House of Blues

some crackpot theory or other.
    "Who do you think the woman is?"
    "Whoever he just dumped. How hard could that be
to find out?"
    Grady suddenly saw how
much mischief she could make if she took it into her head to do it.
"Mother," he began, "you've really got to cool your
heels."
    * * *
    Sugar drove back to Reed and Dennis's alone, stewing.
Grady wanted to write for a while.
    Write. Sure.
    The great artist was going to spend the evening
kidding himself as usual.
    How dare he try to talk me out of trying to find
out who killed my husband? If not me, then who?
    She was good at this—when her children were sick,
she always knew what was wrong with them before the doctor did. If
Grady cried a certain way, for instance, she knew he had an ear
infection. Being a mother was detective work—figuring things out.
    Who does he think he is, trying to lecture me? He
could never do anything right—Arthur always had to help him. And
now that he's grown up, he'll never amount to anything.
    Her mouth set in a hard line as she realized she was
for the first time facing the truth about her son: Grady was a
ne'er-do-well.
    I'll always have to help him, always have to be
Mama, just like it always was. My little boy's not growing up. Ever.
    Her mouth relaxed. This was something she knew how to
do, something with which she was comfortable.
    He was such a precious little boy, and absolutely
the apple of his daddy's eye. But we spoiled him, I guess—he just
doesn't think it's up to him to make his own way in the world.
    Nina must have dumped him because he's so worthless.
He's always going to need my help. Always, always.
    He's never going to
find a woman of his own.
    * * *
    Grady was trying to get her on paper, but he didn't
think he understood her well enough.
    What drives her? What's she about?
    Don't try to answer that. Just tell her story.
    But what was her story? What could have made her so
insecure?
    So paranoid.
    Was something medically wrong with her? Was there a
chemical imbalance? Something like that seemed the only explanation.
    Just tell what happened when. Like that time we
went to Florida.
    He was six at the time and he had dived happily into
a swimming pool, only to feel the horrible sensation of last year's
bathing suit coming off his bottom. The elastic, rotten from drying
in the sun, had snapped on impact. He cried out but, being
underwater, swallowed a bucket or so of water. He came up coughing;
drowning, he thought.
    He panicked, not knowing what to do next.
    So he started crying, crying and coughing at the same
time, not really caring whether he drowned or not, just afraid he
wouldn't get his trunks back before it was too late.
    "What is it, son?" his father had yelled,
and about that time arms had closed around him, and he realized he
was being rescued—by a heavyset woman his mother's age.
    " No!" he screamed. And he fought and
kicked, because if she pulled him out, everyone would see him naked.
    "Goddamn brat," she said, and let go.
    His father laughed. Sat on the side of the swimming
pool and laughed while Grady coughed and struggled. Later, he said it
was because Grady's trunks had come floating up and he'd caught on to
what the problem was.
    But while his father laughed at him, Sugar had dived
in and pulled him out, apparently not even noticing he was naked.
    "No!No!" he yelled, and again kicked and
struggled, but she was a mom saving her kid and she wasn't letting
go.
    Once she got him out of the water, he jumped back in
again, sure he was blushing all over, crying as if he'd broken all
ten toes. His dad was still laughing his head off.
    Grady held onto the side of the pool so tightly his
fingers turned white, but he was crying too hard to ask for his
trunks, and his dad was laughing too hard to mention them.
    Sugar, furious and bewildered that he'd wriggled out
of her grasp, was yelling at him: "Grady, what's wrong with
you?"
    Finally, another swimmer saw the trunks, grasped the
situation, and gave them to Sugar, Grady still being too upset to be
distracted. That afternoon, Sugar took him shopping for a new bathing
suit, and as they were leaving the store, he nearly fell down on the
escalator, but Sugar grabbed him.
    "What's wrong, Grady?"
    "I stumbled."
    "Why did you stumble?"
    " I don't know. I just stumbled."
    "Well, there must have been some reason."
    "I just stumbled, Mama."
    That night when the family was together, she told the
story of Grady's falling and asked Arthur if he had any opinions.
"You're