Chapter 12: Stand Up, Ellis

The table at the ranch was set for eight, with the good plates.

I sat in the same chair as a week ago, with Eli on my lap.

My aunt stood behind me with her hand on the back of my seat.

She had refused to wait in the truck.

"I came to see this," she told Harlan at the door. "You can take it up with the Lord."

Harlan had nodded and let her in.

Floyd sat on my left.

His brother and his brother's wife sat across from us, with the girls at a card table in the next room.

Marlene sat at Harlan's right with her hands folded.

Doc Barksdale's chair was directly across from mine.

He had come in last, in his tweed jacket, and he had not touched his napkin.

Nobody ate.

Harlan was at the head, and his steak knife lay on the cloth beside a long white envelope.

He tapped it with one finger.

"This came yesterday morning," he said. "I opened it myself. The lawyer's lab does honest work, and it does it fast."

Nobody said a word.

"It says my grandson shares no blood with me. Zero percent."

He said it without any heat at all.

"It says I'm no kin to the boy, and the boy's none to me."

His older son started to speak.

"Sit still," Harlan said.

Floyd's brother sat still.

Harlan picked up the report and carried it around the table.

He walked slowly, with one hand on the backs of chairs.

He stopped beside Doc and laid it flat on the cloth in front of him.

Not in front of Harlan. Beside Doc, where he couldn't miss it.

"Marlene told me everything last night," Harlan said. "I'd like to hear the rest from you, Ellis."

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