When Baptiste entered the room again he left the door open wide to the rest of the house, to his mother. He undid the top button of his shirt and pulled it off over his head. She could hear his starched shirt brushing his skin. Static charged his hair, sending small strikes of blue lights into the room and then there was nothing but his dark shoulders. Louise watched the door as he unsnapped his pants, then closed her eyes when she heard the slow rasp of his zipper. His back was to her when she opened her eyes. She could see the tight knot of muscle in his calves, his smooth buttocks. His shoulders were broad and it seemed to Louise he undressed so slowly his muscles ached beneath his brown skin. When he turned toward Louise she could just see the dusky hair between his legs. She could trace the thick blue vein up from his groin to the thin skin of his belly. His belly looked thin-swollen, tender as a child’s. He came toward her. Louise turned toward the hazy light of the window. The light was yellow now, the light of a late October night passing. Her husband was leaning over her so close she could see down the length of the frayed white scar that split his chest.

The last time Charlie Kicking Woman had seen her with Baptiste he pulled her aside. Drinking and medicine conjure a mean spirit, Charlie had told her, and Baptiste had let booze mix with his blood. She had heard the story about Baptiste many times but Charlie told her the story again with a heavy voice, a voice meant to dissuade her and she had listened. He told her that Lester Bad Road had ripped Baptiste open with a ragged butcher knife outside a bar in Plains. Baptiste’s chest was bleeding badly. He shouldn’t have lived through the knifing but he got back up. He got back up again with his legs wobbling. But it’s what Baptiste had done when he got back up that made Louise listen hard. What Baptiste did to Lester became the story even white people told each other when they had had too many beers or too many belts of bourbon, a story jawed in bars or whispered after the kids had been put to sleep, a strange and funny story.