Down Don't Bother Me (9780062362209) Read Free Page B

while now.”
    â€œI’m a slow thinker.”
    â€œYou hate your place in Zeigler.”
    â€œOnly because it’s drafty, creaky, and possibly haunted. It has its good points, though. One thing, the ghosts appear to have frightened off the snakes.”
    â€œAnd Anci would love it.”
    â€œI know,” she said, turning serious.
    â€œI wouldn’t dislike it so much my own self. We could make a nice life together, maybe.”
    â€œMore than nice, even.”
    â€œThat’s what I think. How long have we been seeing each other?”
    â€œA year and a half, two weeks ago Thursday,” she said. “Not that I’m counting.”
    â€œWednesday, actually. Not that I’m counting,” I said. “I think by the time my parents had known one another that long, they had three kids and my daddy had been to war and back.”
    â€œYour math might be just a little off, love, to say nothing of your biology. Anyway, in case you haven’t noticed, times have changed a little since the olden days.”
    â€œOlden days? I’m talking about the sixties .”
    â€œUh-huh. Slim, 1961 was a half century or so ago, believe it or not. Meantime, I’ve been married. I’ve been married and a half. Married a damn meth dealer.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œAnd I’ve made other mistakes.”
    â€œThat’s just another way of saying you’re an adult.”
    â€œTrue enough. And this adult needs more time. To think things through. To be sure about us.”
    â€œAnd me.”
    â€œAnd you,” she agreed. “And where we’re headed.”
    â€œFair enough.”
    She kissed me on the lips.
    â€œGood. You’re a good man, Slim. I appreciate your patience.”
    â€œI like to think it’s more than just something like patience.”
    â€œI like to think so, too. Do me a favor? Ask me again soon.”
    â€œDeal,” I said. “And speaking of asking, you had something to ask me earlier.”
    â€œI did?”
    â€œOr something to tell me.”
    She was quiet a moment then said, “Ah, that. Let’s save that for another time, okay? It’s a rule. I don’t do serious conversations in the buff, and I’m sure as hell not about to start tonight.”
    â€œDarling, I hate to tell you, I think you’ve broken your rule. I think we both have.”
    â€œBroke it and danced on the pieces, sug, but I tell you what, I’m done.”
    â€œWell, what do you do in the buff, then?” I asked. I reached for the roach cradled in the V of a punch-metal ashtray.
    â€œLet me show you.”
    She showed me. Following another earthquake, we again lay in the dark. The house was still with that nighttimecountry quiet. Peggy breathed softly beside me, snoring a little, her body tingling with the warmth of sleep. The cool autumn air sighed against the windowpanes. I lay there awake and wondering how I could have gotten old enough to have a twelve-year-old. It seemed impossible, but I guess the passage of time always does. Then I lay there hoping that Peggy would eventually take me up on my offer, and I got mad at myself for hoping things. I hoped I really was a good man, like Peggy had said. I wished I could right the mistakes of the past or at least straighten them out some so that it all made sense, but you could never do that. It was what it was and always would be, just like I was always going to be a coal miner whose wife had run away, and that’s all there was to it. Things were what they were, and I tried to be resolved about it, but trying only made me more blue. I’m not usually a depressive sort, but the nighttime brings it out in you sometimes. You know how it is. After what felt like a long time, I grew drowsy with my thoughts.
    Before I drifted off to sleep, I rolled over and glanced at my phone to check the hour. Whoever this Matthew Luster was, he’d called five more