way they don’t know if I’m busy being passed out in there or what.
“I took a couple of beers with me, hell, it’s about three miles to the beer store. And it was hot as a fresh-fucked fox in a forest fire. I was about out of beer and ice both. Aw hell they told me in the Philippines that they could operate on my head, but it was a chance they might damage me. I didn’t want to take the chance. I’m on hundred percent disability anyway. That’s what I live off of. I just put up with these spells when I have them and wake up later. I wish to hell I knew what happened this time.
“I went around behind the house and looked in her window. I couldn’t tell if she was asleep or not. It was dark in there. I’ve tried to take care of her. Hell, I know it hurts her to not see me, but it hurts her to see me, too. So I just stay in my room a lot. I’ve got plenty to do.
“Night’s about the only time I go out. It’s better for me to move around then. I walk on the side of the road so if I pass out some son of a bitch won’t come along and runover me in the middle of the road thinking I’m a goddamn dog or something.
“It’s kind of nice not to have to work. It’s nice to have that check coming in every month. I keep myself entertained. That’s about all I do. I guess I was wasting my life until I met her. She’ll probably be here later on. Probably just any time. She hasn’t met my family yet. She’ll come see about me when she finds out where I am. Ill introduce you to her when she gets up here. She’s got a car. She can carry me home.
“What it was, she was working in this store I always go to. And it was like close to midnight when I left the house. I took this shortcut down through this old dry creek, Moore Creek. That’s where we were parked when I had this fit, I reckon. Or whatever I had. That’s the last thing I remember. We pulled down in there so nobody would see us. People go down there and fuck all the time. It’s a perfect place. The road’s not open anymore. The bridge caved in and they never built it back when they built the new road. They just took that curve out of it.”
I remember when it was all gravel. We walked everywhere we went. And later on carrying Max. That was while Daddy was still gone. A few days we hired out to Doyle Edwards to chop cotton and make a little money. Four dollars a day. He didn’t want to pay me four because he said I was too little. And she told him to go up to our place and look and see if there was any grass in our cotton. Bad the way a man, some men, anyway, will try totake advantage of a woman when her man’s not around. Couldn’t leave Max with anybody. There wasn’t anybody to leave him with. Had to leave him on a blanket in the shade by the creek at the end of the rows.
All day long in that sun. Swinging a hoe. For four dollars. To get something to eat. God.
H e was talking and I was just looking at him. I kept looking at them scratches on his face. Wondered who put them there. And if he even knowed they was there.
He kept talking about this girl, this girl, and I thought, Man, where you gonna find a woman that would mess with you? Cause I mean his face was messed up big time. Just scar tissue. Places he had hair and places wasn’t no hair. Skin grafts. Aw he had a piece of a face but it wasn’t a real face. Them guys I guess do the best they can with what they got to work with. And he’d done said himself they’d do some more if he’d let them. I guess he’d donebeen in and out of VA hospitals so much he didn’t want to see another one.
I guess that was why he never did ask where he was. I guess he figured it didn’t make no difference.
“S o anyhow I walked on over to the store and drank a beer on the way. I knew it was getting late. They’re not supposed to sell beer after midnight. But I went to high school with this old boy who owns it. He always lets me have it. Well I got over there and he wasn’t there. And it was almost
“I took a couple of beers with me, hell, it’s about three miles to the beer store. And it was hot as a fresh-fucked fox in a forest fire. I was about out of beer and ice both. Aw hell they told me in the Philippines that they could operate on my head, but it was a chance they might damage me. I didn’t want to take the chance. I’m on hundred percent disability anyway. That’s what I live off of. I just put up with these spells when I have them and wake up later. I wish to hell I knew what happened this time.
“I went around behind the house and looked in her window. I couldn’t tell if she was asleep or not. It was dark in there. I’ve tried to take care of her. Hell, I know it hurts her to not see me, but it hurts her to see me, too. So I just stay in my room a lot. I’ve got plenty to do.
“Night’s about the only time I go out. It’s better for me to move around then. I walk on the side of the road so if I pass out some son of a bitch won’t come along and runover me in the middle of the road thinking I’m a goddamn dog or something.
“It’s kind of nice not to have to work. It’s nice to have that check coming in every month. I keep myself entertained. That’s about all I do. I guess I was wasting my life until I met her. She’ll probably be here later on. Probably just any time. She hasn’t met my family yet. She’ll come see about me when she finds out where I am. Ill introduce you to her when she gets up here. She’s got a car. She can carry me home.
“What it was, she was working in this store I always go to. And it was like close to midnight when I left the house. I took this shortcut down through this old dry creek, Moore Creek. That’s where we were parked when I had this fit, I reckon. Or whatever I had. That’s the last thing I remember. We pulled down in there so nobody would see us. People go down there and fuck all the time. It’s a perfect place. The road’s not open anymore. The bridge caved in and they never built it back when they built the new road. They just took that curve out of it.”
I remember when it was all gravel. We walked everywhere we went. And later on carrying Max. That was while Daddy was still gone. A few days we hired out to Doyle Edwards to chop cotton and make a little money. Four dollars a day. He didn’t want to pay me four because he said I was too little. And she told him to go up to our place and look and see if there was any grass in our cotton. Bad the way a man, some men, anyway, will try totake advantage of a woman when her man’s not around. Couldn’t leave Max with anybody. There wasn’t anybody to leave him with. Had to leave him on a blanket in the shade by the creek at the end of the rows.
All day long in that sun. Swinging a hoe. For four dollars. To get something to eat. God.
H e was talking and I was just looking at him. I kept looking at them scratches on his face. Wondered who put them there. And if he even knowed they was there.
He kept talking about this girl, this girl, and I thought, Man, where you gonna find a woman that would mess with you? Cause I mean his face was messed up big time. Just scar tissue. Places he had hair and places wasn’t no hair. Skin grafts. Aw he had a piece of a face but it wasn’t a real face. Them guys I guess do the best they can with what they got to work with. And he’d done said himself they’d do some more if he’d let them. I guess he’d donebeen in and out of VA hospitals so much he didn’t want to see another one.
I guess that was why he never did ask where he was. I guess he figured it didn’t make no difference.
“S o anyhow I walked on over to the store and drank a beer on the way. I knew it was getting late. They’re not supposed to sell beer after midnight. But I went to high school with this old boy who owns it. He always lets me have it. Well I got over there and he wasn’t there. And it was almost
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