Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer Page B

laughing with me as I danced to the music.
    "Oh, God," I said. "I'm going to be sick."
    "Bathroom," Trace said.
    "No," I said. "Not there." I raced through the hallway, the bloodstained kitchen, and out the back door. I made it to the tiny backyard just in time. The swing set swayed almost playfully in the tannery-scented breeze.
    Trace followed me out. "You okay?" he asked.
    "No," I said. "I mean, yes, I guess so. My heart's stopped pounding."
    "Sorry," he said. "I didn't know it was you. Can you go back in? The living room's not bad."
    I nodded. We walked down the driveway to the front of the house. Trace opened the door.
    "Everybody's watching," he said. "The whole town probably knows by now that we're in here talking."
    "I don't care," I said. "I'll be gone in a couple of days."
    Trace laughed, and when he did, I heard another of Budge's echoes. "No one stays in Pryor if they don't have to," he said.
    "You didn't," I said, sitting on the plaid sofa, the kindly face of Jesus staring down at me.
    "Well, I don't know how much of a choice I had," Trace said. He sat on the easy chair, picked up the ashtray, then pushed it away. "Crystal and me had a big fight and Granny wouldn't let me stay with her neither. No one else was much interested, so I took off."
    "To where?" I asked.
    "Austin first," he said. "Then Memphis. I've been thinking maybe I'd try Nashville next. I could use a good guitar, so I figured I'd help myself to Budge's. You don't want it, do you?"
    "I don't want anything," I said. "How did you find out?"
    "About Crystal and the girls? I saw it on TV. How about you?"
    "Faye Parker called the police," I said. "After Budge took Krissi. She was worried about Mom and me. Did Budge know where you were?"
    Trace shook his head. "No one did," he said. "Crystal made it damn clear she didn't want any part of me, and Budge didn't care one way or the other. The twins were still in the hospital when I left. Kelli Marie used to follow me around, though. She couldn't say Trace. More like Twace." He paused. "I knew you was Willa right away. I could hear Momma Terri in your voice when you said my name."
    "You called her that?" I asked. "Momma Terri?"
    "Yeah," he said. "I was just a little kid when I lived with you folks. My momma had taken up with some guy—well, she was always doing that, still is probably—and she didn't want me around, so she sent me back to live with Budge and Momma Terri and you."
    I tried to picture this, Daddy and Mommy and my big brother, Trace. A happy family, happy in its own fashion.
    "What happened?" I asked.
    Trace looked up, like he was trying to catch the memory. "I'm not sure," he said. "But my momma got me and I lived with her for a while, and then I lived with some other folks, and then Budge found Jesus and I came back here to live with him and Granny Coffey. I lived with Granny till she kicked me out, and then I lived with Budge and Crystal till she kicked me out, and you know the rest."
    "I thought it was the other way around," I said. "Granny kicked you out last."
    Trace laughed. It was an easy laugh and hearing it made me feel better. "Could be," he said. "I got kicked out so many times, I coulda lost the order of things. So what's your life been like since I stopped changing your diapers?"
    "You changed my diapers?" I asked, trying hard not to blush.
    He laughed again. "I don't know how much of a help I was," he said. "But Momma Terri always tried to make me feel like I was. She was real kind to me. Sometimes I'd wish she was my real momma. I'd wish she'd come and find me and we'd live together again, you and Momma Terri and Budge and me. You know. Kid stuff."
    "I know," I said, although I really didn't. Had Brooke and Alyssa ever fantasized like that, that Jack and Val would miraculously get back together? I had no memories of wanting Budge back in my life, but then again, until today I'd had no memories of him at all.
    And now I was sitting in his living room talking with his son.