“I shaved it just for you,” she said. “I thought it might be a little different. Besides, it keeps the lice out. You like it?”
“If you don’t know by now,” I said, “I don’t know what to tell you.”
After a moment I broke loose, went into the kitchen, practically having to walk around my dick. I picked up the phone.
“Yes?” I said.
“It’s me,” Leonard said, as if I were expecting someone else.
“I’m so glad,” I said.
“That lady I was talkin’ to? Is she the one?”
“She’s the one.”
“Good. I’m glad.”
“Did you call to congratulate me?”
“No, I called because your note said to call.”
“I was feeling very brotherly then. Right now I’m not so sure I want to waste my time with you. This woman, I think she could make me take a tire iron to Minnie Mouse.”
“That’s great… hey… really, Hap. Peace, man.”
“Peace, Leonard.”
“I was pissed. I’d had a few drinks. I’m fucked up over all this.”
“Nothing more needs to be said.”
“I love you, man.”
“And I love you. Listen up. Let’s find out what we can. I’m with you, but…”
“I have to behave myself.”
“Exactly.”
“I can only promise that up to so far.”
“We look around,” I said. “We find something. See how the police can be made to do something, we keep the blood off our hands. Got it?”
“What if we can’t?”
“We cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“When do we get started?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Where?”
“The place where Raul got his hair-cutting experience. What’s it called?”
“Antone’s.”
“I’ll pick you up at your place at nine o’clock.”
“See you then,” Leonard said.
I went back to the bedroom. Brett was holding the box of prophylactics. She shook it.
“I say we tap the box out,” she said.
We didn’t quite manage that, but when we were finished, Brett pushed up tight against me and closed her eyes. “Spoons,” she said.
I held her, and soon she was asleep. While she slept, I looked at her and thought about her ex-husband beating her, raping her. How could he?
I thought about those nice long fingers of hers coiling around a shovel, squirting lighter fluid, striking matches. I kissed her cheek and lay against her and felt her warmth, and soon I too was asleep.
15
We awoke in the late afternoon and had dinner out of Brett’s fridge. Ham on white. While we sat naked, eating sandwiches and crunching potato chips, there was a knock on the door, and we had to rush to put on clothes.
Brett finished first by pulling on a long T-shirt. She went to the door while I continued dressing in the bedroom. I was having trouble finding my pants but finally located them under the bed in a wad. Found a sock behind a chair.
I finished dressing, went into the living room area. Ella was there. She grinned at me. She really did look like Brett’s younger sister.
“Well, I see you two have hit it off,” she said.
“We’re not doing much hittin’,” Brett said, “but we are gettin’ off.”
“Brett!” Ella said. But I could tell she wasn’t all that offended.
I smiled at Ella. Close up, I could see her very pretty face wore a black eye, partially hidden by makeup.
“You just come by to annoy us?” Brett said.
“No. I came by to talk to you about switchin’ shifts with me next week. Can it happen?”
“It might,” Brett said. “I’ll have to think on it, though. Sometimes Ole Head Nurse Meanie doesn’t like changes, and honey, I don’t know she’ll like you.”
“Yeah?” Ella said. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Same thing’s wrong with me and a couple of the other girls.” Brett gave me a soulful look. “We’re just too good-lookin’ for her. She thinks everybody ought to be uglier than her.”
“Is that possible?” Ella said.
“I don’t think so,” Brett said. “’Course, you take a few more shots to the head like that one, you might be in the runnin’.”
Ella looked embarrassed. She said, “Brett… I…”
“Sorry,” Brett said. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. Hap here, he understands.”
“No, I don’t,” I said.
“Hap Collins!” Brett said. “You do too understand.”
“I don’t mean to embarrass you either, but now that Brett’s said something, I don’t understand why you’d take this shit.”
“Brett, you shouldn’t have said anything to anyone,” Ella said. “That wasn’t right.”
“You can’t keep hidin’ it, girl,” Brett said. “That’s the worst thing to do. You hide it, you’re helpin’ him do it.”
“She’s right,” I said. “Dump the bum.”
“He’s been going to counseling,” Ella said.
“Bullshit on counseling,” Brett said. “The guy’s a turd. Flush him.”
“I love him,” Ella said.
“I loved that shit-ass husband of mine, too,” Brett said. “But one day I didn’t and I had to set his head on fire.”
“I’m not like you,” Ella said. “I got to go.”
“Ella,” Brett said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…”
“No,” Ella said. “You’re right. Think about the shift, will you?”
“Sure,” Brett said.
Ella left quickly.
When she was gone, Brett said, “Bless her.”
We were about to finish eating when there was yet another knock on the door. Brett answered. It was Ella. She was in tears. “My car won’t start. I’m going to be late. He hates it when I’m late. I thought maybe… he… I’m sorry. What’s your name again?”
“Hap,” I said.
“Hap, I thought you might help me with my car?”
“Honest truth is I can’t fix a wheelbarrow.”
“Kevin will be so mad,” Ella said.
“We’ll drive you home,” Brett said. “Okay, Hap?”
“Sure.”
We took my pickup. We drove out to the east side of town. It was a beautiful day and the rain of earlier had given it a kind of glow, like the world had been washed down and polished.
About a mile and a half outside the city limits we came to a spot where an old country store had stood. I had stopped there once and bought a barbecue sandwich. It had tasted like shit. Now the store was just a shell of a building. Windows knocked out. A door halfway down. That’s what happens when you make lousy barbecue.
We turned down a dirt road along a row of mailboxes and lights on poles, drove past a dog kennel where a half dozen hot-looking Siberian huskies watched us pass.
Shortly thereafter, we drove onto as ugly a stretch of land as I’ve seen. You could tell right off that not too many years ago woods had stood here. Someone had clear-cut it, sold off the lumber, then made a mobile-home park out of it. In this case, they hadn’t even bothered to scrape it down to the clay. Some of the stumps still remained, burned black but still standing. Between clumps of stumps and pools of rainwater, trailers stood.
We drove past a row of run-down trailers with broken toys in the yard, sad dogs on chains, and finally drove around to a fairly nice little white trailer with pink trim. The yard was clean, except for the standard redneck signpost – any kind of black car on blocks. This one was a Ford Mustang. When I was in high school I had wanted one of those. Thought I’d die if I didn’t get one. I didn’t get one and I was still living.
We parked and let Ella out. She thanked us, and as she started toward the trailer the door opened and a man came out. He had on jeans and was shirtless and barefoot. He was a stocky guy with a slightly protruding but solid-looking belly. He was about my height. Good-looking fella with a crewcut.
“Where the hell you been, Ella?” he said. “I been sittin’ here waitin’ on my goddamn dinner.”
“My car, honey,” Ella said. “It wouldn’t start.”
“My car wouldn’t start,” Kevin said in a mocking tone. “It’s always somethin’, ain’t it, bitch?”
Ella turned to us. “Thanks. I’m sorry.”
“That’s all right,” I said. “You sure you want to stay?”
“Yes,” Ella said.
“Hey,” Kevin said, “who you talkin’ to?”