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"Oh, no. I'm stuffed like a turkey," I said, and she laughed.

"She's been hanging around you I see," Granny told Star.

"I wish I had some nicer quarters for y'all to sleep in tonight. Rodney's going to take the couch tonight."

"I am?" he asked.

"You can't be in the same room as the girls, Rodney." "Oh," he said.

"I hate to put anyone out," I said.

"Rodney isn't put out. He likes sleeping on the couch. Some nights, he falls asleep there and I don't have the heart to wake him," Granny said.

We all laughed, but Rodney turned away, embarrassed.

It was a great feeling being there among them, eating the wonderful food, feeling their love and warmth. When we had first driven up, I had felt sorry for Star, even ashamed for her, but now, I felt sorrier for myself, and even for Misty and Jade.

"This house isn't anything compared to some of the places I slept when I was a young girl," Granny told us and described some of her experiences when she traveled with her parents years and years ago. Her language was colorful, vivid, and when she talked, I could almost feel what she felt reliving the events.

We were having a wonderful time I actually put all the events of the last few days behind me. I didn't once think about Geraldine, about the letters and the discoveries. If I could move in here with them, I thought, I would, and I'd be willing to sleep on the couch each and every night to do it, too.

Granny had us in stitches describing a cousin of hers whose father was an undertaker and who actually took a nap in a coffin His father brought in some customers and when they looked in and he opened his eyes, there was bedlam.

My stomach hurt from laughing. Rodney had tears streaming down his face and Star was radiant with happiness, too. Suddenly, in the middle of all that, there was a loud rap at the door. We all stopped. Granny looked at Star.

"Who would that be?" she asked.

"I'll go see," Rodney said, taking the reins of his budding manhood before anyone else could rise.

We all waited as he went to the door and opened it. "My God Almighty!" I heard a woman exclaim. "Is that you? Look how you've gown!"

"Oh, no," Star said, looking at Granny and then at me. "It's her."

"Who?" I asked.

"My mother," she said, and we all looked up at the doorway with anticipation.

I didn't expect a woman as pretty nor with as nice a figure as the woman who entered. Her hair looked recently trimmed and styled and she wore what at first looked like a new and expensive skirt and jacket outfit. On closer inspection, I saw the stains in the material. She wore matching two inch square heel shoes that were scuffed and worn down.

Star's mother carried a small suitcase that looked like it had been tossed from an airplane.

"Well, look here, I'm just in time for dinner," she declared.

Both Granny and Star just stared at her.

"Doesn't anybody want to say hello and tell me how happy they are to see me?"

"We didn't know you were coming," Granny said with the corners of her mouth dipping into a frown. "We're surprised."

"Neither did I till yesterday." She laughed. "What a trip!"

"We thought you were with Aaron's cousin Lamar. Where's he?" Star demanded. It was the first thing she had said to her mother, no hello, no smile, nothing

"I don't know and I don't care. That fool is a loser, and

I don't invest my time in losers. I'm starving, Ma'ama," she added to change the subject, and moved quickly to the table. "Aren't you going to get me a plate?" she asked Star. Star glanced at me and then rose with reluctance. "Who are you?" she asked me.

"She's my friend," Star said from the kitchen doorway.