LITMIR.BIZ

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been watchin y’all,” she said, “you and that old lady. Y’all are fixin to go off somewhere in that car, ain’t you?”

      “What’s it to you?”

      “I want to go with you,” she said.

      “Shit, don’t even think about it.”

      “Listen here,” she said, coming closer to him. “I’ll be real good to you. I’ll suck your dick.”

      “There ain’t any way you’re comin with us, so you might as well get on home,” Lester Ray said. She was making it tempting, with her last proposition, though she was far from the sexiest girl he’d ever seen, with those buck teeth and that pale red hair. But he couldn’t take any risks. He couldn’t, and he wouldn’t at this point even if she was the sexiest girl he’d ever seen, because he was focused on finding his mother and he wanted nothing to distract him from it.

      “Listen, Lester Ray,” she said, coming even closer, “you got to hear me. I got to get away from him. He’s mean to me. Beats me. And he’s been fuckin me since I was six years old. Probably before that, only I can’t remember no further back than that.”

      “Fuckin you? His own daughter?”

      “Don’t make any difference to him. He’s a mean sumbitch, I’m tellin you.”

      He could smell her now, her unwashed body. The cruelty that a man could inflict on his own children still amazed him, in spite of all he’d seen and experienced in his life. His own daughter! And her a halfwit midget to boot.

      “Listen to me, V. M.,” Lester Ray said, “we ain’t got room . . .”

      “I ain’t got no bag or nothin,” she interjected.

      “ . . . and it’d be kidnappin. Your daddy would come lookin after us. Or send the law after us. We can’t have that.”

      “Please, Lester Ray,” she said. “Please! I got to get away!”

      “No, I said.”

      “Look here,” she said, holding something out toward him. “Look what I got.” It was a bottle in a wrinkled paper sack. He pulled it out. He couldn’t read the label, but he knew it was whiskey, and from the weight of it the bottle was full.

      “Who’s that out there in the yard,” came a voice from the back porch, from the deep shadows behind the wisteria. “Lester Ray?”

      “Yes, ma’am, it’s me,” he said.

      “That your wife with you?” Mrs. McCrory asked.

      “No, ma’am, it’s not,” Lester Ray said.

      The girl grabbed Lester Ray’s arm and he jerked it free. “Please,” she said, “just take me a little way down the road.”

      “No,” he said. He handed her back the bottle of whiskey.

      “You’d be savin my life, Lester Ray,” she said. “You would. Just like you was snatchin me from a fiery pit.”

      “I got to go,” he said. He left her standing in the yard. He knew she wouldn’t leave. He was softening toward her in spite of himself and against his better judgment. Maybe they could take her as far as Pensacola, and then she’d be on her own. If they did take her, she’d have to understand that.

      “Who you talkin to out there, then?” Mrs. McCrory said, when he came up on the porch, “if it’s not your wife.”

      “Some little dwarf girl,” he said. “She’s beggin to go with us.”

      “How’d she know we were goin anywhere? You didn’t tell her?”

      “No, ma’am,” he said, “she figured it out. It was her daddy fixed the car.”

      “Where’s her daddy now?” she asked.

      “I don’t know. Probably laid up drunk somewhere.” He paused a minute. “He beats her,” he said.

      “Well, let’s take her with us, then,” Mrs. McCrory said.

      “It’s risky,” Lester Ray said.

      “If she acts up and doesn’t behave, we’ll just put her out,” she said.

      “I wasn’t talkin about that. The more people we got, the more folks might come lookin for us.” He and Mrs. McCrory stood gazing out into the dark yard. They could barely make out the reddish form. “And she stinks to high heaven,” he said.

      “Well, bathe her.”

      “Her clothes are nasty,” he said.

      “Well, we’ll give her some of mine.”

      “One of your dresses wouldn’t even come close to fittin her,” he said, “she’s a lot shorter than you.”

      “You talk like she’s a midget or somethin.”

      “Yes, ma’am,” he said, “she is.” He looked at the girl out in the yard. She seemed pitiful and alone. A small, lost child. But she wasn’t a child. She was a woman. He walked back down onto the grass.

      “Y’all gonna take me with you?” she said anxiously.

      “We’re gonna take you as far as Pensacola. Then you’re on your own. Now you got to get that clear, all right?”

      “All right!” she said, and she tried to hug him, but she had the bottle in her hand and he skipped quickly away.

      “Come on,” he said, “we’re gonna bathe you.”

      “Bathe me? Why?”

      “Cause you stink.”

      “You gonna bathe me, honey?”

      “No.” She followed him up onto the porch.

      “Mrs. Mack,” he said, “this is Virgin Mary Duck.”

      “I’m pleased to meet you, Virgin,” Mrs. McCrory said. “I’m gonna get one of my dresses for you to put on. Come on this way.”

      “What’s wrong with my dress?” V. M. asked petulantly.

      “It’s dirty, child,” Mrs. McCrory said.

      V. M. followed Mrs. McCrory down the hall and into the bathroom. Mrs. McCrory turned on the hot water and the tub began to fill. “Is it a red dress?” Virgin Mary asked.

      “I don’t think I have a red one. Maybe a nice pink one.”

      “Shit. I don’t want no pink one.”

      “Well, a blue one, maybe. I’ll let you pick it out.” They stood there while the tub filled up. Why, this is just a child, Mrs. McCrory thought. Lester Ray wants to take along a child, running away from home. I reckon he knows what he’s doing. The girl pulled her dress over her head and tossed it into the corner. Mrs. McCrory was startled. The girl had breasts, and a big bush of bright reddish hair down there. It was like seeing a full growth of pubic hair on an eight-year-old, with breasts to match. And the girl wasn’t much more than three and a half feet tall. She had a nice figure, but she was unfortunately ugly in the face. Well, Mrs. McCrory thought, she’ll probably grow out of it. Well, hell, what am I thinking? The girl is grown.

      The girl climbed into the tub and sank into the water with a contented sigh.

      “She ain’t no little girl,” Mrs. Mack said, when she returned to the kitchen. Lester Ray was drinking a cup of instant coffee.

      “No, she’s not,” he said. “I told you, she’s a dwarf.”

      “I thought you meant just little.”

      “We’ll let her ride along as far as Pensacola, and then that’s it,” he said. “Whatever happens then, happens without her.”

      “Why does

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