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perfect thing.
    Jeb took a stool at the bar and ordered the whiskey,downed it and ordered another. Johnny’s was empty this early in the evening and the bartender left him alone. Jeb sat and studied his hands, which were black with grime. He considered going to the bathroom to wash them and thought better of it. This kind of ground-in dirt wouldn’t come out for a long time. What a lousy fucking job; Mrs. Friedman, with her shit-eating grin and hands on her hips acting like she was better than everyone else, as if just because she was paying him it gave her the right to order him around like a servant. With this kind of dirt under his fingernails he would never make it in politics. They would laugh at him when he tried to shake hands and kiss their babies. Stupid white trash. What could you possibly do for us? And a Taylor, too. We haven’t forgotten your daddy, boy, and what he did .
    Jeb sat in misery and downed his third shot. Damned if he couldn’t see what they all were doing. He might not be the brightest spoke on the wheel, but damned if he didn’t see how they were all shutting him out, making him into a clown, laughing at him behind his back like those two guards at the Thomaston Prison. If he could find a way to get back at them all he would do it. He would do it in a second.
       
    He stayed at Johnny’s for another hour and a half, and the bartender kept serving him shots, and by the time he stumbled drunkenly out to his car it was getting dark again. He was mildly surprised at that. Seemed as if he had just walked in the door a second ago, and then it had been full light. He would have to give Ruth some dinner, unless she had felt up to fixing it herself, and that hadn’t happened too often lately. Jeb had begun to feel the burden of caring for his grandmother, and he didn’t like it. The way he felt, his life was just getting started, and why should he waste any time farting around with someone whose life was about done? Ruth had one foot in the grave, and half the time her mind was a thousand miles away. Christ, just two days ago he had caught her mumbling to herself like she was talkingto her dead husband. Told him she “had his shirts done” and if he was needing them they were in the hall closet. Crazy old bird.
    He started the car and backed out of the small parking lot. By this time there were several cars parked there. He just missed clipping the bumper of a Mercedes that looked vaguely familiar, and somebody shouted at him as he drove off. He paid them no attention, speeding down past the cemetery, where his mother and grandfather were buried, past the white Catholic Church, turning along the green and turning to go up the long hill toward his grandmother’s house. He passed the drug store and Thelma’s Gifts and the hardware store, and all were dark, their doors shut for the night. White Falls went to bed early.
    But the Taylor home was ablaze with light. Jeb parked in the driveway and stumbled up the walk, cursing Ruth who had surely left all the lights on before falling asleep in the living room chair. Probably spooked herself, thinking dead Grandpa Norman had come back to life again .
    But when he went in she was awake and sitting in a kitchen chair. “Christ,” he said. “What’re you doing up?”
    “Don’t you swear in this house,” Ruth said smartly. “I won’t have it.” Her eyes were especially bright, and Jeb thought for a moment she had been into the liquor cabinet, which didn’t sound like such a bad idea. Wasn’t much there, but a little would do just fine now. Take the edge off.
    “You’ve been out running around,” she announced. “And in the middle of the week, too.”
    Ruth peered at him and he got that odd feeling like she was looking straight through his skull and reading his thoughts. “Just stopped at the store,” he said sourly.
    “It’s eight o’clock at night and I smell whiskey. You’re all dirty and sweaty. Bet you stopped in at the schoolhouse