Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20A | 20B | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25-26 | 27 | 28-29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35-36 | 37 | 38A | 38B | 38C | 38D | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42-43 | 44-45 | 46 | 47 | 48-49A | 49B | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57A | 57B | 58-59| 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68-69 | 70A | 70B | 71A | 71B | 72 | 73 | 74A | 74B | 75 | 76-77A | 77B | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85-87 | 88A | 88B | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94A | 94B | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98-99
PART V
MIRACLES
100
ONCE MARINA GOT to Chicago, she promptly caught a cab and went to the bank from which she had withdrawn Gladys’s money. She arranged for a large safe deposit box and put the Bon Ami cans, ledgers, and diaries in it, taking out a thousand dollars she would change into small bills. She had been a nervous wreck carrying so much money and she was only slightly less nervous about one thousand.
She caught another cab to Woolworth’s, where she and Button ate. Then she bought the biggest carpetbag she could carry and the barest of necessities for the two of them. She thought about buying a baby buggy, but it was too cumbersome. They were not going to stay in Chicago. She caught a cab to a nice hotel where she could sleep and prepare for the next leg of her journey. She was torn about whether to telegram Trey or not. The house was probably gone, so in the confusion, he may not think to look for the ledgers.
Thanks to Grandmother Susanna’s tutelage, Marina could manage very well by herself, although juggling a well-bundled baby made things ten times more difficult. She didn’t want to take very long to get to Minneapolis, but she was so very tired. She hadn’t gotten much rest on the train, terrified as she was that she was being followed, questioning her wisdom in not running straight to the Albrights’ or, barring that, St. Louis, but getting out of town to a place nobody would look for her had been almost instinctive.
She had to get through this herself and hope Trey would find her. If not …
She made sure Button was well fed and clean before allowing herself to drop on the bed and fall asleep, Button snuggled against her. When she awoke, it was evening and she knew the last train out to Minneapolis left at seven.
It was now six.
Her heart was racing by the time she had cleaned herself and Button, eaten and fed her, caught a cab, bought a ticket, and gotten on the train. She locked the door on her compartment, pulled the blinds, and fell back against the seat. Susanna was quiet, her fist in her mouth, looking around in wonder. But soon she’d get bored and start swinging the new tin toy Marina had unwisely bought her at the train station’s gift shop. It was noisy thing and would drive Marina out of her mind, but she couldn’t take it away from her. She’d begin to wail and that was worse.
What if, when they got to Minneapolis, Trey never came? She couldn’t stay in a hotel room indefinitely, although she certainly had enough to do so. Maybe she should take the risk to send him a telegram, but what if he didn’t come because they’d killed him? What if they intercepted it? What if it gave them a way to find her?
Marina scrunched up her face to try to stave off the hurt and terror, and she put her hand to her arm and scratched. She couldn’t live like this anymore. Even if he was still alive and he found her, did she want to go back until he had extricated himself from the Machine?
No. She would not risk her baby to go back and she would defy Trey. After all, she ceased to be a good wife the second she’d put a gun to his head, fully prepared to pull the trigger. She didn’t want to lose him, but a temporary separation was better than a permanent one, and she was going to protect her baby at all costs, since he wouldn’t.
God, please don’t let him die. I don’t want to lose him.
Not because of what he bought for her or how he provided for her, not because of how wonderful a father he was to Button, not because of how she felt when they were indecent together, but because he was the only person who had ever wanted her, and he made the voices go away.
He would not stray no matter what. She knew that now.
But he would die, probably sooner than later.
It hurt so deeply she choked and curled in on herself and began to sob. She never sobbed unless she was terrified. She hated feeling pain so deep it made her cry, and the only reason it did was because she had allowed herself to feel happy and she hated being happy. Happiness tricked her into thinking it would last and made her forget what would happen when it disappeared.
She had been happy since she’d come home from St. Louis. She had been seduced into feeling it, into losing herself in it, humming while she worked, tickling the baby and giggling with her, being so delighted every morning when Trey came home. Yes, she had been angry over what he had done to Ethel, but anger didn’t impose upon her happiness the way sad did.
Even when Ethel told her Trey wasn’t giving her sweet tea at all, she couldn’t be angry with him. So he’d tricked her. By that time, she was comfortable with being indecent and welcomed his protective arms and body around her. It was special, but it was normal. It was what best pals who were married to each other and had equal affection for each other did. Making her enjoy it was what a good husband did, and she never realized how valuable that was until Alice pointed it out and Marina met other newly married women.
Half her neighborhood friends didn’t have that luxury.
The other half didn’t talk about it.
It was then Marina decided that if Trey were taken from her, she would never marry again. Surely a man like Trey would come along only once in a lifetime. Mr. Carville was a good, honorable, upstanding man and the new Mrs. Carville seemed happy with her life, but Marina would never be happy with a man like him. She would never be happy with any other man of Trey’s station in life.
She would rather get along with just her and Button. She was smart and resourceful and knew enough about the world to make the right choices. Besides, she had enough money to live the rest of her life in relative comfort and once the banks were ready to pay interest again … Maybe, once Button was reared, Marina really would go to law school because that was what Trey thought she was best suited for.
Yes, she decided. Yes, that was exactly what she would do.
Button crawled into her lap and pulled at her face, trying to get her to smile, a deep frown on her own face because Marina didn’t want to smile. “Mama!” she said impatiently, still yanking on her lips.
“Let Mama be sad, Button,” she murmured.
Sad was familiar. Sad was comfortable. She’d been a fool to let herself be happy again.
• • •
He was waiting for her when she stepped off the train in Minneapolis.
100
If you don’t want to wait 2 years to get to the end, you can buy it here.
Donations can be made here, if you so desire.
100 Episodes? You can go into Syndication!
😢
Wow – Raheem Sterling goes from Chelsea on loan to Arsenal.
I haven’t followed him since he left Liverpool for team(s) I hate. Just thought he was kind of a dick so whatevz.
Marina has a long reflection, maybe it was more like tying all the loose ends together. Sometimes it takes a long to begin to like your own self but she is managing to do it, little by little. I don’t want to know all the details of their reunion, though. Way too personal.
Thanks, Moj
She’s starting to grow up a little bit. She can adult, but she still thinks like a teenager sometimes.
I’m loving the exciting travel… I hope they wind up on a train back to Kansas City.
Because it’s you, I’m sure it’s not a sex video. The question is when it’s a Train video.
It can be both.
LOL. That’s funny stuff. Very well done.
As usual Mojeaux thanks for taking the Friday slot!
OT- Was on my weekly call with my friend in Japan and she’s just about to have the typhoon come to her area. I spent 15 minutes trying to explain what a levee was in my busted Japanese. Which made me send her this:
When the Levee Breaks (Remaster)
It has to be a decade since I’ve listened to it, but I still know it by heart.
🤘
Now XY’s car needs an alternator. We named it Theseus.
Perfect!
I’ll stay on my Robert Plant theme tonight.
Robert Plant – ‘Ship of Fools’
I LOVE that album!
I can’t not
There are plenty more!
Ship of Fools (2013 Remaster)
OT – I was taking a quick walk after dinner and I passed the new apartment building across the street where 40 individuals “experiencing homelessness” were recently relocated to repeated glowing reviews from the local lefty rag. (The other 100 or so apartments are presumably occupied by people they are not interested in.) A more honest local journalist had noted the frequent appearances of one or more of police, fire, and ambulance vehicles parked out front, reflecting, well, what happens when a bunch of professional vagrants are housed together. Fights, overdoses, and at least one arson attempt that I am aware of.
Well, tonight I saw some beefy security dudes hanging out at the residents’ entrance. Hallelujah. This building is smack downtown and has some convention center facilities in it too – even the loonies that run this town aren’t totally blind to reality I guess.
I thought you moved to get away from the batshit crazy politics? Sounds like mini-NYC, but I’m not sure you really can escape it staying in NY in general.
No, I moved to get away from NYC crime, ridiculous commutes, expenses, etc.
I am a city boy and stupid politics come with the territory – I am used to that. They are in fact less oppressive here, because there just isn’t the kind of money sloshing around the way there was in NYC. Reality hits faster when there isn’t a bottomless well of dollars to draw from.
Local bums were evicted from their city authorized camp because it needed to be cleaned up due to bio waste, rodents, and things like that. They were relocated to the dog park. 1) poor puppies don’t deserve that. 2) fucking bums are better off where dogs shit than their camp.
Our bums now have a sanctioned camp behind the Wal*Mart. They funked up their previous location, too.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/condescending-phrases-to-avoid_l_66c76b13e4b029313b6f6b34?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
if you think about it, this is a really stupid article
The lack of self-awareness is amusing.
As claimed by “experts”, right?
Is “Fuck off” a phrase?
The best kind.
They covered that one. See: Bless your heart
Suthen, they wouldn’t recognize irony if it bit them on the ass. This article IMHO is Loud Stupid.
“I read it at Huffington Post” sounds like a condescending phrase to avoid. Did that make the list?
I wanted to get “Huffsplain” into my comment but couldn’t make it work.
Huffsplain – noun
1. How retards explain things
I didn’t need to think about it.
Oh how cute is the same as bless your heart? Really?
“Here are the words you are allowed to use” written by idiots, for idiots
Today Amazon, UPS, and USPS used teamwork to get a book from Kansas to North Dakota in only five days. Brave new world.
Anyway, it’s by a person who calls themselves McCarroll. It was printed in Texas, but the spine is printed in the annoying European direction. Not sure what to make of that.
That the cover creator was in a hurry.
Who does your cover art? I didn’t see any credit…does that mean you do it?
A Canadian named Taylor Schmidt does the art.
I am no good at art. So I pay him.
Schmidt? He sounds like a good guy.
I’ll bet he loves AC/DC
Who doesn’t?
That reminds me, I bought Prince of the North Tower a while back and need to read it.
Is your copy autographed? Mine practically* is. 🤓
*I expect it to be signed in three weeks. If not, Honey Harvest may get ugly.
For the hell of it, I chose to have a prescription mailed from my supermarket (instead of just picking it up as I normally would) and it was mailed from Buffalo to central New York via Ohio.
Why it wasn’t mailed from six blocks away is an exercise left for the reader I guess.
I occasionally order tools from an online company (Acme Tools) whose warehouse is only about 50 miles from me. For reasons I don’t understand, occasionally the item will go from Grand Forks, ND, to Minneapolis, back to Grand forks, and then to me. That’s approximately 650 miles, and an extra day (or two), of stupid.
I… got nothing.
Acme Tools doesn’t inspire much confidence….
They work fine, as long as you are not trying to catch a road runner
Wreck shut down the interstate today. Road sushi aren’t just lane splitting (illegal and stupid) but using the shoulder so their narcissistic asses don’t have to wait in traffic. Can’t wait for the weather to change and Califucktards stay on their side of the border.
Morning, Glbis.
Mornin’.
Good morning! I usuallt don’t make an effort to go find Steel Challenge matches, but I need all the trigger time I can get before Nats.
Good Luck, we’re counting on you.
Happy Saturday morning, all you fine people!
🌞☕🍳
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U8s_q3IaglQ
🎶🎶
Good morning, Sean, U, NA, and rhy!
😉
Good mornin’ to all Glibs, wherever you are.
Nicest time of the year, mosquitoes and other bugs are mostly gone, still warm. Only bad thing is the daylight is getting shorter, with a nod towards what is to come.
Tim Walz’s brother is threatening to go to a Trump rally and snitch.
Snitch on what?
How incompetent Tampon Timmy is.