The Hard Bounce - страница 60
I nodded and went inside my dark, empty apartment. From under the bed, I pulled out my ragged blue hardcover of The Hardy Boys and the Mark on the Door. Inside the cover, I found the brittle piece of folded construction paper. My one valuable. I carefully unfolded it and looked once again at the two smiling stick figures standing on a faded field of grass that never existed in front of a house we never lived in, LovE Emily scrawled above the smiling yellow sun in a deliberate child’s hand. Gently, I folded the paper up and placed it back in its safe place. The Boy lay under my bed, hiding. From what, I didn’t know. He took the book from me and held it tightly to his grotesquely scarred little chest.
I held onto the image of the smiling sun as I lay back and closed my eyes.
Day two.
More coffee.
More sandwiches.
No Snake.
The closest we came to activity was around 9 P.M. when a bum started harassing us for change and wouldn’t leave.
He stood at the car window, swaying and reeking like sour milk. “C’mon, big guy. Help a vet’rin out. You gotta have some change you kin spare.” He redirected his focus to Junior since I refused to give him my attention, much less change. His breath filled the car with the odor of cheap wine and gingivitis.
“You know what I got for you, alkie?” Junior reached under his seat and pulled out what looked like a homemade remote control. He pressed a button on the side, and a burst of electricity crackled across two metal studs attached to the top. “Zappy-zappy. That’s what I got for you, you don’t start walking.”
The bum backed off from the window, palms up. He walked away, slurring his irritated sentiments. When he got halfway down the block, he turned around and flipped us off.
“What the hell was that?”
“I just hate bums,” Junior said.
“No, I meant what is that in your hand?”
“What? This?” He held up the thing. It still looked like a big remote, held together with black duct tape. One thin green wire protruded from the bottom of the tape and re-entered the plastic molding just under the metal studs.
“What is that? Is that a stun gun?”
Junior smiled and nodded. “Sweet, isn’t she?” He pressed the button again, sending electricity dancing between the electrodes. It made a sound like corn popping. “Twitch made it. He gave it to me on my birthday. I call her Rosie.”
Why the hell does everyone name their weaponry?
On my last birthday, Twitch gave me a set of Reservoir Dogs action figures. I didn’t feel like I’d gotten off easy at the time. At least he hadn’t gifted me with something I could electrocute myself with.
We sat until Junior’s snoring woke us both up around 11 P.M. Neither of us could figure out exactly when we’d fallen asleep. Needless to say, neither one of us had spotted our man from inside fucking slumberland.
Day three. Pouring rain. And I mean pouring. The rain fell in solid sheets around the car, and gray rivers ran down the gutter. Junior and I made a game out of guessing what would come bobbing by next, caught in the current. You’d think it would have been a nice relief from the stifling heat, but just an inch of open window and my entire right side would be drenched immediately. With the windows closed, the humidity built up in the car, fogging up the glass and giving us zero visibility.
“This is retarded,” Junior said, wiping the condensation off the inside of the windshield with a napkin. “We wouldn’t see the guy if he was doing a cha-cha on the hood. Let’s do this tomorrow.”
We’d only been in our spot for an hour, but Junior was right. I sighed. Day three and zip. Wasn’t even noon yet, and the day was in the shitter. “Fine. I’m just going to take a piss and get smokes. You want anything from inside?”
“Cherry Coke.”
“Got it.” I got out, head down, and ran into the store as fast as I could.
Our bribed counterman pressed the button from behind the counter, opening the lock on the bathroom door. Under the fluorescent lights, my skin had taken on a lovely jaundice, dark bags pooching under my eyes. I sighed at the living dead in the mirror. He sighed right back at me. I took a wonderfully extended piss and walked out. The bell on the door dinged as someone else came into the store. I grabbed Junior’s soda and headed to the counter.