I can’t stop looking through the living room window at the new painting. The girl Lily painted my mahout!
It is morning, Wednesday, and the eastern sun shines a spotlight on the painting. It is like a circus spotlight: a circle of light just like those we stood inside for so many years. We made people smile, Bill and I. We made them cheer.
I go down on my knees, in order to better see inside the trailer.
The mean fire-eater Charlie is outside in his yard.
“Yeah, you’d better pray,” he says to me. I smell the cigar; I see the cowboy hat. “You’d better pray that they don’t get rid of you soon. Look at you: can’t keep away from their house. Next thing ya know, you’ll be bustin’ out another window and hurtin’ somebody.”
Charlie is wrong.
I would never hurt people I love.