Gringo

by Cass J. McMain

  Chapter 56

  The yard sale was a flop. On Sunday morning, Daniel sat in a lawn chair while Ellie poured him cup after cup of coffee and they shared a box of powdered donuts he’d picked up at the gas station on his way home from work the previous night. That morning, technically, since he’d worked the five to midnight shift.

  On Saturday, they’d only sold forty dollars’ worth of stuff. Some books, a few clothes. The woodworking set had been looked at and passed up twice. Daniel had started off with high hopes. He’d arranged the items the simplest way he could; most of the tools on the two tables, some laid out underneath along with some shoes and toys and a few bits of old pottery. The rest of the items he had grouped into boxes, marked with one price for every item inside. He hadn’t brought anything from his place. He’d put the snow globe and the sweaters back in his closet, and thrown the t-shirt and the books on top. Another time, maybe.

  By noon, it had become apparent this wouldn’t be a money-maker. Very few people came. The ones who showed up first were professional yard-salers who scanned the items very briefly and left with almost nothing, aside from two old soda bottles Daniel had let go for the majestic sum of fifty cents each – a steal, but he didn’t know it until Ellie told him later. The second group to arrive were all looking for children’s clothes. The selection was slim – Daniel kicked himself, thinking about the sacks he’d dropped into the charity box – but they did buy a few things, and then there was a small midmorning rush when three groups of people came all at once.

  At four o’clock, he’d had to cut it off and get ready for work, and that was when he realized many of the smaller tools had been stolen. He couldn’t keep an eye on the entire area himself, and Ellie had absented herself almost completely from the process, hovering in the back of the garage like a stagehand.

  Now Daniel moved his chair, trying to find a place that afforded a fuller view. Maybe he needed to move the tools again, closer. He’d had them nearby to begin with, but when people did come, they seemed to trace around the edges, and rarely did they approach the items he’d arranged in the very back, by the garage door. So he’d moved the tools farther out, to be more visible. That was when they had gotten stolen. It was a no-win situation.

  Ellie appeared with another cup of coffee and perched on the edge of a chair, part of a set long split up. “Nobody?”

  Daniel shook his head. Nobody. “One book, that’s all.” He fished in his pocket and pulled out a quarter. “That’s the take today so far. But it’s only nine. When church lets out maybe. Yesterday we got a lot of people around ten.” When the thieves came, that was when it got busiest. “We had a few people stealing stuff yesterday. I can’t watch everything. You might want to stay out here if we get busy again.”

  She looked at the quarter he held out to her and shook her head, waving it away. “I don’t really care if they steal it. I just want it gone. All that…stuff. Just watch the other things, you see.” She jerked her head sideways to indicate the items she didn’t want stolen, didn’t want gone, items she had specially set aside. “But this stuff…”

  She put a foot on the nearest box, rocked it up on one edge and let it drop back with a thump.

  Everything in this box: $1. That was the biggest box, mostly clothes and shoes.

  Many things in the garage were for sale as well, but there were items that were not. The lawnmower was not for sale, nor were the few gardening tools. He and Ellie had moved the items she didn’t want to sell into the back of the garage during the course of the previous week, and put a tarp over them to keep people from going through them. Lookie-Lous, Ellie had called them. Keep the Lookie-Lous away. But Daniel was surprised how many of the garaged items Ellie had been willing to part with.

  That she was ready to be rid of all of Herb’s things didn’t surprise him much, really. The tools, the fishing rods, hunting gear. There were no guns. Those had been “taken care of” already, she told him. But the rest of the hunting gear was for sale dirt cheap, and that didn’t surprise him one bit. He was a little surprised that she was willing to part with Jonah’s old toys, though she hadn’t watched while he sorted through them. She had elected, though, not to put a price tag on the old cabinet, the one she’d measured so many inches of family growth against. She couldn’t sell it, she said. If she had to leave it when she moved away, she’d leave it, but she couldn’t sell it for money. This didn’t surprise Daniel at all.

  Around ten, Greg crossed over to take a look. Daniel rose to greet him.

  “How’s the sale going? Had any lookers?”

  Daniel nodded. “A few. Not many. Today’s really been slow.”

  “Well.” Greg stood tall and looked around. “Sundays are no good for garage sales, usually. Should have done Friday and Saturday. That’s when the buyers are out.”

  “Mmm,” Daniel said. “Maybe so. But I couldn’t Friday. Work.”

  “Ah, yeah.” Greg stepped past him and toyed with a couple of the small tools, ran his hands along the edge of the broken-set chair. “That’s an old one. My aunt had some sort of like this.”

  Daniel and Greg made small talk while Greg wandered deeper into the garage. Ellie pressed herself back against the inside door and said nothing.

  “Did you come across any of those pins?” Greg asked, picking up a fishing rod and examining it. “That’s a beauty there.”

  “What pins?” Ellie asked.

  Daniel looked at her, surprised. “Navy pins,” he said. He had forgotten to look for them.

  “Yeah, those Navy pins, they’re collectible, sometimes. Some are pretty common, but even so.” He ran a few inches of line out from the rod and rolled it back in again slowly.

  “There’s one inside, I think,” Ellie said. “Couple maybe. In a shoebox, on the top shelf of the closet. I don’t think I can reach it.”

  “Hang on,” Daniel said, “I’ll get them.” He followed her inside and retrieved the shoebox. Inside, he found three pins. They went back out to the garage and he held them out to Greg.

  “Say, these are something, you know. Not uncommon, but still. I sort of like the old pins. I was never in the forces myself.” He set down the fishing rod and took the pins and held them very close to his face, inspecting them. “How much?”

  Daniel looked at Ellie, who shrugged. “Oh, he can just have those. I don’t want anything for them.”

  “No charge?” Daniel asked, and she nodded.

  “Oh, no, no. I couldn’t take them for free. That wouldn’t be right. Not at all. No. I want to pay. How about, say, five bucks each? That’s about fair, I think. That’s what I paid for the last one I bought.”

  Ellie held her hands up. “Whatever. I don’t want anything.”

  “Tell you what,” Greg said. “I’ll give you twenty, for the pins and this fishing rod.”

  The rod was marked ten, but Daniel had expected to get less for it, so he agreed to this deal right away. “That’s very fair, I think.” He took the twenty. “I didn’t know you fished.”

  “Don’t much, but I have been known to. And it’s good to help a neighbor out, you know. Mary likes to fish, so we were talking about going one day soon. To Cochiti maybe for Labor Day. That’s a ways off yet, but I’ll take this rod and see how she handles.”

  Greg went back home and Daniel handed the money to Ellie. She tried to wave it off again, but he pressed it firmly into her hand. “You have to take this money, Ellie. I know you have bills due. I bring in your mail, remember?” He looked at her sternly. He brought mail in every few days, and piled it up for her, but she seemed to ignore it. The stack on the little table just kept getting bigger.

  Ellie took the cash and gave Daniel an amused look. “They’re set up to come out of the bank automatically, Strawberry. Did you think I wasn’t paying my bills? My brother set that up years ago, when he came out to help me. After.” Her eyes took on a distant cast for a moment and then she turned them back on Daniel. “You did. You thou
ght… How long did you think I’d get by with that?”

  Daniel flushed. Of course she had them auto-drafted. Why hadn’t he thought of that? Why hadn’t he asked? “Well… good. I didn’t know. I just…” He held out helpless hands. He could think of nothing sensible to say.

  Ellie patted his arm and laughed at the look on his face. “You’re an awful sweet man, Daniel.” She held up the twenty. “I won’t say it’s not useful, you see, and I’ll be glad to take it, but I’m not so broke that I can’t afford to pay the electric yet.”

  After she went inside, he sat in the lawn chair again, and Gringo sat next to him, and they waited for more people to arrive. Not one more person came, though, and around noon he pulled it all back into the garage and shut the door.

  Chapter 57

  “I look like an idiot.” Margie threw her order pad onto the bar and raised her hands over her head. “Look at this. Just look at me.”

  Daniel looked. “Well, you… they are a little short.”

  “A little? I look like a damn hooker or something.”

  “Gina likes them.”

  “Of course Gina likes them. Gina’s what, twenty-five?”

  “Twenty-three.”

  “I’m forty-six, Danny. Forty-fucking-six. I can’t walk around in this… this… goddamn costume, like I’m some streetwalker.”

  “You don’t look that bad,” Daniel said. He said that, but privately he agreed with her; she looked ridiculous. “Maybe ask for a larger size.” But he knew better. The top was tight by design – Margie might get a slightly looser fit, but it wouldn’t make much difference in the overall appearance. And the shorts were… well, short. No size change was going to make the legs of the shorts cover much more than they did now.

  “Danny… you have got to talk to Bud about this. He won’t listen to me. I tried a while ago, he just shook his head at me, said I looked fine. I don’t think he was even looking at me.” She fixed her eyes on Daniel and pointed at a large patch of angry-looking varicose veins on her thigh. “This does not look fine. I’ll put people off their lunch. This uniform is for cute young things, not forty-six-year-olds. When I lift my arms, my belly shows.”

  “He won’t listen to me, either.”

  “Have you tried?”

  Daniel shook his head. He had not. “He won’t listen, I’m telling you. Is he even here?”

  “He is. Or was a minute ago.” She picked up her tray and hugged it across her breasts, like a shield. “I’m not a prude. I used to wear short shorts, you know, when I had the figure for it. Gina… she’s made for it. She looks like a doll. The guys tip her better now, she loves it. She even made the top shorter, did you see?”

  He had seen. Gina had taken a scarf and tied around the front of her shirt, from the v-neck to the base, bringing them together and turning the shirt into more of a halter-top than a tee. Billy had given her a thumbs-up for it, too. Daniel hoped Billy didn’t decide to make that mandatory. Gina had shown off her new look by bending way, way over and giving Daniel a grin. Like my uni? Hawt, right?

  “I saw it,” he said.

  “I’m not saying anything against her; that’s her thing and whatever, you know. But… c’mon. Please? At least put a word in for me.”

  Daniel looked Margie up and down once more. “I need to talk to him about the schedule anyway. I’ll see if I can work it into the conversation. But I can’t promise much.” He couldn’t actually promise anything, could he? He’d had Bud’s ear once, but not now. Now he was lucky to catch sight of Bud’s ear in passing. If he was in the office now, he wouldn’t be there in an hour. And Daniel couldn’t leave the bar unattended for long. He didn’t have any help unless he counted Billy. Wherever he is.

  But he really did want to talk to Bud about the schedule. He was on for closing tomorrow and opening the next morning, which he’d been promised would never happen again. Worse, he was on for a split shift on Tuesday, opening and closing, with a six-hour break in the middle. That was about the worst shift he’d ever seen.

  When the bar slowed to a crawl, he stepped out and went to the office. He didn’t have much hope that Bud would be at his desk still. Maybe he could leave a note. But Bud was there, staring at some papers. He looked surprised to see Daniel standing in the doorway, but gestured for him to come in, asked him how he was doing.

  “They keepin’ you busy out there?” he asked, but he didn’t wait for an answer before going on about the weather. It was just small talk, meaningless. “It’s so hot today, like a damn oven.”

  Hot. “Yeah, it’s... I need to ask about the schedule. Remember, you—”

  “I told you, Billy’s doing that stuff now. I don’t keep track of it anymore. I’m…” Bud held his hands up in something like surrender. “Look. I’m trying to ease him into this. He’s gotta learn by doing.”

  “Yeah. That’s… sure, that’s fine. But Bud, he’s got me on closing one night and opening the next day, and I’m pretty sure we talked about that. Plus he’s—”

  Bud closed his eyes and rubbed at his face with both hands. “Ah, Christ. Well. That’s no good. I’ll look into it.” He dropped his hands into his lap and looked up at Daniel. “Have you talked to him about it?”

  Daniel shook his head. He had not, this time. It would have done no good, and he knew it. He had even less of Billy’s ear than he had of Bud’s. “I haven’t had a chance—”

  “Well, okay. I know we agreed not to do that to you. I’m sure he had a reason for it. He’s getting better at this. It takes time, you know, scheduling. You have to be patient. But he’ll get it down. I promise.” Bud nodded firmly and then looked back at his papers. A wave of his hand told Daniel they were done talking.

  Had he gotten an answer? Daniel walked back to the bar, going over the conversation, replaying it in his mind. Bud said he would look into it. He’d agreed: no more opening the day after closing. He’d promised. But he’d promised that before. Now, Daniel thought Bud had just been feeding him a line. It takes time. He’s getting better. I’ll look into it. He hadn’t said he’d talk to Billy, though. No, Bud hadn’t really promised much of anything.

  When he got back to the bar, Billy was there with Braxton.

  “There you are. I wondered where you went.”

  Daniel didn’t try to explain where he’d been, and Billy let it drop. Braxton spun around on his stool a few times, watching his father scribble notes on a tablet.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  Billy didn’t look up. “Just some stuff, son. Why don’t you go play with your cars?”

  “Ok.” The boy drew a small car out of his pants pocket and placed it on the bar, his eyes now on Daniel. He rolled the car back and forth and made rumbling noises. When Billy told him to be quiet, he slipped off his stool and moved to the other end of the bar, where he resumed his activity. Daniel watched him; he watched Daniel back.

  “Bartendering looks like fun. Someday I’m gonna be a bartender.”

  “Yeah? It’s a good job.”

  “You like it.” This was not a question, so Daniel didn’t answer it. Braxton went on, “My dad says someday I can be the bartender and then I can give all the orders and hire everyone. Did you hire anyone?”

  Daniel shook his head. “Not here.”

  “You hired people somewhere?”

  “Not exactly.”

  Braxton laughed. “You always say that: not exactly.”

  “I used to own a business. I hired subcontractors.”

  The boy frowned. “What’s subcontractors mean?”

  “It’s just… people who do work for you. But they don’t work for you.”

  “What?” Braxton honked wild laughter and made a face. “That’s crazy, they work for you but they don’t work for you.”

  “No, it’s really like that.” Daniel turned to Billy for support but he was not at the bar anymore. Daniel was on his own. He turned back to Braxton. “It’s hard to explain. Ask your
dad.”

  The boy cast his eyes around the bar and his face took on a wistful look. “Do I own this place yet?”

  “No, not yet. It belongs to your grandfather.”

  Braxton draped himself across the bar and inspected the view, apparently no longer interested in the discussion. He pushed his toy car across the bar slowly.

  When Margie came up to the bar with an order a few minutes later, she looked at the boy lying on the bar and shook her head. “Can I get extra lime on the side, Danny? Thanks.”

  He mixed her order and gave her the extra lime, wondering what she thought of him, letting the kid lie on the bar like that, right on the bar with his shoes hanging over the edge. She probably thought he was pretty weak, but she didn’t say anything. Instead she asked quietly if he’d talked to Bud about the shorts. He told her he hadn’t managed to bring it up. She didn’t say anything about that, either.

  I am weak, Daniel thought. Weak, weak, weak.

  Chapter 58

  Daniel positioned himself behind the bar and looked around at the setup. Pretty much ready for anything, he guessed.

  Mark nodded at him. “Good to go, man. I’m out. Have a great night.” He turned to leave, then turned back again, pointing. “Guy at the end was asking about you.” He pointed.

  Daniel made his way down to the end of the bar. Clive looked like he’d had a few already, but he ordered another.

  “Dan, Dan, Bartending Man… You know, that rhyme doesn’t work so good with the other guy. Mark? Tried it, no good.” Clive licked his lips and took a swallow of his drink. “So, you on nights for good now, or still just whatever?”