Indian Country Noir (Akashic Noir)
Page 23
If only he'd never left Regina, chasing that glass pipe. It had all started when he was working construction up in Edmonton one winter, building a Mormon church, making pretty good money. At first, Regina had been so proud when he came home for the weekends; even her mother was proud of him. But then that whore Jennifer had taken a room down from his and Trevor's in the motel their boss had put them up in. She'd been in the bar one night when he was drunk, hitting on him pretty hard. But even drunk, he knew she was a whore and an ugly one at that. At twenty-one, she'd looked forty, easy. He must have left the door cracked when he stumbled back to his room that night, though. In his inebriated slumber, he thought he was dreaming of Regina when Jennifer went down on him. When he awoke, exploding in her mouth, it was too late. He knew Regina would hate him for cheating on her, even if he never meant to do it. He hated himself enough, that was for sure. It wasn't long before he was picking fights with Regina on the phone, avoiding coming home, trying to make her hate him. Anything was better than admit ting to her what he'd done, drinking again behind her back when he'd cleaned himself up for so long. Soon, he was out of a job, living in Jennifer's room, hitting that pipe with her, walking Edmonton's cold streets while she was screwing her tricks. When the dealer two doors over from her got busted, he hitched with her back to Saskatchewan, the name of the city they landed in only reminding him more of his pain.
Over the years, he hated her more and more, hated her for making him lose Regina, hated her for making him lose himself, hated her for the whore and the thief she was, hated her even for being ugly, the one thing she couldn't help, the one thing that had made him feel sorry for her at first. He thought about his old friend Nolan Little Bear. Nolan had tried to save him when he started smoking that crap on the job site up in Edmonton. He wondered if Nolan would come to his funeral now. Nolan was like that, always a good friend no matter what. Boon remembered Jennifer's body lying in the snow. Maybe not, he thought. Maybe not after this.
The gunshot wound had almost stopped bleeding now. The whore had won in the end, Boon thought. That's what she'd always wanted-to win. That's what she had told him years ago, in that Edmonton bar, playing poker. "I'll win," she leered, holding her cards where everyone could see them. "I'll win." But after he'd done what he did, after his hatred toward her had finally blown up, after they'd come back here, back to his home, where all he could think of was Regina and the loss, he knew it was the only noble thing to do, shooting himself, blasting away the cause of all of his agony. He wasn't a man anymore anyway, not really, and he didn't deserve to die as one.
Boon pulled the quilt closer, thought of his grandma, his mom, of Regina, of all the women he loved who loved him, of Grandpa. He pulled the quilt closer, and he floated high into the dark blue sky, reaching for those stars that had eluded him, knowing his real home was up there with them.
MISTINA BATES is a transplanted Texan and freelance writer living outside New York City. She is the great-great-granddaughter of a full-blooded member of the Cherokee Nation who served as a Texas Ranger.
JEAN RAE BAXTER'S award-winning short stories have appeared in various anthologies and literary journals. Her debut collection of stories,A Twist ofMalice, was published in 2005, and her young adult historical novel, The Way Lies North, was published in 2007. In 2008, Seraphim Editions released her literary murder mystery, Looking for Cardenio. Her ancestry is German, French, English, and Pottawatami.
s C7
LAWRENCE BLOCK has won most of the major mystery awards, and has been called the quintessential New York writer, although he insists the city's far too big to have a quintessential writer. His series characters-Matthew Scudder, Bernie Rhodenbatt, Evan Tanner, Chip Harrison, and Keller-all live in Manhattan; like their creator, they wouldn't really be happy anywhere else.
JOSEPH BRUCHAC, an author of Abenaki, Slovak, and English descent,has edited a number of highly praised anthologies of poetry and fiction. His poems, articles, and stories have appeared in over 500 publications, and his honors include the Cherokee Nation Prose Award, a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship for Poetry. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas.
DAVID COLE has published seven mystery novels set in southern Arizona, dealing largely with problems facing Native Americans and illegal immigrants. His next fiction project, set in Tucson, involves Mexican drug cartels and home invasions. He is also collecting real-life personal stories from women in all phases of law enforcement for a nonfiction book.
p
REED FARREL COLEMAN is the former executive vicepresident of Mystery Writers of America and has published ten novels-two under his pen name Tony Spinosa-in three series. His eleventh novel, Tower, cowritten with awardwinning Irish author Ken Bruen, was released in 2009. Reed has been nominated for two Edgar Awards and has been the recipient of three Shamus Awards. He is also an adjunct professor in creative writing at Hofstra University.
N CJ
SARAH CORTEZ is the author of the acclaimed poetry collection How to Undress a Cop. Winner of the 1999 PEN Texas Literary Award in poetry, she has edited Urban-Speak: Poetry of the City and Windows into My World: Latino Youth Write 7heirLives, which won the 2008 Skipping Stones Honor Award. She also coedited, with Liz Martinez, HitList: The Best ofLatino Mystery. Cortez has been a police officer since 1993. Her blood is Spanish, Mexican, French, and Comanche.
X 3 Q Q
O'NEIL DE Noux was born in New Orleans. He writes in multiple genres and has published five novels and six short story collections. His story "The Heart Has Reasons" won a Shamus Award in 2007, and his story "Too Wise"won a Derringer Award in 2009. He received the Artist Services Career Advancement Award for 2009-10 from the Louisiana Division of the Arts for work on his forthcoming historical novel set during the Battle of New Orleans.
^K U ~~ a
A.A. HEDGECOKE holds the Paul W. Reynolds and Clarice Kingston Reynolds Endowed Chair of Poetry and Writing at the University of Nebraska, Kearney. Her books include Dog Road Woman-winner of the American Book AwardOff-Season City Pipe, Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer, and Blood Run. HedgeCoke is from Huron and Cherokee heritage.
N
GERARD HOUARNER lives in the Bronx and works at a psychiatric institution. He has published hundreds of short stories, several novels and story collections, and has edited two anthologies. His most recent books include the story collections The Oz Suite and A Blood of Killers and the novel Road from Hell.
LIZ MARTINEZ is of Guachichil (Mexican Indian) heritage. She is a recognized medicine woman and ordained clergy in a Native American church. She combines her spiritual mediumship abilities with her experience as a New York State investigator to assist individuals and police as a forensic psychic. With Sarah Cortez, she has edited the mystery anthology Hit List.•7he Best ofLatino Mystery, and is the author of numerous short stories.
N s a N Q
R. NARVAEZ was born and raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, of Puerto Rican parents with Taino ancestry. His work has been published in Mississippi Review, Murdaland, Thrilling Detective, and in the anthology Hit List: The Best ofLatino Mystery. He is coeditor of The Lineup crime poetry chapbook series.
~>' CJ
KIMBERLY ROPPOLO, of Cherokee, Choctaw, and Creek descent, is a visiting assistant professor of Native Studies at the University of Oklahoma and the national director of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. She won the Native Writers Circle of the Americas First Book Award for Prose 2004 for Back to the Blanket.- Reading, Writing, and Resistance forAmerican Indian Literary Critics.
~0
LEONARD SCHONBERG, who died of lung cancer in 2008, has had five novels published by Sunstone Press: Deadly Indian Summer, Fish Heads, Legacy, Morgen's War and Blackfeet Eyes. Schonberg has also had articles published in Boston Magazine, Yankee Magazine, and Medical Economics.
ti
MELISSAYIworks as an emergency room physic
ian in Cornwall, Ontario. Her award-winning short stories have appeared in fine venues such as Nature, Weird Tales, and Open Space: A Canadian Anthology of Fantastic Fiction under the name Melissa Yuan-Innes. She also writes for the Medical Post.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Richard B. Williams
Introduction
PART I: EAST
JOSEPH BRUCHAC Adirondacks, New York Helper
JEAN RAE BAXTER Eastern Woodlands, Canada Osprey Lake
GERARD HOUARNER New York, New York Dead Medicine Snake Woman
MELISSA Yi Ontario, Canada Indian Time
PART II: SOUTH
A.A. HEDGECOKE Charlotte, North Carolina On Drowning Pond
MISTINA BATES Memphis, Tennessee Daddy's Girl
O'NEIL DE Noux New Orleans, Louisiana The Raven and the Wolf
R. NARVAEZ San Juan, Puerto Rico Juracan
PART III: WEST
DAVID COLE Tucson, Arizona JaneJohnDoe. com
LEONARD SCHONBERG Ashland, Montana Lame Elk
REED FARREL COLEMAN Los Angeles, California Another Role
PART IV NORTH
LAWRENCE BLOCK Upper Peninsula, Michigan Getting Lucky
Liz MARTINEZ Chicago, Illinois Prowling Wolves
KIMBERLY ROPPOLO Alberta, Canada Quilt like a Night Sky
About the Contributors