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bad before the pyorrhea swolled up her gums, ’n’ her teeth started droppin’ out one by one. Ora Lavelle says that Gladelle’s a tonguer.”
    “I know I’m gonna regret asking,” said Hadley. “A what?”
    “A tonguer. You know, when somebody uses their tongue a lot, shovin’ it out ’n’ such, when they eat.”
    “Oh, Lou Edna,” Hadley said, “it’s awful early for this.”
    But Lou Edna was on a tear.
    “Huh?” Lou Edna said, but it was just a sputter. Her brain was engaged, and her racing motor mouth was at top speed.
    “Ora Lavelle says that by the end of the meal, she looks like she’s been settin’ acros’t from one of them big Everglade boats. You know the kind. The ones with them humongous fans hooked on their rumps. They sort of just float atop the water. Crank up that fan, ’n’ boy howdy, do they take off.
    “She says that sittin’ acros’t from Gladelle while she’s eatin’ ’n’ talkin’ a mile a minute is like bein’ at the butt end of a sausage fact’ry chute with that big ole Everglade boat fan set on high speed. She says it’s especially bad when they go to some place like Piney Woods. That barbecue is chopped in the tiniest pieces, ’n’ Ora Lavelle says Gladelle spews like Old Faithful with a mouthful of mush.
    “It ain’t purty.”
    “Uh-huh,” said Hadley, who after her second pot of coffee, and little else, was turning slightly green.
    But Lou Edna did not seem to notice.
    “Ora Lavelle swore to me on a stack ‘a Bibles that Buster didn’t call her. I was there, Hadley. Ora Lavelle was paged. Well, not paged. But Sadie did waddle over with that big old white towel she wears acros’t her shoulder, I guess that thing is a wipin’ rag, I don’t know. But, like I said, Sadie comes over to our table ’n’ bends down low ’n’ whispers to Ora Lavelle that she’s got a phone call.
    “At first, I thought Sadie was gonna kick us out. Me ’n’ Ora Lavelle was laughin’ ’n’ carryin’ on ’n’ havin’ us a good-ole girl kinda time. But that wasn’t it at all. Ora Lavelle got up ’n’ went to the bar. She talked on the phone. Then, she said she had to leave.
    “I can’t put two and two together. It’s strange to me. Course, it is loud in Sadie’s. With some of the acts she has there sometimes, loud is all you get. But, I dunno.
    “It bothers me like all get out. But I guess in a world ‘a big things, that ain’t no real big thing.’ Ora said she guessed she got her wires crossed, but I wish I could make heads ’n’ tails of it all.”
    “Maybe Ora’d had too many beers,” said Hadley.
    “Maybe,” said Lou Edna. “Anyway, I was nursing my beer. Ora loves it, but I definitely think beer is not my drink. I’da whole lot rather have a good strong cup of coffee, but Ora says that ruins the atmosphere for her. Ora says she could drink coffee at home on the porch and smoke a corn cob pipe, so I just go along and order one beer to make her happy.
    “Cal was good, though. Like I said. He was up on that stool with that teeny spotlight shinin’ off his bald head, so purty. Needed my sunglasses from where I was sittin’, but brother, did he sound good. He was putting a twangy, heartbreak ending on ‘Lonesome Honky-Tonk Lover’.
    “You know that’s my all-time favorite song of his. And my beer mug was empty so I decided to call it a night. I went out to the parking lot. It always gives me the creeps, you know. It looks like after all these years in business, Sadie would spring for a better setup.
    “That gravel lot is right next to the woods, and the lighting ain’t worth writin’ home about. You can hardly see your hand in front of your face on a full moon night!
    “Anyway, like I said, I was out in that spooky, old lot out back behind Sadie’s, and I heard somethin’ in them woods. If she ain’t got about the thickest tree line around her place, I don’t know who has. It’s like a dern jungle back there.
    “There was