Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell

Author:Laura Warrell [Warrell, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2022-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

Salvage

Koko

The Blind Fox stood between a bank and the shop where Koko and her neighborhood friends used to buy comic books before the girls in the group decided they were too old for little-kid things. Koko had always been curious about the bar, with its black facade and red-rimmed windows lined year-round with green tinsel, the orange fox painted on the door sipping wine. Before the trip to Sanibel Island with her mother, her father had promised to stop there and pick up her bicycle though he made no mention of the woman who had stolen it. When Koko came back from Florida eight days later, her bike still wasn’t in the garage.

Standing in the parking lot behind the bar, bookbag heavy on her shoulder, Koko waited for a cook or manager to step outside to empty the trash or receive a delivery, knowing she wasn’t allowed inside. She would ask for the bike and offer her school ID, which she held ready in her hand to show.

She heard the slam of a car door and the click of heels on pavement. She recognized the woman right away as she slipped through the pub’s back door. The tall body, the red hair, the big eyes and pointy chin Koko thought made the woman look like a baby deer. Neither of her parents had noticed that morning, when Koko backed away from their argument after seeing movement through a crack in the door of the guest bedroom. She’d watched the woman escape through a window, then take the ten-speed from against the garage and ride away.

Koko circled the block to settle her nerves and walked as calmly as she could to the entrance of the bar, wavering for a moment before pulling open the door and stepping inside. The darkness seemed to close around her as if she’d been sucked out of the bright afternoon into a dank cellar. The place smelled like stale food. The wooden floors looked sticky. The red walls held crooked pictures in old-fashioned frames. Koko wondered why her father liked the place and figured it might have something to do with the dartboards at the back of the room, the huge bowl of chili she saw a couple sharing at one of the tables, and the redhead behind the bar, tying her hair into a ponytail. Her eyes seemed to blink even bigger when she noticed Koko and stared back at her as if she weren’t sure whether to seat her or tell her to go.

“Are you lost?” The woman’s voice was high, girly with a slight rasp to it, like a sprinkle of salt. Koko wished her own voice sounded as cute. She shook her head.

“Is it Girl Scout cookie time?”

“I wish.”

Her gaze flicked down to Koko’s toes and up again, and Koko regretted wearing her jacket with a rip in the fabric.

The woman tilted her head and her ponytail bobbed. “Did you come to eat?”

“Can I?”

Koko looked around the room. Two men at the

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