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Show 2-2 clung to my uncle for a moment, his arms tight around the slim body, his head buried in John's shirt. Everyone stood back a moment and then swarmed about my father. My cousins, Frances and Charlie, braver than I, hung on my father's arm and asked him all the questions I thought impertinent. I watched them, still holding the jacket and the flowers, wanting to run and wrap my arms about my father's legs. Finally, everyone moved up to the porch, John carrying the bag, my grandmother now clinging to my father's arm. Grandfather noticed me by the car. "Are you coming, Annie?" "Yes." I fumbled with the car door, trying to close it without trapping the coat or crushing the flowers. "He has changed, hasn't he? Oh, come now, give it a little time and quick as a train, he'll be your dad again." He stooped and gathered me, flowers, coat and all into his arms. "Come, Annie, let's join the party. He'll be looking for you." Inside the house, all was confusion. My dog, Fidelio, pranced about my father's feet; my cousins stampeded the kitchen where Cordelia Bodelia, Aunt Felicia's housekeeper, was washing the strawberries; John tried to light the fireplace while Grandmother fretted that it was too warm for a fire. Father stood in the middle of it all, Mother beside him, looking around the living room, from the piano in the alcove, to the stairs arching into shadows. "I'm home," he announced finally and turning to my mother, kissed her. John whooped, my cousins cheered, my grandfather kissed my grandmother, and Fidelio found me where I sat on the bottom step, still holding the daffodils. He licked my cheek and patted me with his tail. After the first burst of hilarity, some of my own uneasiness seemed to rub |