Out of the Easy

Josie’s new daily routine consists of going to the store for any mail or phone calls during the day and walking to the neighbor’s house every night to sleep in the backseat of their car, afraid to sleep alone in the house. She prefers Shady Grove to New Orleans but misses Patrick and writes him daily with no reply. On the phone, Willie keeps quiet about Josie’s mother, but does say she is out on bond and with Cincinnati at mob boss Marcello’s hotel. She also tells Josie that Cokie will mail a letter “from” Charlie from out of town to Miss Paulsen. Patrick, meanwhile, does not answer her call.

In the house, Josie hears a loud engine, then silence. She grabs her shotgun and quietly looks out the window and door. She hears a sound on the porch and points the gun, startled to see Jesse standing there. He did not mean to scare her and turned his motorcycle off to avoid it. He jokes that with her gun she looks like “Mae West of the Motor City” (227). They chat on the porch, and Jesse says he saw Josie’s mother, who “looked thin and tired” (228).