outside the back door.“May I be excused?” he asked his father.Buddy grimaced. “Isn’t that kid old enough to knock on the door like a decent human being?”At this point Hauser shouted again, and Ralph said: “I’d better go out there or he’ll keep yelling.”“You tell him to knock on the door from now on. I don’t want to hear any more hog-calling outside my house.”Naomi smiled at this turn of speech. For Sunday dinner they sat at the round table in the dining room. Concealed by the mashed-potato bowl was a burn hole in the white tablecloth, made by a fallen candle some years before at the last Christmas get-together of the relatives prior to the death of Ralph’s remaining grandma, Naomi’s mother.Ralph took his dirty dish and glass to the kitchen and went out the other exit. Hauser howled once again before he reached the door.“Who let you out of your cage?” Ralph said, descending the back steps.Hauser said coldly: “C’mere.” He walked over by the garage and turned to confront the attendant Ralph.
