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"They're both taking naps," I said.

"They're fine," Mr. Bogart told him. "We'll talk about them afterward,"

Mr. Bogart wanted to take the reverend up to Mama's room. While they were up there, Baby Celeste had woken and called out to them. Mr. Bogart had her in his arms when they all came down, and she had a dreadfully angry look on her face. The reverend look stunned and confused,

"Where's the downstairs phone?" Mr. Bogart asked me.

I explained why Mama had locked it up to keep it away from Betsy, and then they asked me where Betsy was. I told them she had gone off. but Baby Celeste, glaring at me, told them she was in the garden.

"In the garden?" the reverend asked. "I didn't see anyone out there when I drove up."

He and Mr. Bogart looked at each other and then they went out to the garden. Mr. Bogart still carrying Baby Celeste. While they were out there. Daddy. Noble, and Mama came into the living roam to wait with me.

"Its all right." Daddy said. "You've done just fine."

"Of course she has," Mama said. "The house is sacred again."

"When you're finished here. I want to play knights and dragons," Noble told me. "You said you would." he reminded me firmly.

"I will," I told him, but he sat there looking as impatient and distrustful as ever.

The reverend and Mr. Bogart returned, the reverend looking pale. He kept pulling on his collar as if his neck had thickened and he was choking. Mr. Bogart set Baby Celeste down and she went directly to the sofa and sat with her hands folded in her lap like a polite little lady.

Mr. Bogart said everything would be all right, everything would be just fine, and I smiled.

I knew that even before they had come. He went back upstairs to Mama's loom to use the phone.

Not long afterward, two police cars drove up and the policemen met with Mr. Bogart and the reverend outside. Baby Celeste and I watched them through the window. They talked and the reverend pointed toward the garden and then pointed at the house. The tallest policeman took off his hat and shook his head. He returned to his car and used his radio microphone. Then they all walked out to the garden.

"A lot of turmoil over nothing, if you ask me," Grandpa Jordan said. I hadn't realized he was in the room with us unti

l that moment. He nodded at me and went out to see what they were all up to Mama sat beside me.

"It's all right," she said, and she held my hand.

Not long afterward, another car appeared, and a short, bald man in a suit and tie stepped out with a woman dressed like a nurse.

"She is a nurse," Daddy said, looking out with me. It always amazed me how he could hear my thoughts.

"What's a nurse doing here?" Auntie Roe asked with her lips curled in disapproval. She rolled her wheelchair up beside us and peered out the window, scrunching her nose and turning her eyebrows in toward each other. "Too many strangers sticking their noses in our business."

"Amen to that," Great-great-uncle Samuel said, coming up behind her. "Everyone's a nosybody these days."

The policemen and the man in a suit and the nurse spoke for a while outside just before another car appeared and another woman and man in a suit appeared. This woman was in a gray jacket and skirt with a white blouse and had short brown-and-gray hair. They conferred as well, then they all came into the house.

"Hi there," the bald man in the suit said to me. "I'm Dr. Levy. And who's this beautiful little girl?" he asked, looking at Baby Celeste.

"I'm Celeste." she told him with a serious and grownup expression on her face.

"Well, hello to you, too," he told her. "This is Mrs. Newman. You can call her Patty," he continued, introducing the nurse. "She's here to help you. too." "Help us do what?" I asked quickly.

"Oh, get you organized, comfortable. We have to take you to my clinic" he told me. "so I can help you get back on your feet."

"I'm on my feet." I stood up to show him.

He smiled and looked at Patty Newman, who smiled and shook her head.

"Where is the other infant?" the woman in the gray suit asked, and stepped forward. She looked impatient. The reverend was in the doorway behind them. He told her Panther was upstairs in his crib, and she put her handkerchief over her face and hurried up the stairs.