The Highway Kind(84)

He woke early the next morning to let his dog out and saw Russell sitting on the lawn chair. His face was beat up. Both his eyes were black, and his little nose was swollen.

Eddie told him to come inside and wait in the kitchen. He went to his bedroom and dressed. When he came out, Russell was on the kitchen floor petting Early.

“Can you still chew with your face that beat up?”

The boy nodded.

“I’ll make pancakes,” Eddie said. “You want bacon with them?”

Russell again nodded.

Eddie started the coffee and bacon and fed Early. The boy sat at the kitchen table and remained silent as Eddie made the pancakes and then set the food on plates and sat down.

“Let’s eat first,” Eddie said. “We got some talking to do but that’s hard on an empty stomach. You probably didn’t eat last night, did you?”

Russell shook his head and tears welled in his eyes but he ate the breakfast. When they’d both finished, Eddie put down his fork and pushed his plate away. “Let’s go outside so I can smoke,” he said and they went out and sat across from each other on lawn chairs.

“So what happened?”

“He stuck my head in the toilet,” Russell whispered. “Until...until I told him where you kept the key to it.” He began crying so hard he was barely understandable. He gasped. “I’m sorry...I’m sorry...I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Eddie said. “I would have told him too. Take a breath.”

Russell wiped his eyes and tried to breathe. “I told him where the keys were, but I didn’t think it would start. I thought the switch would be on but it wasn’t.”

Eddie blew out a plume of smoke. “I must have left it off. I was tinkering on the car the other night and I must have just forgot. So then what happened?”

“When it started, I was like, Oh no, and then Curtis made me go with them so I would be blamed too. He drove out near the river and then we went downtown. Burny and Josh were in the back and Curtis was driving too fast and you said that the engine was old and needed to be driven slow. But Curtis wouldn’t listen and then we came to that big intersection that has all those different lights and streets. We came to the middle of it and I reached down and hit the kill switch.”

“You hit the kill switch?” Eddie said and laughed.

“I did,” Russell said. “’Cause you’re my best friend.”

“What happened?”

“Curtis knew I did something but he didn’t know what. So he just started hitting me. He hit me over and over, and Burny and Josh were laughing and cars were honking. I guess there were cops nearby ’cause they came and saw Curtis hitting me and then Curtis tried to hit one of the cops and then they knew the car was stolen and they took us away. My mom came and got me, but she left Curtis there.”

“All that really happened?”

“I’m not a liar anymore.”

Eddie nodded.

“Do you want me to leave now?”

Eddie shook his head. “I can’t believe you risked your life for a piece-of-shit old car.”

“It’s not a piece of shit,” Russell said and wiped his eyes.

“So what are you doing today?” Eddie asked.

Russell shook his head.

“I just got a job doing a remodel on a house near the river. I don’t start for a month but they just gutted the whole first floor and there’s an old claw-foot tub they’re throwing out. The head contractor said I could have it. I was thinking we pick it up and then I gotta do a bid in the hills and then we’ll eat some lunch. After that we’ll pick up a new toilet and sink. A friend of mine is coming tomorrow to tile the bathroom. I have to get the shower out and gut the bathroom tonight so he has room.”

“You’re redoing the bathroom?”

Eddie nodded.

“Does that mean Monica’s coming back?”

“No,” Eddie said and laughed. “I’m just getting old and my back hurts. I think sitting in the bath might help. Are you too beat up to help?”

Russell shook his head. “I can help,” he said. “My face hurts but nothing else does. I told Curtis that he didn’t have the guts to hit me in the face. I knew he’d hit me in the face then and when the cops and my mom saw how bad I looked, I knew they wouldn’t let him come back.”

“That’s pretty smart thinking,” Eddie said. “And just so you know, I’m pressing charges against Curtis for stealing the car. With all that and hitting the cop and his priors, he’ll be in some shit for a while. But sooner or later, eventually, he’ll be back.”

“I know,” Russell said. “But I’m going to start growing soon. I know I will.”





THE PLEASURE OF GOD


by Luis Alberto Urrea

THE OLD MAN lurched over the pass under the brutal Mexican sun. Behind him, the ocean was dull and heavy as indigo felt, heaving slowly toward a shore hidden by cliffs. He didn’t waste time staring at the sea. The sea was of interest to him only when his neighbors brought up abalones or langostinos. Tortillas and butter and beans. Not the fried shit from cans, either—beans, boiled and soupy with a chunk of fatty pork for flavor.

He was angry at the sun. It hammered so hard that he was bent under its blows, and his hair had stiffened with old sweat into a sculpture. He smiled once, in spite of the rotten molar in his mouth. He was as old as that useless sea, and his hair was still black. Even the hair on his balls. He had never been broken, and he intended to live forever. He was cursed with vitality.