Blood of Mugwump - Excerpt

Late in the 70s, during my college days at Slippery Rock State, Caddie had committed her most serious crimes, acting out the horror of our familial past. Struck between desires and spasms, she launched herself hard against the night. She introduced herself to people as "a handful of mud torn from the Monongahela River." Caddie's snake hair dancing at the edge of the universe. No Prince Charming in her life. Slut that has raped and been raped. She's written on walls and made love to our grandmother with fists and tongues in such mysterious ways that Grandma has never been able to go back to simply fucking men. And Grandma Mugwump all dressed up like some sort of wolf in lady's clothing. Nights on the river bank. I think it was Caddie's tongue but she is just my sister. I can make you.

Touch my cunt.

Caddie feels her flesh, my lips open to her mouth and her words begin.

Her mother, our mother, Caddie was saying, said that Caddie was nothing more than dirt that had been mixed with grey blood sucked out of drowned alcoholics who had been washed ashore during some sort of flood. A great flood, nearly killed everybody in the 'Burgh, but Mom and Dad survived, swam the waters. Grandma on the roof of her house waving for the river rat crew of rescuers. Then her mouth sweet and old. Her hand toying with the rags and bones of their bodies. Smiling at their innocence. The eating. Poor grandma had to row the boat to safety all by herself. Now Dad is dead. Mom's still swimming in that same water gulping down the blood. She has remembered herself and has returned wild and loose to lurk around in those deep black rivers, setting teenagers aflame while they neck on those old river banks. Mom has a way about her. She is a subtle sort of woman, the kind of woman who slaughters time and space by wearing a miniskirt and by standing in just the right fashion - hand, hip, tongue - under a tree weeping down in the park. The police are confused but continue investigating.