Black & White by Lewis Shiner

Author:Lewis Shiner [Shiner, Lewis]
Format: epub
Tags: General, Fiction, Fiction - General, Thrillers, Fiction : General, Cultural Heritage
ISBN: 9781596063037
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Published: 2010-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

“You say that like you don’t care.”

“I never said that. Not caring isn’t the same as understanding that things happen sometimes.”

“Well, that thing isn’t going to happen.”

Mercy’s phone rang late on a Thursday night. It was August 28, two weeks from Mercy’s due date. Half asleep, Robert heard Mercy say,“Hello?” Then, her voice softening, she said,“Barrett? Are you all right?”

She switched on her nightstand lamp and put a hand on Robert’s shoulder.“Where are you?” she said into the phone.

Robert rolled over toward her, squinting against the light. She was shaking her head.“He only wants to talk to you,” she said, handing him the phone.

“Hey, Barrett,” Robert said. His brain was still struggling to its feet.

“Can you pick me up? Same place as last time?”

“When? You mean now?”

“If you can do it. I need to get to Raleigh. Can you drive me? Just drop me off there and you can come straight home. I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t important.And I won’t ask again.”

“Okay. I can be there in ten minutes.”

“Thanks.”The dial tone buzzed.

As before, Robert pulled up to the curb where Elvira’s had been, and this time Barrett appeared immediately. He was clean, if scruffy, and his energy level seemed high.“Thanks, man,” he said as he got in and shut the door.“This helps.”

“Where do you need to go?”

“Shaw University, downtown. Is that cool?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.What’s it about?”

“You know I can’t tell you that.”

“No. I guess I don’t really want to know.”

Robert headed east on Business 70.After a few minutes’ silence he said, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m making it.We’re getting down to the nitty-gritty now, and after that nobody knows how it’s going to shake out.”

Something in his tone made Robert look at him.“Nitty-gritty?”

“I’m all nerves, man. I’m talking more than I should.”

“There’s about to be trouble, is what you’re saying.A riot, like in Watts?”

“Watts was small time. Listen, I heard Mercy’s pregnant. Is that true?” “Yeah, it’s true.”

“You’re standing by her?”

“I love her.We’re getting away from here. Going to Texas.”

“That’s good.That’s very good.The farther from here the better.”

To fill the time, Robert found himself talking about the job in Dallas, the new life he hoped to start there. Other than Mercy, there had been no one he could confide in, and he’d been holding it in for months.The only thing that scared him was how unreal it all sounded, like the elaborate pipe dreams that old winos would tell to con somebody out of a quarter.

When the words ran out they drove in silence again until Barrett said,“I wonder sometimes if I did this whole thing wrong.That maybe it could still be me with Mercy, that I could have had a straight teaching job and a family and been a regular citizen.” He glanced at Robert.“No offense, man. Just a little idle jealousy. I know it wasn’t meant to be.”

Robert nodded. He was long past seeing Barrett as a rival. If anything, he was jealous of his own early days with Mercy, before her pregnancy, before the world turned so sour.

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