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have had the lawyer draw that up into a regular will. Also any financial doings are to go to him. It might seem unfair but I trust that you will understand, as the two of you have always managed so nicely while Jeremy has his mind on his art and such
.
    Please take care of him
.
    Please see to it that he doesn’t just go to pieces
.
    I have thought a long time about what he should do, and I wondered if he would go to you girls but I don’t suppose he will. He still won’t leave this block, you know. Last July I did get him to come with me to Mrs. Pruitt’s, which is two streets away, but that’s the first time since art school that he has done such a thing and it didn’t work out. So maybe he will just want to stay on in this house
.
    Please don’t let anything happen to him
.
    Love
,
Mother
    I took the letter and marched straight out of the bedroom, past Jeremy, who was slumped in a parlor chair staring at nothing, and into the kitchen, where Laura was doing the dishes. She had one of Mother’s old-fashioned flowered aprons pinned to her front, and who she was talking to was Howard. He was drying plates, if you please. He was saying,
“Next
year, when I have more freedom—”
    “Take a look at this,” I told Laura, and I handed her the letter.
    She wiped her hands and started reading, and right away her eyes filled. I knew that would happen. “Oh, look,” she said, “she’s thought of everyone. Even Miss Vinton. Even poor old Mrs. Pruitt at the church.”
    “Not
that
part.”
    She read on.
    “What, the house and furniture?” she said. “Well, that seems fair to me, Amanda. After all, we have always—”
    “No, no.
Jeremy.”
    She looked up.
    “See what she says about Jeremy? Where she says he never leaves this block?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did
you
know that?”
    “Well, of course,” Laura said.
    “But not since art school, she says. Art school! Years and years ago!”
    But Laura was rereading the beginning of the letter now. She didn’t seem concerned at all. I turned to Howard, who hadn’t had the tact to leave the room. “Did
you
know?” I asked him.
    “Oh, why sure.”
    Even strangers knew. How could I have let such a thing slip past me? Because Jeremy never stated it outright as a principle, that’s why. He gave individual excuses, never thesame one twice, whenever we invited him to come someplace. To the park, to take the fresh air: “Thank you, but I’m working on a piece right now.” Out shopping at a department store: “Oh, I believe I have a cold coming on.” They never visited us in Richmond because Mother was prey to motion sickness. Or so she said. Protecting him again. Is it possible to live out your life within one block? I thought of what this block contained—a café, a corner grocery, and a shoe repair. Church was off-limits. Also moviehouses, pharmacies, barbershops, clothing stores. Funeral parlors. “How does he get what he needs?” I asked.
    Laura looked up from the letter with her eyes all glassy.
    “Well, there is the mail order,” Howard said. “Also, your mother went a few blocks farther afield now and then.”
    “Has he ever been out of Baltimore? I mean, ever in his life?”
    “Not since I’ve been here,” Howard said.
    And certainly not while I was there. Our father took the car with him when he left.
    I snatched back Mother’s letter, which Laura had started to read for the fourth time running. “Listen to me,” I said. “That is just not
normal
, Laura.”
    “Oh, Amanda! He’ll hear you.”
    “I don’t care if he hears me or not,” I said, although as a matter of fact I was speaking barely above a whisper. Laura always thinks I’m shouting when she doesn’t like what I’m saying. “You’re taking this so calmly,” I said. “You let things ride because it’s easier, but meanwhile, he’s our
brother!
Sitting in one spot like a beanbag. Howard,
you’re
a medical student. Wouldn’t it be to his own good to make him stop this before it