Free Crazy Horse's Girlfriend (9781940430447) by Erika T. Wurth Page B

knew had a scar on her face, a big, angry pink pucker from the right side above her eye to just above the left side of her mouth. From a knife. Because she’d refused to let some other girl fuck around with her in the middle of the night.
    â€œNo,” I said, my voice flat, moody. I went up to the counter and poured myself some coffee, put cream and sugar in the cup and looked out the open window, the dingy curtains flapping in the breeze. The window faced the street. It was sunny, and watching the cars pass by, the people on their way to work, something came over me, into my stomach.
    â€œWhere is Dad?” I asked, still looking out. There was a robin that came every spring. It would sit in the tree outside of the window, cock its head at the reflection of the branches and fly into the window. It did it over and over again. I was wondering when it would make its annual appearance and start knocking its head on the glass.
    â€œWork.”
    I turned around and she was grading again. I suppose she’d given up on trying to change me for the better for the moment. I finished my cereal and went into the living room to watch TV with the twins, who clapped their hands at the images every few minutes and then went silent, staring into the box.
    I’d watched about an hour’s worth of kiddie shows with them when Mom asked me if I could give them a bath.
    I hung my head. “Sure.”
    â€œNo!” Carrie yelled.
    I spent the morning taking care of the twins and actually doing some of my homework. Afternoon, I drove over for my shift at the Sugar Plum. It was slow as hell and I only came home with five dollars in tips. There had been two tables the whole time. A townie family, who gave me five bucks. And a yuppie family, on their way to something else, probably a ski resort, probably Vail or some shit. They hadn’t tipped at all. I drove home in a funk and ate dinner with Mom, the twins, and a silent, drunken Dad. By the time night hit, I was more than ready to make my escape.
    I waited until everyone had settled down for the night, the sounds of television from the living room and Mom’s bedroom drifting downstairs before I opened the window and crawled out. I drove over to Megan’s, the evening growing cold and the streets empty. When I got there, Megan was just getting home, slowly coming up the steps a little ahead of me, her baby on her back. She always complained that the cost of daycare barely made working worth it. I called her name and she looked over her shoulder at me, sweat pouring off her brow even though it was dark and cool. She said nothing as I helped her carry her groceries in, her large, yellow arms unloading into my wiry yellow ones. We put the groceries away, Megan glancing over at Will like she could rip his head off and shit down his throat. He was sitting on the couch, watching us, a fucking petulant ass expression on his face. I figured they had been fighting about bills, again. I don’t know how Will wasn’t afraid for his life. Megan was a tough broad. Talked all the time about the fights she used to get in on her rez when she was a teenager. Like jumping on chick’s heads and scratching at their eyes kinda stories. I made sure to never get on her bad side.
    She breastfed the baby and went into her room to put her down for the night. I watched them go, the baby’s dark, fuzzy head peeking sleepily over Megan’s shoulder. It was cute as hell but cried all the time. When I first started hanging at Will’s, just watching the baby sleep made me want to pop one out. But after a while, I started calling it birth control ’cause just seeing how much you had to do to be a parent was exhausting, especially when you were alone. It was hard enough being a part-time parent for the twins, who were at least old enough to shit on their own. I couldn’t imagine how Megan did it. Her husband is this Ute guy who had ended up in prison and because it was