Ravens Read Online Free PDF Page B

Grandmother, come out here and I’ll tell you.”
    “I’m sick of fooling with you!”
    “I promise I’ll tell you!”
    She’d been waiting for this all day. Not just to be here at Nell’s — but to be on this back porch, on this bed, at this particular
     angle, with the mound of fancy cushions rising behind her, with the toes of one foot just touching the floor, so that now
     and then she could push off and keep the bed rocking, while she looked out at Nell’s garden, the crepe myrtle tree and the
     chili peppers and the clawfoot bathtub, the mock-banana fragrantly in bloom, the roses clinging to the screen. She took a
     sip of shiraz. She called again, “I
promise
!”
    Nell came shuffling in. Took the rocker without a word.
    Outside, a breeze silvered the leaves on the crepe myrtle.
    Tara said, “OK.” She drew a breath. “We won the jackpot.”
    “The jackpot?”
    “The Max-a-Million. I mean Dad won it.”
    “You kidding?”
    “You promised you wouldn’t ask that.”
    “There’s been some mistake?”
    “Grandmother.”
    “How much did you win? A lot?”
    “Yes.”
    “A hundred dollars?”
    “More.”
    “A thousand dollars?”
    “Little more.”
    “A
hundred
thousand?”
    “Even a little bit more.”
    “Stop it,” said Nell. “You can’t lie to me.”
    “I know I can’t.”
    “You’re telling the truth?”
    “
Yes
.”
    Nell essayed, in a small birdlike voice, “You won a million dollars?”
    “Higher.”
    “Sweet baby Jesus.”
    “Yeah.”
    “
Tell
me, child!”
    “OK. Ready?”
    “Yes.”
    “We won three hundred and eighteen million dollars.”
    “Good. God.”
    “And on the way over here? They announced it on the radio. I mean, not about us, but that the ticket was sold out of Brunswick.
     And they said there’s only gonna be one winner. So it’s not even split. It’s all ours. But I mean we’re going to take the
     lump sum, so I guess it’ll be less. And then taxes, you know. What we’ll wind up with is only like a hundred and twenty-something
     million.”
    “A hundred and twenty something.
Million
.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “You’re really trying to tell me y’all are gonna
take home
a hundred and twenty million dollars?”
    “Or so.”
    “Mitch don’t have to cart toner all over the county no more?”
    Tara shook her head.
    “And you can get your degree?”
    “If I want. Maybe I’ll just buy my own college.”
    “And I can just strut around like I’m Queen Marie of Romania?”
    “You do that anyway, Grandmother dear.”
    They laughed so hard that Nell sprayed her wine, and Horace Jackal disappeared.
    Nell noticed that her own wine glass was empty.
    “Damn, we got to toast this. I’ll get some more.”
    Said Tara, “I can’t drink any more. I got to drive home.”
    “No, you’ll drink a toast with old Nell. I’ll call Willie; he’ll drive you home. Wait.”
    She weaved back to the kitchen.
    Tara lay there and her heart was weak from too much joy. Too much! Everything was hers! Of course it wasn’t really her money
     and if it were up to Mom she wouldn’t see a nickel — but she knew Dad would make sure she had anything she wanted. Travel.
     New York for wild nights with Clio. The Galapagos for a summer trip with Nell. And she could go to some great school, maybe
     Duke. And clothes. Maybe one or two dresses. Like those Marc Jacobs’ in
Marie Claire
. And she didn’t care about shoes but she wouldn’t mind owning one pair of great heels.
Stop
, she thought. But if she
was
going to Duke she’d absolutely need a car to get around in. Not a falling-apart Geo. Maybe a convertible BMW though it didn’t
     need to be brand new. Though really, why
not
brand new? And a nice apartment of her own. And a garden. With a clawfooted bathtub!
    As she lay there the tumbling of all these things through her thoughts — along with the swinging of the bed, and the heat
     and the wine, became dizzying. When Nell came back with a new bottle, she must have sensed