A-Sides
Page 35
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After Charlie left, Heebie raked up the clippings from his trimming, loaded them in his wheelbarrow, and headed to the next row. It might be unfair to characterize Heebie as a pet, but like a pet, Heebie lived in the moment and he basked in the recognition that he had done a good thing in pulling the Loflin kid off the train.
As he rolled the wheelbarrow out from behind the tombstone, he nearly ran into the two young men who had walked up. He came to an abrupt stop and set the wheelbarrow down.
“Hello, Heebie,” Jim said.
Heebie looked at both of them. The one who had spoken to him was smiling, but there was something about that smile that made him think of a cat with a goldfish tail poking out of its mouth. The other one looked as if he hadn’t slept since infancy and wished he were somewhere else.
“Who you,” Heebie asked.
“Nobody,” Jim said with a grin. “Just a couple of guys lookin’ for their bud. Was that Charlie Loflin that just left here?”
Heebie smiled brightly. “Oh! Yeah. He told me something, too.” Heebie’s eyes twinkled while Jim’s narrowed down to slits.
“And what was that,” Jim asked softly. Heebie was suddenly suspicious of this change in tone and didn’t know why. He took a step backwards.
“Nothing much. Nothing much,” Heebie said off-handedly. “I’m just glad I didn’t have to take him to jail. He didn’t want to mess with me. And he told me something, too. I guess you boys must know about it, too. That’s why you’re here, right? I don’t get much company, but they don’t mind. They know and appreciate me.” He pulled his hat down over his head.
Joey and Jim exchanged a questioning glance.
“What are you talking about,” Jim asked. “Who are ‘they’?”
“ ‘They’,” Heebie answered, his eyes wide. “My friends, that’s who they are. I’ve got a lot of friends. You can’t mess with me, boy. My friends won’t let you. I’ll haul you to jail, boy. Right to jail. Don’t you mess with me.” Heebie smiled a betting little smile, almost smug.
“What are you talking about, old man,” Jim asked. A vein in his forehead pulsed and his face darkened to fireplug red. His eyes seemed to film over and he took a shuddering step forward.
“If you know what’s good for you, old man, you’ll quit talking in riddles and tell me what I want to know. I’ll hurt you. I’ll mess with you. Tell me!”
Joey watched in spellbound horror as Jim, half a foot taller and towering over Heebie, reached out to grab the retard with every intention of breaking him in half.
“You don’t want to mess with me, boy,” Heebie yelled. He grabbed the oil-clotted, grass-stained garden shears from the wheelbarrow and brandished them at Jim
Jim stopped. He put his hand in his pocket.
“You just keep back, boy! I got friends! They won’t let you mess with me. You get right on back ‘fore I gut you like a squirrel!” Heebie wielded the gardening shears like a divining rod, crouched over them with his legs tensed to spring. His grizzled beard stubble stood out on his face and a jaw muscle twitched. Stinging sweat trickled into his eye and he blinked it away. He was near tears. This couldn’t be happening, not with all his friends here.
Jim’s hand was nearly out of his pocket when Joey grabbed his arm.
“Don’t,” Joey said. “This ain’t gettin’ us nowhere.”
Jim looked at him, then back at Heebie. A grin split his face and he slowly pulled his empty hand out of his pocket.
“Don’t say anything, old man,” Jim said. “You think hard before you say anything. I know where you’re at. You remember that.”
Jim spun around and Joey obediently fell in behind him.
“You’ll go to jail!” Heebie screamed from behind them. “I got friends! I gots lots of friends. They won’t let you mess with me. You hear? I got friends!”
Heebie continued to shout at them until he heard the squeal of rubber and saw the Saturn roar around the curve at the end of the road, its taillights flashing like the departing blink of some feral animal. Heebie blinked and looked down at the trembling shears still held in his hands.
In the distance a freight train rumbled through town and the dull clanking of the mill machinery tolled colorlessly through the air. The sun shone down and the birds sang sweetly as if in praise of such a glorious day.
Heebie stumbled blindly through the cemetery grounds until he tripped over a headstone. He fell on the cool grass and cried.