Scar Lover by Harry Crews

Author:Harry Crews [Crews, Harry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780671797867
Google: kv2k1sIyZ3MC
Amazon: 0671797867
Publisher: Poseidon Press
Published: 1992-02-23T08:00:00+00:00

10

Outside under the streetlight, the sloping Hudson Hornet gleamed like an enormous shiny lump of gold. Pete could only stare. When he did look over at George, the big man’s smile was as broad and gleaming as Pete had ever seen it. Linga looked as though she had just caught the scent of something rotten.

“Wha ya tink, mon?” said George.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. Really, I haven’t. How many coats of paint did you say you had on it?”

“I and I nuh good wit dem figgers, but Linga say twenny-nine,” said George. “Han rub ebber coat. Ebber bit I do by me an just by me.”

Linga said in a soft and bitter voice: “You’re thinking typical of a nigger, are you not, Pete? And, of course, you are right. The only way I could get him to agree to come to the States—agree without hurting him, that is—was to promise him a car. I bought this when it was a total ruin and George, with only the twenty dollars I give him out of his paycheck each week, restored it, turned it into what you’re looking at. He kept not a penny of the money for himself but put it all into that… that thing.” She turned her head and sent a heavy glob of spit flying into the street. “So when you think this the typical work of a nigger, you are correct. Took him six months to do it, but he did it. As you know, the typical nigger is sick for a car and little else, except clothes perhaps, in some cases.”

Pete had looked directly into her eyes as she spoke and now he raised both hands, palms up in a kind of resigned shrug. “George said you were a conjure woman, so I guess you can read goddam minds too,” he said, “since you know what I think.”

She looked at George, her hooded eyes going heavier. “Did you say I was a conjure woman?”

Before George could answer, Pete said, “Fuck what he said, forget it. Maybe he didn’t. Maybe you’re just pissing me off. And I don’t even know you well enough for you to be pissing me off here in the middle of the night and the rest of the shit I’m in.”

“Did this dickless one say anything to you about Obeah? Or that I was thought to be an Obeah woman?”

Pete looked from her to the car and back to her again, breathing deeply, trying to hold on to himself. Finally, with his eyes locked on hers, he said, “What the fuck we playing here, twenty questions?”

“I have no knowledge of what twenty questions may or may not be,” she said. “But I would certainly like to know why you are so angry. What have I done to provoke you so?”

“Nothing. You haven’t done a goddam thing. Just don’t tell me anything else. I know too much about too many things already. Jesus, could we just get into the fucking car and go

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.