Read Online Nina, the Bandit Queen by Joey Slinger - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Joey Slinger
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things she was starting to discover about her own capabilities. She was so wrapped up in working out all the implications that she sat on the porch for ages the next morning, her legs dangling over the side, and didn’t even notice the ice cream truck rolling toward her.
“Cassie,” it was blaring, “you didn’t buy that Marshmallow Whizzard we had for you yesterday. That makes us very, very sad, because we made it for you and nobody else. You don’t really want us to be sad, do you Cassie?”
And, “Leo Lee Roy, you told us yesterday you didn’t have any money to pay for your Mount Ever-Ice. And we told you to go and talk to your mama and tell her how embarrassed you would be when everybody on the street finds out why she’s too cheap to buy you a treat. Here, we brought a brand-new one for you today. We sure hope you’re ready this time.”
And, “Trafford? We don’t see you. Are you hiding, Trafford? Get out here and get this Devil’s Frost-D-Lite. You don’t want us to take your name off our list, do you? If we do that you’ll never be able to get back on it. You’ll be gone forever.”
She didn’t even look up when her girls came out to watch heaven on wheels go rolling by. Not even when Merlina said “Mom?” — which was something the others urged her to do every time the truck came along, because she had a gift for saying it in a way that made Nina feel like the most useless mother who ever lived, so useless it was hard to understand why the authorities didn’t put her children out for adoption.
This time Nina didn’t even hear her. It was because that way-down-deep-inside-her spirit that had guided her into the ice cream company parking lot — and had led her, she now finally realized, to do what she’d done in the confrontation with the ice cream truck in front of her house — it was because that same spirit that made her breath get so short and her skin tingle like her nerves were full of static electricity was speaking to her again, only with a whole lot more determination than it had those other times.
“That fuckin’ moron,” the spirit was saying, referring to her brother Frank Carson. “That fuckin’ moron could never rob a bank.”
Then it paused. And cleared its throat to make sure it had her undivided attention. And when it saw she was listening with every single part of her body, it said, very pointedly, “But I could.”
Eight
There were things about Frank Carson’s plan to rob a bank that, if Nina had known them, would have made her think twice about her own. As it was, she hardly even thought about it once.
Unless you count the conversation she had with JannaRose after JannaRose casually mentioned that she’d always thought Nina was opposed to stealing. Nina asked whatever had given her that idea, and JannaRose said it was based on everything she’d ever heard her say. This forced Nina to come up with a revised ethical position on the spot.
“Okay. When you steal something, you have it, and the person that originally had it doesn’t,” was how it began, and it could be it had a few rough edges, because it was put together on such short notice.
“Of course they don’t have it,” JannaRose said. “You stole it from them. What the fuck are you talking about?”
“What you should do,” Nina continued, “is shut up and let me finish. My point isn’t who doesn’t have it. My point is, let’s say for instance there’s just one of whatever it is — the one you have that the other person doesn’t have any more, meaning the one that the other person had. That now they don’t.”
“I don’t fuckin’ believe this,” JannaRose said.
“But with banks it’s different,” Nina said. “That’s because of bank insurance. When you steal money from a bank, the bank insurance pays it back right away. So it isn’t stealing in the way people think of usually, where what was somebody’s once is suddenly somebody else’s. Now,” she said, “it’s more
“Cassie,” it was blaring, “you didn’t buy that Marshmallow Whizzard we had for you yesterday. That makes us very, very sad, because we made it for you and nobody else. You don’t really want us to be sad, do you Cassie?”
And, “Leo Lee Roy, you told us yesterday you didn’t have any money to pay for your Mount Ever-Ice. And we told you to go and talk to your mama and tell her how embarrassed you would be when everybody on the street finds out why she’s too cheap to buy you a treat. Here, we brought a brand-new one for you today. We sure hope you’re ready this time.”
And, “Trafford? We don’t see you. Are you hiding, Trafford? Get out here and get this Devil’s Frost-D-Lite. You don’t want us to take your name off our list, do you? If we do that you’ll never be able to get back on it. You’ll be gone forever.”
She didn’t even look up when her girls came out to watch heaven on wheels go rolling by. Not even when Merlina said “Mom?” — which was something the others urged her to do every time the truck came along, because she had a gift for saying it in a way that made Nina feel like the most useless mother who ever lived, so useless it was hard to understand why the authorities didn’t put her children out for adoption.
This time Nina didn’t even hear her. It was because that way-down-deep-inside-her spirit that had guided her into the ice cream company parking lot — and had led her, she now finally realized, to do what she’d done in the confrontation with the ice cream truck in front of her house — it was because that same spirit that made her breath get so short and her skin tingle like her nerves were full of static electricity was speaking to her again, only with a whole lot more determination than it had those other times.
“That fuckin’ moron,” the spirit was saying, referring to her brother Frank Carson. “That fuckin’ moron could never rob a bank.”
Then it paused. And cleared its throat to make sure it had her undivided attention. And when it saw she was listening with every single part of her body, it said, very pointedly, “But I could.”
Eight
There were things about Frank Carson’s plan to rob a bank that, if Nina had known them, would have made her think twice about her own. As it was, she hardly even thought about it once.
Unless you count the conversation she had with JannaRose after JannaRose casually mentioned that she’d always thought Nina was opposed to stealing. Nina asked whatever had given her that idea, and JannaRose said it was based on everything she’d ever heard her say. This forced Nina to come up with a revised ethical position on the spot.
“Okay. When you steal something, you have it, and the person that originally had it doesn’t,” was how it began, and it could be it had a few rough edges, because it was put together on such short notice.
“Of course they don’t have it,” JannaRose said. “You stole it from them. What the fuck are you talking about?”
“What you should do,” Nina continued, “is shut up and let me finish. My point isn’t who doesn’t have it. My point is, let’s say for instance there’s just one of whatever it is — the one you have that the other person doesn’t have any more, meaning the one that the other person had. That now they don’t.”
“I don’t fuckin’ believe this,” JannaRose said.
“But with banks it’s different,” Nina said. “That’s because of bank insurance. When you steal money from a bank, the bank insurance pays it back right away. So it isn’t stealing in the way people think of usually, where what was somebody’s once is suddenly somebody else’s. Now,” she said, “it’s more
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