page 4.

I ended up falling asleep over Adora’s and woke up two hours later, mad as hell but only at myself.  How could I be so careless as to fall asleep around that gold-digger?

I’m sure she had rummaged my pockets for money, not to mention blackmail information.  There was also the issue of the time I had wasted, but instead of wasting any more time beating myself up I jumped in my car and tore out like a tiger.  I drove at least ten minutes before realizing I had no idea where I was going.  The directions were still folded neatly in my wallet and I hadn’t even taken the time to read them.  So I pulled into a deserted gas station to unfold the paper and for a few seconds was taken aback by Forbes’ poor spelling.  No wonder he didn’t see anything wrong with Leggs.

Lucky for me he had scrawled a few childish graphics to make it more understandable, and when I  stopped laughing I realized I was headed in the right direction already.  I just had to keep straight until I came to an old rickety store with a broken Coke sign hanging over it.  Forbes said that once I got there Stormy Weather’s place wouldn’t be far, so I started the car up and drove until I pulled in front of an old clapboard shack.  Boards were missing and paint was peeling, but an old broken sign that read “Enjoy Coke” hung from a single rusty nail over the door.  Just as I stepped inside a raspy voice spoke up and startled me.

I turned to see a short plump woman with curly gray hair.  Her smile revealed a history of poor dental hygiene, but she was friendly and extended her hand; the nails dotted with a chipped red polish.  She pointed to an old cardboard sign that shouted Miss Cora’s Christian Grocery in bright orange paint and asked what she could do for me.

“Hello miss Cora, I just need directions.  I’m looking for a lady named Stormy Weather…”

Her face suddenly dropped, but I continued.  “I was told I could find..”

“Mister, I don’t know wha’chew  gonna find”  she snapped, adding that she was a God-fearing christian whose lips would not be defiled by speaking of such evils.  She folded her arms in a stubborn gesture that said she was through talking, but when I handed her five crisp green ones she changed.  Her eyes narrowed, but she snatched the money and began counting.

“Well alright.  But I’m only telling’ you ‘cause she might be out there sick, or dead.  Bitch old as dirt” she sighed, and stuffed the money in her bra.  “B’sides, th’ church could use some o’ this.  You go straight up over this here hill” she said, pointing up the road.  “But you gonna need a boat, she off in th’ swamps abit.  Gotta warn you though, done heard strange things about that place”

When I asked what kinds of things she shot me a look that said I was the dumbest man on earth, then replied that people went out there and never came back as if I was supposed to know that.  Then her shoulders slumped and she told me her own husband had disappeared that same way.

 I risked another dirty look by asking why her husband would go out there, but this time she only shrugged.

“Tryin’ to git on ‘er good side, I guess.  Ol’ Stormy ‘posed to have money like you wouldn’t believe” she said, and cupped a hand to her mouth.  “Hell, I heard she wipes ‘er ass wit hunnert dollar bills, an’ I tell you what else.  They say one night th’ Klan was after this here li’l jigaboo, but he jump ‘is ass off in  them swamps an’ wouldn’t nobody go fetch ‘im”

“Well what happened?” I asked, and the woman immediately became defensive.

“How th’ hell should I know, that bullshit hap’n back before my grandmomma was even born”

She squinted at the sky and began shuffling away.  “An’ you better git started.  It gonna be dark soon, an’ I wouldn’t want my ass out there after dark if’n I was you”