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" 'Who's got money for books?' she asked. She was becoming incensed. 'Look around this place. See that broken window? Look over there. Look real good. See that little girl? She don't talk. Brittany, give Bethany some grits. What happened to the coffee? Sit down here at the table. Just move that stuff. This child makes the best coffee. I'm telling you, I thank God every day that he sent me Brittany, and he sent her first. Brittany, go get Matthew and Jonas. I done told you twice to do that! This baby's wet. Hurry up about it. I don't have money for books. My washing machine's been broken for two months. Pops never gave me money for books. ¡¯

" 'All right,' I told her. 'I'll be back. ' I went out into the woods. It wasn't dense, just the spinally piney woods in these parts where there aren't many live oaks. I could see this little boy sitting on a log and he was reading.

"He had black curly hair like mine and he was lean yet well proportioned. He had sharp blue eyes when he looked at me. The book was about art. It was open to Van Gogh's Starry Night.

"The boy had on a dirty polo shirt and jeans, and there was a huge black-and-blue mark on his face and one on his arm. On the back of his left hand was a visible burn.

" 'Did Charlie hit you?' I asked.

"He didn't answer me.

" 'Did he push your hand against the heater?' I asked.

"He didn't answer. He turned the page. A painting by Gauguin.

"I said, 'Everything's going to change. I'm your kin. I'm Pops' grandson and you're Pops' son, you know that, don't you?¡¯

"He didn't say anything. Obdurately he looked back at his book and again he turned the page. A painting by Seurat.

"I told him my name. I told him everything would be better. I was about to leave him when I said, 'One day you'll get to go to Amsterdam to see Van Gogh's work in person. ¡¯

" 'I'd settle for New York,' he fired back, 'so I could see all the Impressionists and the Expressionists at the Met. ¡¯

"I was stunned. His words were so clear, so crisp.

" 'You're some kind of genius,' I said.

" 'No, I'm not,' he said. 'I just read a lot. I read all I wanted to read in the branch library and now I'm working on the Books-a-Million store in Mapleville, where I go to school. My favorite books are about art. Couple of times, Pops brought me books on art. ¡¯

"That was an astounding revelation. Pops and books on art. Where would Pops get books on art? What did Pops know of books on art? Yet he had done it for this bastard son whom he allowed to live in squalor in this place.

"Thank God I still had some more money, about fifty dollars. 'Here,' I said. 'This will work wonders at the bargain table. Don't steal anymore. ¡¯

" 'I never stole,' he said. 'That's my mother talking. You listen to my mother and you'd think Charlie pushed my hand up against the heater. ¡¯

" 'Gotcha. The point is, you can buy some to own with that. ¡¯

" 'Who's your favorite painter in the whole world?' he asked.

" 'Hard to say,' I answered.

" 'Like if you could only save one painting from the Third World War,' he pushed, 'what would it be?¡¯

" 'Have to be Renaissance. Have to be a Madonna,' I replied, 'but I'm not sure which one. Probably one by Botticelli, but then maybe Fra Filippo Lippi. But there are others. Just not sure. ' I thought of the beautiful woman inside nursing the bab

y. I wanted to mention her in connection to a Madonna but I didn't.

"He nodded. 'I'd save D¨¹rer,' he said. 'Salvador Mundi -- you know, the face of Christ with the hair parted in the middle. ¡¯

" 'That's a good choice,' I said. 'Maybe much better than mine. ' I hesitated. We'd come a lot further in this conversation than I'd thought possible when I drove out here. 'Listen to me,' I said. 'Would you like to go off to a good school, a boarding school, you know, get a fine education, get out of here?¡¯

" 'I can't leave Brittany,' he said. 'Wouldn't be fair. ¡¯

" 'What about the others?¡¯

" 'I don't know,' he answered. He sighed like a big man with a big burden. 'My mother, she doesn't really want us,' he said. 'She wasn't so bad when Brittany and I were little. But now that there's all the others, she hits us a lot. I have to get between her and Brittany and sometimes I can't do it. I don't let her hit the little ones at all. I just take the belt right out of her hand. ¡¯

"I was revolted, but I had no solution. I had all my life heard that there are real problems with the welfare system and with the foster care system, and I didn't know what to do.