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"Uncle Mickey, very young and very scared I iine, was in Corona's Bar in the Irish Channel "
"On Magazine Street," I said "That bar was there for years and years Maybe a century "
"Yes, and the bookie's henched Uncle Mickey to the back of the bar My mother's father saw it all He was there, but he couldn't do anything about it Nobody could Nobody would Nobody dared But this is what randfather saw The men beat and kicked Uncle Mickey They were the ones who hurt the roof of hiswith him And they kicked out his eye They kicked it across the floor And the way randfather said it every time he told it was, 'Dora, they could have saved that eye, except those guys stepped on it They deliberately stepped on it with those pointed shoes ' "
human could be that cold I had sopped up the winter's worst as though I were porous marble, which I suppose I was
"Dora, Dora, Dora," I whispered "How he loved you, and how ht for you, Dora "
Her scent was strong, but so was I
"Lestat, explain about the Devil," she said
I sat down on the carpet so that I could look up at her She was perched on the edge of her chair, knees bare, black coat carelessly open now, and a streak of gold scarf showing, her face pale but very flushed, in a way that made her radiant and at the sah she were no more human than me
"Even your father couldn't really describe your beauty," I said
"Tein, nymph of the wood "
"My father said that to you?"
"Yes But the Devil, ah, the Devil told me to ask you a question
To ask you the truth about Uncle Mickey's eye!" I had just remembered it I had not remembered to tell either David or Armand about this, but what difference could that possibly make?
She was surprised by these words, and very impressed She sank back a little into the chair "The Devil told you these words?"
"He gave it to ift He wants me to help him He says he's not evil He says that God is his adversary I'll tell you everything, but he gave ift, what do we call it in New Orleans, lagniappe? To convince me that he is what he says he is "