She afraid to take a drink when anybody behind her. She thinking the police gonna see her and throw them blue lights on her. Then she be in jail calling Alan to come bail her out. Which he already done twice before. She don’t want to stay in town. She gonna drive out on the lake road. They not as much traffic out there. So she go off out there, on this blacktop road. She gonna ride out to the boat landing. Ain’t nobody out there, it too cold to fish. She curve around through the woods three or four miles. She done finished one of them beers and throwed the bottle out the window. She get her another one and drink some more of that schnapps. That stuff go down so easy and so hard to stop on. Usually when she open a half pint, she throw the cap far as she can.

Angel weaving a little, but she ain’t drunk. She just a little tired. She wishing she home in the bed right now. She know they gonna have a big argument when she get home. She dreading that. Alan, he have to fix supper for Randy and his mama ain’t taught him nothing about cooking. Only thing he know how to do is warm up a TV dinner, and Randy just sull up when he have to eat one of them. She wishing now she’d just gone on home. Wouldn’t have been so bad then. Going to be worse now, much worser than if she’d just gone on home after them double One Fifty-Ones. Way it is, though. Get started, can’t stop. Take that first drink, she ain’t gonna stop till she pass out or run out. She don’t know what it is. She ain’t even understand it herself. Didn’t start out like this. Didn’t use to be this way. Use to be a beer once in a while, little wine at New Year’s. Things just get out of hand. Don’t mean to be this way. Just can’t help it. Alan used to would drink a little beer on weekends and it done turned him flat against it. He don’t even want to be around nobody drinking now. Somebody offer him a drink now he tell em to get it out of his face. He done even lost some of his friends over this thing.