Page 140 of The Apple Tree

“You name it. I took it. There’s not much I haven’t swallowed, snorted, or shot up my veins. What about you? Wait, let me guess. I’m pretty good at this.” He angled his body toward mine, eyes narrowed. “You look like a coke girl.”

“Cocaine?” My head jutted backward. “No.” I laughed. “Supposedly alcohol, but I think I’m here as a punishment for having sex with my dad’s best friend’s younger brother.”

“How old are you?” He took another drag.

“Eighteen.”

“So how can you be punished for sex if you’re a legal adult?”

I frowned. “I live at home, and my father is the preacher of a small town.”

“What town?”

“Devil’s Head.”

“Never heard of it.”

I laughed. “No one has.”

“Ya get knocked up?”

I shook my head.

“Then what’s the problem? Premarital sex?”

“Well, yes, but mostly the ten-year age difference.”

“Pfft … that ain’t nothin’. I was with a woman who was fifteen years younger than me. Of course, I was thirty. Did a little time for statutory rape, but when I got out five years later, we got married.”

“But you’re no longer married?”

He gazed off into the distance, puffing his cigarette. “She died.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too. We had a kid together. That’s why I’m here getting my shit together because I just found out I’m going to be a grandpa in five months. It’s amazing what you’ll do for family.”

“Amen,” I said.

He looked over at me and smirked. “You’re here for your family?”

“I’m here so my mom won’t kill herself,” I mumbled.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

KIM CARNES, “I’LL BE THERE WHERE THE HEART IS”

Eve

“What brought you here?”My therapist asked in our one-on-one session. He asked me the same question every time.

Every time, I said, “My parents.”

And every time, he said, “That’swho,not what.”

“They want me to stop drinking, but really, they want me to stop sleeping with the neighbor. I’m an embarrassment.”

That led to the story about my mother swallowing a whole bottle of pills. I always thought we were making progress, but he never stopped asking me what brought me there.

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