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Rh

[Thinking]

I know what she’s doing now just what I did  trying not to believe

[Fiercely]

But I’ll make her! she’s got to suffer, too! I been too lonely! she’s got to share and help me save my Sammy!

[With an even more blunted flat relentless tonelessness]

I thought I was plain, but I’ll be plainer. Only remember it’s a family secret, and now you’re one of the family. It’s the curse on the Evanses. My husband’s mother—she was an only child—died in an asylum and her father before her. I know that for a fact. And my husband’s sister, Sammy’s aunt, she’s out of her mind. She lives on the top floor of this house, hasn’t been out of her room in years, I’ve taken care of her. She just sits, doesn’t say a word, but she’s happy, she laughs to herself a lot, she hasn’t a care in the world. But I remember when she was all right, she was always unhappy, she never got married, most people around here were afraid of the Evanses in spite of their being rich for hereabouts. They knew about the craziness going back, I guess, for heaven knows how long. I didn’t know about the Evanses until after I’d married my husband. He came to the town I lived in, no one there knew about the Evanses. He didn’t tell me until after we were married. He asked me to forgive him, he said he loved me so much he’d have gone mad without me, said I was his only hope of salvation. So I forgave him. I loved him an awful lot. I said to myself, I’ll be his salvation—and maybe I could have been if we hadn’t had Sammy born. My husband kept real well