1WE are going to town. Dewey Dell says it won’t be sold because it belongs to Santa Claus and he has taken it back with him until next Christmas. Then it will be behind the glass again, shining with waiting.

2Pa and Cash are coming down the hill, but Jewel is going to the barn. “Jewel,” pa says. Jewel does not stop. “Where you going?” pa says. But Jewel does not stop. “You leave that horse here,” pa says. Jewel stops and looks at pa. Jewel’s eyes look like marbles. “You leave that horse here,” pa says. “We’ll all go in the wagon with ma, like she wanted.”

3But my mother is a fish. Vernon seen it. He was there.

4“Jewel’s mother is a horse,” Darl said.

5“Then mine can be a fish, can’t it, Darl?” I said.

6Jewel is my brother.

7“Then mine will have to be a horse, too,” I said.

8“Why?” Darl said. “If pa is your pa, why does your ma have to be a horse just because Jewel’s is?”

9“Why does it?” I said. “Why does it, Darl?”

10Darl is my brother.

11“Then what is your ma, Darl?” I said.

12“I haven’t got ere one,” Darl said. “Because if I had one, it is was. And if it is was, it can’t be is. Can it?”

13“No,” I said.

14“Then I am not,” Darl said. “Am I?”

15“No,” I said.

16I am. Darl is my brother.

17“But you are, Darl,” I said.

18“I know it,” Darl said. “That’s why I am not is. Are is too many for one woman to foal.”

19Cash is carrying his tool-box. Pa looks at him. “I’ll stop at Tull’s on the way back,” Cash says. “Get on that barn roof.”

20“It ain’t respectful,” pa says. “It’s a deliberate flouting of her and of me.”

21“Do you want him to come all the way back here and carry them up to Tull’s afoot?” Darl says. Pa looks at Darl, his mouth chewing. Pa shaves every day now because my mother is a fish.

22“It ain’t right,” pa says.

23Dewey Dell has the package in her hand. She has the basket with our dinner too.

24“What’s that?” pa says.

25“Mrs. Tull’s cakes,” Dewey Dell says, getting into the wagon. “I’m taking them to town for her.”

26“It ain’t right,” pa says. “It’s a flouting of the dead.”

27It’ll be there. It’ll be there come Christmas, she says, shining on the track. She says he won’t sell it to no town boys.