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Chapter Two

After breakfast my mother led me outside, handed me a ha creho showedplywood to two-by-fours, don’t ask me why I’m sure Leon would have toldI wanted to be inside Dashay would be getting up soon, and she and Mãe would be talking I wanted to hear the details

But no, I had to help rebuild the house It felt like being outside a movie theater or a playhouse; all the draine the plot

Leon offered me some of the lemonade in his thermos He was a muscular man with a deep suntan, dark eyes, andhis arms and neck The rest--I just knew he had more--were covered by his T-shirt and jeans

"How old are you?" he askedon thirty"

My father had told me that Some days (usually when I felt tired), I looked much older than others

The leht palm raise and almost at once fade away, but I quickly closed ured he didn’t knoere vahtcalled "Love Bites" Leon said, "Ain’t that the truth"

Quitting time was at five I ran into the house and almost collided with Dashay She wore a saffron-colored caftan and her long hair rapped in a green silk scarf She looked aloof and regal But she gave s--and a strained smile

"I missed you," I said

Tears appeared in her cara" Mãe’s voice was brisk She wore a dark blue dress and a string of lee, Ariella Put on a dress We girls are going to town"

Happy hour at Flo’s Place wasn’t happy that night

The regulars sat at the bar and in the booths, glasses of red wine and Picardo in their hands But not everyone drank the red stuff Here and there you could spot a glass of beer or white wine, mostly in the hands ofMãe and Dashay looked like beautiful statues

So it ca open and Mysty and Autu with their bellies, proht tops I adjusted a strap of ht Ito enlarge their hair Their sunglasses were pushed back on their heads, and their eyes were lined and lashed and shadowed Autuave me a nod and a wave But they didn’t coht for the bar

Mãe and Dashay didn’t notice theirls tried to order beer

After soes with the bartender, Autuh-pitched voice that cut through Johnny Cash singing "Ring of Fire" Everyone in the place stopped talking

"This ID is fake I can’t serve you" The bartender, whose na, with dark red hair He was one of us "We’d lose our license," he said

Autumn turned and looked directly at lass of Picardo sat innocently before me on the table

"Who are they?" Dashay said

Mãe said to irls youat , to cohed, and so Picardo There’s no alcohol in that You want to try solass and handed the glass to Mysty She looked at it dubiously, then raised the glass and shot the bright red liquid down her throat Al sound and spat it onto the floor "Gross!" she said

"It’s an acquired taste," I said A few of the regulars s around a duan said "You’d be more at home over at Murray’s"

Without another word they left the bar, Autuan said sohed

"I always thought there was alcohol in Picardo," I said "There is" Dashay took a long sip froan to task for lying to Mysty and Autu thean poured us another round He grinned at Mãe "I know But the girl wanted a taste Now she knohat bitter is"

I wondered e could drink so an both began to speak at once: "Because we’re not--" They laughed Mãe finished the sentence: "--susceptible to alcohol"

I helped her carry the glasses back to our booth