I cat-stepped into the bedroom and used the light from the bathroom to go through the dresser drawers. I found a couple pairs of khaki pants and another flannel shirt and some socks and several pairs of boxer shorts. I picked a pair of shorts decorated with biplanes, slipped them on and put on the pants and shirt. The pants and shirt were too big and long and I had to cuff the pants at the bottom and cinch up tight with my belt. The shirt sleeves I rolled up to my elbow. I carried my coat, socks and shoes with me, tiptoed silently back to the kitchen.
Beverly had made a pallet of blankets and had rolled up a couple of others for pillows. She was under the covers and had her back to me. From her shape beneath the covers, I could tell her knees were drawn up toward her chest. From the way she was breathing, I knew she was asleep.
I put the shoes and socks on a chair by the table and slipped under the covers with my clothes on and put my knees into the back of Bev’s knees. I lay the. 38 at the head of my makeshift pallet, closed my eyes. Anxiety drifted me away.
24
I woke up mad and sick and wanting breakfast.
I rolled over and my body seemed to be made of baling wire and coat hangers. I sat up and listened to the birds singing and Sammy and JoAnn playing outside.
I collected the. 38, got up, looked out the window and saw the kids run by in their night clothes. Down by the lake I could see Bev sitting on the dock, her back to me.
I put on my socks and shoes, washed my face at the kitchen sink, put the. 38 in the waistband of my pants, and wentthesthei out back. The sun was bright and it was warm for October and the smell of last night’s rain was pleasant. The lake was less disturbed. It shimmered in the morning sunlight.
I spoke to the kids and kissed them and they went on playing, happy as if nothing bad had ever happened.
I sat down on the dock by Bev. She was wearing the other pair of Arnold’s old khaki pants. They were rolled up big time. Her shirt was hiked up where the butt of the. 32 pushed at it. She looked cute and young, armed and dangerous. She scrutinized me and gave me a game smile, then let it go. We sat and stared at the water and listened to it lap at the pilings beneath us.
“A little better?” I asked.
“A little,” she said. “What’s odd is, I don’t know how I feel. I don’t know if I’m in shock, mad, humiliated, or over it all. It’s like I’m waiting for another bomb to drop.”
“I know,” I said. “I am certain of one thing, though.”
“What?”
“I’m hungry.”
· · ·
We all piled in the truck and I drove us back toward town, but not all the way. I stopped outside a little convenience store and Bev and the kids waited in the truck while I used some of my change to call information and get Virgil’s office and home number, then I called him at the office.
His secretary asked who was calling.
“Tell him Fat Boy’s cousin, Henry. Tell him the whole thing or he won’t know who I am. Tell him I need to talk to him about a fire insurance problem.”
“Could I have your last name, sir?”
“Just tell him Fat Boy’s cousin, Henry.”
She didn’t like that much, but she went away, and Virgil came back on the line.
“It’s me, Hank,” I said.
“I hoped so. Goddamn, boy, talk about the doo-doo hitting the fan. Hell, it’s being slung by a tornado. I thought you were fucking dead. Burned up. Or might be.”
“Virgil, I need help.”
“I’ll say. Where the hell are you?”
“A phone booth.”
“Your wife? Kids?”
“They’re okay. We’ve been through it, but we’re all okay.”
“Your brother with you?”
“No.”
“He’s up to his neck, too.”
“If he’s alive.”
“Then you know…”
“Yeah. I know.”
“Fat Boy’s in on this, I reckon?”
“Yes, I had the pleasure of meeting the rotund gentleman and his erstwhile companion, Cobra Man, known to me now more intimately as Snake. I met them just last night. They’re a couple of cut-ups, those two.”
“Man, the news is hopping around here. I got so many questions I don’t know where to start.”
“You can start when you bring us food. Right now I’m just about tapped, but if you could bring food for a few days and some money, I get out of this mess, I’ll pay you back.”
“It’s a big mess, Hank.”
“You saying I won’t pay you back?”
“I don’t give a shit you pay me back or not. I’m saying it’s a big mess. I get the impression you don’t know how big. See the paper?”
“No, and I haven’t had coffee either.”
“I’ll bring both. Where are you?”
“You wouldn’t do anything funny, would you Virgil?”
“Come on, man. You call me ’cause you thought I might?”
“I didn’t know who else to call.”
“That makes me feel good.”
“I’m short on social skills at the moment,” I said. “I seem to get edgy when my wife’s raped and I’m beat and my house is burned down. Not to mention my kids nearly being burned to death and my dog being gutted on the porch.”
“Shit, Hank. I’m sorry. I’m sick sorry.”
“Just bring you and no one else. But bring food and coffee.”
“I’ll bring the papers too. Not that they’ll cheer you.”
“At this point, I’m ready for anything.”
“No you’re not,” he said.
I gave him the location and hung up. I looked at the newspaper racks out front of the store, but I refrained. For the moment, I wanted to delay any more bad news, and I thought sight of me in my ill-fitting clothes might cause suspicion. My picture might be in the newspaper for all I knew. A guy behind the counter inside might see me and recognize me and try and do his civic duty and call the cops.
I went back to the truck and climbed in beside Bev. “Virgil’s coming,” I said. “And so is the food.”
“Hooray!” JoAnn said. “I could eat a bear’s ass.”
“JoAnn!” Bev said.
“Daddy says it,” JoAnn said.
Bev gave me the look.
“Just now and then,” I said.
· · · height="
By the time Virgil arrived, I was ready to open one of those ancient cans of beans or beets with my teeth. He showed up in a silver Cadillac, got out and waved at me as I came out on the front porch. He was wearing a blue Hawaiian shirt with silver ducks on it, blue jeans and white tennis shoes. The back seat of the Cadillac was full of sacks and boxes stuffed with food, utensils, soft drinks, beer, and a couple large bags of ice that would do until the old refrigerator had time to turn cool.
I shook hands with Virgil and introduced him to Bev, who was obviously embarrassed by being clothed in an oversized shirt and pants and being barefoot. I introduced him to Sammy and JoAnn, who didn’t care they were in their pajamas. They asked him what was in the sacks and boxes.
Virgil said, “Well, little folks, let’s take it on up to the cabin and see.”
Virgil, Bev and I unloaded the car and toted the sacks and boxes into the cabin.
Virgil looked around. “You just pick a cabin at random and break in?”
“My brother Arnold owns it.”
“Good. You got enough problems.”
There were a couple thermoses of coffee and some honey buns and milk, and we started there. The kids ate and then went back outside to play.
Virgil took a couple of newspapers from a paper sack and laid them on the table. One was our local paper, and the other was The Houston Chronicle.
“Bad news travels fast,” Virgil said.
“Give us the synopsis first,” I said. “Then we’ll read it firsthand.”
“All right,” he said.
We sat down at the table and I poured us coffee in the cups Virgil had brought. Virgil said, “It’s hard to know where to start.”
“Just start,” I said.
“Your house burning down is being reported as possible arson. By you.”