He was heading for the door when the woman spoke again. “Ain’t seen you ‘round here before.”
“Huh?”
“You’re not local.”
“Oh, no. Not from around here.”
“Could tell by the car you’re drivin’.”
He wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he said, “Just passing through your lovely town.”
She snorted. “Lovely my pasty ass. If you like a whole lotta nothin’, then I guess it’s a beaut.”
Andy laughed politely. “It’s not so bad, is it?”
“A lot goes on out there that we tend to ignore just for the sake of keeping up ‘pearances.”
‘Pearances? Does she mean appearances?
“It be best you keep driving and don’t stop again until you’re far away from this part of the state.”
“Why?” He thought about asking her if she knew of The Skin Show. Her foreboding attitude made him think she knew a lot more than she was willing to admit.
“That’s the kind of question that gets people in trouble. You starts asking the whys and hows and you have to see em for yerself. Just heed my a’vice and don’t make no stops until you cross into Webster County. That’s a nice little spot. Famous for their Halloween carnivals and whatnot.”
Andy wondered if she was the kind of person who offered this so-called advice to any customer who happened to stop in for more than just gas. Probably so. The more he put thought to it, the more he figured she was one of those doomsayers—a tourist trap in her own right. Someone for passersby to talk about during their long drives.
“Thanks,” he said. “I’ll be sure to do that. I appreciate the coffee.”
She swatted a hand at him, offering a “Bah.” Then she hocked, turned to the side, and spat somewhere below the counter. “Keep your doors locked.” Her eyes went back to the article. He’d lost her to the Wooly Booger once again.
Andy opened the door. The juddering bells announced his exit.
Outside, muggy air fell over him like a heavy blanket straight from the drier. He squinted at the harsh sunlight bouncing off the concrete. He could feel sweat in his hairline as he walked to the car. Sitting the coffee on the roof, he opened the door and glanced inside.
Karen’s seat was empty.
His chest tightened, heart lurched. “Shit!” Spinning around, he scanned the parking lot. She was nowhere in sight. He thought about calling for her but realized how stupid he might sound. He checked inside the car one more time, as if maybe she’d just materialized right back in the seat, sleeping as he’d left her.
She hadn’t.
“Damn it all.”
He looked at the road. No cars were coming from either direction. But, since the pumps were so close, he headed onto the blacktop. It always felt strange walking on a road, wrong somehow, with a chancy hint. He could feel heat seeping through the bottoms of his shoes. Back in the fifth grade, his science teacher had taken the class outside at the end of the school year to show them how an egg would fry on the asphalt when it was hot enough. Felt like his feet might fry if he didn’t get them off the road.
He was starting to turn around when a hand clapped down on his shoulder. He loosed a holler as he spun around.
Karen recoiled, throwing her arms in front of her face. “Don’t shoot! I’m innocent!”
Heart slamming against his chest, he was both relieved and mad to see she was unscathed. “Where were you?”
“The bathroom.” She pointed to the rear of the building. “Relax. Car rides make me have to pee a lot. Should I have asked permission first, Daddy?”
Smirking, Andy shook his head. “I didn’t know where you’d disappeared to.”
“So you thought I might have started walking because you were taking so long?”
Shaking his head, Andy started for the car. “I didn’t take that long, did I?”
“I thought you’d moved in.”
“Hardy-har.”
“I’m a riot, right?”
“Oh…you’re something.” He stopped at the car, gazing at her over the roof. She stood on the other side, watching him, an eyebrow arched. He grabbed the coffee from up top. “I just don’t know what yet.”
Karen smiled. “Hmm? Oh, you know you love me. Pretty soon, you’ll realize you won’t be able to live without me.”
“That’s a bold prediction.”
She shrugged. “Tell me soon if it’s true or not.”
“Yeah, sure.”
They climbed into the car. After the doors were shut, Andy thumbed the auto-lock button. He put on his sunglasses, giving Karen’s legs a glance from the safety behind the dark lenses. Her skirt had fallen back, showing almost all of her left thigh. He forced himself to look away. Then he cranked the car. Hot air buffeted them from the vents. It quickly turned cool, and Andy sighed as the comfortable air drifted across his sweaty skin.
“Gonna share that coffee?” Karen asked.
“Sure.” He held the cup out to her. She took it from him. He hoped she’d washed her hands. He doubted the bathroom was anywhere close to sanitary. “I was warned the coffee might not be up to standard.”
“Who’s standard?”
“Health Code’s.”
Laughing, Karen raised the cup to her mouth and took a small sip. She smacked her lips as she considered its taste. “I’ve had worse.” She took another polite swallow, then passed it back to Andy.
He drank some, realizing Karen was being very generous in her opinion. It tasted like flat cola mixed with sand and too much sugar. If it kept him awake while not poisoning him, he’d consider it a triumph.
Putting the car in drive, he gratefully pulled away from the Gas Trap Gas Station.
Chapter Thirteen
“Should’ve gotten a map,” said Karen. “When we were at the gas station?”
“Would’ve, should’ve, could’ve.” Andy shrugged. “Didn’t think about it.”
“Neither did I. But, what good would it have done us, really?”
“At least we’d know if we were still traveling west. Hopefully turning left was the right idea.”
“If not, we can always turn around. How long should we go before giving up?”
“Tricky question. We might not go far enough and think it couldn’t possibly be out any farther.
“How are we on gas?”
Andy checked. “We’re good.”
“Okay. Let’s drive until we’re absolutely convinced it’s not this way. But, the phone lady said to go west, and the highway sign back there said this way was west.”
“Yeah…okay,” said Andy.
“Can I ask you something?”
“I don’t know. Usually whenever someone asks permission it means the question might make the other person upset.”
Karen wriggled her eyebrows. “Well…” She stopped.
“Wow. That bad, huh? Should I smoke?”
“Why don’t we pull off somewhere and eat some cold pizza, drink some lukewarm tea, and you can tell me what happened between you and Danny.”
“Shit…”
“I really would like to know. He didn’t like talking about it too much.”
“And, you think I do?”
“I think you’ll talk more about than he would.”
Andy looked ahead of them through the windshield, plenty of luscious scenery, meadows and trees. A wide selection of locations for a picnic area.
So, Andy eased the car onto the shoulder, killing the engine. Karen gathered the pizza and tea, passed him the jug, and climbed out. Andy followed, dropping his keys into his pocket. He checked both directions for cars, and saw nobody. Hopping over the ditch, they walked into the meadow. Tall grass rubbed their legs, making scratchy sounds.
Sitting on the puffy weeds, the pizza box and tea jug between them, Karen ate while Andy lighted a cigarette. He was beginning to get used to the taste, which worried him. He might even start to like the taste again.
There was a constant mild breeze th
at wafted over them, stirring the lazy wildflowers, making their bushy tops ripple in a wave. Andy detected a faint aroma of burning wood hanging in the air, but had no clue where it could be coming from since he saw no smoke.
“Feels good to be out of the car for a while, doesn’t it?” said Karen. She leaned back on an elbow, stretching out her legs. The pizza was pinched between her thumb and forefinger. She hadn’t put her shoes on, which Andy had protested, but he liked watching her toes wiggle.
It was hard to believe two hours had passed since their last pit stop at the gas station with the lava-thick coffee. “Yeah, but I wonder if we’re wasting too much time.”
Karen’s nose wrinkled. “I really don’t care if we are. This is nice. We need the break. Staying cooped up in a long car ride can get to you after a while, you know?”
Smiling, Andy agreed. The weather was nice and warm, not humid. The breeze was cool and refreshing on his skin.
“So,” said Karen. “You were saying?”
Groaning, Andy flicked ashes off his cigarette. “Why do you want to know?”
“Okay. I’ll tell you. It’s obvious you still love your brother or you wouldn’t be doing this just to find out where he is.”
Andy wondered if it was for his brother or Nicole that he was doing this. Both, probably, but mostly Nicole.
Karen kept talking. “You must believe he didn’t…do that to Nicole, or you wouldn’t be trying to clear his name. That is what you’re doing, isn’t it?”
“Honestly, I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. Maybe I’m just so used to tracking Danny down and cleaning up his messes that even one that’s as big as this, I have to intervene.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Well, I’ve always had to. When we were kids and Danny had issues at school with bullies, it was me who resolved those issues. If he was doing shitty in a certain class, Dad made me study with him. And whenever Danny would finally pass after all the hard work I put into helping him, it was Danny who got all the credit. His good grades, as rare as they were, covered our fridge. You had to dig through his just to see one of mine. And, usually, I was the one who hung it up there.”
“Maybe he was babied so much growing up…he couldn’t make it on his own as an adult.”
“I’m sure that has a lot to do with it. He was spoiled as a kid. I don’t know what made him so special.”
“Sounds like you have a lot of pent up hostility towards Danny.”
“Maybe I do.” Andy puffed on the cigarette.
“Do you think it comes mostly because of Nicole?”
Andy’s stomach felt like it dropped into his legs. “What is this, a mental evaluation or something?”
“I’m just curious where it really turned to shit for you guys.”
“When we were kids, it wasn’t so bad. I mean, we fought, but it was no different than any other siblings, you know? Once we became teenagers, I started running around with Lou Ambrose. We smoked a lot of weed, and sometimes we’d experiment with harder drugs, but I could never really get into it. Weed was all I ever needed.” Andy chuckled. “I can’t believe I’m telling this to a probation officer.”
“Afraid I’m going to make you pee in a cup?”
“Maybe.”
“I’m off duty. It’s cool.”
“To make a long story short, Lou got in the dealing business, and since I was good at talking to people, I became his pusher. I was the one who gave Danny his first joint so he’d shut up and stop begging me for one. But, I wouldn’t let him do anything harder. Once I stopped selling, though, he went crazy with it. Got on meth…and well you know the rest.”
“So, you blame yourself for his drug use?”
“Well, I got him started, didn’t I?”
“You got him high on weed, there’s a bit of difference between that and meth. I think he just rebelled against you by trying so many things that he got addicted. No, it wasn’t your fault.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Danny told me you hated him because he stole Nicole from you.”
Andy felt his hands clench into fists. “He didn’t steal her. We were already broken up. She wanted a break from having a relationship, or so she said. Next thing I know, he’s bringing her around everywhere he goes. People are telling me they’d seen Danny and Nicole kissing in public, or holding hands, but they kept denying it. One night, I had to know for sure, so I drove over to Danny’s trailer. Nicole’s car was there. I went to the door and could hear them…you know.”
Karen nodded.
“Well…I sort of flipped out, yelling, and started pounding on the door. I could hear them panicking inside, running around. I guess they were trying to hurry up and get dressed. When Danny came to the door, he tried to smile it off, and that just made me angrier. I beat the hell out of him that night. I was arrested and Nicole bailed me out.”
“Wow. That’s a record you have.”
“Yeah, something to be proud of.” He shook his head. “Anyway, on the way back to Danny’s, Nicole told me everything. And she’s stayed with him ever since. I didn’t even know they got married until Nicole told me about it one day, months later. Said they ran off to the justice of the peace. I asked her why and you know what she told me?”
“I can hardly imagine…”
“She said Danny needed insurance, and since he couldn’t afford it, she married him and put him on hers.”
“Whoa…”
“Something, isn’t it? I just…don’t understand how he…maybe deep down I’m just jealous of him.”
Andy wondered if he’d been the one who’d gotten hooked, would Nicole have stayed then. He liked to think so, but something always told him she wouldn’t have. It was that hold Danny always managed to get on someone. Nicole had given up any chance in having a comfortable life for a crumbling trailer in a derelict trailer park with a junkie for a husband. She stayed through it all. Sure, she’d told Andy she was going to finally leave Danny, but he doubted it would have lasted longer than a week.
He looked at Karen, wondering if his brother had the same effect on her.
“What about you?” asked Andy.
“What about me?”
“Why are you out here? I mean, you’re going a little beyond your call of duty, aren’t you?”
“Ouch, Andy. That one stung.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to be nasty about it.”
“Are you implying Danny and I have something going on?”
“Well…if you do, you wouldn’t be the first. And, I guess I couldn’t blame you. He’s just got…something about him.”
“You’re brother’s definitely cute, but not my style. I like them a little smarter and cleaner, if you catch my meaning.”
Andy wasn’t sure if he did, but it almost sounded as if she was hinting at him. He shot that idea down. A girl like her wouldn’t be into someone like him. “Not really,” he said, finally.
“I’m out here for a few reasons and all of them revolve around you. That’s all I’m willing to share at the moment. Still working out the details in my head.” She raised her eyebrows.
Andy could tell by the heat in his face that he was blushing. “Me?”
Karen nodded. “That’s right, pal. And don’t press me for more information. I’m not ready to share it yet. I will say this, though. You might not be willing to admit that you’re out here because you’re worried about Danny, but you are. And I think that’s amazing. You could have just as easily turned your back on him a long time ago. You never have, even if you thought you had. That’s…noble. Sounds cheesy as hell, but it’s true.”
Andy feared his skin might ignite before too long.
Karen sat up. The wind fluttered her skirt, blowing it above her knees. She didn’t bother trying to adjust it. “Nicole really messed your head up. And, it’s none of my business, but I think she continuously messed your head up after you broke up. Even by coming to your house the other night, she might have been coming to you for h
elp, but it was still messing with your head. I do not like to speak ill of the dead, but she was a bitch for doing so. She had to know it screwed with you, and she still did it. That’s not cool with me.”
Nodding, Andy agreed with Karen once again. Whether it was intentional or not, Nicole had fucked with his emotions for a very long time. He’d always known she was the reason he’d never been in a serious relationship after theirs had ended. Trusting women had become impossible for him. Even now, he still didn’t trust Karen, as much as he wanted to.
“Ready to head out?” she said.
“Not really.”
Smiling, Karen studied him. “Enjoying our time together?”
“I am.”
“Me too.”
Andy caught her eyes, their sapphire haloes looking deeply into him. The wind lifted her hair, flapping it gently around her lovely face. She had wide, plump lips that were arching into a half-smile. The urge to lean forward and kiss her, to rub his hands across her smooth legs, was powerful. He resisted it. For now.
“But, we should get moving,” he said.
Karen’s face turned into a disappointed smile. She reminded Andy of someone who’d just received a gift she didn’t like but wanted to be polite. “Right.”
“But, we should pick back up from here later. Maybe we can stop for the night. All this driving in one day—it’s just too much.”
“Are you sure you want to?”
“Very sure.”
Karen nodded. “I can’t wait.”
Again, Andy felt himself wanting to take her in his arms, and again he composed himself. They had a list of things to do, and taking a break to screw around in a meadow wasn’t at the top.
Finding The Skin Show was top priority.
Chapter Fourteen
The Camaro passed a motel to the left. Andy looked through his window and saw the sign at the end of the parking lot: The Pearl Palace. Below the name was a tin sign, the black faded letters said Vacancy. The parking lot was fairly empty, but a black Chevelle sitting in a space stuck out from the scarce others that were there. Something about such a cool car parked at a shithole motel seemed to scream it didn’t belong. Ignoring that impulse, he smiled.
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