by Elizabeth Pierce Ritz

Created on: January 22, 2011   Last Updated: April 07, 2011

CH 2

Larry Berto drove down from Tifton, Kentucky, on Highway 90 towards Cumberland Falls State Park. It was there that he planned to show Paris a moon-bow. She was his niece and almost four years old. He was going to tell her, "If you can't catch a rainbow, there's always a moon-bow to reach for, darlin'. But be quick! A moon-bow comes out only when the moon is big and full and the waterfall's just right." He adjusted his mirror to look at the back seat. Both Paris and his little boy, Mikey were sleeping doubled over in their car seats.

He rented the cabin for a week. It was but a few hours drive to Cumberland Falls and he could make the drive there and back 'fore the sun went down. He wouldn't have taken the cabin for an entire week but Leslie agreed to let Mikey go for the whole week of Larry's vacation. What luck, he thought. Leslie'd had a streak of generosity brought on by the first beer to cross her devout lips since the night they'd married four years ago. It was enough that they were divorced so quickly, but wouldn't the ladies from the First Baptist like to have seen her right then?

That was Friday night. He had pulled up to the house that he used to share with Leslie, swearing under his breath. She got the house and he got the mortgage payments. There she was, the little wench. Swinging lazily on the porch swing.

"What are you doin' here?" were her first words. She leaned and slid something behind the swing before she got up. "You ain't supposed to be here."

Larry noticed her clumsy movements. He walked up the wooden steps and stopped at the last one. She was already at the top of the steps. He smiled. She never could pass up a compliment. "Hey, now, a pretty lady like you shouldn't be talking that way. A pretty face and an ugly tongue...jus' don't seem like they go together."

"This ain't your weekend. You ca-int just come here whenever you got an itch in your jockeys."

He looked around her. She didn't talk so loosely unless she'd been drinking and she hadn't done that since they first met at the Horseshoe Bar. "That iced tea you drinkin'?" He toyed with her. "I sure could use something cold to drink. 'Course, if that ain't iced tea... But that looks like iced tea. Is that iced tea, Leslie?"

"Of course you know it ain't iced tea. You ain't stupid, I ain't stupid. None of your business any hows." She flailed her arms as she spoke.

"Sure,

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