Read Online Sailor & Lula by Barry Gifford - Free Book Online

That might be way too slow? And you’d feel your ribs crackin’ and insides oozin’ out. I’d rather get grabbed sudden and pulled apart quick by a real powerful animal.”
    â€œLula, sometimes I gotta admit you come up with some weird thoughts.”
    â€œAnythin’ interestin’ in the world come out of somebody’s weird thoughts, Sailor. Couldn’t have been no simple soul dreamed up voodoo, for an instance.”
    â€œVoodoo?”
    â€œSure. How else you explain stickin’ pins in dolls to make a person squirm or have a heart attack? Or cookin’ someone’s fingernail clippin’s to make ’em vomit till they ain’t got nothin’ left inside and drop dead. You tell me, Sailor, who could come up with shit like that ain’t super weird?”
    â€œYou got me, peanut.”
    â€œYou certain?”
    â€œI ain’t never met anyone come close to you, sugar.”
    Lula rolled over on top of Sailor.
    â€œTake a bite of Lula,” she said.

SAILOR’S DREAM
    â€œHe’s here,” said Lula. “Johnnie Farragut? I seen him.”
    â€œWhere?” asked Sailor.
    â€œOver at the Cafe du Monde. He was sittin’ at a table outside, eatin’ doughnuts.”
    â€œHe see you?”
    â€œI don’t think so. I was comin’ out of the praline shop across the street? And I spotted him and come right back here to the hotel. I guess this means we’d best scoot, huh, Sailor?”
    â€œI s’pose, sugar. Come sit next to me a minute.”
    Lula set her box of pralines on the dresser and sat down on the bed by Sailor.
    â€œWe’ll be okay, honey. I’ll go down do a oil change and we’ll hit it.”
    â€œSailor?”
    â€œUh huh?”
    â€œRecall the time we was sittin’ one night behind the Confederate soldier? Leanin’ against it. And you took my hand and put it on your heart and you said, ‘You feel it beatin’ in there Lula get used to it ’cause it belongs to you now.’ D’you recall that?”
    â€œI do.”
    Lula put her head down in Sailor’s lap and he stroked her smooth black hair.
    â€œI was hopin’ you would. I know that night by heart. Sometimes, honey? I think it’s the best night of my life. Really.”
    â€œWe didn’t do nothin’ special I can remember. Just talked, is all.”
    â€œTalkin’s good. Long as you got the other? I’m a big believer in talkin’, case you ain’t noticed.”
    â€œI had a dream while you were gone,” said Sailor. “It’s strange, but when I was up at Pee Dee I didn’t hardly dream. Maybe a couple or three times, and then nothin’ I could remember. About girls, I guess, like ever’body is in.”
    â€œYou remember this one?”
    â€œReal clear. It wasn’t no fun, Lula. I was in a big city, like New York,
though you know I ain’t never been there. It was winter, with ice and snow all over. I was stayin’ in some little ol’ rathole with my mama. She was real sick and I had to score some medicine for her, only I didn’t have no money. But I told her anyway I’d go get the pills she needed. So I was out in the streets and there was about ten million people comin’ and goin’ in all directions, and it was impossible for me to keep walkin’ straight, to get to wherever it was I was goin’. The wind was blowin’ super hard and I wasn’t dressed warm. Only instead of freezin’, I was sweatin’, sweatin’ strong. The water was rollin’ off me. And I was dirty, too, like I hadn’t had no bath in a long time, so the sweat was black almost.”
    â€œBoy, sweetie, this is weird okay.”
    â€œI know. I kept walkin’, even though I didn’t have no money for the medicine or a good idea of where to go. People kept pushin’ me and knockin’ into me, and they was all dressed