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“Hold it, Shannon, look at him,” said Todd. “He’s still out if it. Way out if it.”

“Fucker. I hope he never comes down. When he does, we oughta kick his ass. Makin’ us eat live worms.”

“They’re not moving,” said Todd. “Look.” He held open the bag.

Shannon looked for a long moment. “Okay, maybe they’re not.”

“Actually, I’m starting to feel pretty good,” said Todd.

“Whatever,” said Shannon. “Actually, I don’t feel that bad either. Surprised I’m not puking. You wanna go out?”

“Yeah, I do,” said Dewey. “Let’s go.”

“You don’t wanna finish this game?”

“What game?”

“What about Hobie?” They looked over at him. He appeared to be in a trance, or at least deeply preoccupied.

“Fuck him. Leave him here.”

“Shouldn’t we, like, lie him down on the couch or something?” said Dewey.

“Naw, let him sit there,” said Shannon. “He looks comfy.” With that, they left. There was a strange sense of energy in the air.

Outside, Shannon said, “Yo, Todd, can I drive your ride? I like to drive that fuckin’ thing.” Meaning his car, the ’68 Thunderbird.

“Sure, go ahead.” Todd didn’t like to drive it that much anyway, found it hard to steer, kind of like what he figured it must be like to steer a yacht. Besides, Shannon could be like a little kid about stuff like that.

“How come Hobie got all nodded out on this stuff?” said Dewey.

“He always reacts some weird way to shit,” said Shannon. “’Member how back when we first got him to smoke pot, he took a hit, got all frantic and fell to the floor thrashing around?”

“Yeah, I remember. Had a panic attack. He said ‘I’m freaking out!’”

“Then a couple years ago he said he didn’t remember that ever happening.”

“He said that longer than a couple years ago.”

“Course, you know what his real problem is?”

“I know what you think it is,” said Todd. “It is. He hates being a faggot. Wants to like girls, but he doesn’t.”

“Could be, I dunno,” said Dewey. He was going to add that Hobie obviously liked Roni a lot, but thought better of it. Not a good subject to bring up with Shannon. “Where we going? Anywhere?”

“Didn’t somebody say something about a strip joint?” said Todd, though no one had.

“Huh! I don’t think so, but that’s funny, ’cause that’s just what I was thinking,” said Shannon. “You know what I really wanna do? See some pussy. Not in movies. The live stuff.”

“That sounds okay,” said Dewey. It was somewhat out of character for him to say he actually wanted to do something.

“Let me rephrase that,” said Shannon. “I wanna smell some pussy. Like, at a titty bar, a good sleazy one where the bitches put it in your face. I could go for that about now.”

“Well, we could go to Yum-Yums,” said Todd. This was a nude dancing bar they’d gone to a few times years before.

“Is that even still around? I thought it closed,” said Dewey.

“I dunno. Let’s go out there and see.” It was evening, just getting to be dark out.

They rode on, Shannon talking about girls at Yum-Yums they’d seen years before. “Remember that one little bitch, with the blue hair? She said her name was ‘Fantasy.’”

“Let’s hope she’s not still there, she’ll be long in the tooth now,” said Todd.

“Aw, you’re just a sexist, man,” said Shannon.

“Shelf life is short for strippers,” said Todd. “They’re like produce.”

“Uh, say, you guys. Don’t look now, guess who’s following us,” said Dewey.

“What, the pigs?” said Shannon, turning around in his seat to look.

“Nope. Jaime Tales, on a bike. He’s hanging back about a block, probably thinks we don’t see him.”

Todd laughed, turned around too. “Really, is that him way back there?”

“Yeah, look at his jacket,” said Dewey. “Who else wears a green plaid jacket?”

“Fuckin’ narc, I swear to God.” Shannon did a screeching u-turn, which Todd thought was not good for the old Thunderbird at all, but he didn’t say anything. Heading toward him, it was Jaime, all right.

As they passed him in the other direction, Shannon yelled at Jaime, “Hey, officer, what’s the charge?” but Jaime looked away and pumped on ahead. Shannon made another u-turn, sped up and swerved close to Jaime. Startled, he rolled to the side of the road and fell off his bike into the gravel.

“Christ, don’t run him over, man,” said Todd.

“You need to learn to ride that fuckin’ bike, Tales, you fuckin’ dumbass moron!” Shannon yelled out the window, and zoomed on.

That seemed to be the end of Jaime’s pursuit of them. They drove on.

“I still think it’s closed. That Yum-Yums place,” said Dewey.

“Aw, you’re a crepe-hanger,” said Shannon. “That’s what my mom used to call people who were negative, crepe-hangers.”

After a couple minutes, Todd looked back and saw Jaime, up and riding again and still following, from a farther distance back. He didn’t say anything about it, though. He was feeling pretty frisky too but didn’t want them to do anything really irresponsible because Shannon tended to get wild, and he knew that Dewey, though he’d fret, would go along with whatever Shannon wanted to do.

They came upon Yum-Yums. The sign for it was still up, but it was dark and appeared definitely closed. Looked like it had been for a while, in fact. The sign, a big pair of googly eyes with cameos of dancing girls around it, was dingy with grime and had a jagged hole, as though someone had broken it with a thrown rock.

However, they all saw at once, there was a girl standing right in front of the place, head down, going through her purse. She wore a short red dress and green hose, and had nice legs. Her long, stringy hair, oddly, was a bright shade of red, like a Raggedy Ann doll. When she raised her head, she appeared to have slanted Asian eyes.

“Hey, let’s pick up that hooker,” said Shannon.

“I dunno, man,” said Dewey. “She’s Chinese, isn’t she?” Todd laughed, not knowing why Dewey saying that seemed funny.

The girl paid no attention as they drove up. “Hey, honey?” called Shannon.

Some moments passed before she answered. “What?” she said, sounding exasperated.

“What’s the problem? You look cold.”

“I am cold and I can’t find my fucking money.”

“Not a hooker,” said Todd, thinking aloud.

“What you need money for?” said Shannon.

“To call a fucking cab! What else?”

“You don’t need a cab. You can come with us.”

“Yeah, right,” she said. “Where you gonna take me?” She struck a pose, curving her figure with her hip thrust out and a fist on it, scowling as if defiantly.

Todd thought, but didn’t say, that maybe she was a hooker after all.

“Wherever, c’mon,” said Shannon.

She groaned. “All right, beats freezing out here.” She got into the back seat, next to Todd, and they drove off. She was kind of cute and smelled of perfume.

“So, what you been up to this evening?” asked Shannon, smirking.

“I went on a date with this asshole, and he was so fucking boring I had to ditch him.”

“You ditched him?”

“We were at a restaurant, he was acting all nervous and stupid and telling me about his dad’s law firm, so I told him I was going to the ladies’ room, left out the back. I mean, I could tell he was going to bore me stiff all evening, but then he wouldn’t even be a good fuck.”

It got quiet in the car, until Todd laughed. Then they all laughed.

“What’s so funny,” the girl said, deadpan.