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Show Blue Run/59 Waylow used to sound in the camper down in the Fordyce deer woods. Beside me, Renee smells like home, she's my Mama now All my life-I've said it-I've loved angry women. Before Lara was born, Cap told us the story of how he got stuck in an Esso parking lot with a Gremlin-full of Stinger Missiles, one of which somehow ignited in the trunk, so when he opened up to check, it got loose down on the concrete, spun circles and made a general spectacle of itself, though it never actually blew up. No one knew, not even Meg. Not until they came out for Lara's birth, and ended up waiting a whole month in snowy Salt Lake. They stayed from December clear into January while Renee went toxemic and just kept on not going into labor, her feet swollen as sidewalk bricks. The night before they finally gave up and flew on back to Florida, high on Vodka tonics, Cap started telling the story and didn't stop. It was snowing outside, the plows making little sparks on the road as they went in the dark. Cap talked and talked, not looking at any one of us, cradling his drink and filling it when it was empty. He told all this and more, so that I loved him genuinely and said so several times over, because I was only maybe a knock or so behind him on the vodkas. The next morning, they'd be gone. Three days later, Renee went into labor, a forty-hour ordeal which she tried without painkillers. Lara would be born at 2.53 a.m , and I'd say, "She looks like my Mama," and feel haunted After Cap finished, after he'd told all about the Gremlin and the missiles in the Esso parking lot, we all stood up and hugged and wept. The Christmas lights were still up, a few of the bulbs blinking. We all walked outside together-me, Renee, Cap and Meg. The snow fell in our hair Renee hugged her mother and so did I. Before she let go, Meg squeezed my arm, then let me help her into the passenger seat. Cap said, "I love you two," and walked to the door of the car |