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swing in. As he did so, his elbow touched someone.
    Someone was sleeping in his place.
    Cautiously he reached out, feeling for the form under the covers.
    Roddy.
    He was both relieved and enraged: relieved that it wasn’t a man after all, enraged that it was Roddy.
    Fumbling around, he found a match on the nightstand and lighted the lamp. A lemon glow gradually lighted up the bedroom. Their bed, then Roddy’s bed, then the commode and dresser, came to view.
    Kitty stirred, and rolled over to face him. “Daddy?”
    â€œWhat the hell is Roddy doing in my bed?”
    â€œIs that you, Magnus?”
    â€œWhat the hell is my son doing in my bed?”
    Kitty whispered up to him. “Roddy’s had a hard day. So, shh, don’t wake him.”
    â€œDon’t wake him? Where the hell am I going to sleep then?”
    â€œShh. I felt so sorry for him.”
    â€œSo sorry? Damnation, woman, don’t you know I don’t hold with sons sleeping with mothers?”
    Kitty’s sleepy lips drew back in partial snarl. “There’s no harm done. He’s only a baby.”
    â€œDamnation, woman, you know what my wishes are in this matter.”
    â€œOh, come now, Magnus, dear, you’re not really jealous of that little tassel of his now, are you? It’s hardly there. Just a little johnny-nods.”
    â€œKeep this up and you’ll someday have him spoiled for a woman his own age.”
    â€œI don’t let him touch me. Just excepting maybe my feet.”
    â€œDamnation, woman, but that’s just the point.”
    â€œJust about everybody lets their kids sleep with them when the old man is gone.”
    â€œOld man, is it?”
    â€œYou’re always at me when I do something nice for the boy.”
    â€œWell?”
    â€œWell, I’m getting fed up on it.”
    â€œNot when you do the right things for him.”
    â€œMaybe you’ve got a rotten mind, Magnus, dear.”
    â€œIn my doctoring I’ve run into some damned strange things. And now I find that lightning has finally struck here in my own house.”
    â€œAre you suggesting—”
    â€œGoddammit!” he roared, in sudden black passion. “Wake the boy up and chase him back to his own bed.”
    â€œYou do it.”
    â€œI want you to do it. So that he’ll know it’s you who’s ordering him out of our bed. You. Not me.”
    Roddy suddenly sat up out of the bedclothes. “Don’t bother, Dad, I’ll get up by myself. All this racket waking me up.”
    Magnus shivered. Check. So the boy had been awake all along. Had probably been awake those other times too. The boy knew. Father and mother had no secrets from him. That made it all the more devilish.
    Magnus waited for Roddy to get settled in his own bed, then said, “Now there’ll be no more of this, you hear?”
    Silence.
    â€œYou hear?”
    Silence.
    â€œThat’s an order.”
    â€œThis is not the army, Magnus,” Kitty said. “The War between the States is over.”
    â€œIt’s still an order.”
    Silence from Roddy’s bed.
    Magnus blew out the lamp; dropped in bed; covered himself.
    Kitty sighed as if she’d finally had the last straw.
    Magnus worked his head deep into his pillow. The more he wriggled down the more he could still smell Roddy in the pillowcase.
    Kitty drew away from Magnus, sleeping as far away from him as she could.
    Magnus continued to work his head deep into his pillow.
    â€œBesides,” Kitty said in the dark, “Roddy and me slept between different sheets. Not that it really matters.”
    â€œThat I believe.”
    â€œIf you’d just feel around a little, you’d see.”
    Magnus lay stiff. A muscle just above his left kneecap began to quiver.
    After a bit, Kitty gave him a light touch on the hip through the sheet. “You see.”
    â€œAha! Now I know for sure it did concern you. After