Vernell, for his part, was clambering down out of the truck, which he had stopped just behind my Volkswagen. I could only imagine Sheila's reaction inside the shop. She was probably trying to pretend she didn't know us. I could hardly blame her.

Vernell still wore the leisure suit, although it was now much the worse for wear. His ruffled shirt had lost a few buttons and the suit was stained with paint. Vernell wasn't looking any too sober, either. Even though it was approaching the traditional cocktail hour, it was apparent to me that Vernell's happy hour had begun long before noon.

His hair was mussed, he sported a black stubble of a beard, and his eyes were bloodshot.

"Maggie!" he cried. "I was jess looking for you." He slurred his speech slightly. This was another serious sign. Vernell could hold his beer. He even did a pretty good job with liquor. But when he'd crossed the line, Vernell began to lose his capacity for speech. He could still walk, and many folks would think he'd had a few, but no one knew how much liquor it took to make Vernell appear drunk. I knew. He'd at least finished a fifth of the hard stuff, probably Jack Daniel's.

"Come here, you! I gotta talk to you!" He'd made it to my side, but now seemed to sway slightly.

"Sit down, Vernell," I said, pulling him down to the curb that ran alongside Sheila's store. He didn't have much of a choice once I got the momentum swinging downward. He sank like a sack of potatoes.

"Maggie," he said, his whiskey breath coating my face. "Jimmy's dead,"

"I know, Vernell, remember? You came to see me last night."

Vernell looked confused. "I did?"

"Yeah, Vernell, you did. You were liquored up, just like you are now." And just like you always were, I thought.

"Maggie," he said again, paying no attention to what I'd said. "I saw him!"

"Who, Vernell? Saw who?"

Vernell shot me a look like maybe I hadn't been paying attention. "Jimmy! He come to see me last night!"

Poor Vernell. Now he was slipping into the d.t.'s.

"Honey, Jimmy's dead."

Vernell gave me that look again. "Don't I know it!" he said loudly. "Of course he's dead! How else could he've found himself and received his true gift?"

"Vernell, how long have you been drinking?" Vernell was bad to go off on these kind of binges. Every three months you could count on it, and in between then if he was under stress. Jimmy's death must've set him off good.

"Listen to me, Maggie. We're gonna be partners, you know. You gotta listen."

I sighed and prepared to give Vernell time to talk until he ran out of gas. It was the only way when we'd been married, and it was obviously the only way now.

"You listening?" he asked. I nodded. "Good then," he said, and we were off to the races. "Jimmy came in a vision, Maggie! He was all dressed in pink robes!"

"Pink?"

"I know what what you're thinking," he said, nodding. "It's supposed to be white. I told Jimmy the same thing and he said, 'That's what all you people left behind think! Don't a one of you know, 'cause you ain't dead!'" Vernell went on. "Well, I couldn't argue with that, especially not when he told me what the Lord wants me to do! The Lord is working in my life, Maggie. He has a great vision for me, and dawg, if it ain't an inspired business vision to boot!"

I was starting to have a bad feeling, a way-down-deep-in-the-pit-of-my-stomach bad feeling.

"Lookee up there," Vernell said, pointing to the satellite dish. "Jimmy says, 'Vernell, the Lord wants you to spread his message. Vernell, paint the dishes.' I said to him, Taint the dishes, what kind of talk is that!' But Jimmy explained it all. He said if I painted the dishes in His likeness, then one and all would receive him."

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I just shook my head.

"I know, I know," Vernell said, seeing my reaction. "I told him I couldn't even draw, but Jimmy said I had the gift now. He even told me what kind of paint to use, so's we wouldn't affect the transmission. Latex. Get that? Latex. Jesus even knows about paint! "

"Vernell," I said, trying to interrupt, but he went right on.

"So look, Maggie! It's a damn good likeness, don't you think?"

I looked back over at the truck and nodded wearily. It was a damn good likeness, all right.

"And best of all? This'll sell. Why, do you know I took sixteen orders right here today? In Greensboro? Why, honey, we'll spread the word all over the world."

I didn't like the way Vernell kept saying we.

"What's Jolene think about this, Vernell?" I asked.

Vernell shook his head and spat out into the parking lot. "Jolene don't know shit!" he pronounced. "She thinks the best thing I can do is take you to court."

"Me? Vernell, hello, we're divorced. Why're you gonna take me to court?"

"On account of what Jimmy did." He looked over at me as if to say "The jig's up."

"Vernell, I told you Jimmy and me were never any more than friends, and not even good friends."

"Not that! Although, that's probably why he done it. Maggie, Roxanne's the one who found it! You couldn't hide the truth away from us forever!" I was trying to get a word in, but Vernell was on a roll. "Sure, I was madder than a coot owl when Roxanne told me, and she's still fit to be tied, but eventually I had to accept it. We've gotta work together. And you know what?"

"What, Vernell?"

"Maybe it's God's way of working a miracle in my life." Vernell started to cry.

"All right! All right, Vernell Spivey, I've pitied you and babied you enough. Now you reach down in your drunken soul and you pull yourself together I want to know what you're talking about, and I want to know now!"

Vernell raised his tearful eyes and reached his hand out to touch my arm. "Maggie, Jimmy's done left you his share of the business, you and Sheila; Don't you know?"

I shook my head in disbelief.

"If I recall correctly, Roxanne said he left a copy of his will at the house and he said half of everything him and me co-owned was for you, and half for Sheila, on account of how he told you he'd take care of the both of you." Vernell's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Is there something I ought to know about Sheila?" he asked.

"God Almighty knows!" I said, jumping up off the curb and whirling around to face Vernell. "You Spiveys'll dog a girl from the grave! Hellfire! No! I had no idea and I didn't have an affair with your brother!"

Vernell smiled sadly. "It don't really matter none now, Maggie. Jimmy's dead and you and I are gonna be partners in the mobile home business. It's fate, Maggie. Pure T fate."

Not my fate! Not my future! I was so mad, I couldn't even begin to take it all in. Damn that Jimmy!

"Come on, Vernell!" I cried. "Get up!"

"Where're we going?" He had a foolish grin on his face, just the way he used to when he'd come home drunk and think he was going to get lucky.

"Vernell, I am taking you home."

"I knew it!" he whooped. "I knew you still wanted me!"

I stared at the pitiful wreck of a man in his scruffy polyester, with his stinky breath, and shook my head. What had I done to piss off the universe?

I tugged him up off the curb and headed for my car, only to face the panel truck blocking me in.

"Give me your keys," I demanded. When he didn't move, I stuck my hand in his pants pocket and pulled them out. Vernell giggled. "Shut up and get in that truck! I'm driving, so don't even think about getting behind that wheel. You're knee-walking, dog drunk!" Vernell giggled again.

"I always did love it when you were mad," he said, wrapping a big arm around my shoulder and resting his drunken head on top of mine.

I stood there for a moment, trapped by the weight of him and trying to urge him forward. From a distance, we must've looked like a happy couple. At least that's what I figured Marshall Weathers was thinking as he watched from his vantage point across the parking lot.