Fair Warning by Robert Olen Butler

Author:Robert Olen Butler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Published: 2002-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

Sunday seemed like a good time for Mama to get a dose of the truth. And I wanted to get this over with. So as soon as I got back to my apartment I curled up on my couch and dialed Houston. Mama answered on the first ring.

“You were sitting by the phone,” I said.

“Hello? Who is this?” Mama said, feigning ignorance. She didn’t like me simply to start up a phone conversation without a certain ritual of courtesies.

“You know my voice, Mama.”

“Hello? Who’s speaking please?”

“Cut it out, Mama.”

“Can’t we just do this right once in a while?” she said.

“Mama.”

“Remember, this is Texas you’re calling.”

“Okay, Mama. Hello. This is Amy Dickerson your eldest daughter calling.”

“No need to get snippety.”

“Would you like me to hang up and call again and we’ll do this the Texas way?”

“Is that a serious offer?”

I thought about that a moment. “Yes.”

“Then no. We’ve gone this far, let’s just keep on going.”

“Things sound like they’re getting to you, Mama.”

“They are.”

I thought about calling back later. This was not the way to tell her about Missy, after this kind of start. But before I could make a decision, she was crying. And it wasn’t one of her exaggerated-for-effect Texas sob shows. Her crying was rather quiet, stuttery, almost repressed. In short, it sounded real.

I made my voice as gentle as I could make it. “Mama, what is it?”

“All his stuff is driving me crazy. I’ve got to move on, honey.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll see if I can get down there tomorrow. You’ll feel better when it’s all tagged.”

“I’m sorry about … you know.”

I didn’t know. “Sorry?”

“About making you say who you are. I know your voice.”

“I know you do.”

“You’ll always be my little girl.”

“Not for the rest of this week,” I said. “I’m your auctioneer.”

She was silent for a moment, weighing her desire for emotional leverage with me against her desire to get rid of Daddy from her life. Daddy won. “I can live with that,” she said.

I was careful to give her a courteous close and then pushed the phone disconnect button, and though I’d committed to doing one unpleasant thing, I’d deferred another. It was better to tell her about Missy face to face anyway.

I stretched out on the couch, wanting to doze, and as soon as my legs moved I wanted Alain. I got up on my knees so I could see the answering machine, though I’d checked it when I got in, and there were still no messages, and I lay back down again. I didn’t want to start second-guessing last night, but questions naturally arose. Did I do enough to let him know the kiss was right? Had he reconsidered the act for himself?

I looked to the clock over my fireplace. It was a gilt-bronze Louis XVI mantel clock, but it didn’t make a sound. I’d gotten it cheap because the insides were hopeless and I’d had a quartz movement put in and my clients would be appalled at that but it kept better time than anything they owned in a pristine state.

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