The Highway Kind(83)

“Get dressed and let’s go.”

“And you say you’re buying?”

Eddie nodded and lit a cigarette. He went to Houston’s fridge, took a can of Coors from it, opened it, and sat down on the couch and waited for him to dress.

They drove to a strip bar called the Little Fox where a half dozen men watched a woman dancing naked. Behind them were five men playing video poker machines and two more sitting at the bar. The bartender was a sixty-year-old black woman and Eddie bought two beers from her, got ten singles, and handed the money and a beer to Houston. Houston went to the front and sat while Eddie stood in the back at the bar. He watched the woman dance to two more songs, ordered another beer, and then Connie came to the stage.

She was a forty-year-old alcoholic with dyed-red hair and large sagging breasts. Even from where he stood, he could see her body was beginning to go. She danced three songs and toward the end of the third, Eddie went to the front and sat. He placed a five-dollar bill down and when the song finished and she went to take it, he said, “You got a minute to talk?”

She nodded and told him she’d come out and find him.

Another woman came onstage and Eddie grabbed Houston and they sat at a small table in the back of the bar.

“Just remember what she says,” Eddie said. “She’s enough trouble that I don’t want to have a conversation with her when I’m alone.”

Houston had his eyes on the woman dancing. “You’ll buy another round, won’t you?”

“I’ll buy you a six-pack on the way home. We’re gonna get out of here the second she and I quit talking.”

Houston rubbed his hands together and smiled. “But I’ll need another beer if I’m gonna just sit here and listen.”

Eddie took five dollars from his wallet and gave it to him. Houston got another beer and then Connie came out in an Asian robe and black high-heeled shoes.

“What’s going on?” she asked and sat at the table.

Eddie told her about the batteries, about Russell’s chest and the beatings that Curtis had been giving him.

“I can’t control him,” she said hopelessly. “How do you think I feel? No one ever asks how I feel living with him. His father won’t do a goddamn thing and hasn’t paid child support since he was three.”

Eddie lit a cigarette. “I know you got a tough deal. I just want to let you know that if he steals any more of my stuff, I’m gonna call the cops on him.”

“You shouldn’t be leaving your stuff out there,” she said and looked out to the stage.

“What about Russell?” he asked.

“What about him?”

“He’s getting the shit beat out of him by his brother.”

“Who didn’t get the shit beat out of them as a kid? And why you spend so much time with him anyway? What’s in it for you?”

Eddie finished his beer and stood. “I’ll tell you this: If Curtis steals anything more from me I’ll call the cops and I’ll press charges. And you let him know if he beats up Russell anymore, I’ll go to Child Services and I’ll fuck up both your lives.”


Eddie walked across the road and disappeared into a mini-mart and then came back carrying a six-pack of beer. He got in the driver’s seat and handed the beer to Houston. “I gotta say, I didn’t think she’d start crying. I thought she’d jump down my throat when I said the Child Services bit.”

“She ain’t as tough as she thinks she is,” said Houston.

“Was she on something?”

“Heroin, I bet.”

“You think so?” Eddie asked.

“My ex-wife couldn’t quit that shit,” Houston said. “I can tell pretty easy.”

Eddie sighed.

Houston opened one of the cans of beer. “You know, I even ironed this shirt. I thought I might have a shot with her. I could move in next door. I’d kick out Curtis. And then Russell and the old lady would move in with you, and suddenly I’d about have my own place. I’d be set.”

Eddie laughed and started the van.

The house on the National Register was done and he and Houston packed up the ladders and did the last walk-through and Eddie received the final check. They drove to the next house, a west hills home, a money house, and unloaded their gear and left it on the side of the garage. Eddie deposited the check, gave Houston his eighty-dollar weekend allotment, dropped him back at his car, and drove home.

When he got there, the Le Mans was gone.

He let Early out and opened a beer. He smoked a cigarette, finished the can, and called the police. When he hung up he walked next door to find the side door open again. He called inside and the old woman again yelled from her room. She was sitting in the same chair in a housecoat reading a book. She hadn’t seen Russell or Curtis.

The police came an hour later and Eddie filled out a report. Afterward he sat outside and drank beer and barbecued chicken. He cooked beans, made a salad, ate, and then smoked more cigarettes and drank more beer and worked on a bid down the street from the National Register house. After that he went to bed.

His phone woke him at midnight. The police had found his car. It was left in the middle of an intersection downtown. They had apprehended four people and his car had been towed to a police impound lot. He hung up the phone and went back to bed.