The Mighty Red

by Louise Erdrich

People said he was lucky to survive what happened at the party, but there were times he thought being dead might be better.

head down on the table and mumbled loudly. ‘He’s not good enough for you.’ Crystal sat up. Kismet’s face had hardened almost imperceptibly. Now it was like they both had poker hands and were trying not to show their tells. Kismet broke first and took the mugs to the sink. ‘He really loves me, Mom,’ she said, looking out the window into their scorched brown sacred yard. I am a dumbass, Crystal thought.

Now, say you caused the deaths of two people and maimed one,

For this, he’d stayed alive?

All of these things weren’t going to erase what happened. But Gary acted like getting married somehow would.

saw Jordan behind them, passing by outside in the hallway, wearing his football jersey with the upside-down number. He was carrying his helmet too, but at least he had his head on straight.

‘Hugo was there last night,’ said Kismet. Saying his name felt momentous, but she had to do it. ‘Oh him,’ said Gary. That maggot, he thought in relief. Nothing to worry about.

bedrooms and cathedrals—to him both places of worship.

Hugo watched them with the distant sympathy of a young man who knows what he’s doing is stupid only to the people who love him, therefore of no consequence.

!!!!!!

they were Americans but lately Crystal and Kismet had come to know on some level that they were the real Americans—the rattled, scratching, always-in-debt Americans.

know when you rolled the truck? I lost something,’ she said. ‘I lost my love for you. Whatever I thought was love is back there in Pavlecky’s field.’

Kismet was a hero, but if she knew her value, Winnie feared, she might escape.