The anatomy poster was taped to the fridge because the magnets got sold at the yard sale. Adleigh was gonna take nursing lessons so she could help Moccasin shoot his heroin safer because he wouldn’t quit, and it seemed logical, then Moccasin went and got hisself hit by a car outside the Glaze City drive-in theater, or inside it, Adleigh wasn’t sure, but that deputy who used to beg her for blowjobs, Ryder, he showed up on the porch saying Moccasin was in a comer so she called their Daddy up in Toledo, left him a message saying Moccasin was in a comer, she tried to be all calm, matter of fact, just like their Daddy was, because he hated it when she got motional.
“Daddy, Moccasin is in a comer” and he didn’t respond back.
Adleigh started worrying about her Daddy on top of worrying about Moccasin.
Adleigh walked to Blue Ridge Medical Center, and they said Mocassin’s prognosis was bad, like get the minister bad, and then Mamma showed up outta nowhere, she hadn’t seen Mamma in months, Mamma talked to the doctor and they pulled all the tubes out and Moccasin died, right there, four days after they had a yard sale on his 19th birthday so they could get him a cake and more heroin.
Mamma called Daddy even though they hated each other and he came down for the funeral.
Adleigh was relieved her Daddy wasn’t dead, and thought it was nice that he wore a tie, because she had never seen that, and after the reception at the VFW they all went back to the house, and went inside.
Adleigh wasn’t ready for it when Daddy hit her backhanded, with a full fist, and told her she should learn to talk, because he thought Acomer was a place that didn’t have shit to do with him, then Mamma screamed him out of the house.
Adleigh pulled the anatomy poster off the fridge and set it in her lap and thought maybe she could go to nursing school anyway, even though Mocassin was dead, because when she was in Blue Ridge, the girls in the purple scrubs sure did look sharp, then she looked at the poster closer and tried to figure out which bone Daddy broke in her face.
***
My brother told me once if you can visualize it, you can do it.
Adleigh already has the visual.
I hope she keeps moving forward on her dream of being a nurse.
The abyss is not just in the depths of an ocean.