Mrs. Amable stopped her chuckles first and gave a sweeping glance over Max's body. "Oh, my word, I nearly forgot. Dear child, I have just the thing for you—wait right here." She left the kitchen and went into the den.

"Your mother is very strange," Max whispered to her guardian. "I'm almost glad I do not have one. Why does she speak French?"

Josephine giggled as she tried to stifle the mouth of the nine year old.

"Here it is!" Josephine's mother returned with a smallish blue velvet box. "I grabbed this just as I was leaving, thinking any child with you would need some sort of protection like this. I originally was saving this for Allegra once she reached confirmation in three years, but I can always get another one. Dear Max, wear it well." She pressed the blue box into Max's hand, who gripped it tightly. "Until now I completely forgot I had it with me! Dear me, dear me, I'm getting along in my old age!" Mrs. Amable laughed.

Max opened the small blue box and saw a small gold T lying on white silk. She looked at it, confused.

"Mother…that's unnecessary," Josephine said, taking the box away from Max. "Take it back."

"What was it?" Max asked, looking up at Josephine.

"A cross," Josephine said through gritted teeth. "A gold cross necklace. Take it back, Mother. Give it to Allegra. I cannot believe you had the gall to give her this!" She thrust the box into her mother's hands.

"Josephine!" Mrs. Amable glared at her daughter. "Every young lady should have a nice piece of jewelry."

"So get the girl a watch or a bracelet, Mother. Not a gold cross. She could be Jewish or Buddhist for all we know, and you give her a cross? I used to think you were crazy, Mother, but now I think I might have to have you committed!"

"Committed to what?" Max asked, snatching the box from Mrs. Amable to peer at the cross again.

"Not now, Max," Josephine said. "Go into the living room please, while I finish yelling at my mother."

Holding the blue box in her cupped hand, no one noticed she was holding it. She went into her bedroom, closed the door and sat cross-legged on the bed. She opened the box and stared at the cross. Why was Jo so mad? It was sort of pretty. What was wrong with it? Max liked it and wished she could keep it.

"Max, you little elf," Josephine called. "Where'd you go?"

"I'm in my room!" Max called back.

"Where's the necklace? Do you have it?"

"No!" She lifted the side of the mattress and stuffed the blue box underneath it, between the mattress and the bedsprings.

"You're lying again. Do you want me to come in there and strip-search your room?"

"No!"

"I swear to God, Max—"

"Josephine!"

"Mother, SHUT UP! Max, I swear I'll come in there and give you a cavity search. I'll give you castor oil til you—"

"Josephine!"

"Mother, SHUT UP!"

"I don't have it!" Max was on the verge of a whine.

"Max!" Jo stomped into the room. "Give Mother the necklace."

"I don't have it," Max pouted.

"Max! For the love of all things bloody sacred—" Jo slapped her forehead with her palm. "I will not get mad. I will not get mad. I will not smack you upside the head. I will not call DYFS on myself…"

"Who's 'Dyfuss'?"

"…I will not go Mommie Dearest on your skinny behind…"

"Your Mommie Dearest is right behind you."

"Josephine?" Mrs. Amable sighed. "Where's the necklace? I'll take it back."

"I don't have it," Josephine said.

"I don't have it," parroted Max. "You must have lost it yourself."

"Max!" Josephine hissed.

"You must be getting along in your old age," Max smiled sweetly.

Oh, dear God in Heaven, Josephine cringed. I knew she'd say something like that.

"Well!" Mrs. Amable pulled her shoulders back as if she'd been slapped. "Josephine, while this girl is here, you ought to teach her some manners."

"She has manners, Mother. You don't."

"Well, I never!"

A few more nasty words were shot back and forth between mother and daughter until in the end, Josephine kicked her own mother out.

"I'll mail the damn necklace to you…if I ever find it!" she yelled as Mrs. Amable drove away.

"Why is your mother mad?" Max asked after Mrs. Amable had been gone for nearly an hour.

"Because she wanted to control you like she controlled me." Josephine sank into the couch. Samantha the cat curled up in her lap and purred contentedly.

"Why?" Max sat next to Jo and rubbed Samantha between the ears. Samantha in return licked the palm of Max's hand, her sandpaper tongue tickling.

"I don't know."

"I liked the cross."

"I would prefer if you didn't wear stuff like that. You sure you didn't take it?"

"Yes. How come I can't wear it?"

"Because. What my mother did was rude. Crosses are very personal."

"Why?"

"I don't know. They just are."

"I liked the sparkle. It was nice."

"Maybe when you grow up you can get your own cross…or whatever religion you turn out to be."

Samantha crawled off of Josephine's lap and settled into Max's. "Jo? What are you?" Max asked.

"Me? Catholic. Well, I was raised Catholic. Right now, I'm Catholic in the same sense that if a cow is born in a tree, it's a bird."

"Is it good?"

"Is what good?"

"Being Catholic."

"I don't know."

"For an adult, you don't know a whole lot."

"You've got quite a mouth, don't you?"

Max shrugged. She did have a mouth, but why Jo had to reiterate the fact she did was lost on her. "Do I have to be Catholic?"

"Egad, no," Josephine said, getting up from the couch. "I'd be perfectly happy if you were Atheist right now. Have you seen Lex?"

"What's Atheist?"

"It's when you don't believe in God. Did you let Lex out, Max?"

"What's God?"

Josephine sighed, gave up hunting for her boxer dog and sat back down on the couch, "Remember your Blue Lady?"

"Yes."

"The Blue Lady's son was named Jesus. Jesus' father was God. God is…" Josephine pursed her lips. "You know what, Max? I don't think I should be talking about this. Everyone has different ideas of what God is. Hell, people go to war about it. Some say God's a woman, some say a man, some say God has no gender."

Max was very confused. People went to war over this?

Josephine reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a few tablets she knew she'd be needing after her mother left: a few Advils. She popped them into her mouth and swallowed them dry. "It's just as George Carlin said: God is the leading cause of death. In my opinion, wars about God is just like a bunch of toddlers fighting over who has the better imaginary friend."