“We had sex, Stacey,” the liver-spotted face of Brother Al said to me.“I’m not your goddamn grandfather.”
He pouted as he stared into the distance.
“Where’s the next gas station?”Eddie asked, trying to cut the tension.
“Twenty miles back,” Vic said.“Or forty miles forward.I don’t know which would be better, and Hardesty House is about five miles away.Better just go and talk to them, see if someone’s got a gas can.”
“I don’t like any of this already,” I said.“I told them where we were going.”
“We’ll just have to hope they forget,” Vic said.
I closed my eyes.This could go so wrong, in so many ways, I thought…
4.
The tire blew about halfa mile from Hardesty House.It was the passenger-side back tire.Eddie and Vic took a look at it together.Nobody stopped for us, but plenty of headlights had passed us by, zipping by at Mach speeds back on the highway proper.We were alongside a row of corn.
“Is this part of the script?”I asked.
Vic shook his head no.
“Anybody have triple-A?”Eddie asked.“I didn’t think we’d need a spare.”
“I do,” Vic said.He paused.“Oh, fuck.My ID.They won’t come without my card.Or my ID.Oh, fuck.”
He turned and kicked a rock.It flew through the cornfields into the distance.
“Have we arrived?”Nagi asked, poking his head out of the back.
“I don’t understand how he is so consistently unaware of his surroundings,” Vic muttered, and I could tell his anxiety was acting up.“Get back in the van, Nagi.”
“It’s dark out.I don’t see what the problem is.”
“You look like a grieving widow,” Vic groused.
“Stacey thinks my outfit makes me look properly feminine,” Nagi said.“Does that bother you?”
“Just get in the fucking van, Nagi.”
“I won’t be spoken to that way,” Nagi said.“I am a team member.We are coworkers and, I thought, close friends.”
“Yeah, well, maybe you thought wrong,” Vic said.“Right now you’re being a huge pain in the ass.”
“I don’t understand what the problem is,” Nagi said.“Are we not close to Hardesty House as it is?I see an exit sign over there.If we keep on, we should arrive before midnight.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” Eddie said.“We can probably find someone in the daytime.I doubt they’d still be in business if they don’t let us stay at least one night unmolested.”
“This is just such a bad idea,” Vic said.“Who’s going to push Brother Al?”
At once, Vic, Eddie, and Nagi had their fingers on their nose.
“You’re kidding me,” I said.
Brother Al keptup a line of nonsensical patter, falling into an occasional silence.I watched three of my lovers walking in front of us, as I pushed the fourth in his wheelchair, and thought: “There’s no reason a woman should be treated this way.Not with four men in her life.”
“It’ll build your constitution,” Vic said.
“My constitution is fine,” I said.
