rest of the his “fambly”—his condescending mother, known as“Grammy,” his matronly sister, his loud-mouthed brother-in-law, allhis bratty nieces and nephews—disgusted Neal. However, the feelingwas not mutual. Neal was well-liked by all the Snells. This wasn’tsurprising, considering the caliber of most of the other deliveryboys. Even though the old man claimed to want to hire collegestudents for these jobs, “to hep ‘em out,” most of the otherdrivers were pathetically poor, inner-city blacks. The reason, Nealhad soon discovered, was that Snell refused to pay anyone with alast name different from his own a salary above minimum wage. Mostcollege students just weren’t that desperate.

As a result, most of the drivers were thetype who stopped between deliveries to smoke dope, have “quickies”with their girlfriends, and god only knew what else. The entireclan, particularly Grammy, was amazed by Neal’s speed andefficiency. In fact, the first few days his promptness in returningto the shop made Grammy so suspicious that she called a few peopleon his list to make sure that Neal had actually made thedeliveries. Ordinarily, this would have irritated Neal, but it onlyamused him. He was glad the other delivery boys had a good timewhile they worked and were taking full advantage of theobnoxious—and oddly naïve—Snell family.

Neal followed old man Snell into the centerof the shop, the sickly-sweet aroma of flowers at once making himnauseous. He approached Grammy and started to say good morning, buthesitated when he saw the sour look on her face.

Grammy glanced at Mildred, Snell’s agingwife, and looked back at Neal. “Where’d you go yesterday when youwere supposed to be deliverin’ the bouquet to Miz Foster?”

Neal looked from one Snell face to theother. “Why? Is something wrong?”

Grammy glanced at her daughter-in-law again,giving her an I-told-you-so look. “You might say that. Shenever got ‘em.”

“Well, I delivered them,” Neal saiddefensively. “I left them on the porch, by the front door.”