OCR Text |
Show Go Love/131 16. The hollow core door's locked inside out, an obstacle I long ago learned to jimmy with a halfhearted shoulder, only not today-every cell in my body says na The laundry hall's dark, not a place to try to get your bearings. It reeks of overflow seep and powdered bleach and the smell that comes when a shit load of air freshener's sprayed to mask something really awful, so the hybrid is far meaner than the original. One Thanksgiving me and Mama'd laughed ourselves silly on this very spot. We'd just ironed and starched twenty some homemade dinner napkins, and I was teaching her how to French fold them into the fleur de lis we used at Buster's in Little Rock, where I waited tables Mama'd got this idea we could use the napkins, set up honest to god place settings for a Thanksgiving meal. Fresh off the road, O.W. caught us at the tail end IceLand had sent him home with this huge turkey and spiral sliced ham which he traded me for one of my napkins "Looky here," he said, "nice little hat." He sat the fluer de lis up on his burr flattop pretty as you please, so Mama started laughing and peed in her pants. Jimmy walked out his bedroom door and Trace joined in from the kitchen. We all got belly laughs and had a time O.W. marched |