That afternoon as they strolled along Main Street browsing in one shop and then the other, Suzanna began to believe that for the first time in her life this was something she could hold on to. She and Annie would stay here forever. Next week, after Annie started school, she’d look for a job and find herself a small apartment, not far off in New Jersey, but right here in Cousins, Georgia. This was where they’d build a new life, and Ida Parker would be their prestigious family tree.
Earl
No More Waiting
FOR ALMOST FIVE MONTHS EARL Fagan clung to the belief that Suzanna would return. It seemed a reasonable enough assumption since she’d left most of her clothes hanging in the closet, a bunch of crap in the bathroom, and Annie’s tricycle on the back porch.
He didn’t care a bean about Annie, because the kid was a nuisance, but Suzanna, that was a different story. He’d fallen for her the first time he’d seen her behind the register at the Snack Shop, her belly rounded out and her breasts twice the size they were now. He’d suspected there was a chance she could be pregnant, but she didn’t say anything about it so neither did he.
They got friendly and went out half a dozen times—movies, dinner at the Chinese place, an afternoon at the county fair—then she told him. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing that he hadn’t expected. He’d gone into the Snack Shop figuring to get a Ring Ding and a Coca-Cola and there she was, standing at the counter, red-eyed and teary.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, and she burst out bawling.
That’s when she told him a boy from school had gotten her pregnant then and would soon be going off to college.
“And as if that’s not enough,” she sobbed, “Daddy said he can’t live with the sight of my big belly anymore, and I’ve got to get out of his house.”
“So, do it. Leave. Move out.”
Suzanna grabbed a napkin from the counter, blew her nose, then tossed it in the trash can.
“Oh, just like that, move out?” she repeated. “And where I am supposed to go?”
“I got a house off Shady Creek Road. You can come stay with me.”
With the cynicism still crackling through her words, she said, “Yeah, sure. And I’m supposed to believe you ain’t looking for something in return?”
“I’m not,” Earl said indignantly. “I got an extra room I ain’t using. You can have it for as long as need be.”
Two days later Suzanna moved in with him. She slept in the spare room for the first three months, then a month after Annie was born, she painted the room pink, turned it into a nursery, and started sleeping in Earl’s bed.
As far as Earl was concerned, it was good back then. Annie was small enough that she slept most of the time, and Earl had what he’d wanted all along: Suzanna. Their problems didn’t start until the kid was about three; that’s when Suzanna began harping on him about drinking and cussing.
“How’s Annie supposed to grow up respectable when she sees you acting like this?”
She didn’t say it just once, she said it over a thousand times. The same thing, again and again, like a stuck record.
When Earl had had enough, he laid into her, punched a hole in the wall, and walked out. From then on he did most of his drinking at Maloney’s, but even that wasn’t good enough.
Suzanna was always on his back about something. The arguments turned violent and began to happen more frequently. Usually they ended with him passing out or her saying she was going to leave and take Annie with her, but as far as he was concerned those were nothing but empty threats. The truth was she had nowhere to go, no job, and no money. A number of times he’d laughed in her face when she said it, but back then he never dreamed she’d actually follow through.
Now, after five months, he was genuinely worried. Suzanna could be irresponsible about a number of things but never about Annie. Earl believed that if she were coming back, she’d have done so in time to register Annie for school.
Sticking to that thought, he’d tidied up the house, gotten rid of the beer cans and whiskey bottles, and cut back on the drinking. For almost two weeks he’d been painfully close to sober, but now school had started and there was still no sign of Suzanna.
The second week of September he got caught behind a school bus, and as he sat there watching kids scramble on and off thoughts of Suzanna overwhelmed him. That was the day he broke down and cried. He called the bowling alley, said he was too sick to come to work, then bought a half-gallon of whiskey, went home, and drank himself into a stupor.
Three days later, he decided that he was going to find Suzanna and bring her home. He’d do whatever he had to do to keep her. If it meant giving up drinking, he’d do it. If it meant getting married, he was willing to do that too. Despite the never-ending arguments and having to put up with her kid, his life with Suzanna was a lot better than life without her.
Without much to go on finding her was not going to be easy, but Earl believed anything was possible if you set your mind to it. He started by going through the things she’d left at the house; he was looking for a name, address, or telephone number. After two days of emptying out every drawer in the house, checking the pockets of her jeans and jackets, and paging through her books, he tried asking neighbors along the road. He showed the picture he carried in his wallet and asked if they’d seen Suzanna coming or going.
Most shook their head and answered no, but
