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 | 100
PART V
MIRACLES
101
THEY LAY IN A hotel room bed quietly for quite a while after their extra-long hug, while Button slept in a nest of blankets on the floor. They held hands, their fingers entwined and occasionally, Trey would bring her hand to his mouth and press a kiss against it.
“Best pals?” she whispered.
“Best pals,” Trey murmured.
She took a deep, hiccuping breath and rolled over to press herself into his chest. He wrapped his arm around her and hugged her tight while she began to cry silently.
“Don’t get all sad again, Sugga,” he whispered, caressing her back. “I’ve been thinking. When we have troubles you get all sad, with no happy at all. Well, those are just troubles you have to think through. Nothing to be sad about, y’see? Just problems to manage. Everybody has those.”
Her tears began to abate and she thought about that.
“Sad doesn’t have to take up all the space inside you. You can be happy about most things and sad about one thing. Or sad about a lot of things and happy about a few things. Angry when you need to be. Think about little Button over there. She’s a good baby. Not too fussy. Happy all the damned time until she gets sad about being hungry and having a dirty diaper. Then you fix those things and she’s happy again, giggling, squealing.”
“She doesn’t know any better.”
“Marina, come on. Stop hiding behind sad. You know what was sad? My wife wanting to die rather than be with me. That was sad. But you earned the right to feel that way and I deserved to be made sad. You haven’t done anything to deserve being sad all the time. But maybe— You know, maybe there’s something to that ‘count your blessings’ business. Hey! We could even get out a ledger sheet and write them down, then compare them to our worries and see what we’re over and under. If we know, maybe we can fix some of it.”
She blinked. “Uh … I—” She lay there stumped.
“I’m surprised you haven’t thought of something like that yet, you and your geometry, laying things out in proofs like you do so you can sort through them.”
Her mind saw the ledger sheet immediately: blessings | troubles, and her own neat handwriting filling the lines.
“I got a safe deposit box in Chicago and left the money and ledgers there,” she blurted.
She could feel his nod. “Good girl. Smart. God almighty, Sugar, you did exactly the right thing. That note you left was the smartest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“I wasn’t sure you’d find it.”
“Did you know they’d do something like that?”
“I thought they were trying to scare me out of the house so they could find our money.”
“They did toss the house, but I have enough enemies who might do something like that just ’cuz. But I would rather you not have tried to save the paper.”
That made her angry. “We have sacrificed too much for that paper to leave it. It’s enough to live on for the rest of our lives if we’re careful. How are we supposed to start over somewhere else—if you were willing to run—without money, connections, power, or, or, or anything? And, and, and the ledgers! And our diaries! You can go back if you want, but I’m not.”
“That’s fair,” he said immediately, which surprised her. “Why did you choose Minneapolis? I thought you wanted to head out west.”
“I don’t know. I remembered you’d said you were from Minneapolis and left without thinking about it too hard.”
“It was a good idea, but I wasn’t sure if you’d take the train or drive.”
“Oh. I didn’t think about driving. Grandmother Susanna would never drive that far when she can ride the train in comfort.” Then she began telling him what had happened from the moment Leona told her she had a package to the moment she’d stepped off the train to hear her husband bellowing her name over the roar of the crowd, the train, and the speakers. “And somewhere there’s a girl with two of her fingers cut—”
“Dada. Dada!”
And there was little Susanna, climbing out of her nest, falling on her little bottom, getting up, and toddling her way over to the bed.
“Hello there, Button,” Trey said and sat up, swinging his legs over the side and covering his midsection with the sheet.
But instead of going to Trey, she stepped her way around the bed, holding onto it, and dipped out of sight. Presently, she popped up and returned with her tin noisemaker and showed it to him proudly. She twirled it and made that headache-inducing noise, which made Marina groan but Trey laugh. “Oh, look at the mistake Mama made,” he cooed, picking her up and inspecting her toy with her. She twirled it again. “Yes, I see. And hear. I got a different toy for you.”
Susanna didn’t care. She just wanted Trey to admire her noisemaker.
“Damn, Marina,” Trey muttered when she twirled it right next to Trey’s ear.
“I would be grateful if you slipped it into your pocket when you leave.”
He stilled and looked over his shoulder at her. She was instantly sad again.
“I’m sorry, Sugar,” he murmured, his voice full of regret.
So was she. “We’re safe now, Trey. If there was one good thing that came out of my going to St. Louis, it’s that I know how to get on by myself.”
“I’m not leaving here until I know you’re tucked in and hunkered down.”
• • •
The little apartment they found had two bedrooms no bigger than a closet, but it was furnished and it was as extravagant as Marina was willing to be. It was in a building in a good neighborhood, occupied only by unmarried women who were not allowed gentleman callers, with a landlord who was a chivalrous man like Mr. Carville who didn’t hold with men bothering “his girls.”
Trey said he had the same feeling with him and the missus that he had with everybody he knew he’d work well with. The missus had been beside herself with joy to have a sweet baby in the building. All the other women worked as nurses or teachers or telegraph operators, only one or two had a car, and the only reason Marina would be allowed to let an apartment was because her husband was trying to protect her. Trey had been frank that Marina was in danger and most of the reason why, which made the landlord’s hackles rise against these hooligans who wanted to hurt a sweet girl and her baby.
“Now, look. Marina can handle herself with a gun, but I don’t want her to have to, see?”
“You have nothing to worry about, son.”
“Okay, Marina,” Trey said the day he left, “you’re set up. I’ll leave the Tin Lizzie and take the train back. Gotta catch some sleep anyway.”
She smiled weakly. “Thank you, Trey.”
At the train station, he took her face between his hands and pressed his mouth to her forehead for a long time. “You know I don’t want to be without you, don’t you?”
“I don’t want to be without you, either,” she whispered.
“Best pals?”
“Best pals.”
101
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.
Aw… sweet.
The quiet before the storm?
😉
Thank you for this, as ever, Mojeaux.
If I have to have this running through my head, you do too
I’ve got autoplay turned off, so no, I don’t have to have it running through my head.
Never heard it before. It’s not catchy. Why does it stay with you?
It was inescapable for a while at the turn of the century. Certified platinum in the US, when that still meant something.
Yeah, that was everywhere for a few months. I had forgotten that crap. Thanks?
Ah, I do remember that. I never would have guessed from the artist or title.
I’ve put that song on loop.
No lyrics is a plus.
OT – my phone is telling me that tomorrow will be “17⁰ colder than today”.
😀🕺
Climate crisis for the win!
There once was a girl from Poughkeepsie,
Who never got Tipsy.
Go on.
Who said, “At least I’m not from Newburgh.”
I want to thank the NFL for putting tonight’s game on Peacock. I can skip it without a hint of remorse.
What’s the “NFL”?
I’m not sure I know any longer.
The Washington Free Beacon has a Kamala’s Cackle button. lol. I don’t why, but I keep clicking it. I guess it just fills me with joy.
Related
There are some similarities between the two…
Welcome UCS to the Best Coast.
https://youtu.be/Yy57Xdk9u0o
That’s way up there on a list of my favorite “oldies”. Haven’t heard it for a while. Danke schön.
Another good “best” coast tune. (Michelle Phillips was so fucking hot)
I know what that is without clicking! That song makes me think of Chunking Express.
Is this going to turn into some kind of Cass Elliott joke? 🤨
Everyone’s getting
fathigh blood pressure from MSG, except Mama Cass.There were two good-looking people in that quartet and a whole mess of drama besides.
So great but OMG the drama.
Yeah. “Drama” almost seems like not a strong enough word.
More drama than Buckingham/Nicks era Fleetwood Mac?
Did Lyndsey Buckingham have sex with his daughter?
I’d like to take this opportunity to posit a statement of fact/hot take; Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac was far superior to Buckingham/Nicks era Fleetwood Mac.
Exhibit A
The one is before my time and seems like a completely different band to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Indeed
Can’t really argue with that.
Gabriel era Genesis or Collins era Genesis?
Same comment applies.
Two different bands, and I know little of the older one.
Gabriel.
I don’t feel like Genesis lost anything, but there is one particular timbre that Gabriel brings that is not in Phil’s repertoire, and that’s that “smoky” quality. A little airy, but still full. Otherwise they’re quite similar in many respects.
Miami Vice era Genesis is how I think of them.
Drama? In a band? With musicians? That cant be right.
I couldn’t make it a minute into My Lady Jane. MLW is a fucking rockstar.
Truth. I loved it. I’m glad she’s back, at least for now.
A decent Lady Jane:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091374/
Another decent Lady Jane
https://youtu.be/XirG-qwMCMc?si=imOjOkGAe9hbg0Rn
Ahem
https://youtu.be/dv4r6KhvvmM
Jesus Christ I’m good at falling down! Practice makes perfect.
Go with your strengths!
Yes sir, Mr President!
Good morning to all you Glibs!
🌄😎☕
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l9WKZpC9UbU
🎶🎶
G’morning! I’m off to watch Joel Salatin slit a bunch of chickens’ necks and turn them into chicken nuggets.
Chile pepper festival for us. 😁
Good morning, Sean, trashy, and Suthen!
It’s only 53 degrees out here at Tranq Base! Had to go dig the LONG comfy pants out of the basement and put on a hoodie! 🥶
Leftists are like vampires or demons and truth is like holy water to them.
Last night I was looking up the source of “If you want to know who rules over you just find out who you are not allowed to criticize”. I was putting it in a comment and wanted to attribute it properly. I thought it was Voltaire but I wanted to make sure. What I found was a violent reaction from every ‘truth check’ site. They all said the same thing – “No, this was not Voltaire. It was said by a Neo-Nazi”
Never mind the content of the statement. They go strait to the ad-hominems every single time they are confronted with a sentiment to which they have no argument, all the while lying their asses off. As it happens I was looking that up when someone posted the link to the Walz photo at the doughnut shop and I think it was somewhat tangentially related to what I wanted to say.
These people are un-fucking-beleivable.
How did IVF become a campaign issue in 2024?
Someone pulled it right out of their ass and had Walz introduce it. As usual the R’s immediately started playing on the left’s terms.
The proper response would have been ” IVF? What are they talking about? Now…back to the border and the war on cops” That should have been the only mention of it.
It’s just so weird.
There was also the court ruling in, I think, Alabama, that said the state’s laws were worded in such a way that getting rid of unused frozen embryos constituted illegal abortion, or somesuch.
The Dems are running absolutely the worst campaign in history. It’s not even close. The doughnut shop thing, the sub shop thing, the issues. Fake issues, joy, weirdness, ridiculous transparent lies about everything – especially the economy. The whole thing is a wonder to behold.
Had a conversation yesterday with a neighbor. He asked what I thought about climate change. “In the future people will say it was the biggest scam in history and puzzle over how people fell for that shit.” The same can be said of the Dems campaign now.
Oh yeah, that’s right. Global warming is a big part of their campaign.
“…the court ruling in, I think, Alabama..”
If you untie the R’s shoelaces from each other the very first thing they do every time is step right on their dick. It’s pathetic.
Mrs. Suthenboy has the news on, of course. Newscaster says the Harris honeymoon is coming to an end already. Mrs. Suthenboy: “Of course it is. Honeymoons dont last very long when it’s a shotgun wedding.”
Heh. Perfect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzVHjg3AqIQ