set it down on the carpet, perched against her left leg. ‘Lori,’ Bell said, ‘Albie never went to school, is that right? You kept him here at home?’
‘That’s right. I knew he wouldn’t fit in. Other kids’d tease him.’
‘How does he spend his time?’
‘Well, he does his chores. He gets the wood for the stove. He can sweep the floors. Dust some, too. It takes him a while sometimes, but he can do it.’
Bell looked at Deanna. ‘It must be hard for you. Having your brother here, when you bring friends home. Needing to explain about him.’
Deanna’s gaze flashed from the carpet to her mother. Then to Bell.
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Deanna said.
‘So it’s been hard?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
Deanna’s eyes disengaged again. Bell had to fight off the urge to take the young woman’s chin in her hand and force her to keep her head up.
Looking past Deanna into the kitchen, Bell saw a long particleboard shelf slotted onto aluminum brackets on the wall. It was crammed with snow globes. Looks like at least thirty, Bell guessed. I’d sure hate to have dusting duty in this place. The plastic bubbles bumped up against each other, some large, some very tiny; some were round bubbles, others were tall, skinny tubes.
Deanna raised her head and turned it, to see what had caught Bell’s eye.
‘Those’re mine,’ Deanna said. ‘Got a lot of ’em.’
Bell remembered the snow globes she’d seen in truck stops and hotel gift shops, the souvenirs from specific places; a tiny arch for St Louis, a Statue of Liberty for New York, the Alamo for Texas, all doused with white or gold flakes of confetti if you shook the thing back and forth or turned it upside down. Snow globes, Bell found herself musing as she regarded the crowded shelf, were plastic scraps signifying a larger world, the world beyond trailers and coal trucks.
And disabled brothers.
Maybe these weren’t just collectibles. Maybe they were things to hope on.
Most of the snow globes were too small for Bell to be able to make out the figures inside or the labels on the pedestals, but the identity of one of the larger globes was discernible: In big red slanting letters across its base she read VIVA LAS VEGAS!
‘Tell me about Albie,’ Bell said, turning back to Lori. ‘When did you first know he was different?’
‘Right away. It was the look he had. The look in his eyes. A funny look. Like he wasn’t there or nothing. And he never talked. Didn’t walk, neither, until he was five or six years old. Couldn’t figure it out.’
‘What did you do?’ Bell asked. ‘What did the doctor say?’
‘Well, thing is—’ It was Lori’s turn to look down at the carpet. ‘Thing is, we didn’t have no doctor. Albie was born right here at home. Same with Deanna. Curtis had lost his job down at the tire store – weren’t his fault, weren’t their fault, there just weren’t no business coming in – and so we did without. Had my children right here.’
Bell kept her eyes aimed at Lori’s. In her experience, the more difficult the question, the more important it was to look the other person in the eye when you asked it. It showed that you had a respect for their life, for what they’d been through. If you hesitated, if you looked away, you were doing it for yourself, not for them.
‘What happened, Lori? What made Albie different?’
‘When he was bein’ born, he didn’t get no oxygen. That’s what they told me later. Lack of oxygen is what done it. That meant his brain wasn’t right. Wasn’t nobody’s fault. Just happened that way.’ She spoke the last two sentences in a singsong way, as if they were part of a catechism. She’d probably had to tell the story over and over again, Bell figured, to various social workers.
Bell nodded. ‘Okay, Lori. Let me ask you one more thing. And Deanna’ – she turned to include the young woman who was still apparently mesmerized by the carpet fibers – ‘I’d like your input on this, too. Do you think Albie knows right from wrong? When he does something wrong, is he ashamed? Does he understand what he’s done? Does he apologize or try to make it right?’
Deanna flinched as if she’d been poked with a stick. She looked at her mother as she spoke.
‘There was that one time, Mama, ’member that?’ Deanna said, agitation making her words come in a tumbled rush. ‘’Member?’
‘Slow down, sweetie,’ Lori said, ‘so’s Mrs Elkins