“Here.”
“Don’t do that.”
“You’re a little boy.”
“Where is Elgin?”
“I don’t know. Stop asking me,” she said.
“I feel raw inside.”
“I can’t do anything for you unless you want snow.”
“Give it to me.”
“You said you didn’t want it.”
“Let me have it.”
She walked naked to the dresser. She took a white packet from the bottom of a drawer and came back to the bed. She untwisted the paper at one end.
“Hold out your hand,” she said.
She shook a small amount of white powder into his palm.
“Put it under your tongue and let it soak into your mouth. Try not to swallow any of it. It won’t do as much good and it might make you sick.”
“I don’t have to stay on it. I can go back to Benze drine.”
“You have to take stronger stuff.”
“You don’t get hooked by just using it once.”
“The habit grows. Big boys use big stuff.”
“There’s cures.”
“Not for us.”
“They have treatments to let you down easy.”
“It’s getting to you already. I can see it in your eyes.”
“There’s a place in Kentucky.”
“That’s a dream. There’s not anyplace for me and you.
“I feel flat. Everything is lazy and flat.”
“Close your eyes and let it slip over you. It makes you have nice dreams.”
“Why is everything flat? You and the room are flat,” he said.
“You’re sleepy and far away, and nobody bothers you. It’s like laying out in the snow, except it’s warm and nice.”
“A hospital in Lexington. I was up by the Kentucky line. It started to snow.”
“You’re far away.”