The Late Child by Larry McMurtry

to mention letting him watch too much weird TV.
    Later, after Eddie had gone to bed, Harmony wanted Neddie to read the letter from New York; she decided it was time to try and absorb a little more information about Pepper’s death—how Pepper got AIDS, if anyone knew, and where her ashes were now, and what procedures needed to be followed in the next few days. She was also curious about who Laurie was, the kind of person who had written the letter. Harmony had the feeling that someday she would maybe want to go meet Laurie and try to find out what Pepper’s last years had been like.
    But when Neddie went upstairs to get the letter she discovered that Pat apparently still had it in her purse, and now Pat had left on a date with Wendell.
    â€œI guess we’ll just have to wait till your friend brings her home—if he does,” Neddie said.
    â€œWhat do you mean ‘if he does’?” Harmony asked. “It’s just a first date. They won’t do anything on their first date, will they?”
    Neddie didn’t answer. She had begun to smoke more lately, and she was smoking now.
    â€œIt was me he was supposed to have the date with, not Pat,” Harmony said. The fact that Pat had casually taken the letter off with her seemed to be just one more example of how inconsiderate her sister could be. She had not only taken the letter, she had also taken Wendell, who was Harmony’s admirer, if he was anyone’s.
    â€œIt wouldn’t hurt you to take Eddie to Sunday school once in a while,” Neddie said.
    â€œNeddie, I never got in the habit,” Harmony said, a little defensively. Mainly Eddie watched cartoons on Sunday morning, when Sunday school was happening.
    â€œHe’s just five,” Neddie pointed out. She didn’t know why she bothered, though—Harmony was never likely to take Eddie to Sunday school. “It wouldn’t hurt him to have another point of view and not just have his head totally filled with things he’s learned on TV.”
    Harmony couldn’t quite get her mind off the vexing problem of Wendell and Pat.
    â€œYou don’t think she’d do anything on the first date, particularly since it was supposed to be my date, do you?” she asked—she was beginning to feel a little insecure.
    â€œDo you know about Masters and Johnson, that couple in St. Louis?” Neddie asked. “They’re doctors.”
    The names sounded familiar but, tired as she was, Harmony couldn’t quite place them.
    â€œDo they have a talk show?” she asked.
    â€œNo, they’re them sex doctors that they send molesters to, and stuff,” Neddie said.
    â€œOh,” Harmony said. “What about them?”
    â€œYour sister’s been to see them three times,” Neddie said. “They’re trying to get her cured of sex addiction, but so far they ain’t had much luck.”
    â€œWhat?” Harmony asked. Her mind had been sort of switching channels, it had just switched back to the Pepper channel; thefact that Pepper was dead just wouldn’t go away, not for long—it kept returning, to weigh down her mind and her heart. She didn’t understand what Neddie was getting at, when she mentioned Pat and the sex doctors in St. Louis.
    â€œShe’s been there three times for sex addiction,” Neddie repeated, in her flat voice.
    â€œPat’s got sex addiction?” Harmony said—that was certainly a channel-switching piece of information.
    â€œYep,” Neddie said. “It’s the talk of Tarwater, and has been for years. Masters and Johnson thought they could get her calmed down, but they ain’t having no luck. If you ask me, Pat’s more revved up than ever.”
    â€œOh, my God,” Harmony said—it had never occurred to her that anyone could be a sex addict, much less one of her own sisters. Though, thinking back, she could imagine that maybe sex addiction was what