Some Kind of Miracle by Iris R. Dart Read Free Book Online Page A

shook her hand with his meaty paw. He was her father’s brother’s son, and now in middleage he looked remarkably the way she remembered her father looking. Only he didn’t have her father’s gentle nature. At the moment he had a crossed-arm stance and a sneer of distaste on his face.
    “So I know you’re not here to buy a wrench,” he said. “And you can’t be here to tell me somebody in the family died, ’cause all those poor schmucks croaked a long time ago, leaving only you and me behind.”
    “And Sunny,” she reminded him.
    “Yeah. Sunny. She’s not exactly what you call alive,” he said.
    Dahlia shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. “So how’s it going, Louie? I was just in the neighborhood, and thought I’d pop in.”
    “Still single, I see,” he said, looking at her left hand. “I’m still with Penny, and I’ve got three kids. Maniacs. They keep me working night and day in this place. No men in your life? You gay? You’re not gay.”
    “Not gay. Have a boyfriend,” Dahlia said, trying to remember if she needed anything from a hardware store. Maybe she could pretend she was there because she needed something for her house. How the hell was she going to ask a question that she was certain would piss Louie off? Oh, well, screw the niceties. She’d go right for it.
    “So exactly how is Sunny?” she tried, steeling herself. And she was right about his reaction. His eyes hardened instantly, and his mouth turned into a tight-lipped slit.
    “How’s Sunny?” he said in that way that meant, I can’t believe you’re asking me that. “Sunny’s a vegetable. Just like always. Why do you want to hearabout Sunny all of a sudden? She’s been in and out of funny farms for the last twenty-five years. How do you think she is? Not waiting around for the Pulitzer Prize committee to call, that I can promise you. Not exactly at the top of her game.”
    Dahlia knew this was going to be hard, but she forged ahead. “Yeah, but isn’t she out of lockup and in some halfway house now?” She remembered hearing something like that from her mother about eight years earlier. Eight years ago when her own career was flying high and she was way too busy to think about Sunny except in passing now and then.
    “Some of the time, yeah. When she isn’t regressing and refusing to take the medication and talking to demons who want her to saw off pieces of her body and feed them to the neighborhood dogs. What’s it to you?”
    Dahlia hesitated. She hadn’t really thought through what she was and wasn’t going to tell this nasty little beast. Certainly not that she wanted to go by the nuthouse and get Sunny to sign off on their potentially moneymaking song. That would be the kiss of death. He’d want to screw it up somehow. He’d probably say that as her brother he controlled everything that belonged to Sunny because she couldn’t be responsible for anything anymore.
    “She’s in some shitty dive in San Diego,” Louie went on, “and believe me, you don’t want to go there. It would scare the crap out of you. I made the mistake of going about three years ago. Trust me, she doesn’t look like anyone you remember. And worse yet, she doesn’t have any idea who you are or what you were to her or even where she is.”
    Louie pulled a feather duster out of his back pocket, and then, as if he wanted her to be sure the discussion was over, he turned, taking his eyes from Dahlia’s, and silently dusted items on nearby shelves.
    No, Louie, she thought. I came here to get the address, and I am not going to budge until I get it. “Will you give me the address?” she tried. The direct approach was a good start.
    Louie looked surprised. “What the hell do you want the address for? You all of a sudden got some do-gooder impulse or something? Go adopt a pet.”
    A young couple was wandering through the store, and she could see that Louie’s attention was about to shift. She had to go for it immediately.
    “Please,