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workbooks. Actually. Noble was sketching insects in the margins. He was very good at it. I was listening to Daddy and Mommy, but pretending I wasn't.

"And?" Daddy said.

"And my uncle threw her out. Her lover disowned her as well, and she died when she went to a filthy place to have an abortion."

"How come I never heard this story before?" he asked suspiciously.

"I just heard it myself recently," she replied. He looked at her and shook his head.

"Okay, Sarah," he said with a deep, tired sigh. "We'll pretend I'm not successful."

"I'm not saying we have to do that, but we have to be sensible about what we do with our money and ourselves."

He smiled.

"Sorry," he said, digging into his pocket and plucking out a small box. "I couldn't help not being sensible this one time."

He handed the box to her. and I stared in wonder. Noble continued to draw.

"What is this?" she asked, not opening it. She held it as if it would turn into something too hot to hold any moment.

"I told you. I couldn't help myself." he said. "I saw it. and I envisioned it on you. Complain to your spirits about me."

She shook her head at him as if he were an errant child, opened the box, and then looked up at him without taking out what was in it.

"Is it real?"

"Of course its real," he said.

Carefully, timidly, she took out the necklace. There was a pear-shaped diamond in the middle, almost as big as my thumb. It glittered so brightly. I thought it had a tiny bulb inside it.

Daddy rushed forward and took it from her.

"Let me put it on you he said, undoing the chain and going behind her.

She let him. and then put her hand aver the diamond when he stepped in front of her.

"Don't cover it," he said.

"I wanted to feel it, feel its energy," she said.

Daddy raised his eves to the ceiling and glanced at me to pull on his earlobe. I bit down on my lower lip. Mommy walked to the mirror on the wall and stared at herself for a long silent moment. Both Daddy and I were holding our breaths. I think.

"If s beautiful," she finally said, and then added, "too beautiful."

"Nothing is too beautiful for a beautiful woman. Sarah," he said.

She relented, turned and smiled at him.

"You're incorrigible now. Arthur Madison Atwell."

"I hope so.' he said with a twinkle in his eye. "Maybe later you'll continue explaining all this to me in private," he added. and Mommy blushed, glanced at me, and shook her head, turning quickly to hide her smile.

The necklace was the first very expensive gift Daddy ever gave Mommy. Spending money. enjoying their new wealth, really did seem to frighten her. She talked a lot about the evil eye and said it was something her grandmother had described and warned her about when she was a little girl. It always made Daddy angry to hear about it, so she rarely spoke about it in front of him.

"Jealous spirits," she told us. "see your happiness, especially when you flaunt it, and then they do something, throw down a curse, a trap, and make you miserable. Never be too proud, too ostentatious, too showy about the nice things you have and the wonderful things that happen to you or you achieve. Always be modest, children." she warned us.

Noble tucked in his cheek and stared at her blankly because there were so many words he didn't understand. but I knew enough to make my heart thump. How do you know when you're tempting evil spirits? I wondered. I wanted to ask. but I didn't like talking about them either.