They Sold Me to the Crippled War God, So Why Was He Standing in My Father's Barn on Two Good Legs novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: Cold Snap
Tessie sat at the kitchen table with her hands around a cup of Seb's coffee and did not drink it.
Seb had gone out to the porch without being asked.
I heard the swing creak once, and then nothing.
"You printed the picture," I said.
"Yes," Tessie said.
"You followed him to Biloxi."
"Twice," she said.
"The first time I lost him in the casino lot.
"The second time I stood behind a pillar and took it with my phone."
She turned the cup a quarter turn on the wood.
"I found the letter in Mama's desk on a Wednesday.
"I was looking for stamps.
"It had your name on it, and the words cash drawer."
"And you sent it to me with a text from your own number," I said.
"I didn't think," she said.
"I wanted you to know, and I wanted to still be your sister when you found out.
"Both."
She looked up.
Her eyes were red and her hair was flat on one side.
She did not look golden.
She looked twenty-four.
"I took Gabe," she said.
"I'm not going to say I didn't.
"You were at the organ in Opelousas that whole spring, and he'd come by the house, and Mama kept saying you didn't have time for him.
"I liked being the one he looked at."
"That's the truest thing you've ever said to me," I said.
"I know," she said.
"It doesn't fix it."
"I know that too."
"You stood in that hall and asked Seb to marry you in front of forty people," I said.
Her mouth shook.
"I was scared, Odie," she said.
"Everything had gone.
"Daddy, the money, Gabe, the name.
"I thought if I had him, I'd have a house.
"I didn't even want him."
"You wanted what you were told was mine," I said.
"Yes," she said.
She was crying quietly, with her hands flat on the table.
I let her.
I did not reach across, and I did not soften.
I had been the easy one for twenty-six years, and I knew what it cost to hand out forgiveness on request.
"You warned me," I said.
"That was real.
"I won't forget it."
"Thank you," she said.
"But I'm not going to say it's all right," I said.
"It isn't all right.
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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