Desperation Road(22)
“You ain’t exactly home free, cowboy. Don’t get smart.”
“It was a compliment.”
“Shit. I hate that thing. This one over here.”
He parked in front of the house in the back right corner. They got out and she stopped at the front door. She bent over and took a key from under the mat and when she bent Russell ran his hand across her ass knowing he could blame it on being drunk if it didn’t come off the right way. But she straightened and turned and smiled and she grabbed him and kissed him. Then she pulled back and said I better get you inside.
She opened the door and Russell grabbed her again and she moved them to the middle of the room and Russell didn’t know anything else to do but to go for it. He pushed the straps from her shoulders and thought please God and then he pushed her dress down to her waist and there was another please God and when she wiggled he knelt and pulled it to her ankles and she stepped out and then there was a thank you God. In another minute they were naked on the carpet and he forgot about God and he was on his back and she rocked on top of him holding his shoulders with her hands and then as she leaned forward on him and he held her waist and felt her breasts against his bare chest he bit his lip to keep from crying and the thought crossed his mind that if there was another man alive on the face of the earth who at that present moment was happier than he was then he didn’t know how the son of a bitch could stand it.
16
THEY LAY NEXT TO ONE ANOTHER IN THE SAME SPOT IN THE MIDDLE of the floor where they had finished. Caroline had taken pillows and a blanket from a hall closet and covered them once they were done. Russell lay on his back with his eyes on the ceiling and Caroline slept with her head across his chest. Russell had tried to move her once but she had grunted and risen and then flopped back across him and so he had decided to ride it out. Go to sleep and face the music the next morning and see what she was really like. But the sleep part wouldn’t come and he worked to build the courage to move her again and find his pants and leave. The night had been a gift and he wanted to remember things the way they had been—in low light, blurred by drink, happily irresponsible. The morning light would wipe that away. The beer had worn off and he could feel the headache coming on and he needed to get up and smoke the cigarette that would keep the pain away for a while.
He shifted some to his left and she made no sound. With his free hand he took the pillow from behind his head and stacked it on top of hers to keep her head from too much of a flop. Then as much as he could, he turned on his side and eased her off and onto her back and her head made an easy roll from his shoulder to the pillow. She made a mumble then tugged at the blanket and she turned on her side and faced him. He sat and looked at her, imagining her naked body beneath the blanket and the ways in which he knew her now.
He carefully picked himself up from the floor and he began to feel around in the dark for his clothes. He was relieved to find his pants first and he put them on and then he found his shirt and shoes and one sock. He held them in one arm while he crawled around and felt for the other sock and his underwear but when she sniffed and rolled over he thought the hell with it and he put on what he had. His wallet had stuck in the back pocket of his jeans and he remembered leaving the keys in the truck. He felt like there was something he should do. Leave a note. Kiss her cheek. Something. But the only thing he did was take another look at her shoulders. He then tiptoed to the front door and turned the handle with the care of a thief. He opened the door just enough to slide through, unaware that in the dark her eyes were wide open.
17
HE HAD STAYED OUT RIDING. WIDE-ASS AWAKE WITH THE ADRENALINE of the first day of freedom and he wanted it to go on and on. Three in the morning. Bought some more beer after he left her house. No reason to call it a night. Her smell on him and if he tried hard he could feel her on top of him as if she were straddling him now with her dress over her hips and her knees burying into his sides. He drove down to Fernwood and to the truck stop and he sat down with a roast beef poboy and when he was done he drove out onto Highway 48 and toward the lake. He heard the sirens and saw the flashes coming up behind him and he slowed and eased onto the side of the road and the cruisers roared past and he knew it had to be something bad. The highway ran straight and he saw them hit their brakes and turn off at a road about half a mile before the lake road and before he could get there an ambulance approached from the other direction and turned in behind the cruisers. Russell stopped and he didn’t see what they were after but he saw the barrage of lights circling in the night sky so he followed after them.
In a mile or so he found them. The cars from the police department and the sheriff’s department and the ambulance and a huddle of men standing around in the headlights talking to one another. Whatever had happened appeared to be over. Russell stopped the truck and one of the deputies saw his truck and pointed and then the other men looked and Russell felt like he shouldn’t be there. He tried to back up and turn around but the road was too thin and it took a couple of tries and before he could get gone a deputy had called out for him to hold it right there. He carried a flashlight with him and he shined it into the truck cab and Russell didn’t move. A man in street clothes accompanied the deputy.
“Get out of the truck and show your hands,” the deputy said.
Russell did as he was told and the deputy told him to walk around to the front of the truck and put his hands on the hood. Russell obeyed. The deputy gave the light to the other man and he walked behind Russell and patted him down and asked him what he was doing out here.