Excerpt from The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

'Yes.'

My brain revved up with money-sign adrenaline and my thoughts came on furiously. I could feel the neurons sparking. Danae's voice went sweet and wheedly.

'You're big. You can heft him. Budgie's on the slight side.'

Budgie was measly as a rat, I said, but she didn't care what I said. She was beaming through her tears, because she could tell I was ready to do her bidding. At that point, the job I currently held took over. Reader of contracts. That's what I was at the time. A part-time paralegal who read over contracts and defined the terms. I told Danae that I wanted the deal in writing. We'd both sign it.

She went straight to the table, wrote something up. Then she did a better thing. Wrote the check out with zero after zero and waved it in my face.

'Put your dress on. Fix up. Go get Budgie and the check is yours.'

She drove me to North Shore. I walked up to the ware- house. Fifteen minutes later, I was pulling out in a delivery truck. I was wearing heels, a painfully tight black cocktail dress, a green jacket. My hair was combed back and sprayed. Danae had swiftly applied my makeup. Best I'd looked in years. I carried a notebook, a file from Danae's daughter's stack of schoolwork. There was a pen in my purse.

What was Danae going to do with Budgie when she got him? I asked myself this question as I swiftly rolled along. What on earth is she going to do? Answer there was none. The ants came up under my skin.

Excerpted from The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. Copyright © 2021 by Louise Erdrich. Excerpted by permission of Harper. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.