DINNER AT HELEN'S
Lorene's there though Ann isn't, and everyone badmouths Ann at one point or another for being alcoholic, snobbish, and cutting. Lorene's just a grand beauty, giggling about being short and fat when I last saw her in Dayton, and I fantasize a bit with her when she wants to visit New York, but there's even a bouquet from her BOYFRIEND for her grandmother's funeral. Get Danny's place-name in England from Edward, who seems reluctant about giving it to me, and at one point says, "Hey, Bobby, why don't you read a book," since he seems to think that I'm quiet and studious, so I take it as a point of sarcasm that I should be more boisterous. With Mom acting up, I don't need it. She keeps remarking about how Helen refers to the diamond and amethyst ring she got from Grandma when she graduated from high school, how Grandma's diamond had been promised to Lorene but it seems Helen will get it, and how the plum wine's affected her. Helen sets out a big spread which I eat, raving about the potato salad, and it turns out that Edward's brought the onions for it that don't remain on your breath, "You can eat them like an apple, they're so sweet", and Rita wants some. I eat more than anyone, and Rita's strawberry pie with Fluffo on the bottom is a real treat with whipped cream, and Lorene kindly gets me tea "with everything, though not cream," and Rita says "No" when I ask her to take my dishes to the kitchen when she takes hers. Dennis is buried in a magazine when he's been confused by Mom or Helen, Jimmy talks with him about investments when everyone's in the kitchen selecting "in order of birth" from Grandman's stuff, while Helen hides a diamond in a pearl necklace and Marion is forced to select some nail clippers she'd only LOANED to Grandma as one of her things. Lots of junk left, Lorene takes bags and scarfs, I'm asked if I want anything, including a swan-plate that Helen offers me and I refuse, saying I don't have any connection between that and Grandma, so it would just be a "Thing" to me. Mom crows she had her clock, should have taken her bed, Rita has a nightgown and raincoat, Mom points out that Helen took my present of a floor-lamp that Mom wanted. Marion and Henry have some social engagement even later---since Marion had her breast removed she just wants to live, and even her kids are saying that she never does anything for them, only for herself.