Junior's Leg

the long version

"Wells shows his range by taking us into the mind and life of Meely's arch-nemesis, the schoolyard bully Junior Guidry. We catch up with Junior a dozen years later, living broke, drunk, and one-legged in a wreck of a trailer on the edge of a snake-infested swamp. He has survived a fantastical offshore oil-rig accident that would have killed most men; through the help of a good lawyer, it (temporarily) made him rich instead. But Junior has squandered his fortune on drink, blackjack, womanizing, and brawling, leaving a wake of wrecked cars and friendships, not to mention lost or stolen wooden legs.". "Then one night, the mysterious Iris Mary Parfait stumbles into Junior's trailer and his life, a good woman running from a tragic childhood and a bad, bad man determined to track her down. When Iris Mary's past suddenly catches up with her, Junior faces the choice of his life: to regain his fortune, or to reclaim himself as a man."--BOOK JACKET.