| Don't look
much like Minnesota, dere, Tom Riley had said
Looking at them made me want to draw again - it
was like a dry hunger, but not precisely in the
belly; it made my mind itchAnd, oddly, the stump
of my amputated arm
I heaved myself out of the chair on my second try,
glad the kid wasn't there to see the first
backward flop and hear my childish ("Cuntlicker!")
cry of exasperationOnce I was up I stood swaying
on my crutch for a moment, marveling at just how
tired I wasUsually "whipped" was just something
you said, but at that moment it was exactly how I
felt
Moving slowly - I had no intention of falling in
here on my first day - I made my way into the
master bedroomThe bed was a king, and I wanted
nothing more than to go to it, sit on it, sweep
the foolish decorative throw-pillows (one bearing
the likenessness of two cavorting Cockers and the
rather balenciaga replica handbags startling idea that MAYBE DOGS ARE ONLY
80
PEOPLE AT THEIR BEST) to the floor with my crutch,
lie down, and sleep for two hours
But first I went to the bench at the end of the
bed - still moving carefully, knowing how very
easy it would be to tangle my feet and fall when I
was at this level of exhaustion - where the kid
had stacked two of my three suitcasesThe one I
wanted was on the bottom, of courseI shoved the
one on top to the floor without hesitation and
unzipped the front pocket of the other
Glassy blue eyes looked out with their expression
of eternal disapproving surprise: Oouuu, you nasty
man! I been in here all this time! A fluff of
lifeless orange-red hair sprang from confinement
Reba the Anger-Management Doll in her best blue
dress and black Mary Janes
I lay on the bed with her crooked between my stump
and my sideWhen I had made an adequate space white leather prada handbags for
myself among the ornamental pillows (it was mostly
the cavorting Cockers I'd wanted on the floor), I
laid her beside me
"I forgot his name," I said"I remembered it the
whole way out here, then forgot it Reba looked
up at the ceiling, where the blades of the
81
overhead fan were still and unmovingI'd
forgotten to turn it onReba didn't care if my
new part-time hired man was Ike, Mike, or Andy Van
SlykeIt was all the same to her, she was just
rags stuffed into a pink body, probably by some
unhappy child laborer in Cambodia or ****ing
Uruguay
"What is it?" I asked herTired as I was, I could
feel the old dismal panic setting inThe old
dismal angerThe fear that this would go on for
the rest of my lifeOr get worse! Yes, possible!
They'd take me back into the convalescent home,
which was really just hell with a fresh coat of
paint
Reba didn't answer, that chanel purses boneless bitch
"I can do this," I said, although I didn't believe
itThen You're
thinking about Jerry Jeff Walker, assholeJohnson?
Gerald? Great Jumping Jehosaphat?
Starting to drift awayStarting to drift into
sleep in spite of the anger and panicTuning in
to the mild respiration of the Gulf
I can do this, I thoughtLike when
you remembered what B-and-C stood for
82
I thought of the kid saying They condemned a
couple beach houses at the north end of Casey Key
and there was something thereMy stump was
itching like a mad bastardBut pretend that's
some other guy's stump in some other universe,
meantime chase that thing, that rag, that bone,
that connection -
- drifting away -
Although if a big storm like Charley ever hits
this part of the coast dead-on -
And bingo
Charley was a hurricane, and when hurricanes
struck, I peeked at The Weather Channel, like ladies rolex for sale the
rest of America, and their hurricane guy wasShe seemed to weigh at least
twenty pounds in my soupy, half-asleep state"The
hurricane guy is Jim Cantore," I said"My helpout
guy is Jack Cantori I
flopped her back down and closed my eyesI might
have heard that faint sigh from the Gulf for
another ten or fifteen seconds
I slept until sundownIt was the deepest, most
satisfying sleep I'd had in eight months
83
v
I had done no more than nibble on the plane, and
consequently woke up ravenousI did a dozen heelslides
instead of the usual twenty-five to loosen
my hip, made a quick trip to the bathroom, then
lurched toward the kitchenI was leaning on my
crutch, but not as heavily as I might have
expected, given the length of my napMy plan was
to make myself a sandwich, maybe twoI hoped for
sliced bologna, but reckoned any lunchmeat I found
in the fridge would be cartier replica watch ladies santos 100 steel okay |