The Truck Comes on Thursday

by Sue Hardesty

  "It's okay. Though I do miss dancing sometimes." Loni sighed and asked Lola for the list of medical personnel. "Did everyone reply to your calls?"

  "Why?"

  "Carl wants me to call them again."

  "Why?" Lola repeated.

  "You should be asking him. I'm guessing to see if anyone else got sick."

  "Tomorrow. I'll get it ready again."

  Loni hurried to catch up with Carl. She tried to ask him about interviewing Billy Joe and his friends, but he waved her off. "Chief said he was on it. I don't have any say over that." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Right now our priority is to find out who shot at you and find the meth lab. Forget about the rapes and go home."

  * * *

  It was time to meet Jenny. Wishing she could go to bed instead, Loni switched to her usual casual Western snap-button shirt, Levis, and walking boots. When she got to the Greasy Spoon, Jenny was waiting in a back booth. Loni sat across from her. "Hey."

  "I ordered coffee for you. Black?"

  "Good," Loni reached for the cup. "Thanks."

  "So what have you found?"

  "Sorry, Jenny. At this point I have more questions than answers. Can I pick your brain?"

  Jenny shrugged, disappointed.

  "What do you know about Billy Joe and his friends? Do they use or deal?"

  "Sorry." She shook her head, her cat eyes staring at Loni. "I really don't know anything about that crowd beyond the beer bust talk. Why? Do you think they have something to do with the rapes?"

  "Would you ask the girls if that group hassles any of them?"

  Jenny shrugged. "Does that mean yes?"

  Loni ignored Jenny's question. "You knew Rene, right?"

  Jenny's face seemed to smooth out and her eyes darkened as she nodded.

  "What do you know about Rene's drug trafficking?"

  Jenny's eyes widened. "He was trafficking? Really?"

  Her surprise seemed genuine. "I found traces in his plane."

  Shaking her head, Jenny answered, "I had no idea."

  "The word is he wanted a divorce to marry you."

  Jenny sat back and guffawed. "That's a good one. Who told you that?"

  "His wife."

  "Oh, shit." She thought a minute. "He did hit on me a few times, so I told him I was a lesbian and not interested. Come to think of it, that only made him try harder for awhile. But I haven't seen him since summer school started." She looked down at her coffee. "That explains why his wife's so pissed at me." Lifting her head, she brushed her reddish-blond hair off her face and shrugged in apology. "I didn't know." She was quiet another minute. "Loving someone that much. That's so sad."

  "You don't believe in love?"

  "Would you tell me something?"

  "If I can."

  "How do you stay a good person when you deal with so much scum?"

  Loni had heard the question before. "It's not so bad in small towns. Most people here I deal with are basically good with short time problems. People really don't want trouble."

  Jenny snorted. "That's hard to believe."

  "Small towns where everybody knows you, people count. In the big city they shoot them, frame it on a perp, and be done with it."

  "Oh, bullshit." Jenny pushed out of the booth and stood.

  "I kid you not!" Loni got up and dropped a five-dollar bill on the table.

  "You ever see anyone do that?"

  "Not lately."

  "I have a feeling I shouldn't believe a word you say."

  Grinning, Loni said, "You never know." Following Jenny, she walked out of the door and down to her truck thinking, Maybe Chui's right. Sometimes it was hard not to roll downhill with the shit.

  Loni hadn't learned much from Jenny, but she was a new source. And really cute too. She found herself thinking about Jenny as she drove around doing her chores in town. Her last stop was the post office to mail a package to Maria's nieces.

  Standing in line, she realized this was the first time she thought of Maria today. Maybe she was getting better. Nights were always the worst though. The strong smell of garlic yanked Loni out of her reverie. God! She should be used to it by now. She turned toward the smell, noting a man with a long black curly beard and wide, flat-brimmed hat. He was wearing a heavy camouflage coat and baggy pants. Didn't he know it was 102 degrees in the shade? Careful, she told herself. "Hey, where are you from?" Loni said in what she hoped was a friendly voice. "You're going to die in those clothes."

  "God! Don't I know it." The man smiled. "We're supposed to be playing war games." He nodded through the window toward a black Hummer with dark windows. "At least, our wives think we are. Truthfully? We're mostly gambling over at the Mayflower Casino until sunrise. Then we go play war until it gets too hot." He unzipped his coat half way down. No undershirt underneath, just his bare, black hairy chest. "Couldn't walk in here like this."

  "Okay if I see some I.D.?"

  He handed his billfold to Loni, and she wrote his name and description in her notebook. Loni nodded at the package he carried. "Something fragile?"

  "I forgot to mail this for the wife this morning.

  Loni took it and wrote down the address. "Got a phone number for her?"

  He matter-of-factly told her, and she called the number on her cell phone. A woman answered. "Do you know a Robert Teag?"

  Loni listened a minute. "Yes, ma'am. He does look a little foolish, but I wouldn't go that far. Says he's your husband."

  Another pause and Loni said, "I wouldn't go that far either, ma'am. But I'll tell him." She hung up. "You don't want to know," she said to Robert.

  "Guess you can tell, if I was so inclined, she'd be the first one I'd send a bomb to."

  "How many times have the cops stopped you?"

  "You don't want to know."

  Holding the package, Loni called Lola. "This is Loni. What do we do with dangerous materials?"

  "What? Like a bomb?"

  "Yes."

  "Run?"

  "Lola! I'm serious!"

  "So am I."

  "You mean we have no way to handle the stuff?"

  "Not that I've heard."

  "Okay. I'll get back to you later." Loni hung up and handed the package back.

  "You're going to get a heat stroke in that heavy clothing if you don't get out of them soon."

  "I feel like I already have," he smiled boyishly. "Still better than the way those paint balls feel when they hit you."

  "Learn how to duck."

  "Better yet, run."

  Loni mailed her packages and nodded to him as she left. She waited until he walked out of the post office, package still in his hand, and watched him get into the passenger side of the Hummer. He hadn't mailed the package, and there weren't any paint splatters on his coat. Loni wrote down the car's license number.

  * * *

  Walking into the kitchen at the ranch, Loni picked up Shiichoo and spun her around as her grandma feebly flapped her arms at Loni. She loved the feel of the dress. Spun cotton. "Where'd you get the new dress? I like the icy green color. Goes with your icy white hair."

  "Put me down." Shiichoo wiggled loose. "Stop this foolishness, child, and maybe I'll tell you. First, go get me some eggs. I want to make a Spanish scramble for supper."

  "Shiichoo, I'm not climbing those trees and getting stung."

  "There are no scorpions in those trees. You know my bantys eat them."

  "How come you don't keep real chickens in a coop? Coyotes won't get them there."

  "Foxes will. Nothing keeps them out. Not to mention rattlesnakes and Gila monsters after the eggs."

  "Oh, yeah. I forgot." Loni stared out the window at the huge salt cedars and saw the vet's pickup. "I didn't notice Tory's pickup before. How long has she been here?"

  "Just before you arrived. Go invite her to lunch."

  "Okay. Soon as I figure out how to collect the eggs. How about I give Donnie and Kelly a quarter for every egg?"

  "Those eggs are so small they aren't even
worth a penny."

  Loni laughed. "It's worth it to me. Have you seen them around lately?"

  "They were playing in the barn. Probably getting in Tory's way."

  "Cool." Loni pushed out the squeaky screen door. In the barn she found Tory redressing Flossie's eye as two boys sat on a bale of hay with Willie.

  "Need a hand?" Loni smiled at Tory before she carefully approached Flossie on her good side. It was no time to spook her.

  "Thanks, but no. Willie's going to hold her for me when I start on her festers."

  "Good," Loni said, relieved. "I was sent to collect eggs for supper. Shiichoo said you were to stay and eat with us."

  Tory smiled and shrugged before she returned to the eye.

  Loni sat down on a bale of hay listening to Willie tell the boys a Pima legend. She had heard it a long time ago when she had taken something of his without asking.

  "Long time ago, Coyote steal batch of pinole." Willie stopped to question the boys. "You know pinole?"

  "Sure," Donnie said. "It has corn and sweet stuff in it."

  Willie knuckled Donnie's head and continued. "Elder Brother chase Coyote up to sky. Coyote, such hurry, spill corn across sky until all gone. Elder Brother so mad, he grab Coyote and throw him into moon. And what Coyotes do at full moon?"

  "They look at it?" asked Donnie.

  "And what else?"

  Kelly said, "I know. I know. They howl at the moon."

  "That right. They howl at lost brother. That what happen when you take not yours."

  "Oh." Kelly's eyes were big and brown with wonder. "I promise not to do it again."

  "Ah," Donnie said. "I'm not Pima, so you can't throw me to the moon."

  Willie frowned at him. "You total sure?"

  "Yeah, I'm sure I'm not Pima." Donnie beat his chest. "Me Papago."

  Laughing, Loni jumped into the conversation. "What did they take?"

  Willie held up his tomahawk. It was one of his most prized possessions, handed down to him from his father's side. "It was borrowed. Right?"

  They both quickly nodded in agreement. Satisfied, Willie smiled.

  "Good." Loni walked over to the boys. "Can I take them now? I need their help."

  The boys skipped after Loni. One by one, she lifted them up onto the big John Deere tractor. The questions came nonstop. "Where are we going? Why is that tire so big? What does that key do?" Loni grabbed Kelly's hand in time to keep him from turning it.

  Holding onto him, she drove around to the salt cedars, stopping under the first one in the driveway. She lifted Donnie up first. He had an ornery glint in his eye that Loni loved but had the round face and gentle nature of the Papago tribe. Loni hoped he would keep his sunny nature.

  Kelly was a different story. His angelic smile didn't fool her. Fearless and careless, he couldn't seem to do anything right. Everyone watched him like a hawk to keep him from hurting himself or someone else. "Be careful, Kelly!" Loni lifted him up in the tree branches. "Move very slow or you'll scare them."

  Two tiny hens had begun to rock back and forth as they approached. As the two boys climbed around and gathered eggs, the hens pecked at them and squawked complaints. Dodging the sharp beaks and scratching claws, Donnie and Kelly giggled at the hens' antics as they tried to protect their eggs. When they crawled back to give the eggs to Loni, all three of them were laughing. After five eggs, Loni drove them to the next occupied tree.

  They skipped the last tree to avoid the rooster. The kids called him Satan, and Loni agreed. He was a mean sonofabitch with a red-head and rust-red body. Bright red feathers curled out of his tail. His four-inch talons made him a menace. He could jump three feet and chase, jump, or fly onto any unsuspecting whatever that came near him. Loni kept warning Bahb that if he didn't trim those talons, she was going to shoot the damned bird, but Bahb kept refusing. "He need for coyotes and foxes. Protect his hens."

  Loni wondered if the rooster really could protect anything until she remembered the story a friend told her about a parrot someone gave him. Said he came in a five-foot tall cage. Just leave the door open, he was told. The parrot won't leave. So her friend did. He was watching TV when he noticed his cat stalking the bird. When the cat was a few feet away, the parrot hopped out and strutted toward the cat. Suddenly the parrot screeched and wildly flapped his wings. The cat took a backwards flip in the air and disappeared. The parrot walked back to his cage going "he, he, he," and climbed back in.

  Loni drove the boys back to the barn and gave each one of them a dollar. She told Tory and Willie that lunch was almost ready and walked by Jack on her way to the house He gave a feeble bark, too blind to see her anymore. "Damn." Loni stopped to help him struggle out of his hole before she moved on. "It won't be much longer, old boy, I know. You'll be out of pain." Tearing up, she knew Bahb would have to take Jack out back soon.

  As she stuffed the egg basket in the refrigerator, Shiichoo told Loni it was time to learn how to make Indian fry bread. She carefully dictated the ingredients, handing Loni the pots and pans while Loni mixed. Loni sat at the table as her grandma poured them into the skillet.

  "Here. Use these dishes." Shiichoo moved her aside. Fussing with each other over which dishes to use, Loni smelled something burning and rushed to the stove, turning the bread. It was black.

  "See!" Shiichoo complained. "It doesn't cook right. We can't feed guest burned food."

  "Looks great to me." Loni took the bread out of the pan and poured in more batter. "I'll hide the burn inside the roll and use these for my lunch tonight." She dribbled honey in them, rolled them up and stuck some of them into a plastic bag for lunch for her five a.m. stop. She liked to watch the sun rise as she ate.

  "Honey makes a mess," Shiichoo said. "You'll be sorry."

  Loni patted her grandmother on the cheek as she picked up the plate of fry bread and put it on the table with the rest of Shiichoo's lunch just as Tory and Willie slammed in the back door. Loni grabbed a can of tea and drank, trying not to stare at Tory.

  "Call your grandfather," Shiichoo told her.

  "Where is he?"

  "I don't know. Willie, you seen Bahb?"

  "No."

  "I did," Tory said. "He was in the tack shack."

  Loni started toward the back door noting how familiar Tory seemed with things around the place.

  "Don't you dare holler out that door," Shiichoo warned her. "Go fetch him."

  "Okay." Loni opened the screen door and stepped off the stoop, closing the door behind her. "Bahb! Lunch!"

  "Loni!"

  "You said not to holler out the door."

  By the time Bahb showed up, everybody else was sitting down and passing food around. Loni filled Bahb's plate, ignoring her grandma's directions.

  "Too much egg, Loni. Take some off."

  Slopping on another spoonful, Loni laughed at her grandma's fierce stare and turned to Tory. "So, how long before we can put Flossie out to pasture?"

  "Maybe next week. She's healing fast." Tory smiled at Shiichoo. "You've taken good care of her."

  "Pasture, maybe. She never go back to desert with one eye," Willie said. "Maybe we can turn her into a milk cow." He turned to Bahb. "Maybe Loni can come every morning and night and milk her."

  "Maybe she can't," Loni mocked Willie.

  After they finished, Loni walked Tory back to her pickup. "I need to move on. I've got two more stops." Tory climbed in and leaned out the window.

  "When are you due back to check on Flossie?"

  "In a week."

  "Good. We can have lunch together again. Maybe dinner sometime?" Loni said cautiously.

  Tory admitted to Loni, "I just had a bad breakup so I'm not the best company in the world."

  "I lost someone, too. We can commiserate together and drive each other even more miserable."

  Laughing, Tory started her pickup. "I don't think that's possible." She kissed the tip of her fingers and pressed them on Loni's lips. Still smiling, she drove away.

  It was mid aftern
oon before she got home. Too tired to undress for bed, she opened the laptop to write a brief message.

  FROM: Loni Wagner

  TO: Sandi@gmailyahoo.com

  DATE: July 10

  SUBJECT: Still here