WATTYS LONG LIST. He's got three polyamorous, pole dancing moms and his world is the stuff of which teen boy fantasies are made. But when he falls for a feisty cancer patient who is about to die, he truly learns how to live.
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A presence even more powerful than Joie's brought me back from dreamland.
Lurleen, baby. Standing there, filling up damned near the whole doorway. But there was no smell.
We're talkin' clean clothes, clean hair. The bear claws were still intact, but otherwise, she was a changed woman.
Wyatt's influence, I figured. For courtroom purposes. If she'd gone in there like she was when we first met, they would've locked that kid up and thrown away the key, probably. To keep him safe from her.
She said, "You lookin' pretty good. Wondered how come they was fin'ly lettin' me through."
"You've been here before?"
She waddled in a little ways and looked around. There was a bench under the window, so she headed for that and sat.
"Few times. But they wasn't lettin' nobody see you. And o' course I wasn't exactly sure you'd'a wanted to see me or nobody else from our fam'ly."
"Is Danny doin' okay?"
"See, now, that teacher told me you kept askin' 'er about Daniel," she said. "Why'd you take such a shine to 'im, son?"
"I dunno, really. Maybe cause I had a buncha brothers and sisters to take care of once."
"Where they gone that you say it like that?"
"Died."
She nodded and took that in. And then said, "Told me about your mama, but you didn't say your kinfolk went with 'er."
"Big fire."
"You got out?"
"I wasn't there."
"Well, God is great. Them Muslims got that right."
"Yeah, well, I'm always gonna wonder why it was me that got to stay."
She folded her big arms over her big chest and smiled.
"Ain't nothin' to wonder about 'cept what 'e wants you to do with the extra time 'e gave you."
I smiled back and said, "Everybody says that."
She raised her chins, narrowed her eyes, and asked, "What'chu thinkin' about doin', then?"
And she meant that shit, too. Wanted a real response.
But I said, "That's the problem. He's kept pretty quiet since that day. That great God of yours."
She gave me a deep chuckle then, and said, "No, He hasn't. Cause 'e brought you through this safe, too. And told you to take care o' the folks done it to you. That's a Jesus thing. 'Love thine enemies...'"
She was totally different from the woman in the office that day. Still hard as nails, for sure, but she had a twinkle in the eyes I hadn't ever expected to see.
