'Sure, but Jon Delroy was there and his men were all around. Daddy was dead. I was afraid of her, afraid of them.'
'You too?' I said to Stonie.
'Cord and I had been unhappy for a very long time,' Stonie said. 'It deadens you.'
Cord patted her hand. She smiled at him.
'Not much fun for you either, was it?' she said.
Cord shook his head.
'So,' SueSue said, 'she had our hair cut short, like you see, and she took our clothes and had the windows closed up and we had to take some pills.'
'Sedatives?' I said.
'I guess so. Things are a little foggy.'
'They were full of something when they came here,' Sapp said. 'Took some time to get them back.'
'You do that?'
'I had some help.'
'I owe you,' I said.
'You bet you do,' Sapp said.
SueSue was impatient. She had a story to tell, and everyone was listening. She liked having everyone listening.
'No television, no radio, nothing to read,' she said. 'Like we had to clear our minds.'
'How do you get on with your mother?' I said.
SueSue and Stonie looked at each other.
'My mother?' SueSue said.
'Sherry Lark?' Stonie said. There was a lot of distaste in the way she said 'Lark.'
'My mother's a dipshit,' SueSue said.
'How did she get along with Penny?'
'Penny hated her.'
'How'd Penny get along with your father?'
'She loved Daddy,' SueSue said.
'We all loved Daddy,' Stonie said.
'Do you mean more than you're saying?'
'Well.' Stonie had a lot less effect than SueSue. 'We did love Daddy, all three of us. But maybe we didn't love him the right way, and maybe we'd have been better if we'd loved him some other way.'
'What the hell does that mean?' SueSue said.
'I don't know exactly how to say what I'm trying to say. But we all loved Daddy, and look at us.'
'It's not Daddy's fault,' SueSue said.
'What do you think about Jason Hartman?' I said.
It diverted them.
'Jason?' SueSue said. 'What about Jason?'
'My question exactly.'
'He's cute,' SueSue said.
Stonie nodded.
'He's sort of like a relative,' she said. 'Being Dolly's son and all.'
'Know anything unusual about him?'
'No,' Stonie said. 'Except he doesn't seem to do much. Doesn't work. Lives with his mother.'
'Maybe he's in your program, Cord,' Pud said.
'He is very cute,' Cord said.
Stonie patted Cord's hand.
'Shhh,' she said.
They both smiled.
'Why do you ask?' SueSue said.
It would have been great theater to say, Because he's your brother, but it didn't seem to get me anywhere.
