House of Blues

possibly have together? But now Reed—she was
another matter. I sometimes think that's why I went into treatment in
the first place—so she'd notice me; maybe she'd consider me."
    " What happened?"
    " We fell in love and got rnarried." He
laughed. "Just about over Arthur and Sugar's dead bodies. You
know, I wasn't only a junkie. It wasn't only that. Half my family's
black—did you know that? And then there's my accent."
    He spoke with the trace of a working-class accent. He
had probably worked hard to get rid of it.
    He shook his head. "Mm mm mm. All that goddamn
hard work. And now I'm a junkie again. Shit!" He looked
completely dejected. When he spoke, his voice sounded as if he were
about to cry: "One minute we were having dinner, and the next,
there she was. With a gun."
    Skip wanted him back on track. "She's Sally's
biological mother."
    "Yes. See, she cleaned up too—a couple of
years later. She showed up at a time when we were kind of hoping for
a baby, but we weren't bent out of shape because Reed wasn't
pregnant—it wasn't like some big deal. But then Evie offered us
this great opportunity—she was pregnant and she couldn't keep the
baby. See, she'd gotten sober and converted to Christianity—she was
in some group or other that she said was really different. Different
from what, I never knew, but whatever keeps you sober. She was sober,
she looked good, and she said she'd just gone back to school. But she
wasn't going to be able to finish if she had to take care of a baby.
So would her only sister and her ex-boyfriend like to adopt her baby?
she said. Well, of course we would. Who wouldn't, in our position?
    "But we made sure it was all legal and perfect—a
real adoption, none of this messing around. So little Sally came and
we fell in love with her; we gave Evie some money for school, and
everybody was happy—"
    Skip remained silent.
    " Till she walked in with a gun."
    "Okay. She walked in, said she'd come for Sally,
and then what?"
    " Nothing at first, I guess. We all just stared
at her. Then Reed said, 'What do you mean?' and she said, ‘She's my
baby and I'm taking her back.' About that time Arthur grabbed her."
    "Evie or Sally?"
    " Sally. And then she started yelling." For
a moment his face arranged itself in a half smile. "She hates
that shit."
    Skip was quiet.
    "So then Arthur's holding her face—out, like
she's a bag of groceries or something, but real tight, so she's
crying, and Evie holds out her arms, like 'come-to-Mommy,' and of
course the kid's never seen her before in her life, so not only does
she yell louder, she balls up her fist and hits Evie." He smiled
again, just for a second.
    "Then Evie says, ‘Put her down, Daddy,' and he
says, 'You leave this house, young lady,' or something pompous like
that, and all of a sudden she's holding a gun. I never saw her take
it out of a purse or anything—just all of a sudden she was holding
it. Reed said, 'Daddy, put her down—now.' You could tell she was
scared to death, and so was I." He stopped. "You wouldn't
have a cigarette, would you?"
    "There's no smoking in here."
    "Shit."
    Skip had a moment's sympathy for him. If his story
was true, he'd been through hell.
    "Forget it; I'll get you one."
    When she came back, having bummed one from another
officer, Dennis was staring into space, as if trying to find his wife
and child somewhere in the distance.
    "Then what?"
    "Arthur put her down. Evie reached for her hand,
but she wouldn't take it. So there was nothing to do but pick the
baby up, and while she was doing it was the perfect time to knock her
off balance. I saw it, but I was too far away. I don't suppose Reed
even thought of it. Arthur took a step forward and she looked up and
shot him. Just like that. Like she didn't give it a second's thought.
He was hit in the leg, I think. I don't know, she must have hit an
artery—blood started spurting everywhere. You know what I remember?
How furious he looked. Like he was going to kill her. He lunged for
her, and somehow or other he pushed over the table. I guess it scared
her, because she shot him again, and that time he went down.
    "Then all hell broke loose. I don't know, I just
sort of went on automatic pilot. I went and bent down by Arthur and
tried to help him. Evie must have picked up Sally. I heard her say
she'd kill us if we tried to follow, but I was holding Arthur's hand
and he was making these weird moaning sounds. I was kind of
paralyzed, I guess, but I couldn't look up, I