard 00:17:12.630 --> 00:17:14.940 align:middle line:84% making Elvis howl like all get out. 00:17:14.940 --> 00:17:18.210 align:middle line:84% As if he knew exactly what had happened by instinct. 00:17:18.210 --> 00:17:20.670 align:middle line:84% And all five of her golden children, 00:17:20.670 --> 00:17:25.680 align:middle line:84% wide eyed, and frozen at the news that Bobby Eckert, 00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:29.880 align:middle line:90% their daddy, was killed. 00:17:29.880 --> 00:17:32.580 align:middle line:84% Two afternoons earlier Bobby had told me 00:17:32.580 --> 00:17:35.250 align:middle line:84% that he was going to a meeting in Montgomery. 00:17:35.250 --> 00:17:36.870 align:middle line:84% His company was trying to get a bid 00:17:36.870 --> 00:17:41.430 align:middle line:84% in on paper supplies for Maxwell, the Air Force base. 00:17:41.430 --> 00:17:44.400 align:middle line:84% He said it would take him a day or two and kissed Bena 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:45.930 align:middle line:90% good bye. 00:17:45.930 --> 00:17:51.659 align:middle line:84% And she had let him go off [INAUDIBLE].. 00:17:51.659 --> 00:17:54.240 align:middle line:84% The police said his car went off the embankment up 00:17:54.240 --> 00:17:57.033 align:middle line:84% on that twisty part of Highway 82. 00:17:57.033 --> 00:17:59.450 align:middle line:84% They said it just looked like he forgot to take the curve. 00:17:59.450 --> 00:18:02.360 align:middle line:84% Like maybe he thought for a minute his car was an airplane 00:18:02.360 --> 00:18:05.780 align:middle line:84% and that it would just lift off and sail him through the air. 00:18:05.780 --> 00:18:07.100 align:middle line:90% Like he was a pilot. 00:18:07.100 --> 00:18:09.920 align:middle line:90% Like he could take wing and fly. 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:12.800 align:middle line:84% There were no skid marks, the policeman said. 00:18:12.800 --> 00:18:14.750 align:middle line:90% No signs of braking. 00:18:14.750 --> 00:18:16.760 align:middle line:84% Car rolled over six or eight times. 00:18:16.760 --> 00:18:20.570 align:middle line:90% Booby was killed instantly. 00:18:20.570 --> 00:18:24.320 align:middle line:84% They found the woman in a ravine with her skull mostly crushed. 00:18:24.320 --> 00:18:26.030 align:middle line:90% She was still breathing. 00:18:26.030 --> 00:18:27.590 align:middle line:84% They took her to Jackson Hospital 00:18:27.590 --> 00:18:30.350 align:middle line:84% and called all of her next of kin. 00:18:30.350 --> 00:18:32.090 align:middle line:84% I'm sorry miss Eckert, the policeman 00:18:32.090 --> 00:18:36.800 align:middle line:84% kept saying to [? Bena. ?] I'm real sorry, ma'am. 00:18:36.800 --> 00:18:39.790 align:middle line:84% The day after the accident, the newspaper 00:18:39.790 --> 00:18:41.710 align:middle line:84% ran the pictures of Bobby and the woman 00:18:41.710 --> 00:18:46.030 align:middle line:84% together side by side, like a pair. 00:18:46.030 --> 00:18:49.840 align:middle line:84% Accident takes local man's life, the paper said. 00:18:49.840 --> 00:18:53.220 align:middle line:90% Woman in critical condition. 00:18:53.220 --> 00:18:55.720 align:middle line:84% [? Bena's ?] daughter, Ellie, had brought the newspaper 00:18:55.720 --> 00:18:58.270 align:middle line:84% into [? Bena's ?] bedroom to show it to her. 00:18:58.270 --> 00:19:02.320 align:middle line:84% Mama she said, "You want to see what the woman looked like?" 00:19:02.320 --> 00:19:03.820 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] sat up in bed and studied 00:19:03.820 --> 00:19:05.620 align:middle line:90% the picture of the woman. 00:19:05.620 --> 00:19:07.780 align:middle line:90% Her name was Lorraine Mayfield. 00:19:07.780 --> 00:19:10.150 align:middle line:90% She was only 28. 00:19:10.150 --> 00:19:14.020 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] had never laid eyes on her before. 00:19:14.020 --> 00:19:16.330 align:middle line:84% Her hair was dark and curly and [? Bena ?] 00:19:16.330 --> 00:19:18.190 align:middle line:84% remembered thinking she probably dyed 00:19:18.190 --> 00:19:20.750 align:middle line:90% it to get it so dark looking. 00:19:20.750 --> 00:19:22.540 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] searched her face and decided 00:19:22.540 --> 00:19:24.850 align:middle line:84% that she might be foreign or something, 00:19:24.850 --> 00:19:27.640 align:middle line:90% Mexican maybe or Puerto Rican. 00:19:27.640 --> 00:19:31.660 align:middle line:84% A stranger just passing through on her way someplace else. 00:19:31.660 --> 00:19:34.180 align:middle line:84% It was clear she was not someone who belonged in 00:19:34.180 --> 00:19:38.230 align:middle line:90% [? Bena's ?] or Bobby's life. 00:19:38.230 --> 00:19:41.770 align:middle line:84% "She's not as pretty as you mama," Ellie said. 00:19:41.770 --> 00:19:44.620 align:middle line:84% "Pretty is as pretty does," [? Bena ?] said. 00:19:44.620 --> 00:19:47.622 align:middle line:84% "I bet she's not as nice as you either." 00:19:47.622 --> 00:19:49.330 align:middle line:84% "There's more important things than being 00:19:49.330 --> 00:19:51.580 align:middle line:90% pretty or nice, Ellie. 00:19:51.580 --> 00:19:54.310 align:middle line:90% You remember that, OK?" 00:19:54.310 --> 00:19:54.890 align:middle line:90% "Yes, ma'am." 00:19:54.890 --> 00:19:56.170 align:middle line:90% Ellie said. 00:19:56.170 --> 00:19:58.032 align:middle line:90% "Like what?" 00:19:58.032 --> 00:20:00.490 align:middle line:84% "I don't know for sure right this minute," [? Bena ?] said. 00:20:00.490 --> 00:20:03.610 align:middle line:84% "You are going have to ask me later, OK." 00:20:03.610 --> 00:20:05.860 align:middle line:90% "Like being alive," Ellie said. 00:20:05.860 --> 00:20:08.110 align:middle line:84% "It's more important to be alive, right?" 00:20:08.110 --> 00:20:10.720 align:middle line:90% 00:20:10.720 --> 00:20:12.430 align:middle line:84% Bobby's funeral was well attended 00:20:12.430 --> 00:20:15.580 align:middle line:84% because nearly everybody loved Bobby Eckert. 00:20:15.580 --> 00:20:17.590 align:middle line:84% His children were all well scrubbed and good 00:20:17.590 --> 00:20:19.215 align:middle line:84% looking and behaved in a way that would 00:20:19.215 --> 00:20:21.940 align:middle line:84% make any father, even a dead one, proud. 00:20:21.940 --> 00:20:25.150 align:middle line:84% His wife [? Bena ?] was composed and gracious. 00:20:25.150 --> 00:20:28.690 align:middle line:84% Anybody that pitied her was wasting time, at least that's 00:20:28.690 --> 00:20:30.915 align:middle line:90% what she liked to tell herself. 00:20:30.915 --> 00:20:32.290 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] had entered the church 00:20:32.290 --> 00:20:33.970 align:middle line:84% with her two sons and three daughters 00:20:33.970 --> 00:20:37.210 align:middle line:84% flanking her like fierce skinned blue eyed soldiers. 00:20:37.210 --> 00:20:41.140 align:middle line:84% And she had felt real strong in the midst of them. 00:20:41.140 --> 00:20:44.530 align:middle line:84% What Bobby Eckert had needed with Lorraine Mayfield, 00:20:44.530 --> 00:20:46.330 align:middle line:90% [? Bena ?] might never know. 00:20:46.330 --> 00:20:48.730 align:middle line:84% But she was not going to let her children become 00:20:48.730 --> 00:20:50.810 align:middle line:90% ashamed of their father. 00:20:50.810 --> 00:20:54.760 align:middle line:84% She was going to insist that they look beyond the obvious. 00:20:54.760 --> 00:20:59.200 align:middle line:84% That's what she had always tried to do herself. 00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:01.870 align:middle line:84% It rained when Bobby was laid in the ground. 00:21:01.870 --> 00:21:04.540 align:middle line:84% Black umbrellas surrounded the grave like so many gnats 00:21:04.540 --> 00:21:06.070 align:middle line:90% clustered on a wound. 00:21:06.070 --> 00:21:07.900 align:middle line:84% It was muddy, and messy, and the coffin 00:21:07.900 --> 00:21:12.880 align:middle line:84% slipped, and sank while the men tried to steer it into place. 00:21:12.880 --> 00:21:15.093 align:middle line:90% Amen, people kept saying. 00:21:15.093 --> 00:21:16.510 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] watched it all like she 00:21:16.510 --> 00:21:21.100 align:middle line:84% was a person in the audience at a really sad movie. 00:21:21.100 --> 00:21:24.700 align:middle line:84% That night her son Joe said, "Daddy ruined 00:21:24.700 --> 00:21:27.580 align:middle line:90% everything, didn't he mama?" 00:21:27.580 --> 00:21:29.510 align:middle line:90% "No, son," Bena said. 00:21:29.510 --> 00:21:31.930 align:middle line:84% "He changed everything but we're not 00:21:31.930 --> 00:21:33.640 align:middle line:84% going to let everything be ruined." 00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:36.670 align:middle line:90% 00:21:36.670 --> 00:21:38.470 align:middle line:84% It was two weeks after Bobby had been 00:21:38.470 --> 00:21:41.170 align:middle line:84% buried that [? Bena ?] got the phone call from Lorraine 00:21:41.170 --> 00:21:43.000 align:middle line:90% Mayfield's mother. 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:44.770 align:middle line:90% "Ms. Eckert," she said. 00:21:44.770 --> 00:21:48.260 align:middle line:84% "Please forgive me for intruding on your terrible grief." 00:21:48.260 --> 00:21:51.430 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] had been too stunned to speak. 00:21:51.430 --> 00:21:54.580 align:middle line:84% "I'm calling to ask you something," Mrs. Mayfield said. 00:21:54.580 --> 00:21:58.270 align:middle line:84% "It's very hard for me and I hope you will forgive me." 00:21:58.270 --> 00:22:00.580 align:middle line:90% "What is it," Bena asked. 00:22:00.580 --> 00:22:02.830 align:middle line:84% "It's Lorraine," Mrs. Mayfield said. 00:22:02.830 --> 00:22:04.640 align:middle line:90% "She's not doing good. 00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:07.690 align:middle line:84% The doctors say it's only a matter of time until, you know, 00:22:07.690 --> 00:22:09.620 align:middle line:90% everything shuts down. 00:22:09.620 --> 00:22:11.590 align:middle line:90% She needs the last rites. 00:22:11.590 --> 00:22:17.440 align:middle line:84% Her brain, you know, is--" "I'm sorry," Bena said. 00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:20.890 align:middle line:84% "So what I'm wondering is, I was thinking if you might-- 00:22:20.890 --> 00:22:24.250 align:middle line:84% I would like Lorraine to die in peace, you know. 00:22:24.250 --> 00:22:28.480 align:middle line:84% Do you think you might be able to forgive her. 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:31.660 align:middle line:84% I didn't raise Lorraine to be off with somebody's husband. 00:22:31.660 --> 00:22:34.420 align:middle line:84% I know in her heart she's so sorry. 00:22:34.420 --> 00:22:37.390 align:middle line:84% It's just that if you could forgive her then maybe 00:22:37.390 --> 00:22:40.630 align:middle line:90% she could go, you know, die. 00:22:40.630 --> 00:22:44.260 align:middle line:84% I think she's lingering until she gets the forgiveness." 00:22:44.260 --> 00:22:45.560 align:middle line:90% "What do you want me to do?" 00:22:45.560 --> 00:22:47.288 align:middle line:90% [? Bena ?] asked. 00:22:47.288 --> 00:22:48.580 align:middle line:90% "Can you come to the hospital?" 00:22:48.580 --> 00:22:52.105 align:middle line:90% 00:22:52.105 --> 00:22:53.980 align:middle line:84% She sounded to [? Bena ?] like the woman must 00:22:53.980 --> 00:22:55.570 align:middle line:90% be Catholic or something. 00:22:55.570 --> 00:22:58.810 align:middle line:84% All that talk about forgiveness and last rites. 00:22:58.810 --> 00:23:00.520 align:middle line:90% [? Bena ?] was a Baptist. 00:23:00.520 --> 00:23:03.250 align:middle line:84% She knew nothing about all the rigmarole the Catholics put 00:23:03.250 --> 00:23:05.920 align:middle line:90% their dying loved ones through. 00:23:05.920 --> 00:23:09.760 align:middle line:84% She had no idea what they expected from her. 00:23:09.760 --> 00:23:13.240 align:middle line:84% Forgiveness, Lorraine's mother had said. 00:23:13.240 --> 00:23:16.120 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] drove to Montgomery without telling anyone 00:23:16.120 --> 00:23:18.260 align:middle line:90% where she was going. 00:23:18.260 --> 00:23:21.430 align:middle line:84% She could not have said, why she was doing this exactly 00:23:21.430 --> 00:23:24.040 align:middle line:84% except that she had been asked to. 00:23:24.040 --> 00:23:27.010 align:middle line:84% For the most part, when she could, 00:23:27.010 --> 00:23:31.060 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] tried to do what people asked to do. 00:23:31.060 --> 00:23:33.400 align:middle line:84% Mrs. Mayfield, Lorraine's mother, 00:23:33.400 --> 00:23:35.515 align:middle line:84% didn't look any older than [? Bena. ?] 00:23:35.515 --> 00:23:37.390 align:middle line:84% She looked like she could just as easily have 00:23:37.390 --> 00:23:39.610 align:middle line:90% been the woman in Bobby's car. 00:23:39.610 --> 00:23:42.130 align:middle line:84% A woman, maybe like her daughter, 00:23:42.130 --> 00:23:43.930 align:middle line:84% so compelling that Bobby would be 00:23:43.930 --> 00:23:48.160 align:middle line:84% unable to keep his eyes off her and on the road. 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:50.752 align:middle line:84% "Thank you for coming," she whispered. 00:23:50.752 --> 00:23:55.620 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] "I'll show you where she is." 00:23:55.620 --> 00:23:57.120 align:middle line:84% Miss Mayfield took [? Bena's ?] hand 00:23:57.120 --> 00:23:59.160 align:middle line:84% and let her down the intensive care hallway 00:23:59.160 --> 00:24:01.560 align:middle line:84% into a cold well-lit room with a roll 00:24:01.560 --> 00:24:04.650 align:middle line:84% up bed and the middle of it a bandaged, 00:24:04.650 --> 00:24:07.440 align:middle line:84% wired Lorraine Mayfield lay in the bed looking 00:24:07.440 --> 00:24:09.720 align:middle line:90% as small as a child. 00:24:09.720 --> 00:24:12.300 align:middle line:84% "She can hear you," Ms. Mayfield said. 00:24:12.300 --> 00:24:16.500 align:middle line:84% "The doctors will tell you she can't but she can." 00:24:16.500 --> 00:24:19.020 align:middle line:84% Ms. Mayfield leaned over the bed and whispered, 00:24:19.020 --> 00:24:23.180 align:middle line:84% "Lorraine, honey, Bobby's wife is here to see you. 00:24:23.180 --> 00:24:24.570 align:middle line:90% It's OK. 00:24:24.570 --> 00:24:26.640 align:middle line:90% She's not mad." 00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:28.170 align:middle line:84% Then she kissed the bandaged head 00:24:28.170 --> 00:24:30.360 align:middle line:90% and stepped away from the bed. 00:24:30.360 --> 00:24:33.000 align:middle line:84% "I'll give you a few minutes alone," she said. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:35.010 align:middle line:90% "I'll wait." 00:24:35.010 --> 00:24:36.750 align:middle line:84% For an instant, [? Bena ?] didn't 00:24:36.750 --> 00:24:39.720 align:middle line:84% want to be left alone with this small dying woman. 00:24:39.720 --> 00:24:41.580 align:middle line:84% She stared at the swollen face of a person 00:24:41.580 --> 00:24:43.560 align:middle line:90% she did not know at all. 00:24:43.560 --> 00:24:45.180 align:middle line:84% Lorraine's eyes were sealed closed 00:24:45.180 --> 00:24:47.675 align:middle line:84% and her face was purple and distorted. 00:24:47.675 --> 00:24:49.800 align:middle line:84% It occurred to [? Bena ?] that the dark, curly hair 00:24:49.800 --> 00:24:52.320 align:middle line:84% in the newspaper pictures had been shaved 00:24:52.320 --> 00:24:55.230 align:middle line:84% so that the doctors could try to stitch her head together 00:24:55.230 --> 00:24:59.670 align:middle line:84% in some hopeless gesture that only they understood. 00:24:59.670 --> 00:25:02.190 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] pulled the tall hospital stool to the bedside 00:25:02.190 --> 00:25:03.750 align:middle line:90% and sat on it. 00:25:03.750 --> 00:25:07.500 align:middle line:84% She touched Lorraine's hand but it was dry as paper. 00:25:07.500 --> 00:25:10.930 align:middle line:84% "This is really strange isn't it, [INAUDIBLE].. 00:25:10.930 --> 00:25:14.290 align:middle line:90% Your mama called me," She said. 00:25:14.290 --> 00:25:16.480 align:middle line:84% For a minute, [? Bena ?] just sat and stared 00:25:16.480 --> 00:25:18.850 align:middle line:90% at the tiny figure in the bed. 00:25:18.850 --> 00:25:21.100 align:middle line:84% She could be one of Bena's daughters. 00:25:21.100 --> 00:25:22.570 align:middle line:90% Sissy maybe. 00:25:22.570 --> 00:25:25.990 align:middle line:84% Sissy was a child with the wild streak too, wasn't she? 00:25:25.990 --> 00:25:28.840 align:middle line:84% She tried to imagine Bobby in a car with this woman 00:25:28.840 --> 00:25:30.620 align:middle line:90% but she couldn't think of it. 00:25:30.620 --> 00:25:32.080 align:middle line:84% What they would say to each other. 00:25:32.080 --> 00:25:33.700 align:middle line:90% Where they might be going. 00:25:33.700 --> 00:25:36.760 align:middle line:84% What Lorraine had been wearing or planning. 00:25:36.760 --> 00:25:40.360 align:middle line:90% It was all dark and impossible. 00:25:40.360 --> 00:25:42.865 align:middle line:90% "OK," Bena took a deep breath. 00:25:42.865 --> 00:25:45.010 align:middle line:90% "[INAUDIBLE] you go. 00:25:45.010 --> 00:25:47.500 align:middle line:84% Your mother says you can hear me. 00:25:47.500 --> 00:25:53.350 align:middle line:84% I don't know how you knew Bobby, how long or how well, but look, 00:25:53.350 --> 00:25:56.080 align:middle line:84% Bobby was a real easy guy to love. 00:25:56.080 --> 00:25:59.350 align:middle line:84% You should have seen his funeral, everybody came. 00:25:59.350 --> 00:26:01.180 align:middle line:90% Practically the whole town. 00:26:01.180 --> 00:26:05.572 align:middle line:84% So you shouldn't feel too bad because you're lucky too, 00:26:05.572 --> 00:26:06.072 align:middle line:90% I think." 00:26:06.072 --> 00:26:08.870 align:middle line:90% 00:26:08.870 --> 00:26:11.330 align:middle line:84% Even as she spoke [? Bena ?] wondered if she meant a word 00:26:11.330 --> 00:26:12.648 align:middle line:90% she was saying. 00:26:12.648 --> 00:26:14.690 align:middle line:84% Words just came to her like she'd been rehearsing 00:26:14.690 --> 00:26:16.760 align:middle line:90% for this day all her life. 00:26:16.760 --> 00:26:19.430 align:middle line:84% She would have laid hands on and healed Lorraine Mayfield, 00:26:19.430 --> 00:26:20.840 align:middle line:90% if she could have. 00:26:20.840 --> 00:26:23.000 align:middle line:84% She would have commanded her to rise from her bed 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:25.850 align:middle line:90% and go forth and sin no more. 00:26:25.850 --> 00:26:27.740 align:middle line:84% It was odd how connected she felt 00:26:27.740 --> 00:26:29.960 align:middle line:84% to this woman, the one whose hand 00:26:29.960 --> 00:26:32.810 align:middle line:90% she kept instinctively touching. 00:26:32.810 --> 00:26:35.210 align:middle line:84% Later, she would accuse herself of simply 00:26:35.210 --> 00:26:38.300 align:middle line:84% being curious to see what the woman looked like. 00:26:38.300 --> 00:26:40.310 align:middle line:84% The woman who had been [INAUDIBLE].. 00:26:40.310 --> 00:26:45.275 align:middle line:84% The woman who dead or alive had altered Bena's life forever. 00:26:45.275 --> 00:26:56.390 align:middle line:90% 00:26:56.390 --> 00:26:58.930 align:middle line:84% Some of the teachers at school had told [? Bena ?] 00:26:58.930 --> 00:27:01.930 align:middle line:84% that lots of times a dead loved one will appear in the night 00:27:01.930 --> 00:27:06.100 align:middle line:84% and have a last word with you, or maybe in Bobby's case, 00:27:06.100 --> 00:27:09.310 align:middle line:84% try to explain things and beg for forgiveness. 00:27:09.310 --> 00:27:13.510 align:middle line:84% They said, "You'll think you're dreaming but you won't be." 00:27:13.510 --> 00:27:16.540 align:middle line:84% One of the teachers mothers had appeared in a white nightgown 00:27:16.540 --> 00:27:19.420 align:middle line:84% at the foot of her bed and touched her foot. 00:27:19.420 --> 00:27:21.280 align:middle line:84% And the other's son had waked her 00:27:21.280 --> 00:27:23.840 align:middle line:90% up just to say he loved her. 00:27:23.840 --> 00:27:26.980 align:middle line:84% He had shot himself in the face with his father's gun 00:27:26.980 --> 00:27:31.660 align:middle line:84% but wanted her to know it was not her fault. Lord, 00:27:31.660 --> 00:27:34.040 align:middle line:90% [? Bena ?] hoped this was true. 00:27:34.040 --> 00:27:35.770 align:middle line:84% She was ready to believe it because she 00:27:35.770 --> 00:27:37.960 align:middle line:90% needed a last word with Bobby. 00:27:37.960 --> 00:27:40.090 align:middle line:84% To know for sure that his sin had not 00:27:40.090 --> 00:27:45.190 align:middle line:84% backfired so bad that he had completely lost his salvation. 00:27:45.190 --> 00:27:48.250 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] herself had witnessed his being saved. 00:27:48.250 --> 00:27:49.753 align:middle line:84% He had walked the aisle for Christ 00:27:49.753 --> 00:27:51.670 align:middle line:84% and the preacher shook his hand and patted him 00:27:51.670 --> 00:27:53.860 align:middle line:90% on the back, and everything. 00:27:53.860 --> 00:27:56.870 align:middle line:84% There was no doubt at the time that it was for real. 00:27:56.870 --> 00:28:00.400 align:middle line:84% Some people said they could see a change in him. 00:28:00.400 --> 00:28:03.640 align:middle line:84% Now, [? Bena ?] went to bed at night in a state of waiting, 00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:06.340 align:middle line:84% praying that Bobby's spirit would come to her. 00:28:06.340 --> 00:28:07.720 align:middle line:90% Just once. 00:28:07.720 --> 00:28:11.620 align:middle line:84% She would say, "Bobby, is heaven real?" 00:28:11.620 --> 00:28:13.030 align:middle line:90% She would say. 00:28:13.030 --> 00:28:15.610 align:middle line:90% "Look what you've done." 00:28:15.610 --> 00:28:18.340 align:middle line:84% Some nights she fell asleep imagining Bobby and Lorraine 00:28:18.340 --> 00:28:22.510 align:middle line:84% both appearing together sitting on the edge of her bed, holding 00:28:22.510 --> 00:28:26.180 align:middle line:84% hands, their wings fluttering like a couple of lovesick 00:28:26.180 --> 00:28:26.680 align:middle line:90% angels. 00:28:26.680 --> 00:28:31.060 align:middle line:90% 00:28:31.060 --> 00:28:33.850 align:middle line:84% It wasn't until Bena got the call from Mrs. Mayfield 00:28:33.850 --> 00:28:36.820 align:middle line:84% less than a month later saying that Lorraine had died 00:28:36.820 --> 00:28:38.860 align:middle line:90% without ever opening her eyes. 00:28:38.860 --> 00:28:42.130 align:middle line:84% That a merciful God had taken her home at last. 00:28:42.130 --> 00:28:45.860 align:middle line:84% That Bena began to comprehend death [INAUDIBLE].. 00:28:45.860 --> 00:28:47.920 align:middle line:84% It was only then, when she knew that Lorraine 00:28:47.920 --> 00:28:51.520 align:middle line:84% was buried more than 60 miles from where Bobby was buried, 00:28:51.520 --> 00:28:54.010 align:middle line:84% that she finally stopped looking for Bobby to come up 00:28:54.010 --> 00:28:56.410 align:middle line:84% the drive at the end of the day, blowing 00:28:56.410 --> 00:28:59.260 align:middle line:84% his horn like a public service announcement, 00:28:59.260 --> 00:29:03.220 align:middle line:84% or a warning to any children who had a talking to coming 00:29:03.220 --> 00:29:05.990 align:middle line:90% that he was home. 00:29:05.990 --> 00:29:08.710 align:middle line:84% Now, when [? Bena ?] looked back at her marriage 00:29:08.710 --> 00:29:11.080 align:middle line:84% she couldn't remember a single time 00:29:11.080 --> 00:29:14.680 align:middle line:84% when she hadn't been glad to see Bobby ever come home. 00:29:14.680 --> 00:29:17.020 align:middle line:84% He would sling his briefcase on the dining room table 00:29:17.020 --> 00:29:19.120 align:middle line:84% and walked across the room in his wilted white 00:29:19.120 --> 00:29:20.560 align:middle line:90% short sleeved shirt. 00:29:20.560 --> 00:29:23.150 align:middle line:84% Loosening his necktie along the way, 00:29:23.150 --> 00:29:25.210 align:middle line:84% give her a little automatic kiss on the cheek 00:29:25.210 --> 00:29:28.330 align:middle line:84% and say, "how's the queen doing?" 00:29:28.330 --> 00:29:32.163 align:middle line:84% That was what he had called Bena, the queen. 00:29:32.163 --> 00:29:33.580 align:middle line:84% Then he would head for the bedroom 00:29:33.580 --> 00:29:35.920 align:middle line:84% and change into shorts and a t-shirt. 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:38.260 align:middle line:84% And if it was summer he might mow the grass 00:29:38.260 --> 00:29:41.020 align:middle line:84% or if it was winter he might break the pine straw 00:29:41.020 --> 00:29:43.750 align:middle line:84% into mounds and cushion the flower beds with it. 00:29:43.750 --> 00:29:46.480 align:middle line:84% Or throw the ball with Bobby and Tommy until one of them 00:29:46.480 --> 00:29:48.850 align:middle line:84% got frustrated and started to cry. 00:29:48.850 --> 00:29:51.760 align:middle line:84% Or watch Sissy practice her baton twirling, 00:29:51.760 --> 00:29:54.760 align:middle line:84% figure eight after endless figure eight. 00:29:54.760 --> 00:29:58.210 align:middle line:84% Or talk Leslie into letting the turtle she caught go. 00:29:58.210 --> 00:30:00.850 align:middle line:84% Convincing her that life in a cardboard box 00:30:00.850 --> 00:30:04.900 align:middle line:84% was not worth living no matter how loved one was. 00:30:04.900 --> 00:30:07.420 align:middle line:84% And if Leslie could not be convinced, 00:30:07.420 --> 00:30:09.460 align:middle line:84% then it was Bobby who dug the turtle's grave 00:30:09.460 --> 00:30:13.120 align:middle line:84% and put the dogwood blooms on it. 00:30:13.120 --> 00:30:16.360 align:middle line:84% Bobby might fill up all the bird feeders with sunflower seeds 00:30:16.360 --> 00:30:20.110 align:middle line:84% or pour kerosene on the fire ant beds, dotting the yard, 00:30:20.110 --> 00:30:22.570 align:middle line:84% or spray the deck with water repellent to prevent 00:30:22.570 --> 00:30:25.270 align:middle line:84% rot, or put sand on the oil spills 00:30:25.270 --> 00:30:27.550 align:middle line:90% blighting the carport floor. 00:30:27.550 --> 00:30:29.950 align:middle line:84% Bobby was always doing something, 00:30:29.950 --> 00:30:34.060 align:middle line:84% with Elvis trailing him every step he took. 00:30:34.060 --> 00:30:37.060 align:middle line:84% Bobby claimed he had gotten Elvis for the kids, 00:30:37.060 --> 00:30:39.940 align:middle line:84% but Elvis had never belonged to anybody but Bobby. 00:30:39.940 --> 00:30:42.760 align:middle line:84% It was Bobby who picked him out of the litter 00:30:42.760 --> 00:30:45.265 align:middle line:90% and it was Bobby who named him. 00:30:45.265 --> 00:30:47.290 align:middle line:90% [? Bena ?] had protested. 00:30:47.290 --> 00:30:50.380 align:middle line:90% "Elvis," she said, "No way. 00:30:50.380 --> 00:30:53.830 align:middle line:84% Naming a dog War Eagle, or Roll Tide, or something corny, 00:30:53.830 --> 00:30:55.750 align:middle line:90% and cliche like that." 00:30:55.750 --> 00:30:59.410 align:middle line:84% But Bobby had insisted saying, "Look, how black his fur is. 00:30:59.410 --> 00:31:01.330 align:middle line:90% It's so black it's blue. 00:31:01.330 --> 00:31:04.480 align:middle line:84% Like Elvis's shoe Polished hair." 00:31:04.480 --> 00:31:06.760 align:middle line:84% Bobby had always loved the story about Elvis 00:31:06.760 --> 00:31:10.090 align:middle line:84% putting black shoe polish on his hair for dramatic effect 00:31:10.090 --> 00:31:13.330 align:middle line:84% and then getting rained on big time, and all that black 00:31:13.330 --> 00:31:15.910 align:middle line:84% just washing down his face, and staining his clothes, 00:31:15.910 --> 00:31:20.080 align:middle line:84% and everybody laughing at him, and thinking he was real weird. 00:31:20.080 --> 00:31:23.740 align:middle line:84% It was stories like that made Bobby love Elvis Presley. 00:31:23.740 --> 00:31:28.180 align:middle line:84% He loved him as much as any girl ever did, maybe more. 00:31:28.180 --> 00:31:30.490 align:middle line:84% Sort of embarrassed [? Bena ?] too, 00:31:30.490 --> 00:31:33.490 align:middle line:84% having a husband that worshiped Elvis like that. 00:31:33.490 --> 00:31:35.350 align:middle line:84% She wished Bobby would get more current. 00:31:35.350 --> 00:31:38.610 align:middle line:90% 00:31:38.610 --> 00:31:41.700 align:middle line:84% Sometimes on Sunday nights Bobby put Elvis's gospel music 00:31:41.700 --> 00:31:43.470 align:middle line:84% on the stereo and played it full blast 00:31:43.470 --> 00:31:46.200 align:middle line:84% and when the kids came and gawk at him in horror saying, 00:31:46.200 --> 00:31:48.360 align:middle line:90% "Daddy, stop it." 00:31:48.360 --> 00:31:51.810 align:middle line:84% He would smile and say, "The Catholics, now they 00:31:51.810 --> 00:31:54.630 align:middle line:84% may have the Pope with that crown on his head 00:31:54.630 --> 00:31:57.390 align:middle line:90% but us Baptists, we got Elvis. 00:31:57.390 --> 00:31:58.740 align:middle line:90% We got the King." 00:31:58.740 --> 00:32:00.180 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:32:00.180 --> 00:32:02.040 align:middle line:84% He would actually get tears in his eyes 00:32:02.040 --> 00:32:03.717 align:middle line:90% when Elvis sang Amazing Grace. 00:32:03.717 --> 00:32:05.550 align:middle line:84% Like that was the one song in the world that 00:32:05.550 --> 00:32:08.645 align:middle line:84% made Bobby believe in the Holy Spirit for real. 00:32:08.645 --> 00:32:10.020 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] had asked the preacher 00:32:10.020 --> 00:32:14.250 align:middle line:84% to play Elvis's Amazing Grace at Bobby's funeral too, which 00:32:14.250 --> 00:32:15.240 align:middle line:90% he did. 00:32:15.240 --> 00:32:20.250 align:middle line:84% After which, she could never stand to listen to it again. 00:32:20.250 --> 00:32:22.290 align:middle line:84% Bobby was ordinarily not the kind of man 00:32:22.290 --> 00:32:24.300 align:middle line:90% who let himself get bored. 00:32:24.300 --> 00:32:26.910 align:middle line:84% Although on rare nights he might just sit in the den 00:32:26.910 --> 00:32:29.490 align:middle line:84% and watch the news like he was in a trance 00:32:29.490 --> 00:32:32.340 align:middle line:84% waiting for [? Bena ?] to get supper on the table. 00:32:32.340 --> 00:32:34.890 align:middle line:84% Bobby had been a casserole man too. 00:32:34.890 --> 00:32:36.960 align:middle line:84% Chicken casserole was his favorite. 00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:39.090 align:middle line:84% The one with the spaghetti noodles, cheddar cheese, 00:32:39.090 --> 00:32:40.440 align:middle line:90% and almonds. 00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:42.960 align:middle line:84% Most men are meat and potatoes guys, 00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:44.968 align:middle line:84% but Bobby was different that way. 00:32:44.968 --> 00:32:47.385 align:middle line:84% He liked everything all mixed together from the beginning. 00:32:47.385 --> 00:32:49.590 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:32:49.590 --> 00:32:51.270 align:middle line:84% After supper sometimes, Bobby would 00:32:51.270 --> 00:32:55.410 align:middle line:84% sit-in the yard with Elvis under his chair and smoke a cigar. 00:32:55.410 --> 00:32:58.380 align:middle line:84% The cigar stinked, [INAUDIBLE] he liked to say. 00:32:58.380 --> 00:33:00.653 align:middle line:84% But it did not keep the children away. 00:33:00.653 --> 00:33:02.070 align:middle line:84% When the children were little they 00:33:02.070 --> 00:33:04.740 align:middle line:84% practiced their head stands, back bends in the grass 00:33:04.740 --> 00:33:07.530 align:middle line:84% where he sat saying, "Watch this daddy." 00:33:07.530 --> 00:33:10.440 align:middle line:84% And Bobby watched them tirelessly, his cigar 00:33:10.440 --> 00:33:14.370 align:middle line:84% smoke settling like a gray cloud around the kids. 00:33:14.370 --> 00:33:17.520 align:middle line:84% Sometimes he'd send the children to the kitchen saying, "Go tell 00:33:17.520 --> 00:33:19.320 align:middle line:90% the queen to come out here. 00:33:19.320 --> 00:33:21.630 align:middle line:84% Tell her there's a handsome traveling salesman out here 00:33:21.630 --> 00:33:24.030 align:middle line:90% who's craving her company." 00:33:24.030 --> 00:33:26.970 align:middle line:84% Minutes later the children would run back and say, 00:33:26.970 --> 00:33:29.490 align:middle line:84% "Daddy, mama's coming as soon as she finishes 00:33:29.490 --> 00:33:31.290 align:middle line:90% cleaning up the kitchen." 00:33:31.290 --> 00:33:34.320 align:middle line:84% But sometimes it took longer than [? Bena ?] expected 00:33:34.320 --> 00:33:36.270 align:middle line:84% and Bobby would come inside before she 00:33:36.270 --> 00:33:38.295 align:middle line:90% could make her way outside. 00:33:38.295 --> 00:33:42.060 align:middle line:90% And she regretted that now. 00:33:42.060 --> 00:33:43.890 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] had relived their early life 00:33:43.890 --> 00:33:46.830 align:middle line:84% from a million different angles since Bobby died. 00:33:46.830 --> 00:33:50.880 align:middle line:84% She remembered him the same way you remember a magic trick. 00:33:50.880 --> 00:33:55.290 align:middle line:90% All the pleasure [INAUDIBLE]. 00:33:55.290 --> 00:33:58.080 align:middle line:84% It used to be when Bobby had walked through the door 00:33:58.080 --> 00:34:01.290 align:middle line:84% at the end of the day, Elvis panting at his heels, 00:34:01.290 --> 00:34:04.230 align:middle line:84% Bena's life had made perfect sense. 00:34:04.230 --> 00:34:07.530 align:middle line:84% The meatloaf she was slapping into shape made sense. 00:34:07.530 --> 00:34:10.080 align:middle line:84% The laundry she would rotate from washer to dryer 00:34:10.080 --> 00:34:13.900 align:middle line:84% to dresser drawers all evening long made sense. 00:34:13.900 --> 00:34:16.500 align:middle line:84% The children arguing, and telling on each other, and all 00:34:16.500 --> 00:34:20.070 align:middle line:84% their lamentations, and denials made sense. 00:34:20.070 --> 00:34:21.719 align:middle line:90% Talking made sense. 00:34:21.719 --> 00:34:24.030 align:middle line:90% Her menstrual cramps made sense. 00:34:24.030 --> 00:34:26.820 align:middle line:84% The toilet whose handle had to be jiggled just right 00:34:26.820 --> 00:34:29.639 align:middle line:90% to stop its whining made sense. 00:34:29.639 --> 00:34:32.650 align:middle line:84% Even her students, who try as she might, 00:34:32.650 --> 00:34:34.620 align:middle line:90% she could not quite reach. 00:34:34.620 --> 00:34:36.449 align:middle line:84% Who would leave her class still unable 00:34:36.449 --> 00:34:39.780 align:middle line:84% to read a standard paragraph and make any sense of it. 00:34:39.780 --> 00:34:43.380 align:middle line:84% Even they made a sweeter gentler standard. 00:34:43.380 --> 00:34:46.980 align:middle line:84% Bobby had had a way of putting students into everything. 00:34:46.980 --> 00:34:50.790 align:middle line:84% That had been his gift to [? Bena. ?] Marriage to Bobby 00:34:50.790 --> 00:34:52.340 align:middle line:90% had kept [INAUDIBLE]. 00:34:52.340 --> 00:35:02.420 align:middle line:90% 00:35:02.420 --> 00:35:04.850 align:middle line:84% For the first few months after Bobby was killed in the car 00:35:04.850 --> 00:35:08.330 align:middle line:84% accident, Happy Cat [? Mikhail, ?] their mailman, 00:35:08.330 --> 00:35:10.462 align:middle line:84% had walked up the long drive and delivered the mail 00:35:10.462 --> 00:35:12.920 align:middle line:84% to [? Bena ?] by hand so that she wouldn't have to make her 00:35:12.920 --> 00:35:16.610 align:middle line:84% way down to the mailbox just to get a fistful of overdue bills, 00:35:16.610 --> 00:35:19.260 align:middle line:90% and rhyming sympathy cards. 00:35:19.260 --> 00:35:22.550 align:middle line:84% "Anything I can do to help out," he asked her nearly every day 00:35:22.550 --> 00:35:24.980 align:middle line:90% in the beginning of [INAUDIBLE]. 00:35:24.980 --> 00:35:27.350 align:middle line:84% Later, he got bolder and said, "You'll 00:35:27.350 --> 00:35:31.020 align:middle line:84% get over this [? Bena. ?] It might not seem like it now, 00:35:31.020 --> 00:35:33.860 align:middle line:90% but time is [INAUDIBLE]." 00:35:33.860 --> 00:35:37.940 align:middle line:84% "I haven't noticed time healing Sue Cpx," Bena said. 00:35:37.940 --> 00:35:40.550 align:middle line:90% Sue Cox was Happy Cat's wife. 00:35:40.550 --> 00:35:42.620 align:middle line:84% It was as hateful a thing as [? Bena ?] had ever 00:35:42.620 --> 00:35:46.090 align:middle line:84% said to anybody who was trying to be nice to her. 00:35:46.090 --> 00:35:47.840 align:middle line:84% Happy Cat had just stood and looked at her 00:35:47.840 --> 00:35:50.210 align:middle line:90% like she had slept in space. 00:35:50.210 --> 00:35:53.420 align:middle line:84% Afterwards, he stopped hand delivering her mail. 00:35:53.420 --> 00:35:55.220 align:middle line:84% Just stuffed it in the mailbox the way 00:35:55.220 --> 00:35:59.193 align:middle line:90% he was required by law to do. 00:35:59.193 --> 00:36:00.610 align:middle line:84% Sometimes [? Bena ?] wouldn't take 00:36:00.610 --> 00:36:02.410 align:middle line:84% in the mail for weeks at a time just 00:36:02.410 --> 00:36:04.390 align:middle line:90% because she couldn't stand to. 00:36:04.390 --> 00:36:07.840 align:middle line:84% She thought people should not be allowed to intrude on her life 00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:10.750 align:middle line:90% simply by licking a $0.30 stamp. 00:36:10.750 --> 00:36:12.220 align:middle line:84% Depending on the feel of the mail 00:36:12.220 --> 00:36:13.928 align:middle line:84% she might just dump a whole handful of it 00:36:13.928 --> 00:36:16.120 align:middle line:84% straight in the trash and never so much as glance 00:36:16.120 --> 00:36:19.120 align:middle line:84% at the return addresses or [INAUDIBLE].. 00:36:19.120 --> 00:36:21.520 align:middle line:90% All summer long she did this. 00:36:21.520 --> 00:36:23.510 align:middle line:84% It was good when school started up again 00:36:23.510 --> 00:36:25.900 align:middle line:90% and she was forced back to work. 00:36:25.900 --> 00:36:28.510 align:middle line:84% For some reason, it seemed easier to make the transition 00:36:28.510 --> 00:36:31.510 align:middle line:84% from wife to widow while she was at school where 00:36:31.510 --> 00:36:34.075 align:middle line:84% it was part of her job to be mature and appropriately 00:36:34.075 --> 00:36:36.470 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE]. 00:36:36.470 --> 00:36:40.360 align:middle line:84% But at home she remained a wife for the longest time. 00:36:40.360 --> 00:36:43.340 align:middle line:84% A wife with no husband, but with five children 00:36:43.340 --> 00:36:46.310 align:middle line:84% to concentrate on, which she did. 00:36:46.310 --> 00:36:49.070 align:middle line:84% She watched her children for signs of lingering sadness, 00:36:49.070 --> 00:36:52.340 align:middle line:84% or loneliness, or anger, or any of the other sorts of things 00:36:52.340 --> 00:36:54.890 align:middle line:84% that were natural byproducts of grief, 00:36:54.890 --> 00:36:58.275 align:middle line:84% or normal rites of passage of adolescence. 00:36:58.275 --> 00:36:59.900 align:middle line:84% It seemed to her that every one of them 00:36:59.900 --> 00:37:03.020 align:middle line:84% took at least one turn to do something crazy 00:37:03.020 --> 00:37:06.320 align:middle line:84% that might get them killed or mess up their lives forever. 00:37:06.320 --> 00:37:08.636 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] hadn't been around [INAUDIBLE].. 00:37:08.636 --> 00:37:12.343 align:middle line:84% No move of theirs went undetected or un-addressed. 00:37:12.343 --> 00:37:13.760 align:middle line:84% Not until [? Bena ?] was sure they 00:37:13.760 --> 00:37:16.060 align:middle line:90% had weathered the worst of it. 00:37:16.060 --> 00:37:17.810 align:middle line:84% By the time she was sure the children were 00:37:17.810 --> 00:37:21.650 align:middle line:84% going to survive and go on to thrive, a couple of years 00:37:21.650 --> 00:37:22.580 align:middle line:90% had passed. 00:37:22.580 --> 00:37:25.520 align:middle line:84% And they had started teasing her about needing 00:37:25.520 --> 00:37:26.820 align:middle line:90% to go out on a date. 00:37:26.820 --> 00:37:34.820 align:middle line:90% 00:37:34.820 --> 00:37:36.490 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] didn't think about Happy Cat 00:37:36.490 --> 00:37:38.140 align:middle line:90% for a couple of years. 00:37:38.140 --> 00:37:41.380 align:middle line:84% She sometimes saw him go by in his US mail van 00:37:41.380 --> 00:37:44.560 align:middle line:84% but she didn't wave or honk her horn in recognition the way 00:37:44.560 --> 00:37:47.950 align:middle line:84% she once would have when Bobby was alive. 00:37:47.950 --> 00:37:50.950 align:middle line:84% Bobby and Happy Cat had been friends in high school. 00:37:50.950 --> 00:37:52.788 align:middle line:84% Happy cat had been a big time athlete 00:37:52.788 --> 00:37:54.580 align:middle line:84% and [? Bena ?] supposed it was only one who 00:37:54.580 --> 00:37:58.330 align:middle line:84% was required to wear his postal uniform that he had finally 00:37:58.330 --> 00:38:01.180 align:middle line:84% given up wearing his leather jacket. 00:38:01.180 --> 00:38:04.540 align:middle line:84% He had played college ball until he hurt his knee. 00:38:04.540 --> 00:38:06.160 align:middle line:84% As far as she could tell he had been 00:38:06.160 --> 00:38:09.580 align:middle line:84% one of those boys who was cursed with the great expectations 00:38:09.580 --> 00:38:12.310 align:middle line:90% of others, including Bobby. 00:38:12.310 --> 00:38:14.440 align:middle line:84% Bobby who had never been an athlete 00:38:14.440 --> 00:38:16.900 align:middle line:84% was an admirer of Happy Cat and had never 00:38:16.900 --> 00:38:20.740 align:middle line:84% stopped being disappointed for the way his career had 00:38:20.740 --> 00:38:23.170 align:middle line:90% failed to materialize. 00:38:23.170 --> 00:38:26.950 align:middle line:90% Tough break, [INAUDIBLE]. 00:38:26.950 --> 00:38:30.180 align:middle line:90% He was one of the [INAUDIBLE]. 00:38:30.180 --> 00:38:36.117 align:middle line:84% The one notable thing Happy Cat had done was marrying Sue Cox. 00:38:36.117 --> 00:38:37.700 align:middle line:84% She was a year younger than [? Bena ?] 00:38:37.700 --> 00:38:40.400 align:middle line:84% and had been the girl that other girls assumed 00:38:40.400 --> 00:38:43.070 align:middle line:90% all the boys wanted to marry. 00:38:43.070 --> 00:38:44.960 align:middle line:90% She was rich for one thing. 00:38:44.960 --> 00:38:47.300 align:middle line:84% That might have been enough by itself. 00:38:47.300 --> 00:38:49.970 align:middle line:84% But she was beautiful too and there was nobody anywhere 00:38:49.970 --> 00:38:52.280 align:middle line:90% who would ever say differently. 00:38:52.280 --> 00:38:55.850 align:middle line:84% Even now in middle age [INAUDIBLE] Fletcher it was 00:38:55.850 --> 00:38:57.860 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE]. 00:38:57.860 --> 00:38:59.690 align:middle line:84% As a girl she had always been free 00:38:59.690 --> 00:39:02.150 align:middle line:84% spirited in a way that had set her apart 00:39:02.150 --> 00:39:05.090 align:middle line:84% from most of the other girls who had more or less set 00:39:05.090 --> 00:39:07.580 align:middle line:84% their sights on going to heaven and hooking up 00:39:07.580 --> 00:39:10.490 align:middle line:90% with Jesus in the afterlife. 00:39:10.490 --> 00:39:12.440 align:middle line:84% Obviously, this had not been part 00:39:12.440 --> 00:39:16.580 align:middle line:84% of [INAUDIBLE] It wasn't just the drinking and the partying 00:39:16.580 --> 00:39:18.870 align:middle line:84% that she did better than everybody else. 00:39:18.870 --> 00:39:21.140 align:middle line:84% But it was her bold, unladylike style 00:39:21.140 --> 00:39:24.980 align:middle line:84% that made her so universally appealing to almost everyone. 00:39:24.980 --> 00:39:27.290 align:middle line:84% Like getting arrested for suggestive dancing 00:39:27.290 --> 00:39:31.160 align:middle line:84% on the roof of Happy Cat's car the night of the junior prom, 00:39:31.160 --> 00:39:33.860 align:middle line:84% and spending the night in jail for disturbing the peace 00:39:33.860 --> 00:39:35.810 align:middle line:90% and public drunkenness. 00:39:35.810 --> 00:39:38.630 align:middle line:84% Or like cutting her hair short when everybody else's hair was 00:39:38.630 --> 00:39:43.190 align:middle line:84% long, and she was drunk, and somebody dared her to do. 00:39:43.190 --> 00:39:46.040 align:middle line:84% Even with her head half skin and her dark hair 00:39:46.040 --> 00:39:50.270 align:middle line:84% and little butchered tucks, she was still beautiful. 00:39:50.270 --> 00:39:53.300 align:middle line:84% Everybody knew that Mr. [INAUDIBLE],, the math teacher, 00:39:53.300 --> 00:39:55.970 align:middle line:84% used to take Sue Cox out to lunch during his planning 00:39:55.970 --> 00:39:59.450 align:middle line:84% hour on school days and simply write her a pass to get back 00:39:59.450 --> 00:40:01.273 align:middle line:90% in class after [INAUDIBLE]. 00:40:01.273 --> 00:40:02.690 align:middle line:84% There were rumors that they really 00:40:02.690 --> 00:40:05.810 align:middle line:84% didn't go to lunch at all but to this apartment which 00:40:05.810 --> 00:40:08.570 align:middle line:90% had mirrors on the ceiling. 00:40:08.570 --> 00:40:12.320 align:middle line:84% In her purse she carried a whole book of passes [INAUDIBLE] 00:40:12.320 --> 00:40:14.900 align:middle line:90% just in case a need ever arose. 00:40:14.900 --> 00:40:18.710 align:middle line:84% She was good about giving anyone who needed a one time pass. 00:40:18.710 --> 00:40:22.940 align:middle line:84% Nobody's ever saying that she was stingy. 00:40:22.940 --> 00:40:25.310 align:middle line:84% In those days, Sue Cox's drinking 00:40:25.310 --> 00:40:29.120 align:middle line:84% had seemed rebellious, full of [INAUDIBLE].. 00:40:29.120 --> 00:40:33.080 align:middle line:84% Something she would look back on some day and be happy about. 00:40:33.080 --> 00:40:36.140 align:middle line:84% While most of the other girls will be full of regret 00:40:36.140 --> 00:40:38.270 align:middle line:90% over how careful they had been. 00:40:38.270 --> 00:40:42.063 align:middle line:84% How worried about their imaginary reputation and what 00:40:42.063 --> 00:40:44.380 align:middle line:90% people [INAUDIBLE]. 00:40:44.380 --> 00:40:46.840 align:middle line:84% Even in high school, [? Bena ?] had understood 00:40:46.840 --> 00:40:49.330 align:middle line:84% the sorts of regrets that would come later 00:40:49.330 --> 00:40:53.230 align:middle line:84% about having played it too safe and then to exclude. 00:40:53.230 --> 00:40:55.900 align:middle line:84% She knew those regrets lie in wait for her. 00:40:55.900 --> 00:40:58.900 align:middle line:84% But even so, she had been unable to set herself 00:40:58.900 --> 00:41:01.330 align:middle line:90% free the way Sue Cox had done. 00:41:01.330 --> 00:41:03.790 align:middle line:84% She both admired and hated Sue Cox. 00:41:03.790 --> 00:41:06.640 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] It was the kind of hatred 00:41:06.640 --> 00:41:08.710 align:middle line:84% good girls feel for the wild girls 00:41:08.710 --> 00:41:10.330 align:middle line:84% who get away with what good girls are 00:41:10.330 --> 00:41:12.640 align:middle line:90% secretly afraid to try. 00:41:12.640 --> 00:41:15.220 align:middle line:90% It is an early form of jealousy. 00:41:15.220 --> 00:41:17.530 align:middle line:84% When jealousy is the poison of choice 00:41:17.530 --> 00:41:19.180 align:middle line:90% so many girls [INAUDIBLE]. 00:41:19.180 --> 00:41:23.040 align:middle line:90% 00:41:23.040 --> 00:41:25.500 align:middle line:84% That Sue Cox would choose to marry Happy Cat 00:41:25.500 --> 00:41:27.360 align:middle line:90% didn't surprise anybody. 00:41:27.360 --> 00:41:31.080 align:middle line:84% That he married her was even less of a surprise. 00:41:31.080 --> 00:41:34.320 align:middle line:84% The surprises had come later when Happy Cat ended up 00:41:34.320 --> 00:41:37.200 align:middle line:84% without the pro-career everyone was counting on 00:41:37.200 --> 00:41:39.750 align:middle line:84% and instead became a civil servant just 00:41:39.750 --> 00:41:43.470 align:middle line:84% like any ordinary federal postal employee earning his government 00:41:43.470 --> 00:41:44.940 align:middle line:90% check. 00:41:44.940 --> 00:41:49.980 align:middle line:84% And Sue Cox had discovered for herself and revealed to all. 00:41:49.980 --> 00:41:54.270 align:middle line:84% That she was not after all just a bold and beautiful party girl 00:41:54.270 --> 00:41:58.380 align:middle line:84% who is simply sowing the wild oats to which she felt entitled 00:41:58.380 --> 00:42:02.160 align:middle line:84% and with which she thrilled everyone around her. 00:42:02.160 --> 00:42:08.730 align:middle line:84% But she was instead a relentless and chronic drunk referred to 00:42:08.730 --> 00:42:12.630 align:middle line:84% by those who loved her as an alcoholic who suffered 00:42:12.630 --> 00:42:15.640 align:middle line:90% an insufferable disease. 00:42:15.640 --> 00:42:17.890 align:middle line:84% Booze had kept Sue Cox from holding a job, 00:42:17.890 --> 00:42:23.208 align:middle line:84% or having any babies, or after three DUIs, driving a car. 00:42:23.208 --> 00:42:25.750 align:middle line:84% There was debate about whether or not the accident was really 00:42:25.750 --> 00:42:28.990 align:middle line:84% Sue Cox's fault but there was no debate about the fact 00:42:28.990 --> 00:42:31.390 align:middle line:84% that it left the other driver so mangled 00:42:31.390 --> 00:42:33.850 align:middle line:84% that her left leg had had to be amputated 00:42:33.850 --> 00:42:36.880 align:middle line:84% in order to get her out of the smoldering car. 00:42:36.880 --> 00:42:39.130 align:middle line:84% The only reason that Sue Cox didn't go to jail 00:42:39.130 --> 00:42:41.530 align:middle line:84% was because the woman with the amputated leg 00:42:41.530 --> 00:42:44.500 align:middle line:84% had had a higher blood alcohol level than Sue Cox, 00:42:44.500 --> 00:42:47.350 align:middle line:84% and she had been the one who sped through a stop sign 00:42:47.350 --> 00:42:52.480 align:middle line:84% and smashed headfirst into the rear end of Sue Cox's car. 00:42:52.480 --> 00:42:55.180 align:middle line:84% Afterwards there was not much glamour left 00:42:55.180 --> 00:42:57.820 align:middle line:90% in Sue Cox's drunken escapades. 00:42:57.820 --> 00:42:59.800 align:middle line:90% The thrill was gone. 00:42:59.800 --> 00:43:02.680 align:middle line:84% Besides, drinking was the old fashioned way to lose your mind 00:43:02.680 --> 00:43:04.720 align:middle line:84% and forget what you needed to forget. 00:43:04.720 --> 00:43:08.500 align:middle line:84% Now, they had slick new designer drugs to do that for you. 00:43:08.500 --> 00:43:10.330 align:middle line:84% Drugs with catchy little names that you 00:43:10.330 --> 00:43:12.580 align:middle line:84% could buy from behind the Texaco station 00:43:12.580 --> 00:43:15.850 align:middle line:84% from boys in sunglasses who lived in the housing project, 00:43:15.850 --> 00:43:19.750 align:middle line:84% and whose baggy pants were falling off their behinds. 00:43:19.750 --> 00:43:22.577 align:middle line:84% Or you could buy from that lawyer up at the courthouse. 00:43:22.577 --> 00:43:24.160 align:middle line:84% People said there were [AUDIO OUT] out 00:43:24.160 --> 00:43:26.670 align:middle line:90% of the hospital. 00:43:26.670 --> 00:43:30.600 align:middle line:84% Part of Sue Cox's drunk driving sentence was public service. 00:43:30.600 --> 00:43:32.640 align:middle line:84% She had to speak to the kids at the high school 00:43:32.640 --> 00:43:34.800 align:middle line:90% about the evils of alcohol. 00:43:34.800 --> 00:43:40.330 align:middle line:84% She had titled her talk It's Not Cool to be a Fool. 00:43:40.330 --> 00:43:41.950 align:middle line:84% They put an article in the newspaper 00:43:41.950 --> 00:43:44.920 align:middle line:84% with a picture of Sue Cox talking to students. 00:43:44.920 --> 00:43:47.830 align:middle line:84% It looked like she was a preacher behind the pulpit 00:43:47.830 --> 00:43:50.580 align:middle line:90% but everybody knew better. 00:43:50.580 --> 00:43:52.830 align:middle line:84% People began to find Sue Cox borderline 00:43:52.830 --> 00:43:55.140 align:middle line:90% pitiful instead of interesting. 00:43:55.140 --> 00:43:57.180 align:middle line:84% Now her life was a series of trips 00:43:57.180 --> 00:44:00.270 align:middle line:84% to rehab where she would dry out and explore 00:44:00.270 --> 00:44:02.580 align:middle line:84% the depths of her heart and history 00:44:02.580 --> 00:44:05.850 align:middle line:84% in search of some reason why or some evidence 00:44:05.850 --> 00:44:09.210 align:middle line:84% of an indestructible soul from which she could draw strength 00:44:09.210 --> 00:44:10.530 align:middle line:90% in the future. 00:44:10.530 --> 00:44:14.430 align:middle line:84% After which, she would be sent home to slowly forget all 00:44:14.430 --> 00:44:16.500 align:middle line:90% that she had on Earth. 00:44:16.500 --> 00:44:19.710 align:middle line:84% In a matter of months as a matter of course, 00:44:19.710 --> 00:44:21.900 align:middle line:84% she would begin to self-medicate again: 00:44:21.900 --> 00:44:23.970 align:middle line:90% just one beer at a ballgame. 00:44:23.970 --> 00:44:26.760 align:middle line:84% Just one sip of champagne at a wedding. 00:44:26.760 --> 00:44:32.380 align:middle line:84% Just one shot of vodka to get her going in the morning. 00:44:32.380 --> 00:44:34.300 align:middle line:84% It was generally agreed that life 00:44:34.300 --> 00:44:37.990 align:middle line:84% had been cruel to Happy Cat and Sue Cox, first, 00:44:37.990 --> 00:44:42.760 align:middle line:84% by blessing them so singularly, making them the envy of all. 00:44:42.760 --> 00:44:45.730 align:middle line:84% And then by allowing those same blessings to sour on them 00:44:45.730 --> 00:44:47.680 align:middle line:90% and become curses. 00:44:47.680 --> 00:44:50.680 align:middle line:84% Now, they were reduced to living lessons for the young people 00:44:50.680 --> 00:44:51.850 align:middle line:90% in the County. 00:44:51.850 --> 00:44:54.850 align:middle line:84% Their lives provided perfect examples 00:44:54.850 --> 00:44:58.360 align:middle line:84% of why it is better to study than to be popular. 00:44:58.360 --> 00:45:01.540 align:middle line:84% As adults, they cause most of their average friends 00:45:01.540 --> 00:45:04.990 align:middle line:84% to feel very lucky in comparison. 00:45:04.990 --> 00:45:07.690 align:middle line:84% But nobody ever really thought badly 00:45:07.690 --> 00:45:10.690 align:middle line:90% of either Happy Cat or Sue Cox. 00:45:10.690 --> 00:45:12.820 align:middle line:84% It was like they were living examples 00:45:12.820 --> 00:45:18.600 align:middle line:84% that life might actually be fair after all. 00:45:18.600 --> 00:45:21.360 align:middle line:84% So when the doorbell rang late one afternoon, 00:45:21.360 --> 00:45:23.760 align:middle line:90% too late for mail delivery. 00:45:23.760 --> 00:45:26.970 align:middle line:84% [? Bena ?] was not expecting to see Happy Cat McHale standing 00:45:26.970 --> 00:45:29.020 align:middle line:90% there smiling. 00:45:29.020 --> 00:45:29.520 align:middle line:90% "Hey." 00:45:29.520 --> 00:45:33.120 align:middle line:90% 00:45:33.120 --> 00:45:35.220 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:45:35.220 --> 00:45:36.720 align:middle line:90% 00:45:36.720 --> 00:45:38.270 align:middle line:90% Thanks. 00:45:38.270 --> 00:45:41.000 align:middle line:90%