A Tree Born Crooked (6 page)

“Well, now, I don’t know ‘bout all that.”

“No, seriously. I don’t think I’ll ever forgive you for breaking my heart. You left me, and then I got married to that loser come down from Tennessee. Wasted the best years of my life ‘fore coming to my senses and leaving his broke ass.”
 

James fumbled with his pack of cigarettes before remembering that he had already smoked his last one. He crumpled the soft pack in his fist. Adelyn kept talking.
 

“Remember that one time when we all went down to Sunshine Lake and ended up skinny dipping?”

James leaned over and looked down the length of the bar.

“Hey, Hollis. You sell cigarettes here?”

“All I got left are Crowns. That work for you?”

“Sure.”

Hollis slid the cigarettes across the bar to James. Adelyn pursed her small lips and crossed her legs.
 

“Are you listening to me?”

James slowly unwrapped the cellophane and tried to keep his eyes away from her. He wasn’t sure that he was going to be able to sit through this tonight. Where in the hell was Rabbit?

“Yeah, I’m listening.”

“Well, then look at me.”

James tossed the pack down and ran one hand over his forehead and into his hair. He looked up at the Miller High Life clock hanging behind the bar. The girl swung back and forth on the moon-shaped pendulum, doling out the time. It was almost nine. He would give Rabbit twenty more minutes. That was it. James wiped his palms on the thighs of his jeans and turned to face Adelyn.
 

“I’m sorry, I’m listening. The time we went to the lake. I remember. We had some fun times back then.”

James did remember the lake. He remembered Adelyn in her pink striped bikini and straw cowboy hat. She had been cute. A much different girl than the one sitting next to him now.

“And you remember prom? When you wore that powder-blue suit that matched my dress? We ain’t even planned it that way. I think I still got a picture somewhere.”

Behind James, the first singer of the night began belting out
Life is a Highway.
The man’s voice cracked and his buddies cheered him on, whistling and clinking beer bottles. James was grateful for the background noise, no matter how terrible the singing was.
 

“I don’t think I even went to prom.”

Adelyn twisted around on her stool looking for Hollis. She raised her glass and rattled the ice cubes. He nodded, but didn’t seem in any hurry to start making her a new drink. He was standing in the doorway at the end of the bar that led to the back room and it looked like he was talking to someone while he kept one eye on the customers. When Adelyn turned back around, James caught Hollis’ eyes over her shoulder. He was rolling them and shaking his head. James tried not to grimace as Adelyn chattered away.
 

“Oh, well, maybe it was homecoming. I don’t know. I just knowed we had a good time. A real good time. Right?”

James turned his attention back to Adelyn. Her eyes were glassy and she was starting to slur her words. Now a girl was singing Shania Twain on the karaoke machine. Not too badly, actually. The crowd around her was getting louder, though. James raised his voice.

“Yeah, I guess so. Look, that was years and years ago. I’m sure we had fun together.”

“I know we did.”

“But we were only together for what, a couple of months?”

“Six months. Don’t try and make it out like it weren’t a long time.”

Adelyn’s voice was snappy. Clearly the conversation was not going in the direction she had hoped. Hollis set another rum and Coke down in front of her. He picked up her old glass and slung the ice into the sink before turning to James.
 

“You want another?”

James glanced back up at the clock. He felt Adelyn’s hand rest on his leg for a moment.
 

“You got any idea when Rabbit will be back?”

Hollis shook his head.

“Nope. He’s usually here for the start of karaoke, but who knows with him. I’m sure he and Delmore are getting into some kind of trouble. Probably drinking out at someone’s house, then gonna come in here piss drunk and give me a headache.”

James moved away from Adelyn. She narrowed her eyes at him and began chewing on her drink straw. James sighed.
 

“Yeah, might as well give me one more. That’s it, though. If he don’t show soon, I’m just gonna leave and he can come find me if he needs to.”

James watched the amber liquid splash into his glass. Behind Hollis, a woman came out of the back room. She had a stack of receipts in one hand and a bottle of Budweiser in the other. She surveyed the crowd and then disappeared. James had caught just a flash of her.
 

Adelyn was sulking now, stirring her drink around and around with the straw trying to make a little whirlpool. Either she was mad or trying to get James to think she was mad and act like he cared. Fortunately, Adelyn’s friend returned just in time. She was even sloppier than Adelyn and hanging onto a man with a bull neck wearing a tight, black T-shirt. The guy looked bored. The friend smacked her gum and put her arm around James’ neck.

“I tell you who I am yet? My name’s Trisha. But you get to know me better, honey, and you can call me Trish.”
 

She winked at him and James tried to shrug her arm off.
 

“Hi. Nice to meet you.”

“So, this is James, huh?”

“That’s who I am.”

The woman came out the doorway again and James tried to angle himself so as to look past Adelyn and see the woman’s face, but before he could, she turned around as if she had forgotten something.
 

“Adelyn was telling me ‘bout you, when we was sitting over there. ‘Fore you saw us.”

Trisha swayed and James seized the opportunity to shift her so that she was leaning fully on the other man.
 

“Well, there ain’t much to tell.”

Trisha craned her neck awkwardly to look at the man holding her up.
 

“Now, Frank here. It’s Frank, right? He was in the Marines. Can you believe that? I mean, saving lives and shit.”

Trisha was addressing Adelyn now and James was able to lean further away from the small group. For a brief moment they forgot about him and Adelyn busied herself with stroking the marine’s chest and telling him how brave she thought he was. James kept his eyes on the doorway. He didn’t know why he was so interested in the woman in the back room of the bar. He hadn’t even seen her face, but it was something about the way she moved. Easy, like she was gliding through water and nothing could touch her. At this point, though, he would have been interested in just about anything that didn’t involve his high school ex, a marine, and the drunk girl fawning over him.
 

Adelyn rubbed the man’s arm and purred.
 

“I just think that’s something else. I mean really, you rescuing all them children like that. It just gets me right here, you know? Right in my heart.”

They were still ignoring him. James waved Hollis over and leaned across the bar to whisper.
 

“I can’t take much more of this. I’m gonna step outside so I can breathe for a second. Just hold my tab, I’ll be right back.”

Hollis winked at him. James stood up and immediately Adelyn was on him.

“Where you going?”

“Just outside. I need some air. I’m not leaving yet.”

“You want some company?”

Her eyes were hopeful and for an instant James felt sorry for her.
 

“Nah, I’m good. I’ll be right back.”

The cool night air washed over James and it was the best thing he had felt in days. What in the hell was he doing back in Crystal Springs? It was the same town, with the same people telling the same stories. The same person, even, telling the same story. James felt sick to his stomach. He should have just lit out last night after hearing that he hadn’t even been invited to Orville’s funeral. He didn’t want to talk to Rabbit. He didn’t want to talk to his mama. He wanted to run away, get out of there as fast as he could, and drive until the sun came up and Crystal Springs was just a bad hangover memory.
 

Instead, he lit a cigarette, cupping his palm around the flame in the darkness, and started walking aimlessly around the side of the bar, kicking broken pieces of glass and chunks of asphalt as he went along. He could still hear the music coming from inside, but it lessened as he walked around the back of the building. He entered a small gravel lot with a dumpster and a pile of broken-down beer boxes leaning up against it. Two rusty lawn chairs and a bucket of sand stood outside the back door. The small lot was glazed with faint neon orange coming from the streetlight. James moved to put his cigarette out in the bucket and saw her.
 

In the shadows, sitting on the hood of a beat-up Jeep Cherokee, was the woman he had caught a glimpse of behind the bar. In a dark jacket and jeans, she sat with her knees drawn up to her chest, one arm wrapped around them, the other stretched out behind her, holding her up. She was wearing scuffed cowboy boots, the toes curling up from the rusted metal of the hood, and her long, dark hair covered the side of her face so that he couldn’t see her eyes. He didn’t think she knew he was there. Her head was tilted upwards slightly, as if she were looking up at the few stars burning through the cloudy night sky. As he watched her, she picked up the bottle next to her by the neck and held it out to him.
 

“Want a beer?”

She turned her head slowly, a smile spreading across her lips as she did. James took a step forward, but was interrupted before he could decide how to answer.
 

“Well, shit, man, there you are. What’re you doing? They got you working here, taking out the trash for Hollis?”

Rabbit came up behind James and clapped him on the shoulder. James could smell alcohol and fried food on his breath. He shrugged away from Rabbit’s hand, keeping his eyes on the woman. She still had a smile, but now it was tinged with amusement. She raised her eyebrows slightly at them. Rabbit saw who James was looking at and waved.

“Oh, hey, Marlena. Didn’t see you there.”

She nodded to him, her grin widening.
 

“Hate to break up the fun, but you mind if I borrow my brother for a while?”

“He’s all yours.”

James opened his mouth to say something, but Rabbit was pulling on his shoulder again, so he turned and followed him back out to the street. James started toward the entrance of the bar, but Rabbit kept walking to his deep purple 1967 Caprice parked with one wheel up on the curb. He dug into his front pocket, trying to find his keys. James watched him fumbling.
 

“We going someplace?”

“Yeah.”

Rabbit finally pulled his keys out. A silver mudflap girl keychain swung and glinted in the bright glare from the electric Michelob sign in the bar window. He walked around to the driver’s side of the car and opened the door. James rocked back on his heels, making no move to get in the car.

“I thought you wanted to meet up, have a beer, or whatever.”

“I do.”

James didn’t say anything and Rabbit nodded at him.
 

“But not here. This place is rocking and rolling tonight. Too many broads trying to get their claws into you tonight. ‘Sides, I got something I gotta do real quick. Let’s take a ride out to the house.”

“Mama’s house?”

Rabbit got in the car, slid over, and pushed open the passenger door.

“No, Delmore’s. I mean, it’s mine too. I stay there. Look, will you just get in the goddamn car already?”
 

There was a strange need behind Rabbit’s small eyes. The end of his words lilted upwards exposing a vein of desperation. James remembered this sound from when they were kids. The same sound had been in his brother’s voice years ago on the afternoon James had packed his final bag for flight school. Rabbit had stood in the bedroom doorway with that same despondent look on his face. He had wanted to ask his brother not to leave, but never found the words. James wanted to turn and go back to the bar, just as he had pushed past his brother out into the hallway and away from home, but he didn’t. He bent down and got into the car. The look of relief on Rabbit’s face was something they both needed. Rabbit revved the car unnecessarily and did a U-turn in the middle of the street. They sped off into the country.

It was about ten minutes before either one of them spoke. They drove along the back roads, surrounded on both sides by lanky pine trees and deep ditches, the darkness cut only by the Caprice’s one cloudy headlight. James finally broke the silence.

“Who was that girl?”

“What girl?”

Rabbit was holding the wheel with one hand and trying to text on his cell phone with the other. The car had terrible alignment, weaving back and forth as it drifted, and Rabbit had to yank it back in the right lane. James resisted the urge to reach over and grab the wheel away from him.