I got the .38, leaned over, and picked her up and threw her over my shoulder. She was very light, maybe a hundred and ten pounds. That’s great, Hap, you just punched out a little girl about half your weight.
I carried Gadget out to the truck and we looked around for their dog, just in case he was vengeful. But he was either on the other side of the trailer in a heap or had run off to join the circus. I hoped the latter. I liked dogs. I put Gadget in the backseat and Leonard got in the front and I drove us out of there. As we went, I saw the other dog, the yellow one, sitting beside the road. He turned his head to watch as we drove by.
Leonard turned to me, said, “Now, see. That worked out fine.”
“I hate you,” I said.
8
Leonard leaned back and looked over the seat at Gadget. He said, “She looks like some kind of angel got caught up in a fan.”
“I hit her,” I said.
“And boy did she have it coming.”
“I feel like a bully.”
“You had to do it.”
“I still don’t like it.”
“Had she been wearing a nose ring, would you have felt better?”
“Just a bit,” I said. “I really hate those things. Seriously tattooed arms would have helped too.”
Leonard grinned and shook his head. “You worry too much about things that are done, my brother. She’s taken beatings for no reason and you punched her because you wanted to keep your eyes in your head and get her away from those boneheads. Give yourself some slack.”
“Hitting women is not on my list of gentlemanly activities.”
“Well, whipping people’s asses and throwing their dog out the window might not be on the list either.”
“Yeah … well… At least I didn’t shoot anyone.”
“That’s right, point that out, put it all on me. But unlike you, I don’t feel guilty… Listen, man. You did what you had to do. And now we got to do something else. The .38 and dickhead’s automatic.”
We drove down some back trails and stopped by a little run of water that was just off the road and flowed out into the woods. The road was pretty messy and I figured if it rained harder it would be difficult to get down it, and even more difficult to get back out.
Climbing out of the truck, Leonard got some gloves from the toolbox fastened to the bed and wiped the .38 clean and threw it into the woods, into the shallow water there. He took the automatic and did the same.
We got back in the truck and I got back on the main road. “They find that stuff,” Leonard said, “it don’t mean a thing. We didn’t own the automatic. And your .38 was as cold as the cunt between a dead nun’s legs … Hey, Gadget. She’s coming to.”
Gadget sat up in the back and I watched her in the rearview mirror. She had a hand to her head. Right where I had hit her. “You hit me,” she said.
“Right between the eyes,” I said.
“He feels bad about it,” Leonard said.
“That don’t mean a damn thing to me. My head hurts.”
“He did it with love,” Leonard said.
“Who the fuck are you?” Then it struck her. “Ah, I know … My grandpa’s friends. Hank and Larry.”
“Hap and Leonard,” Leonard said. “I’m Leonard, and he’s Hap. You can remember the names because he’s a white guy and I’m a black guy.”
“I can see that… I know who you are.”
“Yeah, but can you remember which of us is which,” Leonard said. “Black guy, Leonard. White guy, Hap.”
“Why did you do it?” she said.
“Your grandpa asked us to,” I said. “And he’s a friend, and we remember when you were a baby and everyone thought you were going to grow up to be worth something.”
“That don’t mean nothin’,” she said. “I don’t even remember you guys.”
“In truth, you may not mean all that much to us,” Leonard said, “but Marvin, he means a lot. Come on, gal. What the hell you doin’? We know you got raised better than that.”
“You don’t know nothin’.”
“We know that,” I said. “We know you weren’t raised to bang drug dealers in a trailer with roaches in the walls and dog shit and a near empty jar of cheap peanut butter on the floor.”
“Don’t forget the cocaine,” Leonard said.
“That too,” I said.
“And a criminal dog,” Leonard said. “That pup y’all got, he has done gone over to the dark side.”
Gadget took a deep breath, narrowed her eyes. “I remember Grandpa said you two thought you were funny.”
9
As we arrived in No Enterprise it started to rain heavy and the sky took on a hazy green look like nature had vomited into the heavens. The wind hit the truck hard enough to move it. Looking at the town through wet swaths made by the wipers, it was even more depressing, a weak hope thrown together with brick and glass. Someone thought the railroad would come through there many years ago, and it didn’t. What was left now was nothing more than a hope and a dream.
The rain was running deep in the streets and in the gutters. My gas gauge pinged. We drove back to the place where we had eaten and parked under the overhang where the fuel pumps were. Leonard got out and began putting gas in the truck. The rain pounded on the overhang. The water splashed all around us. It was pretty dark for the time of day. I glanced at Leonard standing by the pump working the gas nozzle. He gave me a weak salute. I shot him the finger. He shot me the finger back. I never said we were mature.
I looked back at Gadget.
“How’d you get that name, Gadget?” I said. “I used to know, but I forgot.”
She was slow with the answer. “I liked fixing things when I was a girl. I had a knack … Look, Grandpa shouldn’t have asked you to do this. This isn’t good for me or anyone. Other day, when he hit Tanedrue with the cane—”
“Hold up,” I said. “How many times did he hit him? I just got to know.”
“A lot. He did it quick. I thought Tanedrue was going to shoot him. I begged him not to.”
“Your boyfriend sounds like aces. Goddamn, I bet you’re proud.”
“You got to take me back, Leonard—”
“I’m Hap.”
“Whatever. Or let me out here, and I can call someone.”
“We’re someone.”
“I mean someone Tanedrue knows. I can’t call him. Cell phones don’t work out there, and that’s all they got. Cell phones. They like it that way. Hell, I don’t even have a phone. Just let me have yours, so I can call someone in town they know, and then you can go on. I see them, I can tell them something, whatever you want, make it some kind of misunderstanding, and I can say you apologized—”
“Not likely,” I said.
“You don’t want to get into this any deeper and drag me down too. You do, and hell will be coming.”
“Too late,” I said. “Did you really like it out there, Gadget?”
Again, hesitation. “I don’t know.”
“That means no,” I said.
“I loved Tanedrue.”
“Loved?”
“Love. I love him.”
“You want to go back because you’re using. That’s it, isn’t it?”
“No.”
“I think it is.”
“I said it isn’t.”
“It isn’t Tanedrue you want, it’s the monkey.”
“I just like it. I’m not hooked.”
“That’s what they all say.”
She held her stomach.
I said, “You hungry?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let’s start with the idea that you are.”
“Sometimes, I try to eat, I throw up.”
“That’s the drugs, or …”