They Sold Me to the Crippled War God, So Why Was He Standing in My Father's Barn on Two Good Legs novel · Chapter 11 of 24
Chapter 11: Biloxi
I drove to Biloxi alone on Monday, without telling anyone, in the truck Seb had left me the keys to.
It is three hours east on the interstate through pine barrens and casinos, and I did not turn on the radio.
I had the photograph on the seat beside me, and I knew only one thing for certain.
My sister Tessie had sent it, and she had a reason.
I would find out the reason later.
First I wanted to look at the woman.
The casino dock was a long wooden pier at the end of a gravel lot.
Gulls sat on the pilings and a tourist boat was tied up at the end.
I stood at the foot of it for an hour and saw nothing.
At two o'clock a dark-haired woman in her late thirties came out of the building across the lot.
She had a boy of ten by the hand and a little girl of seven on her hip.
She wore a plain blue dress and sensible shoes.
She looked tired.
I knew the boy's face.
It was my father's face at ten, from the photographs in the hall: the same heavy brows, the same wide, easy mouth.
I walked over before I could stop myself.
"Excuse me," I said.
She turned.
"Are you Raymond Thibodeaux's family?"
She went white and then red, and set the little girl down.
"Who's asking?"
"His daughter.
"His oldest."
She looked at me for a long moment.
I saw the whole of it cross her face, fear and shame and a kind of terrible relief.
"You look like your mother," she said.
"I saw her once, at a funeral.
"I'm sorry.
"I didn't know it would come like this."
"How long?" I said.
"Eleven years.
"I kept the co-op's books before Bernadette took them back.
"He said he'd leave her when the girls were grown.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of They Sold Me to the Crippled War God, So Why Was He Standing in My Father's Barn on Two Good Legs are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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