Song of the Road Read Online Free PDF Page B

weeks of their marriage he had tried to penetrate her almost every night and succeeded only a couple of times. As the months went by, his obsession with gambling grew, and he initiated sex less and less.
    One night during an argument about his gambling, he slapped her, then threw her down and penetrated her with more gusto than he’d ever shown before. He was immediately sorry, wept, and begged her not to leave him. He said it would never happen again, and it hadn’t. Bobby never knew that the result of that one act had left the only positive thing to mark his time spent on this earth.
    It didn’t matter now how her baby came to be. She already loved it with all her heart and was determined that it would grow up knowing a mother’s care.
    Mary Lee scrambled eggs and toasted bread beneath the burner in the oven. She was sitting down to eat when her mother came out of the bedroom. She had changed into a sleeveless sundress that revealed her bony shoulders. She had crimped waves in her hair by using the curling iron, heated in the chimney of the coal oil lamp. Her cheeks were rouged and her lips smeared with bright red lipstick. To Mary Lee she was a pitiful sight.
    “Want to share my eggs?” Mary Lee asked.
    “No.”
    “Have you eaten today?”
    “Listen. I don’t need you nagging me.”
    “I don’t mean to nag, Mama. I don’t want you to get sick.” “If you’re so concerned, why did you run off my friends?” “Mama, don’t let’s fight. Help me get this place running again like it was when Daddy was here.”
    “Scott didn’t nag me.”
    “No. He probably knew it wouldn’t do any good,” Mary Lee snapped irritably. Then, when Dolly went to the door, “Where are you going?”
    “None of your business. If I can’t have my friends in my home, I’ll go to theirs.”
    “I didn’t say you — Oh, never mind.” Mary Lee realized that her mother was not in a reasonable mood.
    Without a look or another word, Dolly walked out the back door. Mary Lee placed her fork on the edge of her plate. The eggs suddenly tasted like sawdust. Her mother was showing her dislike for her more than she ever had before.
    Mary Lee wished that her attitude didn’t hurt so much. She still had her suitcase to unpack before she went to bed. Tomorrow she would find time to clean the room. All of that left her mind when she looked out the window and saw a light in cabin number one.
    Frank Pierce was back.
    Mary Lee hurriedly left the house and went to the cabin. She lifted her hand to rap, then paused when she heard her mother’s voice, then the low rumble of a male voice. Anger erased her tiredness and stiffened her back. She rapped on the door, hard and insistently. When it opened, Frank stood there, blocking her view.
    “What’a ya want?”
    “You to leave.”
    “I told you I rented by the month.”
    “Show me the receipt or I’ll call the sheriff.”
    Dolly crowded in, holding on to Frank’s arm with one hand and the neck of a bottle with the other. “He paid for a year, Miss Nosy. I gave him a receipt.”
    “You’ll have to swear to that, Mama,” Mary Lee said calmly.
    “Go on back in the house,” Dolly said.
    Mary Lee’s eyes moved past Dolly to see Pearl sitting on the bed. “Has she been here all day?”
    “I told her she could come out here.”
    “It’s none of yore business who’s in my room,” Frank said in a booming voice. “Now, unless you want to join the party, get the hell away from my door. I’ll take ya on even if ya do have a bun in the oven.” He gave her a wolfish leer.
    “You’re an insult to the human race. I’ll go see Mr. Morales in the morning and see what can be done about getting you out of here.”
    “Do that, and while yo’re at it, tell him ’bout the jailbird ya got down in number six!”
    “Mama rented to him and took his money. But that has nothing to do with you. Have your receipt handy. You’ll need it.”
    “And ya can kiss my ass, bitch!” he yelled, and