Rodney

The youngest of three children and the narrator's uncle, Rodney commits theft, fraud, and embezzlement. He is also a persistent philanderer. Rodney manages the latter "business" by manipulating his nephew, Georgie, with promises of future monetary rewards. "By God," he tells Georgie, "some day you will be as good a businessman as I am" (280). Rodney's instructions to the seven-year-old regarding his most recent "business" are quite explicit: "Start at the corner of the house and count three windows. Then throw the handful of gravel against the window. Then when the window opens - never mind who it will be, you won't know anyway - just say who you are and then say 'He will be at the corner with the buggy in ten minutes. Bring the jewelry'" (281). In the end, Rodney is "wrapped in a quilt" like "a side of beef," as one of the men who kills him puts it (286). When Georgie naively asks if the "bundle" is "a Christmas present," this same man says yes, "From all the husbands in Mottstown" (286).