Bernie is lying on top of the covers when he walks in. The air-conditioning unit is shaking in the window. His wife, somewhere between asleep and awake, lifts her head off a mass of pillows under her neck and calls out a “Hey,” light as a feather blowing across a warm wind. Jay kicks off his shoes and shuts the bedroom door. He crosses the room and lays himself next to her on the bed, still in his work clothes. He buries his nose inside a favorite nook, the space between his wife’s neck and shoulder, which smells milky and sweet. Her breath falls into a soft, whistling key. A few minutes pass in silence. Jay lies in bed thinking about his father.
As he feels himself start to drift off to sleep, he puts one hand on Bernie’s belly and gets a sudden image of his father’s hand on his mother’s womb, a lifetime ago. His only true contact, their only hello. He tries hard to remember. He tries with all he’s got to recall the sensation from the inside, to remember what he can, in reality, have no way of ever knowing . . . what were his daddy’s hands like? His body jerks across the sheets, fighting the inevita
ble slip into darkness. Here, on the edge of sleep, just before the final descent, Jay feels, for the first time in his life, a reassuring weight across his chest, a caress, a man’s touch, a sudden faith in things unseen . . . I got you, son. I’m not gon’ let you fall.
Ack nowledg ment s
My thanks go first to my editor, Dawn Davis. Thank you for believing in this book and especially in me as a writer. A very big thank-you to my agent, Richard Abate. This book grew by leaps and bounds because of your candor and insight. Thanks also to Brian Lipson for reading an early draft and pointing me in so many right directions, and to Bob Myman for your friendship and advocacy. Special thanks go to Michelle Satter, Lynn Auerbach, Ken Brecher, and Bob Redford for my summer on the mountain, the lessons of which are with me still. To my father, Gene, thank you for accepting phone calls at all hours to answer my many questions about Houston and the civil rights movement. Thanks also to Argentina James for arranging my tour of the Port of Houston, and to Captain John T. Scarda
430 Ac k nowle d g m ent s
sis for explaining the culture of the longshoremen’s union. To my mother, Sherra, who always gets the first read, thank you for dreaming with me. And a heartfelt thank-you to Mrs. Odell C. Johnson, my earliest inspiration. I also wish to thank my sis
ter, Tembi, for her sharp suggestions and her deep and abiding faith in me, and also my brother-in-law, Rosario, for finding the gentlest way to ask me some very tough questions. And I will always owe a debt of gratitude to Julie Ariola for teaching me to hold everything lightly. Likewise, this book would not have been possible without the unyielding support of Cheryl Arutt. Thank you for reminding me to trust myself. Special thanks also go to my daughter, Clara, for waiting until Mommy had at least a first draft before showing your beautiful face. And finally, to my hus
band, Karl, who has more patience than any man ought to, there simply aren’t enough ways to say thank you. Your love has been a light in my life, helping me find my way.
About the Author
ATTICA LOCKE is a screenwriter who has worked in both film and television. A former fellow at the Sundance Institute, she is currently at work on an HBO miniseries about the civil rights movement. A native of Houston, Texas, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.
www.atticalocke.com
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Credits
Jacket design by Mary Schuck
Jacket photograph by Nik Skerten/Trevillion
Designed by Betty Lew
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
BLACK WATER RISING. Copyright © 2009 by Attica Locke. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader May 2009
ISBN 978-0-06-188624-9
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Document Outline
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Table of Contents
Epigraph iii
Part I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Part II
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Acknowledgments 429
About the Author
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
C h a p t e r 1
C h a p t e r 1 1
C h a p t e r 2 3
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