by Larry Brown
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” Fay picked up some eggs with her fork and ate them. She cut a link sausage in two and ate half of it.
“You ever give anybody one?” Reena said.
“What you want to know that for?”
“I just want to know. I bet you ain’t never give anybody one, have you?”
“Yeah,” Fay said. “I have.”
Reena sipped at her coffee and reached for the brown pitcher the waitress had left on the table and poured some more into her cup.
“Who?”
“I ain’t gonna tell you that,” Fay said.
“That guy the other night?”
“No. I told you I woke up and he was on me.”
“You didn’t do nothing with him beforehand.”
Fay sipped at her milk.
“I kissed him a few times. We wasn’t making out or nothing.”
“You didn’t tell me that.”
“I didn’t think about it.”
They sat eating for a few moments.
“I don’t get it,” Fay said.
“Don’t get what?” Reena reached for some sugar packets and another one of those little cups of milk they give you in such a place.
“You said he don’t let nobody mess with you. What about what that girl Cheryl was doing with that guy? He had to ask for it, didn’t he?”
“That’s different,” Reena said. “She works there.”
“I don’t understand,” Fay said.
“What don’t you understand, honey?”
Fay put her fork down and picked up her milk and held it.
“Does people just come in there and ask for it? Why don’t he beat em up like he did them guys who were talkin to me?”
“Look,” Reena said. She pulled out the flask again, this time from a purse. She had an empty cup on the seat and she poured into it, then put the flask back. “A girl lets a man know if she’s available. If he talks to her right. They work out the price before they go back to where I got dressed. Aaron just keeps the trouble out of there. I ain’t never seen nobody whip him. Take it from me, he’s a bad motherfucker. But you don’t work there. And those guys were bothering you. He’s got rules, like …he heard what that guy said to you.” She waved a hand and sipped.
“He don’t know me. Why did he take up for me?”
Reena set her cup on the table and then picked it up and drank from it again. Fay watched her lips while she talked to the cup.
“He likes for people to behave when they come in there. If a girl and a guy want to go back and get it on and he pays her, there won’t be no trouble. If she’s willing, it’s cool. But don’t start no trouble cause he’ll throw your ass out in the parking lot.” She looked up, “I tell you what. He likes you.”
Fay kept eating when she saw him coming back around the corner. He brought his plate to the table and set it down.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” he said, and walked away. Fay looked after him.
“Where’s he going?” she said.
“Bathroom probably.” Reena drank some more of her coffee and bit off some more bacon.
“What makes you think he likes me?”
“I can just tell. I tell you what, you could do a lot worse down here than to latch on to Aaron Forrest.”
She didn’t say anything for a minute. Some walking babies were moving around the steam table, jabbering, their young harried mother trying to herd them, fix their plates, balancing an infant on her hip at the same time. The infant was holding a bottle and once in a while it would turn it up and take a swig. It gave Fay a toothless grin and waved the bottle at her. Fay waved back, a small movement with her fingers while she smiled.
“Ain’t that a cute baby?” she said to Reena.
“They’re all cute when they’re little.” She sighed and set her coffee down. “I got to get home and see about mine. We still got to get that milk, too.”
“Where you gonna get it at?”
“I’ll get Aaron to take me back to my car and we’ll stop by the store. He just didn’t want me to drive home drunk.”
“You all right now?”
“Yeah. I’m all right. I figure they’re home by now. Chuck was supposed to take em over to his mother’s this afternoon.”
Fay picked up her milk and drank some of it. She could see Aaron coming through a pair of stainless steel doors at the back of the room.
“I heard y’all this afternoon sometime.”
“You hear us arguing?”
“Sort of. I was pretty sleepy and I went back to sleep.”
She wanted to ask her again about the man who had come to the trailer and taken the money from her, and hit her, and knocked her down in the floor. But Aaron was sliding into the seat opposite them now, picking up his fork and his napkin.
“They got some good food here,” he said, and started eating again.
“It is good,” Fay said.
Some more people were coming into the restaurant now and it was starting to fill up with noise and talk. Waitresses were moving among the tables in their black pants and white shirts and aprons. Fay wondered if she could get on here, waiting tables. It didn’t look like there was anything to it. She’d been watching them to see what they did. It looked like all they did was bring coffee and water and write down the orders and then bring the orders when they were ready. She knew she could do that.
“I got to get home, Aaron,” Reena said. “I got to see about the kids.”
He kept on eating, but he nodded.
“I’ll get you back quick as I finish.” He looked up at Fay. “You got a place to stay?”
She glanced over at Reena but Reena wouldn’t look at her.
“Well,” she said. “I sorta been stayin up at Reena’s. I ain’t really got a place of my own yet. I just got in town yesterday.”
“You need a place?” He didn’t raise his head when he said that, just kept on eating and sipping at his coffee.
She didn’t know what to say. Reena bumped her leg under the table but she still didn’t look at her, so she didn’t know what she was trying to tell her. Aaron seemed nice now. He hadn’t seemed nice when he’d gotten ahold of those guys in the bar. And then she remembered him coming over when she’d first walked in and asking her if she’d like to sit down. And all men weren’t like Chris Dodd, were they? They couldn’t be, could they? Weren’t there probably good ones and bad ones anywhere you went? Look at her daddy. Look at Sam. Look at the guy who hit Reena.
“You got a place in mind?” she said.
“Might have,” he said. “It’s a little ways out of town. But I could give you a ride back in the morning.”
“You ought to go with him, Fay,” said Reena. “Aaron’s got a nice place over at Pass Christian. It’s out there close to the harbor. I bet you’d like it.”
“My mama lives out there,” he said. “She’s got one of those bed and breakfast places. It’s an old house but she’s fixed it up pretty good. She don’t have much company through the week so I could get you in cheap. Maybe even real cheap.”
He smiled and she saw then that he had a nice smile.
“It’s so crowded in my little place,” Reena said. “I bet Aaron would take you back and let you get your other clothes, wouldn’t you, Aaron?”
“Up at your place?”
“Yeah.”
“Sure,” he said. “I mean you don’t have to go out there. You can go back to Reena’s if you want to. It’s strictly up to you.”
He picked up a biscuit and wiped the rest of the gravy off his plate and put it in his mouth and dusted his hands together to show that he was through. He sipped a little more coffee and then dabbed at his lips with his napkin and put it on the table. He reached for his billfold and pulled it out and signaled to the waitress at the next table. “Check,” he said.
She came over with it in a minute and he picked it up and glanced at it and then pulled out a five and a one and put them under a salt shaker.
“I am,” Reena said.
“How much is my part?” Fay said, and started to reach for the check. He closed his hand over it just as she reached for it and he picked up her hand and shook it.
“On me,” he said, and then he got up. Reena nudged her with her shoulder and Fay picked up her purse and slid out of the booth. From the side of her mouth, going down the aisle following his broad black back, Reena said, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Fay didn’t know what that meant but she followed him on up to the register anyway.
Sitting under a tall pole with a bright light mounted on top of it she looked out over the parking lot and the white lines drawn across it. Aaron was rewinding a tape in the deck, his eyes intent upon the little green arrow mounted in the player. He pushed a button and a tune started up. She recognized the voice of George Jones.
He leaned back in the seat and said, “You like old George?”
“Yeah. I do,” she said. “He’s real good.”
“Shit, he’s the best. I saw him one time up in Tupelo, years ago. You ever been to Tupelo?”
“Naw,” she said. “I ain’t never been there.”
He nodded and kept quiet, listening to the music. There were some big rings on his fingers and Fay could see the edge of what looked like a gold bracelet peeking out from the edge of his cuff. She couldn’t stop looking at his hands, couldn’t stop thinking about the strength that was in them. She didn’t know what to do but she knew she was gong to have to decide something before they got back to Reena’s car. And that wouldn’t be long. She’d said she was only going inside the supermarket for some milk and bread and a few other things. But she’d been gone for ten minutes already and Fay couldn’t see anything of her through the plate glass windows, just a few customers inside, cashiers standing at their idle registers and talking to one another.
The music kept playing and Fay tried to listen to the words, but she kept thinking about Sam. He was probably working now or just getting off and going home to that empty house. She wished she had it to do over again. Maybe there might have been some other way she could have handled it. But it wasn’t going to do any good to keep on worrying about it. Maybe when she got someplace where she could stay she could write Sam and let him know that she was okay. But she knew he’d probably come looking for her if he ever found out where she was. And what would happen then, she didn’t know. He might take her back. Back to face what she’d done? It was just too hard to know, to even guess. She wanted somebody to tell all these things to. There hadn’t been a chance with Reena just yet.
Aaron wasn’t watching her. He was tapping his fingers gently on his knee, keeping time with the music. He’d stopped at a store on the way over here and bought some cigars and they were sticking out of his shirt pocket.
“I like your boots,” she said.
He turned his head.
“Oh yeah? Thanks. I kinda like em myself.”
She wished there was some way she could talk to Reena for a few minutes alone, but there probably wasn’t going to be any chance for that. What if he got her out to this place and tried something like Chris Dodd had done? There wouldn’t be any fighting this guy off. He was just too big and strong. A man like him could do just about whatever he wanted to with a woman. Probably be better to just go on home with Reena. That was the safe thing. Then maybe she could look for a job somewhere tomorrow.
“You want me to go up there to one of those machines and get you a Coke or something?” Aaron said.
She could see a bank of them standing beside the double glass doors of the supermarket, but she shook her head.
“No, thank you, I’m fine.”
He opened his door and the light came on. He slid his legs out and looked back for a moment.
“I think I’m gonna go see if they’ve got any lemonade. You sure you don’t want something?” He got up and closed the door and looked back in.
“Well. I guess I might take a Coke if they’ve got one. If it ain’t no trouble.”
He didn’t answer, just walked away across the parking lot with his long stride. She watched him. He walked with his head bent a little and his arms swinging lightly. If she had known the word grace she would have said that word to describe his walk. When he got halfway to the machines Reena came out the double doors holding a paper sack. She walked over to him and said something to him and he stood there and talked for a few seconds and he handed her something that she put in her purse. Then she came on back to the El Camino and set the sack in the bed, just behind the rear window. She pulled out a pack of cigarettes and unwrapped them, fished in her skirt pocket for a lighter, then opened the door on her side. Fay scooted over to the middle. She could see Aaron putting some change into a drink machine and she knew she didn’t have much time. She put her hand on Reena’s arm just as the closed the door.
“Quick,” she said. “Tell me what I need to do. He’ll be back in a minute.”
Reena lit her smoke and blew a thin stream of smoke out the window. She was mad about something.
“What do you want to do?” she said.
“I don’t know. I’m kind of scared to go off with him after the other night.”
“You mean that rapist motherfucker?”
“Yeah. I don’t know Aaron either. Shit, I don’t know nobody. Do you trust him?”
She looked past Reena’s shoulder and saw him move to another machine. He bent over and placed a can on the concrete at his feet and reached into his pocket for some more change. Reena took another drag from her smoke and thumped her ashes out the window. Aaron bent over and picked up the can and turned. He had one in each hand now and he was heading back. Reena watched him for a moment and turned back to Fay.
“You’ll be a hell of a lot safer with him than anybody else I know down here, believe me. He won’t let anything happen to you. Why do you think he kicked the shit out of those guys in the bar? I told you he likes you.”
He was too close now for Fay to say anything else. She watched him come around the hood and then turned her eyes back to the front when he stopped and set a can on the roof and opened the door. His hand and arm came in and the hand was holding a Coke out to Fay.
“Thanks,” she said, and took it.
All the shops and stores along the beach road had shut down now, nothing but empty parking lots and dark windows. The only lights came from the few gas stations that were open around the clock.
“Dead as a hammer this time of night,” he said, to nobody in particular, and they didn’t answer. He drove on through the rest of the green lights and put on his blinker to turn across both lanes and back into the parking lot of the Love Cage. It was empty except for Reena’s car.
“I guess Arthur’s done gone,” she said. She flipped her butt out the window when he brought the El Camino to a halt. Fay could feel both of them looking at her and she knew that she was expected to say something now.
“Well?” Reena said. “You want to go back to that crackerbox with me or you want to sleep in a real bed for a change?”
Aaron looked away and out the window. He turned the music down. Reena nudged her leg with her knee, made a motion with her eyes, one that meant Go with him. Fay cleared her throat and turned her face to him.
“You don’t think your mama will mind?” she said.
“Naw,” he said to the night outside the window. But then he looked back at her. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”
She sipped at the Coke, then put it back in her lap.
“Okay,” she said. “I believe I will.”
Reena opened her door immediately and got out.
“I’ll see y’all in a minute,” she said, and reached into the bed for her groceries and started over to her car, fishing in her pocket for her keys. Fay sat close to him on the middle of the seat, reluctant to stay that close to him, but more reluctant to slide over to the other side and maybe have him think she didn’t want to
be that close to him.
He turned his head a fraction.
“You can move over if you want to.”
She scooted over a few inches and felt him studying her. Reena was getting into her car. She heard the engine start and then the headlights came on, then the backup lights.
“Say you got to get your suitcase?” he said.
“Yeah. It’s up at Reena’s. Won’t take me but a minute to go in and get it.”
He was already turning the wheel. Reena’s car swung around backward and then it stopped and came forward by them. He pulled it into drive and followed her out.
He didn’t say anything through the other traffic lights and through the turn up the street or gliding up the hill under the street lamps and his silence made her nervous. She figured maybe he was just one of those people who didn’t say much. That was okay. She could be that way too sometimes. There had been lots of times when she and Sam hadn’t talked much, were comfortable enough with each other in their quiet.
Reena’s taillights went out of sight ahead of them around a curve. The Jap pickup was there and when they pulled in behind Reena’s car she could see a light burning in the front room. Aaron pushed his lights down on park and rested one elbow on the top of the door. Reena was getting out and Fay slid on over and opened the door.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, and he nodded, a slight movement of his chin. She got out and shut the door on him.
Reena was getting her groceries out of the car and Fay waited for her and then closed the door for her.
“Come on in,” Reena said. They went across the yard and Reena opened the screen door. They stepped in. The children were wrapped in sheets and asleep, one of them on a small bed, the other one in the floor. The TV was playing and Chuck was reclining against the wall watching it with a beer in his hand. Eight or nine empty cans sat on the little table.
“Where the fuck you been?” he said. He looked at Fay and raised the beer to his mouth. She looked away.
“Working,” Reena said to him. “Come on, Fay, let’s get your suitcase.”
They started down the short hall and he said, “Who’s that out front?”