until I can save up enough
for a little place. Food. Diapers.”
I smile. “Miscellaneous.”
Yeah, well, if you ever need help
hooking up with that, give me
a buzz. You know where to find me.
All the Way to Stockton
And it was right here,
practically under my
nose (ha-ha) all the time?
As I start out the door,
the slot machine freak lights
a cigarette. Now, I haven’t
indulged that habit in quite
a while either. I quit when I
was pregnant—figured I
was eighty-sixing one bad habit,
why not lose that one too?
But meth and nicotine buddy up
real fine. The smell of fresh-
lit tobacco sucks me right up
tight against Slot Man.
“Could I bum one of those?”
I’m flat out of cash at
the moment, and still under
eighteen. Grady might
stroke me by pretending
he doesn’t know my age,
but the cameras are rolling
and stings for selling booze