hour later. 'Go on to bed. I'm all right by myself. Go
on. Get some rest," he ordered. "You got school
tomorrow."
I rose, kissed him on the cheek and went to bed.
I couldn't fall asleep. I kept hoping I'd hear Mama's
footsteps in the corridor and then the front door
opening, but an hour passed and then another and,
still, she wasn't home. This was going to be a very bad
night, I told myself. My stomach churned like a car
without fuel, grinding and dying repeatedly. I tossed
and turned and tried desperately to think of something
else, to sing myself to sleep. anything. Nothing
worked.
When the front door finally opened, it was
close to three in the morning. Mama didn't just come
in. either. It sounded like she fell in.
I sat up to listen and heard her muffled laugh.
She was very drunk. "What are you doing on the
floor. Lena?" I heard Daddy ask her.
She laughed and then she told him the heel
broke on her shoe. I could hear her struggle to her
feet, still giggling to herself.
"Where were you all this time. Lena?-"Out," she said. "Having a good time. Ever hear
of such a thing? Know what that is anymore? I doubt
it," she told him.
"Where were you?" he repeated.
"I said out," she snapped back at him. I heard him step forward and then I heard her
short scream.
I rose from bed and opened my door just
enough to see the two of them.