"No, no I really don't think so," Sugar said.

Suddenly Seth jumped up from the table; he pushed himself through the crowd of people, sending at least two drinks flying through the air. By the time he made it to the stage there were five men closing in on him and more than a dozen women shouting obscenities at his back.

"Hey, man, I think you've had a bit too much," Luther Cobbs said as he pressed an open palm into Seth's chest, halting his movements.

Seth looked down at Luther's hand before taking a step backward. He brushed at the place Luther's hand had been before speaking. "Get outta the way. My brother owns this place."

Luther looked at the drunk man before him and then over at JJ, who hadn't noticed the commotion going on on the floor.

"You JJ's brother?" Luther was skeptical.

Seth was much smaller than JJ. Luther leaned in and squinted at Seth. They did, however, resemble in the face.

"Okay, but the band is working. You wanna put in a request or something?"

Seth rolled his eyes. "Yes. I request that you let Miss Sugar Lacey do a song."

Luther shook his head and laughed. "And just who is this Sugar Lacey?"

Seth spun around quickly, but just ended up facing Luther again. Seth shook his head in confusion and this time took the turn slowly.

"There she is sitting over there in the blue dress." Seth pointed at Sugar. "She's my sister," Seth admitted for the first time. He was suddenly overcome with emotion and his eyes filled with tears. "She is my sister."

"Well, can she sing?" Luther asked.

"Like an angel," Seth said.

It took some prodding, but in the end Sugar took the stage.

"Who that?" Angel asked, but JJ was busy counting the money he'd made so far for the night.

"Who?" he mumbled, not looking up from the cash in his hands.

"Up there. Up on stage."

JJ looked up and the closest thing that could be counted as surprise moved across his face. "What the h.e.l.l?" he exclaimed as he quickly stuffed the money back into the black box.

Seth tripped up the three steps that led to the stage. Pearl covered her face in embarra.s.sment and Joe cleared his throat and looked around and into the faces of most of Bigelow.

"Uhm, we got someone pretty special coming to the stage tonight," Luther said. "Her brother is the proprietor of this fine establishment...."

About thirty percent of the people in that room were from Bigelow proper, and every single one of those people knew Joe and Pearl Taylor.

"What did he say?"

"He must be mistaken."

"Ain't she the one was here before?"

"My mama broke a jar of preserves upside my daddy's head because she heard he had been over to see her."

"See her? She the wh.o.r.e that used to live on Grove Street?"

"Lived in that house that burned down a few years back?"

"Number Ten girl. Number Ten."

"She their child?"

"Well, she belong to at least one of them."

The hushed whispers grew louder and louder until they finally swallowed Luther's words. All eyes were on Joe and Pearl Taylor.

"Everyone put your hands together for Sugar," Luther ended and started clapping his hands as he backed away from center stage.

"She your sister?" Angel asked, her voice filled with surprise. "I thought your sister was dead."

Sugar leaned over and whispered something to the ba.s.s player, who turned around and repeated it to the rest of the band.

She stood staring out into the crowd as the music swelled behind her. It was 1955 again and she was standing in front of the church congregation, looking down into the faces that wanted her out of their town.

She found herself stuck in that s.p.a.ce of time, crippled by the memory of it and unable to sing.

Seconds turned into minutes and still her voice would not come.

The crowd grew impatient and angry.

"Well, you gonna sing or not?" someone called out from a dark corner.

"Maybe she come back to do what she do best!" a heavy voice from the center of the crowd boomed.

Thirty percent of the room broke down in laughter, while the other people, unsure of the joke, just grinned.

Pearl's smile melted away into a grimace and Joe dropped his eyes in shame, while Mercy continued to look over at JJ.

Seth was still onstage, grinning stupidly and whispering: "Go ahead Sugar, sang... sang."

The band started again, this for the fifth time, and Sugar felt her knees begin to shake as the first scratchy words broke free from her throat.

This, bitter, bitter earth ...

The words came out uneven and barely audible to anyone who stood in the back of the room.

"What the h.e.l.l is she saying?"

"Get the h.e.l.l off the stage!"

The crowd began to blur as Sugar's eyes filled with tears. Everything and almost everybody had been taken from her and now her voice was gone too. It was so unfair. So f.u.c.king unfair.

She felt anger building up inside of her. Anger for growing up without her mother. Anger for becoming a wh.o.r.e. Anger for almost losing her life at the hands of Lappy Clayton.

The anger grew inside of her until it consumed her and pushed her voice up from her soul, spouting it out in a rush of melody that made everyone stop and take notice.

Joe raised his head as Pearl grabbed his wrist and squeezed. The band had stopped playing; Sugar's sudden leap in tenor accosted their minds and erased every musical note they'd ever learned.

Sugar ended the song and laid heavy on the words, so heavy that the weight of it made people drop their heads, swinging them from left to right as their hands shot up over their heads and began fanning the hot air around them.

Those words pressed against them, causing their eyes to tear, making them feel sorry and ashamed for having made Sugar's name synonymous with wh.o.r.e, b.i.t.c.h and s.l.u.t.

Some said Sugar held service that night at Two Miles In.

Sugar's anger drifted off with the last smoky note and she felt relief for the first time in years. It was as if she'd had a good cry or screamed her secret out to the ma.s.s of people that applauded her.

For the first time her mind was settled and her soul was finally properly introduced to peace.

Lappy walked in just as the crowd came to their feet and dozens of black hands came together in a thunderous applause that rattled the gla.s.s bottles over the bar and filled Mercy's ears like the sound of rushing water.

He went unnoticed that night, his pale skin lost in the sleek blackness of the people that grappled to shake Sugar's hand as she stepped down off the stage.

He hung back, smiling as the familiar heat began to spread through his belly.

She had been held by men before, enfolded by all sorts of fleshy limbs, dark and light, thick and thin. But she'd never felt anything for those men and had hated herself and them as soon as they'd eased themselves between her legs.

She'd cringed at the "Oooooh, s.h.i.t, girl!" they'd spout and the long hissing sounds of air they pulled between their teeth after the tips of their p.e.n.i.ses kissed the damp sweetness inside of her.

But worse of all was the trick's embrace, the moment they'd brought their arms up and around her shoulders, anchoring themselves in order to burrow deeper inside of her.

It hadn't felt that way in Seth's arms ten years earlier, and it didn't feel that way now as both he and Joe folded their arms around Sugar, sandwiching her between them in an embrace that made her think of blue skies and the first day of winter. It was a pure and clean feeling.

"So proud, so proud," was all Pearl could seem to say as she stood outside the circle, hugging herself.

JJ stood off to the side, grinning first and then smiling broadly with each compliment patrons stopped to pay him before exiting the club.

"She your sister?"

"Yeah."

"Well, she sure can blow!"

"Yep, that she can do."

Mercy was still seated at the table, Sugar's words still ringing in her ears as people moved around her. Hips b.u.mped her chair on more than one occasion. "Oh, sorry *bout that, baby," some said. Others just looked down on her head and moved on.

Sugar and the rest stood about five feet in front of her and she watched them as she absentmindedly rubbed away at the foundation on her arms.

She was being watched, watched closely. And when those blue-black pin marks and bruised purple veins were uncovered, Lappy Clayton knew just what to do.

He patted his breast pocket. Yes, yes, he had something for this precious little girl, he thought to himself as he began to move slowly toward Mercy.

Chapter 24.

SHE kept thinking about his color, so much like hersa"nut meg and milk in the winter, cinnamon and cream by the end of August. That's what her grandmother used to tell her.

She thought his eyes looked cold; perhaps the glint of gray gave them that icy look. His smile seemed warm enough. The gold teeth were a surprise though.

He couldn't be too bad. He didn't even ask her for any money. He just set it right on the table and said: "This is for you."

Mercy just blinked at him.

"Whenever you want more, I can get it for you."

Mercy looked over at the tight crowd of family members surrounding Sugar.

"You got needles?" he said.

Mercy looked down at the silver ball on the table and heard her grandmother reminding her not to take candy from strangers.

"I'll leave you one in the flower bed out front the house."

Mercy wondered how he knew where she was staying.

"Closest to the chrysanthemums," he said and walked away.

Are those the yellow ones? she thought as the stranger disappeared through the door.

It hit ninety degrees by noon; everyone took to their to beds around ten after talking all morning about some things while sidestepping those things that had happened in 1955.

Breakfast dishes were soaking in the sink, frying pan still warm and sitting on the stove filled with bacon grease and bits of yolk from the eggs Pearl had fried in it. She was going to leave the pot the grits had been cooked in there too, but put that to soak when she remembered how grits got like cement and glue on the inside of a pot if left to sit.

The top to the jelly jar was still lying on the table, even though Joe had reminded Seth four times not to forget to close it up and put it in the refrigerator. "Flies and ants," he'd said at the end of each reminder.

There were flies, four sometimes, other times six, around the rim of the jar, gorging themselves on the purple jelly.

Mercy didn't bother to wave them off; she found it fascinating and searched the floor for ants.

They'd gone off to bed one by one. Pearl first, stretching her hands up over her head, a sleepy smile sitting softly on her face as she ascended the stairs, "good night" sailing behind her even though morning had been in place for hours.

Joe followed, coughing a bit, his eyes red, and stomach bulging slightly over the waist of his pants.

Seth didn't seem to want to go, even though his eyes kept rolling back in his head and he could hardly keep his neck straight. The call from Gloria and the hot words they exchanged seemed to rejuvenate him and Mercy thought he'd be up for another few hours, but he'd gone off to be by himself on the porch for a while before deciding that he couldn't bother himself with being angry and upset without a good six hours of sleep and had finally gone off to bed.