Carolina Moon

stopped wondering, stopped thinking, blocked everything out but the mechanical chore of heating water and hacking a spoon at coffee grains gone to brown concrete in a little glass jar.
    The milk was sour, and there was no sugar to be found. She carried two mugs of dismal-looking liquid back to the living room. Her stomach would have rejected even the appearance of drinking.
    “That woman,” Sarabeth was saying. “She tried to lure my Han. She played on his weaknesses, tempted him. But he resisted. He told me all about it. I don’t know where she got herself beat up, probably some pervert she sold herself to, but she said it was Han to pay him back for refusing her. That’s what happened.”
    “All right, Sari.” J.R. sat on the sofa beside her, patted her hand. “We won’t worry about that part of it right now, okay? Do you have any notion, any notion at all where Han might go?”
    “No!” She shouted it, jerking away from him and nearly upending the coffee Tory put on the table. “You think I wouldn’t go to him if I knew? A woman cleaves to her husband. I told the cops the same thing. Told them just what I’m telling you. I don’t expect a bunch of corrupt, godforsaken cops to take my word, but I’d think my own flesh and blood would believe me.”
    “I do. ‘Course I do.” He picked up a mug of coffee and gently pushed it into her hands. “I just thought maybe something occurred to you, that maybe you remembered a couple of places that he went when he went off before.”
    “It’s not like he went off.” Sarabeth’s lips trembled as she sipped. “He just needs to get away and think sometimes is all. Men got a lot of pressure, providing. And sometimes, Han, he just needs to be off by himself, to think things through, to pray on them. But he’s been gone too long now. I’m thinking maybe he’s hurt.”
    Tears spurted into her eyes again. “That woman lying about him, getting him in all that trouble, it was weighing heavy on his mind. Now the police are talking like he’s a fugitive. They just don’t understand.”
    “Was he going to the alcohol rehab program?”
    “I guess he was.” She sniffed. “Han didn’t need no program. He wasn’t a drunk. Just now and then he took a bit to relax. Jesus drank wine, didn’t he?”
    Jesus, Tory thought, hadn’t made a habit of downing the best part of a bottle of Wild Turkey and stomping hell out of the womenfolk. But her mother wouldn’t see the difference.
    “They’re always on his back at work, you know, pushing at him ‘cause they know he’s smarter than they are. And the chickens cost more to keep than we figured. That bastard down at the feed and grain raised his prices so he can keep his on-the-side chickie in perfume. Han told me how it was.”
    “Honey, you have to face the fact that by leaving this way, Han broke his probation. He broke the law.”
    “Well, the law’s wrong. What am I going to do, J.R.? I’m just frantic over it. And everybody’s wanting money, and there’s nothing coming in except what I get for eggs. I’ve been to the bank, but those thieving, sneaking liars took what we got in there and said how Han withdrew the funds. Withdrew the funds, they said, with their prissy lying mouths.”
    “I’ll take care of the bills.” He had done so before. “You don’t worry about that. Here’s what I think we should do. I think you should get some things together and come on home with me. You can stay with me and Boots until everything’s straightened out.”
    “I can’t leave. Han could come back any minute.”
    “You can leave him a note.”
    “That’d just make him mad.” Her eyes began to dart around, wary birds looking for a safe place to light, away from her husband’s righteous fury. “A man’s got a right to expect his wife to be home when he gets there. For her to be waiting under the roof he puts over her head.”
    “Your roof has holes in it, Mama,” Tory said quietly, and earned a searing whip of a stare.
    “Nothing was ever good enough for you, was it? No matter how hard your daddy worked and I sweated, it was never fine enough. Always wanting more.”
    “I never asked for more.”
    “You were smart enough not to say it out loud. But I saw it, saw it in your eyes. Sneaky’s what you were, sneaky and sly,” Sarabeth said, with a violent twist of her mouth. “And didn’t you run off first chance you got, never looked back, either, never honored your father and mother. You were