Nobody's Fool

promised she’d keep the name, which should please the dead.”
    They both looked again at Hattie, who, if she was pleased, didn’t show it.
    â€œI hope you didn’t sell too soon,” Sully said. “What if the theme park opens and the place becomes a gold mine?”
    â€œIf the theme park opens, so will a dozen new restaurants. Besides, did you see today’s paper?”
    Sully nodded. “Still, who knows?”
    â€œWe both know,” Cass said. “This town will never change.”
    Sully would have been pleased to agree. Actually, what he’d been thinking was how many things had changed just during the week he’d been the guest of the county. Losing Hattie and having Cass move away would be plenty big changes for a town like Bath.
    â€œPeter do a good job for you?” Sully decided to ask.
    â€œHe was fine,” Cass said, without, it seemed to Sully, much enthusiasm.
    Sully was oddly grateful on both counts. He’d wanted Peter to do a good job for Cass’s sake, but he was beginning to wonder if Peter’s joking claim that he could do anything better than Sully might be true. He and Cass both stole a glance at Peter, who’d taken a seat now on one of the folding chairs near the back of the room and appeared to be going through his wallet, probably seeing if he had enough money to make it to West Virginia and back. Sully made a mental note to offer him his poker winnings.
    â€œHe did that job like he’s doing this one,” Cass commented.
    â€œHe’s tough that way,” Sully conceded. “Too much education, probably. Either that or too much of his mother.”
    â€œOr there’s a zucchini up his tailpipe,” Cass offered, surprising Sully. It hadn’t occurred to him that she might actively dislike Peter, and he wondered why she would.
    â€œI’m glad he’s here this morning,” Sully admitted, again reflecting that his son was the only able-bodied man among the bearers. But for him, the others might go down like so many bowling pins on the icy sidewalk.
    â€œDon’t get me wrong,” Cass said. “I was grateful to have an experienced short-order cook.”
    Sully frowned. Another surprise. “I didn’t know he had any experience.”
    â€œHell, yes,” Cass said. “He can make an egg, even if he can’t make conversation.”
    Sully nodded. “It’s surprising how many things he
can
do.” Apparently he’d laid the hardwood floor at Carl’s camp all by himself.
    Cass offered him a knowing grin. “I didn’t mean to suggest you shouldn’t be a proud papa.” Somewhere along the line she’d stopped crying, though her cheeks were dry-streaked now. “He just doesn’t have his old man’s ability to make people feel better, that’s all.”
    Sully decided to take this compliment in the spirit it was offered, though he doubted making people feel good was much of a talent. More tellingly, he understood that the mechanism behind making people feel good was providing them with an object lesson that things could be worse. That was the principal benefit in having Rub around, for instance.
    Cass caught the attention of one of the anxious funeral home employees and indicated that they could come close the casket again, and together she and Sully turned away. They heard Carl Roebuck say to Wirf and the others, “Okay, girls, we’re on,” and Peter rose from his chair in the rear of the room. “I can see why all the women go for him, I guess,” Cass admitted. “He’s handsome enough.”
    All what women? Sully wondered. “Just like his father,” Sully offered.
    â€œRight,” Cass agreed. “Only handsome, like I said.”
    Sully joined the other men at the casket.
    â€œIs the professor going to help, or what?” Carl Roebuck wondered. Actually, Peter was making his way leisurely toward them. When he arrived, he took the place left for him at the head of Hattie’s casket. “Let’s put the one-legged lawyer and Sullivan Senior in the middle so we don’t lose them,” Carl Roebuck suggested.
    Otis was the only one who didn’t crack a smile at this. In fact, as he was staring at old Hattie’s closed casket his lip began to quiver and he began to squeak.
    â€œDamn, Otis,” Carl Roebuck said. “Quit that.”
    â€œI can’t help it,” Otis