Ray

XLI

BILL, my dad, came over to check on me again. He’s been everywhere, from hard-crushing Depressionville to Russia. Got him the new Mercury that gets twenty-seven miles per gallon on unleaded, high visibility. He still looks handsome. Still the man who gave me life. Seventy-five years old. Afflicted only by deafness and arthritic feet. Always got money, maybe pull out a thousand of the five hundred of them he’s worth now.

Bill roomed with Senator Eastland at Ole Miss. He and the great senator were going to be law partners. But Bill had to go back to Homewood, in Jefferson County, to support his family. Bill is a naturalist and is determined not to let Ray not listen to his advice now because he never had any advice for Ray when he was young.

Bill looks good.

He has the open, eager eyes of a man who has confessed and tried to put it back right. He always gave me the advantages.