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"It's Deliverance," Tully said, giving a weak smile as she reached for the door handle
They all got out at once,with false confidence; Fat Bob beside or in front of her, capturing every instant on tape; and Johnny behind the her to keep quiet
Tully went up to the front door and knocked
No one answered
She tried to listen for footsteps, but the barking dogs ain, and was just about to give in to relief and say, No luck! when the door swung open to reveal a huge, straggly-haired man in boxer shorts A tattoo of a woman in a hula skirt covered the left half of his swollen, hairy belly
"Yeah?" he said, scratching his underarm
"I'm here to see Cloud"
He cocked his head to the right and stepped out of the trailer, s
Tully's eyes watered at the smell that came from the mobile ho witty, but she couldn't even s, she was so nervous Inside, she found piles of junk and old food containers There were flies everywhere and pizza boxes full of leftover crusts But e pile of pot lay on the kitchen table
Tully didn't point it out or make a comment
Fat Bob h this mobile home hell
She went to the closed door behind the kitchen, knocked, and opened it, revealing the grossest bathroom of all time She slammed the door shut and went to the next door There, she knocked twice and then turned the knob The bedroom was small, made sallon Monarch Gin bottles lined the bedside table
Her mother lay curled in the fetal position on the uned blue blanket wrapped around her body
Tully bent close, noticing no grayed and wrinkled her mother's skin had becoot no response at all Finally she reached out, touched her ently "Cloud?"
Fat Bob got into position, pointed the camera at the woman in bed
Slowly, hertiue, vacant look "Tallulah?"
"Hey, Cloud"
"Tully," she said as if just rehter preferred "What are you doing here? And who the hell is that guy with the ca for you"
Cloud sat up slowly, reaching into her dirty pocket for a cigarette When she lit up, Tully noticed how palsied her mother's hand was It took three tries to touch the tip to the fla rich and falanced nervously at the camera
"I'm both," Tully said, unable to squelch the pride in her voice She hated it that still, after all the disappoint have you been living here?"
"What do you care? You live in so away"
Tully looked at her ray; the baggy, stained cargo pants with the ragged, torn he And her face Lined, dirty, and grayed froarettes and alcohol and a life poorly lived Cloud was barely sixty and she looked fifteen years older The fragile beauty of her youth was gone now, scrubbed away by harsh excess "You can't want this, Cloud Even you"
"Evenfor me, Tully?"
"You're my mother"
"We both know better than that," Cloud cleared her throat and looked away "I need to get away from here Maybe I could stay with you for a few days Take a bath Eat so"
Tully hated the tiny lurch of emotion that followed those words She had waited a lifetime for her erous a moment like this could be "Okay"
"Really?" The disbelief on Cloud's face revealed how little faith they had in each other
"Really" And for an instant, Tully forgot the caine the ihter instead of strangers "Come on, Cloud Let me help you to the car"
Tully knew she shouldn't believe in the possibility of forging a connection with hercocktail of hope that, once drunk, ht-headed Maybe she could finally have a faht it all: Tully's hope and fear and need On the long drive home, while Cloud slept slumped in the corner, Tully spilled her heart to the lens She answered Johnny's questions with an unprecedented honesty, revealing at last hoounded she'd been by her distant h, Tully added a neord
Addicted
For as long as she'd known her s or booze or both
The ht about that, the more it seemed like the cause of their probleet her ram, maybe they could make a new start So sure of this was she that she called her boss at CBS and asked for hter and help her broken ood idea?" Johnny asked when she got off the phone
They were in the sitting room of the luxurious Cascade Suite at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle By the , Fat Bob sat in an overstuffed chair, capturing this whole conversation on tape Cahts created a staging area along the couch Marah lay curled catlike in an overstuffed chair, reading a book
"She needs ed and said nothing more, just looked at her
"Well" She stood up, stretching "I think I'll hit the sack" To Fat Bob, she said, "That's it for the night Go get a good night's sleep We'll start again at eight"
Fat Bob nodded, packed up his gear, and headed to his room down the hall
"Can I sleep with Aunt Tully?" Marah said, letting her book fall to the floor
"It's okay with me," Johnny said, "if Tully doesn't ? A sluhter is a perfect end to the day"
After Johnny went to his own roo her to brush her teeth and wash her face and get into her jammies