little brother, you don't have any fortune!"
"Got twenty billion, ten million, fifty-five
thousand and six hundred and forty-two cents!" He
used his fingers to tally up. "But I can't remember
how much I have in stocks and bonds, so I guess you
could triple that figure. A man isn't rich if he can
name what he owns."
I hadn't known he could even name a figure like
that. Just when I would say something sarcastic, Bart
let out a yelp and doubled over. He fell to the floor
and gasped. "Quick . . . my pills. I'm dying! My left
arm is going numb! Save me, send for my doctors!" That's when I left the house and went outdoors.
I sat on a lawn chair and pulled out a paperback novel
to read. Bart was getting to me, really getting to me. It
was like living with Jekyll and Hyde. If he had to act,
why the heck didn't he choose some role better than a
lame old guy with a bad heart?
"Jory, don't you care if I die?" Bart came out
and asked me.
"Nope."
"You've never liked me!"
"I liked you better when you acted your own
age." "Would you believe Malcolm Neal Foxworth is
the father of that lady next door, and she is my real
grandmother, truly my own grandmother?"
"She told you that?"
"No. John Amos told me some, she told me
more. John Amos tells me lots of stuff. He told me
Daddy Paul and Daddy Chris were not brothers, that
my momma only said that so we wouldn't find out her