He chuckled. “You sure?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind.”
He waved me toward the house. “Be my guest but I have to warn you, she expects to be read to before she falls asleep.”
“I can read,” I said jokingly. “Even made it through college.”
“So I heard.”
“From whom?” I asked.
“I have my little spies. At least one of your relatives felt some compassion for me. I even have your graduation pictures from high school and college and copies of the ceremony programs.”
“Who gave them to you?” I kept prodding.
“I’ll never tell. In case you disappear again, I need to know how to keep up with your life.”
I touched him on the arm. “I won’t disappear again, Daddy. I promise.”
I spotted a tear forming in his left eye but he swiped it away before it could land on his cheek.
We didn’t say anything else; I just went into the house to find Flower.
She was in her room watching a rerun of Sister, Sister on the Disney channel on a thirteen-inch television. She had on a black Barbie nightgown and a pair of pink slippers. I pulled the slippers off her feet and tucked her into bed.
“You don’t mind if I put you to bed, do you?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Nope. Can you read me a book?”
I giggled. “Ha, how did I know you would say that?”
She wasn’t a stupid child. “Because Daddy told you I would say it.”
“Okay, you got me. I looked around her room, which was the only room in the house that looked like a woman had something to do with it. There were pink sheer curtains, posters of teddy bears in ballerina outfits hanging on the walls, and a few stuffed animals strewn about. “Where do you keep your books?”
Flower pointed to a toy box by the window. I got up and walked over to it.
“Any particular one you want me to read to you?”
“Hmm, how about Isra the Butterfly Gets Caught for Show and Tell?”
I went through the toy box and located the book by Christine Young-Robinson. After turning off Flower’s television, I sat down beside her on the bed and started reading the book. She was asleep within minutes. I sat there for a while and just stared at her. I thought about my childhood and how confusing it was. My blackouts, all the accusations, all the teasing and bullying.
I started crying and looked up at the ceiling. “Dear God, please guard this child and don’t let her go through the things I went through.”
I pulled myself together and I was about to go back out on the porch to check on Daddy. But, when I passed his room, I heard snoring. I peeked in on him and he was fast asleep. It had truly been a long day and the serious discussion I needed to have with him could wait.
24
jude
I couldn’t believe she actually went through with it; going to see Henry fuckin’ Pierce. And trying to actually bond with the motherfucker at that. I thought about doing something really foul like climbing into the bed with him buck-ass naked to make the two of them think they had actually fucked each other the next morning. Only one thing saved Jon and the bastard. Flower was in the house. She was a cute little something.
Nevertheless, I needed to seriously blow off some steam, so after Henry and Flower were fast asleep, I located the keys to his Ford Ranger, the only vehicle he had except for his tow truck.
I headed into town, what there was of it, hunting for some action. I stopped by a twenty-four-hour convenience store and there were some lowlifes hanging out front drinking forties of beer. I asked them about the local night life and they all started laughing.
One of them finally told me about a “juke joint” called The Crystal Palace. His friends all looked at him like he was tripping. I should have suspected he was up to no good. The Crystal Palace was down a dark dirt road and I knew something was wrong when I pulled up beside a pickup truck that had Redneck’s Toy fancily painted across the back of the bed.