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Zusatztext Black Issues Book Review Tervalon's writing is crisp and concise! sweet and tart like a ripe Fuji apple. [His] work has grown richer.... Informationen zum Autor Jervey Tervalon is the author of All the Trouble You Need, Understand This, and the Los Angeles Times bestseller Dead Above Ground. An award-winning poet, screenwriter, and dramatist, Jervey was born in New Orleans, raised in Los Angeles, and now lives with his wife and two daughters in Altadena, California. Klappentext In this sequel to his acclaimed "urban masterpiece" "(The Philadelphia Inquirer), " the national bestseller "Dead Above Ground, " Jervey Tervalon's unforgettable heroine, Lita Du Champ, is at loose ends, trying to hold house and home together. Ten years after she, her husband, their children, and her twin sisters moved to Los Angeles, the past comes back to haunt her. An unwelcome phone call reveals that Lita's estranged father is on his deathbed and that her aunt has seen Lita's beloved mother -- never mind that the woman has been dead for a decade. Overwhelmed by long-suppressed memories, Lita realizes that she must return to New Orleans to come to terms with her history, but as she makes the journey a growing sense of dread takes root in her soul. She's certain there will be no simple return to the life she led in Los Angeles. Chapter One The phone rang at 4:00 A.M. with news that Daddy was on his deathbed and I needed to come home to New Orleans. Confused, I took a minute or two to get my head clear, then I panicked. Suddenly, I was a little girl about to lose her father, sinking below despair, but that despair vanished when I got my wits about me. It was Daddy she was talking about. I had detested him all my life. Why should I pretend to care about him on his deathbed? Waste of time and money to go to New Orleans, rushing home to say last words. I had no last words for him, this man who never did a thing for us -- except to beat Mother when he felt like it. I was surprised that it took me a moment to recognize that voice I hadn't heard in more than ten years. Made me want to laugh, Aunt Dot trying to sound like a sane person. "Lita, you need to come back. You've been gone too long," she said. I shook my head. "No disrespect, Aunt Dot, but I don't think I've been gone long enough." "Lita, that's all water under the bridge." "Guess it is," I said, with so little enthusiasm even a lunatic like her should have picked up on it. "How are the kids?" Aunt Dot asked, as though she cared. "Just fine. Everybody is about as fine as they can be." She hummed a bit, as if she wanted to say something, but couldn't bring herself to get to it. I imagined it was a bit of poison that she had been carrying around for the last decade, waiting for that right moment to slip it to me. That's what I expected from a woman who sicced her crazy boys on me, scratched my face bloody the day before my wedding over forty dollars she said I owed her. "I saw her," Aunt Dot said, like I should know what she's talking about. "Saw who?" I asked tentatively, regretting the question as soon as I asked it. "At the house on Gravier. I saw her in the bedroom." Too tired to play Aunt Dot's guessing game, I wanted to be done with the conversation. I should have hung up -- I had every right to hang up on Aunt Dot -- but I was fool enough to listen, now I was fouled up in her line. "Helen." "Mother? What are you saying? You saw Mother?" "Yeah, I did. Other people saw her too, your sisters, not just me." "Stop joking. I don't have time for this." "Lita, it's a sign, a sign for you to come home." I slammed the phone down so hard it sounded like a gunshot in that sleeping house. I had a clue of what was going on down there; I had an inheritance coming....
