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Back Atlanta Burns Save as PDF
Chapters (50)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication Page
  4. CONTENTS
  5. PART ONE: SHOTGUN GRAVY
  6. Sometimes she wakes…
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. PART TWO: BAIT DOG
  19. CHAPTER TWELVE
  20. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  22. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY
  28. PART THREE: THE FARM
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. PART FOUR: KISSING FIRE
  38. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  43. PART FIVE: BAIT GIRL
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  47. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  48. EPILOGUE: THE MESSAGE
  49. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  50. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

By three a.m. Steven still hasn’t come back, and so she and Guy do some shooting as Eddie dances behind them and Damita and Shane go off into the house. Guy’s got a little .22 target pistol—a Ruger—and they set up cans and bottles and some of Mama’s magazines and they shoot in the dark and sometimes hear the rewarding krish of a bottle breaking or the metallic clung of a can jumping off a fence rail and hitting the ground.

At three thirty a.m., Atlanta thinks she sees Chris standing there in the corn. Watching her and waving. But it’s just a shadow, a trick the moonlight plays on her, and then he’s gone because he was never really there.

At four a.m., Atlanta passes out in one of the patio chairs.

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY

“It’s time.”

Guy wakes her.

She blinks. Her mouth tastes like fireplace ash. Wisps of smoke drift from the logs in the fire. Her skin crawls.

Atlanta lurches over the side of the patio chair and pukes. The chair is shit for balance, though, and as she throws up, the chair tilts left and she damn near falls in her own sick, just barely managing to roll out of the way.

Her head pounds. And spins. A hackey-sack kicked in the air again and again.

Atlanta steadies herself. Nudges an empty schnapps bottle out of the way.

Guy helps her up. Whitey sits back and watches.

“You look like a hairball that dog coughed up, yo,” he says as she gets her balance under her feet.

“I figure you’re bein’ generous,” she gurgles.

“Let’s go with dog shit, then.”

“That’s more like it.” Her lips smack together. The corners of her mouth feel dry and crusty. “It’s time?”

“It’s time.”

“I probably shouldn’t have had all that vodka. Or the schnapps. Or the Ritalin.”

Guy laughs. “I been there, ’Lanta, I been there.”

“I gotta go pee,” she says.

“Thanks for sharing.”

Her bladder is like a water balloon about to pop. She tries to make a beeline for the bathroom, but suddenly there’s Shane jumping up like a gopher at his hole. Big grin on his face. Mouth smeared with lipstick. Damita’s. His eyes might as well be goggly and on springs.

“Damita’s great,” he says, his voice dreamy and lost.

“Uh-huh,” she says, skirting past him. He trails after her.

“I got to touch her boobs,” he says.

“She let you?”

“She let me.”

“I’m real excited for you.”

“It’s all thanks to you.”

“You and her boobs are very welcome. I gotta pee. And maybe throw up again.”

His face scrunches up. “Yeah, you don’t look so hot.”

“Please move.”

“Sorry.”

Inside the bathroom, she pees like she’s trying to put out a house fire.

At least she doesn’t puke again.