The Wooden Nickel

  They spread newspapers over the blankets and lift her up on the bed so they can each paint a side. In an hour she’s got a white hull and a blue cabin top and a red bottom, Sonny even threw a little sand in the deck paint for the nonskid, you can’t tell her from the original.

  They have a couple more beers and watch the Silverado 150 while the paint dries. Sonny says, “I’m going to paint the name on her stern now.”

  “You can’t. You’ve had six of them beers and it ain’t going to look right.”

  “I’ve painted five hundred fucking boat names and every one of them I had a six-pack before I started out. I know what I’m doing. You just got to arch up the letters a bit so the name don’t have a smile.”

  He pencils in the slight upward bend across the transom, then pencils the letters. He takes a bottle of black model-airplane paint and fills in each letter so it’s nice and crisp against the white.

  WOODEN NICKEL

  “Looks like the real thing, Lucky. Only thing she needs is a home port. You want me to paint Orphan Point or Split Cove?”

  “You don’t need to paint nowhere, Sonny. Just the name. We’ll put the port in later.”

  “Don’t touch her for a few minutes,” Sonny says. “We don’t want to fuck up a perfect job.” Sonny cleans his gear up from around the bed, then turns to the boat. “You know, Lucky, we could go into business. Build some more of them suckers over the winter and sell them up to that craft shop in Orphan Point.”

  “Yvonne’s.”

  “Ever see the junk they sell in there? Work of art like this, add a few details, it could go for a thousand bucks. Think about it.”

  “I will.”

  Sonny lugs his paints and brushes back to his shack. Lucky watches him from the window coming up to his old place covered with tar paper and old license plates and hubcaps, big scanner antenna on the roof, whole fucking structure would collapse if the junk didn’t hold it up. Sonny tries to get the door open with his foot but he trips and the paint and brushes drop all over his feet. He’s shitface drunk. But he didn’t make a single mistake painting the stern.

  He waits for Sonny to come back but he doesn’t show up. For some reason his heart is kicking in his chest like he swallowed a live rabbit. He gets a beer to wash down a handful of heart pills.

  After a half hour, he picks the boat cradle up with a few sheets of newspaper still stuck to the rockers, lugs it the length of the trailer into the living room so he can look it over while he watches the Louisville Speedway qualifier on channel 38. It’s a damn good thing the TV doesn’t come in on the phone cable, he’d have a blank screen along with the dead phone. That’s why you got to bust up the monopolies, bastards will leave you blind and deaf at the same time.

  The trailer widens out at the living room end so it’s got a bit of space for the dinette set and the TV. He moves the table and the three chairs so he can place the boat cradle in the center of the room with the bow pointing towards the television and the transom towards the door. It looks half-decent, considering it was built in a day and painted by a couple of drunks. If he keeps it, he’s got some ideas for decoration. He’ll stick a radar mast on the wheelhouse and build a little pot hoist the kid can pick things up with. You’re never too young to learn.

  He puts on a George Strait album, Blue Clear Sky, and opens a Rolling Rock. He’s looking at the boat with one eye and the race with the other when he hears a car splash into the driveway and stop short. Big American V-8, maybe they’re just using the yard to turn around. He’s right. Pretty soon the car backs out and he hears it head back up the road.

  Then someone’s walking up the metal steps outside. He starts to go for the door but it opens on its own before he can get there. It’s Ronette. She’s just standing in the trailer doorway holding it open, wearing a long gray coat he’s never laid eyes on, and behind her the sky’s clearing and the sun glints off the metallic chartreuse Probe. First thing she sees is the boat cradle with the name Wooden Nickeland the two rockers underneath the hull. She kneels down beside it in the gray coat and runs her hand over Sonny’s acrylic paint job, her eyes wide open like it’s the real thing, hauled off the bottom by the robot sub. Then she stands up and puts her arms around his neck like they’re slow dancing and buries her face in the old sweatshirt he’s had on since he got back from Burnt Neck. Her body pulses a little, maybe from crying or laughing, he can’t tell which. He has a question for her, but George Strait’s singing “I Can Still Make Cheyenne,” and there’s no hurry, so he lets her rest there awhile before he asks.

  The author is grateful for permission to quote from the following copyrighted material:

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  “A Good Hearted Woman” by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. © 1971 (renewed) Full Nelson Music, Inc. and Songs of Polygram International, Inc. Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014.

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  “Go Away” by Cathy Majeski, Sunny Russ and Stephony Smith. © 1995, 1996 Sony/ATV Tunes LLC, All Around Town Music (ASCAP), EMI Blackwood Music Inc. (BMI) and Starstruck Angel Music, Inc. All rights on behalf of Sony/ATV Tunes LLC and All Around Town Music administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, 8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37203. Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI), Missoula Music (BMI), Cross Keys Publishing Co., Inc. (ASCAP). All rights o/b/o Missoula Music administered by Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.

  “Have I Got a Deal for You” by Michael Patrick Heeney and Jackson Lee Leap. © 1985 Careers-BMG Music Pub o/b/o Jackson Lee Leap and Michael Heeney.

  “He Broke Your Memory Last Night” by Dickey Lee and Bucky Jones. © 1984 Universal–Songs of PolyGram International, Inc., a division of Universal Studios, Inc. (ASCAP/BMI), and Sony/ATV Tunes LLC. All rights on behalf of Sony/ATV Tunes LLC administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, 8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37203.

  “I Don’t Believe That’s How You Feel” by Harlan Howard and Kostas Lazarides. © 1996 Universal– Songs of PolyGram International, Inc., a division of Universal Studios, Inc. (ASCAP/BMI), Sony/ ATV Tunes LLC (BMI), Harlan Howard Songs, Inc., and Seven Angles Music.

  “I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton. © 1973 Velvet Apple Music, Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014.

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ey Bruce and Craig Wiseman. © 1994 WB Music Corp. (ASCAP), Big Tractor Music (ASCAP) and Almo Music Corp. (ASCAP). All rights o/b/o Big Tractor Music administered by WB Music Corp. Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014.

  “It’s Midnight Cinderella” by Kim Williams, Kent Blazy and Garth Brooks. © 1995 Sony Cross Keys Publishing Co., Inc., Kim Williams Music (ASCAP), Careers-BMG Music Publishing, Inc. o/b/o A Hard Day’s Write Music (BMI) and Kent Blazy, Major Bob Music Co., Inc., No Fences Music (administered by Major Bob Music Co., Inc.) and Sony/ATV Tunes LLC. All rights on behalf of Sony/ATV Tunes LLC and Kim Williams Music administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, 8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37203.

  “I’ve Always Been Crazy” by Waylon Jennings. © 1978 Waylon Jennings Music (BMI).

  “Learning to Live Again” by Stephanie Davis and Don Schlitz. © 1992, 1993 EMI Blackwood Music Inc., Beartooth Music and Don Schlitz Music, Almo Music Corp., New Don Songs, New Hayes Music, and BMG Songs, Inc. o/b/o itself only. All rights for Beartooth Music controlled and administered by EMI Blackwood Music Inc.

  “No Future in the Past” by Carl Jackson and Vince Gill. © 1992 Benefit Music, Famous Music Corporation (ASCAP) and Too Strong Songs (ASCAP, administered by ICG).

  “Ridin’ Out the Heartache” by Stephony Smith, Cathy Majeski and Sunny Russ. © 1996, 1997 EMI Blackwood Music Inc. (BMI), Singles Only Music, Chrysalis Music, Songs for Debin (ASCAP) and Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI). All rights for Singles Only Music controlled and administered by EMI Blackwood Music Inc. All rights for Songs for Debin controlled and administered by Catherine Maciejewski Kewley a.k.a. Cathy Majeski, 369 St. Andrews Drive, Franklin, TN 37069.

  “Ring on Her Finger, Time on Her Hands” by Don Goodman, Mary Ann Kennedy and Pam Rose. © 1981 Sony/ATV Tunes LLC and EMI Blackwood Music Inc. All rights on behalf of Sony/ATV Tunes LLC administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, 8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37203.

  “Take Your Memory with You” by Vince Gill. © 1991 Benefit Music.

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  “The Red Strokes” by James Garver, Lisa Sanderson, Jenny Yates and Garth Brooks. © 1993 Criterion Music Corporation, Rio Bravo Music, Inc., Sanderson Music, Escudilla Music, Major Bob Music Co., Inc., and No Fences Music (administered by Major Bob Music Co., Inc.).

  “When I Call Your Name” by Vince Gill and Tim Dubois. © 1989, 1990 WB Music Corp., Tim Dubois Music and Benefit Music. All rights o/b/o Tim Dubois Music administered by WB Music Corp.

  “Wishin’ It All Away” by Amanda Hunt-Taylor and Michael Lunn. © 1997 Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI), Randy Scruggs Music (BMI) and WB Music Corp. All rights o/b/o Randy Scruggs Music administered by Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014.

  “You Don’t Do It” by Alan Gordon Anderson and Troy Harold Seals. © 1996, 1997 Irving Music, Inc., Baby Dumplin’ Music, Mighty Nice Music, Songs Of Windswept.

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