The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat by Edward Kelsey Moore

Author:Edward Kelsey Moore
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction, Family Life, General
ISBN: 9781444757309
Publisher: Knopf
Published: 2012-12-31T13:30:00+00:00

Chapter 21

If you ever wanted evidence that I wasn’t as fearless as the rumors made me out to be, all you had to do was look at the way I handled Barbara Jean’s drinking. Without even discussing it, I joined in a coward’s pact with Clarice and didn’t say a word about it for years. Both of us were afraid that if we confronted it head-on we’d find our friendship toppling over like a tower of children’s blocks.

Not dealing with Barbara Jean’s drinking turned it into an invisible fourth member of our trio, a pesky, out-of-tune singer who Clarice and I just adjusted to over time. We learned not to call Barbara Jean on the phone after nine at night because she wasn’t likely to remember the conversation. If she was going through a bad spell, we would say that she was “tired” and we rescheduled anything that we might have had planned so we could do it when she was feeling more energetic. It went on like that for years, and the whole time I convinced myself that we weren’t doing her any harm by not confronting her about it. She would go through periods when she was tired more days than not, but those episodes were always followed by longer periods when she was fine.

I told myself that it was Lester’s place to step in and say something if it was going to be said. He was her husband. But Lester was gone now, and for the first time in ages, Barbara Jean had been drunk in public. I tried to tell myself that what had happened at my party had been typical New Year’s Day excess. Who hadn’t tied one on celebrating a new year at some point in their lives?

But this was different. And Clarice and I both knew it, even if we hadn’t said anything. Barbara Jean had that darkness about her in a way that I hadn’t seen since she lost Adam. And it didn’t seem like she was going to shake it anytime soon.

I entered 2005 recognizing that one day soon, while I still had the chance to do it, I was going to have to risk toppling that tower of blocks.

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