When the Women Come Out to Dance Page 18

  Standing there in the kitchen looking at each other, Ben said, half singing it, " 'I work ten hours on a John Deere tractor just thinking of you all day.' "

  Denise did the same with " 'I've got a calico cat and a tworoom flat on a street in West L. A .' " and stopped there. She said, "But the song has it turned around. I'm here and you'r e the one in L. A ." She said, "You're going back, aren't you?

  Once you get Preston or someone to work your place?"

  Ben hesitated. That was the idea and he could say yeah. He could say yeah, why don't you come with me? It was in hi s mind.

  The phone rang before he could say anything.

  Preston telling how Avery Grooms had been picked up on the detainer and what he found in the barns. "Ben, was a bi g Peterbilt tractor in one and all kind of truck parts in there.

  Big Cummins diesel engine, crankshafts, axles. What they do, Ben, hijack a truck, bring it there and go over it like ants taking apart a magnolia leaf. See, then they sell to wholesalers in that criminal enterprise. The diesel engine they can get six , eight thousand for."

  "A lot of work," Ben the eight-second man said, "for what they make off it."

  "Yeah, well, these are working-type people, they don't know no better."

  Ben told about Brother and Preston said, "I gave you my Smith, whyn't you shoot him?"

  "It was in my bag, I didn't have time to get it out."

  "If you had, would you've shot him?"

  "If I couldn't club him with it. I've done it."

  "You mean in a movie." Preston said he'd find out about Brother and call back.

  Once Ben's clothes were dry he peeled off the robe and got dressed, Denise watching, looking right at him as he steppe d into his shorts and jeans and pulled them up--the way he remembered when they were little kids and she always wanted to see his thing and he'd tell her to close her eyes or tur n around. Not now. He felt natural, the way he liked to think o f himself with Denise. More natural than with any woman h e could think of. Even Kim.

  And there she was, bringing along the other women.

  He wasn't going to tell Denise about them, but now he wanted to--even knowing pretty much what she'd say.

  Preston phoned.

  "City police and the sheriff both got the call, shots fired at the Shawnee Inn. They got over there to find Jarrett Lloy d Grooms, laying by the swimming pool unconscious, and too k him to Memorial. Brother's busted up cheekbones to toes , messed up his mouth, has knees that bend the wrong way.

  They wrote him for having the gun and attempting to break and enter.''

  "They think he's a burglar? What about the shots fired?"

  "Gun went off when he fell. They want to close it."

  "They have Hazen?"

  "No sign of him. He must've took off."

  Ben hung up, gave Denise the report, and she said, "You're staying tonight, aren't you?"

  "Yeah, but I want to tell you something."

  They were in the kitchen now, Denise pouring vodka.

  "You know my mother left right after I was born."

  "Your dad was dead and that part of her life, along with you, was over."

  "She died of drugs and alcohol."

  "Yeah . . . ?"

  "You remember Carl?"

  "Honey, Carl leaves his imprint on you."

  "His wife, my grandmother Kitty, walked out on him after a year."

  "Girls named Kitty don't think much of becoming grandmothers."

  "Virgil's wife, my great-grandmother, died having Carl."

  "I won't comment on that."

  "And the girl I was living with, Kim, a stuntwoman, fell off a ladder at home and fractured her skull."

  Denise said, "You're kidding."

  "No, she did."

  "I mean about what you're thinking, that I could be next in line. Tell me you're kidding."

  "Carl's the one pointed it out. He said we don't seem to have any luck with women."

  Denise said, "Carl?" She said, "Carl told you that? Carl told stories, things he did as a marshal? My dad said most of i t wasn't true.''

  "Your dad represented guys Carl arrested.'' "He predicted things, crops, the weather--where to fin d game--my dad told me about that, too. He said Carl was always wrong. You lived half your life with him and you didn't know that?''

  "His stories were great,'' Ben said. "His predictions, I never paid any attention to them. It's just, every once in a while I t hink about what he said."

  Denise shook her head. "Ben, your granddad didn't know shit. Remember that and you'll quit thinking of yourself as a lady killer."

  "I thought you might fall on the floor laughing."

  "That's too obvious." She finished her drink and looked at Ben in fluorescent kitchen light and said, "You're perfect fo r me and I've known it since I was a little girl. But you're to o glum." She took the drink from his hand and placed it on th e counter.

  "Let's go to bed so I can wake you up."

  Brother never showed. By the time Hazen realized it and quit talking to the waitress he'd had five Margaritas following a few beers earlier. He called the farm and let it ring. What was he supposed to do now, call the police?

  Y'all holding my little brother? Call the hospital, see if he got hurt fucking up somehow? He probably sassed the trooper s and they put him in detention. Next they'd be out to the far m with warrants. Shit, it was time to move on. Tomorrow, afte r he'd settled accounts.

  Hazen went out to the desk and took a room for the night.

  Tomorrow he'd go to Denise's house first thing, before she left for the real estate office, and have her call the famous movi e star nobody ever heard of and tell him to get his ass ove r there.

  They were still in Denise's double bed under the covers, putting off getting up. She said, "I imagined you'd snore, but you don't."

  "You do, a little."

  "Really? No one's ever told me."

  "I gave you a kick and you stopped."

  "I suppose you want breakfast--eggs, the whole thing?"

  "I like just a sandwich, if you have any leftovers."

  "Leftover what, you think I cook dinner for myself ?"

  "You know how?"

  "Is it important to you?"

  He said, "I haven't thought of Hazen once."

  She said, "Then why bring him up."

  "Later on I have to see a lawyer."

  She said, "Let's brush our teeth and go for another, okay?"

  "After you." He watched her get out of bed naked and go in the bathroom. He waited for the full frontal shot when sh e came out, and heard the doorbell. He got out of bed and wen t over to the bathroom to tell Denise through the door someon e was here.

  She came out wrapping herself in a pink kimono. "It's the paperboy. He comes to collect once a month." She said, "Don't get dressed. Put the robe on and we'll have a cup of coffe e first, okay?"

  She picked up her handbag from the vanity and went downstairs barefoot.

  She was seriously thinking of selling the house, but would hold on for a while, see what happens. It was wa y too big for one person, dark, sort of Victorian, frosted-glas s panels in the double doors of the entrance. She could see a figure waiting on the porch, a dark shape more than an actual person, opened the door and said to Hazen Grooms, "You'r e not the paperboy."

  "What I am," Hazen said, "is hungover. You get horny when you're like that? Man, I sure do." He stepped inside an d took the lapel of her kimono between his fingers, feeling it , saying, "Honey, you're a sight for horny eyes. I bet you go t nothing on under there, have you?" He looked past her saying, "What I need more'n anything right now is a cold beer.

  Get the spiders outta my head." He started across the foyer saying, "I bet they's some in the fridge," and went on throug h the hall that passed beneath the staircase landing to the bi g kitchen in the back of the house.

  Denise followed, handbag hanging from her shoulder, not saying a word. She opened the refrigerator, brought out a ca n of Bud and placed it on t
he table in front of Hazen. He said , "We not talking this morning. Still seepy-eyed? We could g o back to bed, you want." He popped open the can and Denis e watched him pour the beer down his throat, his Adam's appl e bouncing as he swallowed, watched him lower the can, hi s eyes shining wet, and say, "Jesus, I've come back to life."

  She brought a glass ashtray from the sink and placed it with her handbag on the other end of the table from Hazen.

  Now she took a pack of Winston and a Bic lighter from the bag, lit a cigarette and dropped the pack and lighter bac k inside.

  "Gotta have that first smoke, huh?" Hazen said. "What I w ant you to do for me is call Mr. Ben Webster, get him t o come over here."

  "Why?" Denise said.

  "Settle our business."

  "I thought you changed your mind--your dad going back to prison and all."

  It got him to hesitate. "Where'd you hear that?"

  "My cleaning lady."

  "Your cleaning lady." Hazen squinting at her now. "How'd she know?"

  "What difference does it make?" Denise said, and blew smoke at him. "You're leaving, aren't you?"

  Now he changed again, using his sly Jack Nicholson eyes.

  "If I am," Hazen said, "we got one last chance to go upstairs and fall in love."

  She saw Ben in the terry-cloth robe too small for him appear in the doorway behind Hazen, and said, "I don't think Tenkiller would like it."

  Hazen said, "Who?"

  Now Ben came in past Hazen to Denise's end of the table, looking around to say, "I wouldn't waste any time. I think yo u ought to get out of here's fast as you can."

  Hazen put his beer on the table and stared at Ben in the fluffy skin-tight robe, the sleeves short of his wrists. "Jesu s Christ," Hazen said, "you go around in women's things , you're actu'lly queer, aren't you? One of those fellas likes to take it in the butt. You hear the one, the Indin goes in th e whorehouse with a bushel of corn?"

  "Front hole money hole," Denise said, "back hole corn hole. I told it to Ben in the eighth grade."

  Ben remembered it and turned his head to Denise. Hazen said, "Look at me, goddamn it," and they saw him holding a black semiautomatic pistol on them but mainly on Ben, a bi g one Denise believed was a Colt .45, like one her dad used t o have, Hazen saying now, "I'm through talking," raised th e gun to eye level and put it dead center on Ben.

  Ben said, "You're gonna shoot me? For what? It won't get you my land."

  Hazen sighted down the barrel. "I'm not talking to you no more."

  Denise's hand went into the bag close in front of her.

  Ben said, "How's Brother?"

  It stopped Hazen because--Denise saw it--he didn't know and had to ask.

  "What happen to him?"

  Her hand came out of the bag and laid the pack of Winston on the table.

  "He fell off a roof," Ben said. "He won't die, but has to be put back together."

  "Goddamn it," Hazen said, "what'd you do, push him off ?"

  Denise's hand went back into the bag.

  "I'm trying to get away from him," Ben said, "and he's shooting at me up there, and he lost his balance."

  "You care so much," Denise said, "why don't you go to the hospital and see him?" She waited a moment and said, "Yo u shoot Ben you'll have to shoot me, too, won't you?" Thre w that in and got Hazen to look at her and saw his eyes los e their fire, his eyes turning heavy so she'd think he was cool.

  "You know your brother," Ben said. "He likes to fight but doesn't know how. He's too quick on the trigger."

  "He's a moron," Denise said to Hazen. "That's why you never let him hang around with you. I really think you ough t to take off while you have the chance."

  Ben said, "Why bust your ass dealing in truck parts? If I w as a hardcase like yourself, shit, I'd rob banks. My granddad , a famous deputy U. S. marshal in his day, used to tell me robbing banks took nerve, but was the quickest way to get your hands on real money. Even if you get caught and put away , you're looked up to in prison."

  Denise said, "Really? Is that true?"

  Ben said, "Yeah, bank robbers are among the elite," and looked at Hazen. "You've done time. Isn't that right?"

  "Hijackers," Hazen said, "don't take any backseats to nobody."

  "It's a lot of work though, huh? Heavy work." Ben said, "You want another beer?"

  "No," Denise said, "he's running out of time. Let him go."

  Hazen put his sleepy eyes on her, looking more tired than cool, and she softened her tone saying to him, "Go on, Hazen , get out of here while you can." She paused a moment and said , "For my sake. Please."

  And it seemed to move him. Hazen said, "Sometimes it works," shaking his head, "and sometimes it don't." He looked at Denise again to say, "This one wasn't my trip," an d walked out with his big Colt .45.

  Neither one of them moved until they heard the front door slam.

  "What did you mean," Ben said, "you told him to leave for your sake?"

  Denise's hand came out of the bag holding her SIG Sauer and laid it on the table.

  "So I wouldn't have to shoot him."

  "You think you would've?"

  "If it looked like you and I were through before we even got started? I'm not a victim type." She said, "That man i s really stupid, isn't he?"

  "Carl said nine out of ten criminals have the brain of a chicken."

  "Your old granddad, known for his wisdom."

  "He could tell a story," Ben said.

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