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    Killer Heart
    Killer Heart
    Killer Heart
    Ebook31 pages26 minutes

    Killer Heart

    By Barb Johnson

    ()

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    About this ebook

    The lives of four unlikely friends intersect on the backstreets of New Orleans. Living amid poverty and violence, these fragile heroes of the American underclass redefine our notions of family, redemption, and love.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 20, 2009
    ISBN9780061966439
    Killer Heart
    Author

    Barb Johnson

    Barb Johnson has been a carpenter in New Orleans for more than twenty years. In 2008 she received her MFA from the University of New Orleans. While there, she won a grant from the Astraea Foundation, Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers, and Washington Square's short story competition. She is the fifth recipient of AROHO's $50,000 Gift of Freedom. This is her first collection.

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      Book preview

      Killer Heart - Barb Johnson

      Killer Heart

      Short Story

      Barb Johnson

      For Virginia Sonnier

      And for Mid-City—

      heart of New Orleans,

      heart of my heart

      Contents

      Begin Reading

      Acknowledgments

      About the Author

      Praise

      Copyright

      About the Publisher

      Killer Heart

      Dooley and Tina are fighting. Or not fighting, Dooley guesses, but discussing. That’s what Tina calls it, anyway. They have most of their discussions while their three-year-old daughter, Gracie, is at her grandmother’s across the lake. Today Dooley decides that if he shows a positive attitude and keeps his comments to a minimum, they might be able to wrap things up in the next little bit. There’s a show about the Louisiana black bear coming on in half an hour, and Dooley hopes he won’t have to miss it.

      It’s just that you’re so impulsive, Dooley, Tina says, shifting to the general list of his faults. She’s pacing back and forth, back and forth, like a little engine that’s powered by fussing.

      Tina keeps a record of old mistakes handy on a constant loop, one finger always hovering over the play button. During any dispute, when she’s through with what is currently troubling her, she presses that button and everything stored on the loop begins to replay. In their house, the past is never over. The good news, though, is that once Tina gets to the Great Loop of Faults, it usually means the discussion is coming to an end.

      You never think things through, Tina goes on. There’s never a plan for anything.

      Maybe so, Dooley says in his upbeat, fight-ending tone, but everything in the world can’t be planned out, Tina. Gracie wasn’t planned, he says, and aren’t you glad we have her?

      Instead of ending the discussion, this seems to wind Tina up even more. She starts back in with his faults, reciting one after another as though she’s building a case. Dooley leans back in his big blue recliner and goes on clipping his toenails. He wonders if maybe he can get one of those prefab storage sheds for the backyard. He needs a place he can go to be alone and play his guitar as loud

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