Desperation Road(6)

“Karen,” she said.

“Karen,” he repeated. “I got a cousin named Karen. She ain’t a whore like you, though.”

“Where we going?”

“Now, Karen. I’m the one driving.”

She stopped crying. She stopped talking. She sat with her arm resting on the door, staring out the window as the deputy drove along the two-lane highway. Clean white lines along the sides and reflectors dotting the middle that shined like diamonds in the headlights.

It was an easy one for her to figure out.

He turned off onto another road that was flanked by flatlands and after another mile he turned onto a bumpy, thin road that had been patched so lazily and so often that the radar and the radio on the dashboard rattled as the cruiser thumped along. Barbed-wire fence stretched along each side of the road and he soon slowed down and then he came to a stop and he turned off the headlights. Maben looked around and there was not a visible light in any direction. He reached above the dash and turned down the volume on the radio. The parking lights remained and an orange glow surrounded the cruiser as if to signal the demons from the dark.

“Look here,” he said and he tapped on the rearview mirror.

“I guess you know I’m about to come back there,” he said. Their eyes meeting in the mirror. “Girl like you shouldn’t care. Figure it this way. You’re still getting paid but with a get-out-of-jail-free card instead.” He gave a small laugh and said something to himself she didn’t understand. And then still with this low and brooding laugh he unbuckled his gun belt, the leather cracking as he slid it around his waist.

He held it up and said see here. We’re gonna be friends. He set the gun belt on the front seat and then he opened the door and got out and he untucked his starched khaki shirt from his starched khaki pants. He opened the door slowly. Leaned his head down and told her to move over toward the other side. She scooted away from him and he sat down beside her on the seat. He told her to take off those dirty shoes and she did. He told her to take off her shirt and she did. And he kept on telling her things to do. And she kept on doing them. Keeping her eyes closed when he’d let her.





6


WHEN HE WAS DONE HE GOT OUT OF THE BACKSEAT AND HE dressed standing next to the car. He saw her doing the same and he said don’t worry about that. We ain’t done yet.

Maben pulled her shirt on over her head and ignored him.

He leaned down and with a smirk he said, “You think I’m playing?”

She put on her shorts. And then he reached into the backseat and snatched her by the back of her neck and pinned her down on the seat and she let out a groan at the strength of his grip.

“Take it back off. You hear me?” he said in a whisper with his mouth against her ear. “We ain’t done.” He let go of her and she sat up slowly. Wary of being slapped or worse. She pulled her shirt back off and she said I thought that was what you wanted.

“It was.”

“I did everything you told me. I got a kid back there. I swear to God.”

“If you got a kid back there then you’d damn sure better do what I tell you. What you think would happen if that kid’s momma gets picked up for whoring herself out? Kid left alone in a motel room. Guessing there ain’t no food or nothing in there either. What you think would happen? You’d better keep on listening.”

She didn’t answer. No reason to. She started praying that Annalee would stay asleep. Wouldn’t wake up and believe her momma had left her. She hoped that like most nightmares this one would be over by daybreak and that she could be sitting in the bed next to Annalee as if nothing had happened when the child first opened her eyes.

Clint left the door open to the backseat. He was that sure. He got into the driver’s seat and turned up the radio. Nothing going on. Then he took a phone out of the glove compartment and he dialed.

“Got us some new entertainment,” he said. “Come on out and I’ll show you. Yeah, same spot. Yeah, y’all can both come. Ain’t nothing on the radio. Looks like we got all night. Same deal as always.”

He turned off the phone and set it on the seat next to the gun belt. He looked around at Maben through the safety glass and said me and you about to have some company. I’d suggest you be on your best behavior.

She held her shirt against her chest and he laughed at her modesty. She felt the wild, poisonous vine beginning to choke her. She looked at the door. Wide open. Wanting her to run or do something he could blame her for. She didn’t know if it would be a few minutes or half an hour but soon there would be three of them. At least. And she didn’t believe that she wasn’t going to jail when it was over. She didn’t believe that he thought she had a kid back there and even if he did he didn’t seem to care. At some point Annalee would be discovered by a maid or leave the room and wander around looking for somebody and then there would be a phone call and that would be the end of the only thing she had left that mattered. She looked across the quiet, flat countryside. No lights and no answers.

“Want me to get out and wait for them?” she asked.

He looked around as if he were waiting for someone else to answer. It’d be a good story he could tell one day if he had her sitting on the hood like some sexual ornament.

“Might as well. You gonna have to get out anyway. Don’t put nothing on.”