Song of Susannah

Susa

There was a women’s restroom adjacent to the hotel bar, around the corner from the piano player. Two of the yellow-ski

Mia saw how the latch worked and engaged it. She was about to sit down on the toilet seat when Susa

What?

The shirt, woman. Turn it inside out, for your father’s sake!

For a moment Mia didn’t. She was too stu

The shirt was a rough-woven callum-ka, the sort of simple pullover favored by both sexes in the rice-growing country during cooler weather. It had what Odetta Holmes would have called a boatneck. No buttons, so yes, it could very easily be turned inside out, but—

Susa

W…Why?

It’ll give you a different look,Susa

Mia paused a moment longer, fingertips rubbing the rough weave of the shirt above the worst of the bloodstains, which was over her left breast. Over her heart. Turn it inside out! In the lobby, a dozen half-baked ideas had gone through her head (using the scrimshaw turtle to fascinate the people in the shop had probably been the only one even close to workable), but simply turning the damned thing inside out hadn’t been one of them. Which only showed, she supposed, how close to total panic she had been. But now…

Did she need Susa

Lexington, said the woman trapped inside her.Lexing ton.You keep forgetting that, don’t you?

Yes. Yes, she did. And there was no reason to forget such a simple thing, maybe she hadn’t been to Morehouse, Morehouse or no house, but she wasn’t stupid. So why—

What?she demanded suddenly.What are you smiling about?

Nothing,said the woman inside…but she was still smiling. Almost gri

Tell me why you’re smiling!

Oh, it don’t amount to much,Susa

That’s stupid,Mia said coldly. Beyond the stall where she was having this mental conversation, the door opened and two more ladies came in—no, at least three and maybe four—twittering in their birdy-language and giggling in a way that made Mia clamp her teeth together.Why would I want to forget the place where they’re waiting to help me have my baby?

Well, dis Freud—dis smart cigar-smoking Vie

(Burn up the day,Eddie had told her, that much she was sure of, and she would do her best, only hoping that she wasn’t working on getting Jake and Callahan killed by doing it. )

Ole Honky Freud,Detta went on,he say in lots of ways de subconscious or unconscious mind smarterdan de one on top. Cut through de bullshit fasterdan de one on top. An maybe yours understand what I been tellin you all along, that yo’ frien Sayre nothin but a lyin rat-ass muhfuh goan steal yo baby and, I du

Shut up! Shut up your lying face!

Out at the basins, the birdy-women laughed so shrilly that Mia felt her eyeballs shiver and threaten to liquefy in their sockets. She wanted to rush out and seize their heads and drive them into the mirrors, wanted to do it again and again until their blood was splashed all the way up to the ceiling and theirbrains —

Temper, temper,said the woman inside, and now it sounded like Susa

She lies! That bitch LIES!

No,Susa

With a final eye-watering burst of laughter, the birdy-women left the bathroom. Mia pulled the shirt off over her head, baring Susa

There were only the faintest maroon spots on the inside of the shirt. Mia put it back on, then unbuttoned the front of her jeans so she could tuck it in. Susa

Something about this frightened Susa

De body-stealin kind,Detta replied cheerfully.Pretty soon you be havin a white belly…white breas’s…white neck…white cheeks…

Stop it,Susa

And den, las’ of all, you have a whitebrain,girl! A Mia brain! And won’t dat be fahn? Sho! You be all Mia den! Nobody give you no shit if you want to ride right up front on de bus!

Then the shirt was drawn over her hips; the jeans were again buttoned up. Mia sat down on the toilet ring that way. In front of her, scrawled on the door, was this graffito: BANGO SKANK AWAITS THE KING!

Who is this Bango Skank?Mia asked.

I have no idea.

I think…It was hard, but Mia forced herself.I think I owe you a word of thanks.

Susa