The Guardian Read Free Page B

into the floor. “You want me to stop this car and come back there?”
    The woman said, “I don’t think she knows, really. Did you know what your dad made when you were a kid?” Her voice then got closer to Janine’s ear. “How old are you, kid?”
    Janine didn’t said anything. Couldn’t speak.
    The woman rested her hand on Janine’s head again. “Seven? Eight? Nine?”
    Janine nodded.
    “Nine,” the woman said. Her hand remained on Janine’s head for a second longer. “Nine,” she repeated, and then said to the man, “Did you know what your dad made when you were nine?”
    “Yeah. Diddly-shit. And that he drank and pissed away.” The seat thumped near Janine’s ear again. “Better hope your daddy didn’t piss it all away on pools and BMWs. Better hope he’s got some left over for you.”
     
    After a while, the car stopped and Janine could hear the man get out for a second. Then the car moved again, and she could hear a slamming sound. Like a garage door being closed. They shoved her up a lot of stairs and finally into a room, with the coat still over her head. Janine wondered if they were still wearing the masks and shuddered. Black-and-red faces. She could only see the floor; that’s all, a wooden gray floor.
    Janine kept seeing her mom being kicked. Her dad on the floor, his face bleeding.
    She kept coming back to him patting her on the head before, telling her, “We’ll be all right, sweetheart.”
    That man hitting them. Talking to Daddy in such an ugly way.
    The storekeeper.
    That was a scene of noise, and red, and she wouldn’t let herself think about that directly. She hadn’t been friends with the storekeeper, or anything. But she and her mom had gone there before.
    One time, he had been whistling as she and her mother walked up to the counter. He had said, “Hi, beautiful.” Talking to her. Janine had remembered turning her head away, embarrassed. Her mother had smiled for her. That had been early in the year. March, maybe.
    She wondered immediately if he had a little girl, too. He was old. But the way he had smiled at Janine, she bet he did. And what if that little girl had seen him that way …?
    Janine let out a low keening sound.
    “Shut her up! Here, I’ve got a roll of that duct tape.”
    “Get me some of those paper towels,” the woman had said.
    “Why?”
    “Put the paper over her eyes, then do the tape.”
    “Fuck that. Just do the tape.”
    “It’ll be easier on her later, taking it off.”
    “Who cares?”
    “Look, I’ll do it. Just get yourself a beer.”
    “Little mama, you can’t keep her. Hell, I may have to put her in a bag and drown her if her old man doesn’t come through.”
    The woman didn’t say anything.
    Janine started to cry again. She couldn’t keep the sounds from coming out. She had to pee, too, but couldn’t imagine asking if she could go to the bathroom.
    The woman had reached under the coat with paper towel and pressed it against Janine’s eyes. Janine felt the coat pulled away and the ripping sound of tape being pulled off the roll. The woman put it on quickly and tightly; the tape pulled at Janine’s hair. “Shssh,” the woman said into her ear. “Don’t make a fuss. It’ll go bad for you if you do.”
    Janine nodded.
    “You gotta pee?” the woman asked. “I’ll walk you into the bathroom.”
    Janine heard the man talking. It didn’t sound like it was to her, and then she heard her dad’s name, and she realized the man was on the phone.
    “Yeah, a Greg Stearns. Ridge Road, Lincoln.”
    The phone clattered.
    “OK, got his number,” the man said. There was the sound of paper rustling, and she heard him chuckle. “What’d I tell you? Look at the prices of these houses in Lincoln. A million four. A million eight-fifty. Three million, for Christ’s sake… .”
    The floorboards creaked in front of Janine, and she pressed back against the woman’s body.
    Janine felt a hard finger under her chin. “I’m going to think up