“Or maybe she thought me being sheriff could protect her from your grandma,” he said, “that I’d be tough enough to keep the old bitch away from y’all. Guess I failed at that. Guess I failed at just about everything. But I will tell you this, and you best believe it: I loved your mother with all of my heart. I thought she was the kindest, smartest woman I ever met in my life. I would have gladly died in her place, and that’s the truth.” He took a deep breath and sighed. “I also wouldn’t have adopted you kids if I didn’t want to be a daddy to y’all. I know I’m an asshole most of the time, but that’s just what I know. If you’d ever met my father, you’d understand. He’s dead now, thank god. All I’m saying is, I’ll do my best if y’all will have me.”

That’s when Horace handed me a ratty old paperback book. It was something called The Postman Always Rings Twice by a guy named James M. Cain.

“Ever read this?” he said.

“No,” I said, “but I’ve heard good things about the movie.”

Horace grinned. He’d lost a tooth back at the Farm, and the gap was like a little black hole in the middle of his mouth.

“The movie’s a classic, sure,” he said, “but this book is even better. Cain is no fucking joke.”

“Are you asking me to read this?” I said.

Horace shrugged. “If you want.” And then he got up and left me alone.

Well, I did read it. And you know what? It was great. One of the best books I ever read in my life, and I mean it. I know I’m mostly a poetry guy, but I loved the sparseness of the language, all the danger and thrill and seediness of it. Frankly, I loved everything about the book. I told Horace that one night while he was cooking dinner, and he couldn’t believe it.

“No kidding?” he kept saying. “You really liked it?”

“No,” I said. “I loved it. Like, a lot.”

You would have thought I’d just handed him a million bucks.

Also, Horace has been giving me cooking lessons. I’m not half bad either. I make a mean shrimp scampi. I even told him about a vision or two that I had, and he didn’t talk shit to me about it. Because I’m still having those visions, let me tell you. They’re worse than before, happening daily now, sometimes coming at me so fast I can’t tell what’s real and what isn’t.