The Crow Valley Karaoke Championships: a Novel by Ali Bryan

Author:Ali Bryan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Chapter 31

MOLLY

A re-sing and she didn’t have to ask. Molly looked back up at Roxanne, hunched behind the judges’ platform, a lost miner, and felt a surge of gratitude. A second chance and the privilege of going last. Everyone would be drunk by then, and if she chose the right song they might riot or weep or dance in the aisles shouting her name, confessing their sins, begging for mercy, begging for more. She would have to win, and when she did, Roxanne might forgive her. Maybe Dale would too.

Molly’s thoughts turned to Malcolm, his leg, barely a leg at four years old, and stooped to whisper into Xavier’s ear. “I’m going to the hospital to check on your brother. You’re staying here.”

Xavier tore open a stamp-sized salt packet, emptied it onto a small hill of pepper, and flicked the garbage onto the floor.

“Pick that up,” she scolded, bending to retrieve it as the town librarian glared from the adjacent table.

“I don’t want to stay here. It’s boring.” Xavier sighed and kicked the underside of the table.

Molly rested a firm hand on his leg. “What about the girl you were playing with earlier?”

“She had to go sit with her grandma.”

“Well, the hospital will be more boring.”

“But there’s machines and stuff.”

“Machines and sick people.”

“I like sick people.”

Molly slid into the chair next to Xavier as the MC introduced a stranger to the stage. Molly had seen the woman at the drugstore earlier that morning, half the woman’s cheek a deep shade of plum.

“What’s wrong with her face?”

“Nothing. It’s just a birthmark. She was born that way.”

“Does it hurt?”

She lowered her voice. “If you need anything, your brothers are up on the balcony. Don’t touch the railing.”

“When will you be back?”

Molly stood. “An hour, probably? You know what hospitals are like.” She crouched again and whispered, “Don’t go anywhere with anyone.”

“What if I’m hungry?”

“You just ate a Ring Pop.” Molly rifled through her purse, handed him a crumpled ten-dollar bill, and kissed him on the forehead. “Be good.”

She gathered her car keys, which were partially buried under a heap of used napkins, and laced her way to the isolated rear exit, where no one could judge her for leaving. She stopped short of the door and sifted through the lost-and-found bin until she found a hoodie covered in tiny silkscreened diamonds to cover her sagging strapless dress. She pulled it over her head, ignoring that it smelled like a litter box and a high school dance. Molly popped open the back door and used her body weight to ram it shut.

Outside, it was still warm. It seemed hotter than it had been in the afternoon, the air dense, as though beaten into stiff peaks. She flapped the hoodie and kicked through the pine needles that lined the path toward the side of the building. She thought of the escaped prisoner and whipped around in a panic to make sure he wasn’t behind her. Gary would lose his mind if he knew she’d left the hall.

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