”Get an education, Joey.”

”Sarah’s getting out of jail today,” I said. ”I hope she’s going to stay at my house for a while. Caroline was supposed to go down and talk to her sometime this morning.”

Her eyes dropped at the mention of Sarah and she began to shake her head.

”My own flesh and blood in jail,” she said. ”Tell me where I went wrong.”

”No sense in beating yourself up over it. She is what she is. It isn’t your fault.”

”You better lock up your valuables, Joey. She’ll haul the whole house off if you give her the chance.”

”Sarah wouldn’t steal from me, Ma.” In fact, Sarah had stolen from me in the past, but I’d never told Ma about it.

”Well, she’s stole from me, plenty of times.”

”Maybe she’s changed. You looked sad when I came in. What’s the matter?”

”I was thinking about Raymond.” She reached for a tissue beside the bed and dabbed at her eyes. Raymond was Ma’s younger brother. He drowned at the age of seventeen. ”Such a waste.”

”No, it wasn’t,” I said before I realized what was coming out of my mouth. ”Don’t spend any tears on him, Ma. That’s a waste.”

”Joey, you’ve never had a kind word to say about your uncle. What did Raymond ever do to you?”

I shook my head, not wanting to get into it. She hadn’t mentioned him in years. ”He wasn’t a good person.”

”He just needed-”

”Ma, could we please not talk about Raymond?

You’re entitled to your opinion; I’m entitled to mine.”

I wanted to tell her what my opinion was based on, but I didn’t see the point. It had happened so long ago, and Ma was dying. There was no sense in sullying whatever pleasant memories she had of her only brother.

I managed to get her mind off of Raymond and onto my son Jack’s baseball prospects for a little while, but then, like a sudden change in the weather, she looked at me as though she’d never seen me before.