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Earl grinned, revealing discolored teeth andeaten alive from this crap inside me”
“Yeah? But the rest of us wouldn’t See, that’sof themselves”
“Just one cig, kid I like the Winstons You got Winstons? It’swish Got to abide by it Like my last supper It’s the daimme it” He rattled his chain louder “Gimme it”
The nurse said, “You’re dying of lung cancer, Earl No do you think you got that? Here’s a clue They call ’eood reason Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! With that kinda stupidity you can thank the good Lord you lived long as you have”
“Gimme the smoke, you little prick”
The nurse was obviously done dealing with Earl “Look, I got a lot of patients to take care of Let’s have a quiet day, what do you say, old uard Albert’s on ward duty now and Albert is not known for his TLC He’ll put a baton to your skull, sick and dying or not, and then lie in his report and not one person will dispute it Dude’s scary and he don’t give a shit You know that”
Before the nurse turned away Earl said, “You knohy I’m here?”
The nurse s and the state of Alabama won’t release so them a ton of money in medical bills?”
“No, not this here hospital ward I’ prison,” said Earl, his voice low and throaty “Giol-damn place, can’t I?”
The nurse poured a cup and Earl greedily drank it doiped his face dry, and said with pent-up energy, “Got behind bars over twenty years ago First, just for life in a federal cage But then they gotSons-a-bitches lawyers And the state done took ahold of ot nuthin’ if they can do that See what I’? Just ’cause I killed her Had a nice bed in the fed place Now look at ot me the cancer ’cause of this here place Know I did In the air Lucky for ot that AIDS shit” He raised his eyebrows and lowered his voice “You know they got that kind in here”
“Uh-huh,” said the nurse, as checking the file of another patient on his laptop It was set on a rolling cart that had locked compartments where meds were kept
Earl said, “That’s two decades plus al damn time”
“Yep, you know your ht, Earl,” the nurse said absently
“The first Bush was still president but that boy from Arkansas done beat hiot here Year was 1992 What was his naain? They say he’s part colored”
“Bill Clinton And he’s not part black He just played the saxophone and went to the African-American churches sometimes”
“That’s right Him Been here since then”
“I was seven”
“What?” barked Earl, squinting his eyes to see better He rubbed absently at the pain in his belly
The nurse said, “I was seven when Clinton was elected My momma and daddy were conflicted They were Republicans, of course, but he was a southern boy all right I think they voted for him, but wouldn’t admit to it Didn’t matter none This is Alabaht?”
“Sweet ho tiia, son I?
?ia peach, see? Not no Alabama boy”
“Okay”