I Discharged Two Shrimper Brothers, Then Took Them Both Home novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Pitt Street Tub

Their father's bathroom had black and white tile, a pull-chain light, and a claw-foot tub long enough to lie down in.

"Nobody's used it since Daddy," Rhett said from the doorway.

"Then run it," I said.

Boone turned the brass taps, and the old pipes knocked twice and gave up hot water.

It was Thursday night, the boat was tied up, and the house on Pitt Street smelled of cedar and cold coffee and two men who had not stopped working for three days.

I stood on the tile in my panties and Rhett's flannel shirt.

I had never been inside this house.

I had seen the porch.

Now I stood in a place where two boys had been scrubbed behind the ears, and I felt their dead father in the room and did not mind.

"Daddy used to wash us one at a time," Boone said, to the water. "Rhett first, because he was oldest, and then me in the same water."

"It was always cold by then," Rhett said.

"It was always cold."

They looked at each other and nearly smiled.

I held onto that, too.

"Get in the water, both of you," I said. "I'm going to wash you."

"No," Rhett said. "We wash you."

I looked at him.

"You've been washing everybody for two years, Doc. You stand there."

I heard Boone set the stopper, and the pipes shut off.

Rhett came to me and undid the shirt button by button, with his scarred knuckles brushing my skin.

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