In Memory of Junior Read online

  “Harold, where are you going? Get that little box of . . . get that little pretty we brought Miss Ivy out of the truck. We forgot.

  “That Harold is a something. By the way, Miss Ivy, would you be interested in buying a bird?”

  Published by

  Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

  Post Office Box 2225

  Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

  a division of

  Workman Publishing Company, Inc.

  225 Varick Street

  New York, New York 10014

  © 1992 by Clyde Edgerton. All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary

  perceptions and insights are based on experience, all names,

  characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s

  imagination or are used fictitiously. No reference to any real person

  is intended or should be inferred.

  Thanks to O. Vic Miller, Phil Schlechty, W. C. Martin, Betty Foster,

  Clyde Yancey, and Harriett Purves.

  Parts of this book originally appeared in slightly different form in

  Frank, North Carolina Humanities, and Southern Exposure.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for a previous edition of this work.

  E-book ISBN 978-1-61620-211-8

  Also by CLYDE EDGERTON

  Raney

  Walking Across Egypt

  The Floatplane Notebooks

  Killer Diller

  Redeye

  Where Trouble Sleeps

  Lunch at the Piccadilly

  Solo: My Adventures in the Air