There’s some kind of clue in the way she treats Nelson. She as good as ignores him, doesn’t offer him toys or hug him, just says, ‘Hello, Nelson,’ with a little nod, her glasses snapping into white circles. After Mrs Springer’s warmth this coolness seems brutal. Nelson feels it and acts hushed and frightened and leans against his father’s legs. Now Rabbit doesn’t know what’s eating his mother but she certainly shouldn’t take it out on a two-year-old kid. He never heard of a grandmother acting this way. It’s true, just the poor kid’s being there keeps them from having the kind of conversation they used to have, where his mother tells him something pretty funny that happened in the neighbourhood and they go on to talk about him, the way he used to be as a kid, how he dribbled the basketball all afternoon until after dark and was always looking after Mim. Nelson’s being half Springer seems to kill all that. For a moment he stops liking his mother; it takes insanity to snub a tiny kid that just learned to talk.