Fuckness (27 page)

“
I was gonna start just as soon as I got back.”

“
Seems like yer a little behind today. Didn’t the boy help ya clean up none? Why dontcha go ahead and get that started. You ain’t gotta go nowheres now, do ya? Boy said he’s stayin for dinner.”

“
I’m sorry, it’s just we had that storm the other day and I picked up all those sticks...”

“
You didn’t get all of em. There’s a biggun out there by the road. The enduh the driveway. Like you just left it there ta make me mad.”

“
I’m sorry. I always forget about that spot.”

“
At’s partuh mah yard too. First thing people see.”

“
Did you want me to get it now?”

“
It can wait. You make that hair appointment fer me?”

“
Not yet.”

He grabbed her again, roping her in for another kiss. Boo was randy tonight, I thought. This time he put his hand against her back and lifted up her shirt. She pried his hand off and broke the kiss again. He gently pushed the side of her head and thumbed his mustache again. “She’s a fuckin ice woman, boy. So what’s yer name?”

He pulled the chair closest to the door out and sat down.

“
Wallace Black,” I said.

“
My name’s Robert Thiklet. Friends call me Boo. While yer here I want you to call me Mr. Thiklet. Or Sir. All right?”

I nodded my head.

“
Don’t think I’m a dick or nothin, it’s just that, well, we already been pretty nice to you. Ain’t we?”

I nodded my head.

“
In this house, in mah house, we talk. If yer a fuckin deaf mute, you nod yer head. We gotta fuckin mute nigger up at the plant, that’s all he does all day.” At his point, Sir Boo hideously pantomimed the head bobbing motion of someone who had to be not only mute, but deep in the throes of multiple sclerosis, as well.

“
Yes, sir,” I said.

“
That’s good. Hey, babe, why dontcha bring me a beer?”

Maria, who upon Sir Boo’s insistence had automatically begun dragging out the ingredients and equipment necessary for making dinner, ceased what she was doing and crossed over to the refrigerator. She put the bottle in front of him and went back to dinner. He raised the bottle, clinking the metal cap to his teeth. Maria again stopped what she was doing, grabbed a towel and twisted the top off the bottle. Shooting a stare at Boo she went back to preparing dinner. Boo sprang up out of his chair and grabbed her around the arm.

“
I don’t think you need to act this way in front of company.”

She lowered her head and said, “I’m sorry. You’re right.”

Sir Boo went back to his chair and sat down heavily.

“
Sit down, boy.”

I pulled out the chair Maria had sat on last night and stiffly sat, trying not to look at Maria so Sir Boo couldn’t automatically bring my lust into focus. He downed half the bottle of beer and belched, a sickeningly wet sound.

“
So what’d you guys do here all day?”

I waited for Maria to answer, but she was busy pounding the hell out of the roast. My head involuntarily flicked to the left.

“
I
said
, ‘What’d you guys do here all day?’ Besides lose yer goddamn hearing?” This time, he specifically addressed me.

“
Oh, uh, well... I slept in. Then I helped with the dishes and helped pick up the house.”

“
What about them sticks? You help with them sticks?”

“
Yeah, uh, I helped pick up the sticks.”

Sir Boo took another healthy slug of beer.

“
Did ya take a shower?”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
That’s good, cause last night you kind of...”

“
I know, sir, I smelled like death.”

“
Yeah, that’s exactly what you smelled like. You know, when Maria stopped the car for you, when she saw you layin there in the church parkin lot, she thought you mighta
been
dead.”

“
No, sir. I just smelled like it.”

He enjoyed a laugh at that, his cheeks flushing. He polished off the beer and thumbed his mustache.

“
How bout another beer, babe?”

Maria retrieved it and opened it for him. Again, he swallowed roughly the first half in a single gulp.

“
You wanna beer, boy?”

“
No thank you.”

“
Prob’ly just think I’m a big drunk, huh?”

“
Not at all.”

“
You know, when Maria first saw ya with that thing on yer head, she thought you was one of them ragheads.”

“
Oh, the shirt.”

“
Is that what that was? You know what else we call ragheads? Sand niggers. That’s pretty funny, ain’t it? Of course, you was just wearin that to hide the...” And he waved the beer bottle around the top of his head.

“
Horns, sir.”

“
Yeah,
horns
. Why you wearin them crazy ass things?”

“
I was born with them.”

“
Kinda like in
Ripley’s Believe It or Not
, huh?”

“
A little, I guess.”

“
You ever been in one uh them books?”

“
No, sir.”

“
Might be able to pick up a little money that way.”

“
Maybe.”

“
You got a job?”

“
No, sir.”

“
See, then ya ain’t got no money. You a runaway?”

“
I guess I am. But I’m going back later.”

“
Cause ya ain’t got no money. Ya gonna do a stupid thing like run away, you need some money. Why, if we was some mo
tel
, you’da had to pay forty or fifty bucks just for last night.”

“
I know, sir. I’m very thankful.”

“
I bet you are. It was nasty last night. Real pretty today, though. You been outside yet?”

“
A little bit.”

“
Oh, right. When you’s helpin Maria pick up em sticks. Warm.”

“
It certainly is.”

“
How bout another beer?”

Maria grabbed another one out of the refrigerator, opened it, and sat it down in front of him. Behind Boo, the evening darkened. I wanted so desperately to be out there. I was hating every second of the conversation. Periodically, I noticed my foot was bumping up and down and I knew if I had to sit through much more of this I’d be going crazy.

“
I’m glad you weren’t one uh them sand niggers cause if you was, I’d uh made Maria throw ya back out. We don’t need them people here, ya know what I’m sayin? They just here to make our money.”

“
Of course.” I hated myself for saying it. It’s amazing what I’d say for survival.

“
So, you still in high school?”

“
Middle school,” I said, without even thinking.

“
Middle school? Ain’t you sixteen?”

“
Yes, sir. I’ve been held back.” This time my head flicked to my right and I could feel my lips draw back from my teeth.

“
Mustuh been held back a
coupla
times. You a dummy?”

“
I guess so. I’m not very good at school.”

“
I went to school with a halfwit nameuh Roger Willem. He was a real candyass, too. Now, he never got outta the seventh grade, so far as I know. You know him?”

“
No, sir.”

“
I thought maybe he’s your dad or somethin but, that’s right, yer name’s Black, ain’t it?”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
That kinda makes you a nigger, don’t it?”

“
I guess so.”

“
You like niggers?”

“
I’ve never known any, sir.”

“
That’s good. I ain’t never known me none, neither. Course, if I did, I guess he’d be a dead nigger.”

He chugged down another beer and fished around in his jeans pockets, coming up with a flattened pack of Marlboro Lights. He pulled one out and lit up, casting a glance at Maria.

“
She don’t like for me to smoke in the house. Says it smells. But we know whose house it is, don’t we, babe?”

“
Sure do,” she said without much conviction.

She put the roast beef in the oven and stormed out of the kitchen. Sir Boo turned around to me, thumbed his mustache and said, “We don’t need no bitches in here anyway. She’s just a dried up old cunt. I need summa that fresh pussy.”

His voice became gruffer and noticeably slurred. His cigarette ash was incredibly long. He knocked it off in one of the empty beer bottles in front of him, half of it scattering around the bottle.

“
If you ain’t got much brains, what do ya plan on doin for the rest of yer life.”

“
I don’t know.”

“
Dontcha think ya better get somethin figgered out?”

“
I guess.”

He gulped down the rest of his beer and barked, “Beer!”

Maria stormed back into the kitchen, opened the bottle and sat it roughly down in front of him, rushing back out. Sir Boo balled his right hand up into a fist and slammed it into the palm of his left.

“
Now me,” he said. “I ain’t exactly a whiz or nothin. But I’m smart when it comes to money. I started workin down at the Korl mill when I turned eighteen. You ever thought about doin steel work?”

“
Not really.”

“
Now, my job was pretty tough at first, loadin them sheets of metal onto the lifts but now, shit, I ain’t gotta do shit. Them supervisors up air, they saw that I had a real knack for takin control. At’s all they want, someone at can do their job so they can take some time off. At’s why I work a lot, cause it ain’t really work at all. Someone wants to pay me for doin more sittin around, who’m I to say no. That extra time done bought me this here house and here I am only thirty-two. My folks’s still rentin. Yer folks rent?”

“
I think so.”

“
Them some good ol boys they got up at Korl. Lot’ve em come right from the hollers of Kentucky. Them boys know what a dollar means. Most of em raised up dirt poor. Yer folks from Kentucky?”

“
West Virginia.”

Boo Thiklet lit up another cigarette. He put a considerable amount of pause in between his questions. Now he paused a little bit longer, taking slow drags off the cigarette, his head kind of leaned back, studying me through partially slit eyes. I looked nervously at the table, conscious of his eyes burning into me.

He finished his beer, ashed his cigarette on the floor, thumbed his mustache and said, “Them horns make me mad.”

“
I’m sorry.”

“
Bring me a beer, bitch!”

“
Get it yourself!” she called back. That kind of surprised me. Up to that point, however, I found it impossible how she could see Sir Boo with anything but contempt.

He teeteringly got up and stumbled the two steps to the refrigerator door. He swung it open much harder than necessary, all the condiment bottles tinkling in the door. He belched and reached in for another beer.

The smell of roast beef filled the kitchen. Night had come outside the kitchen door window, turning it into six black squares. He twisted the cap off and tossed it into the kitchen sink. He stumbled back over and plopped down in his chair, almost turning it over.

“
I don’t know why I keep her around. It’s the pussy I guess. She had a real sweet pussy. She was a virgin when I met her.” He leered at me. “That didn’t last long, though.” He poked a finger on the inside of his cheek and hooked it out so it made a popping noise. “She’s all used up now, though. Barren as a rock. I’m gonna have to find me someone else gonna make em sheets all bloody.”

I couldn’t help it anymore. I’d been sitting there all rigid, managing to keep my feet tapping and not much else. I let out a hoot before restraining myself, before launching into the whole routine.

“
You act like a boy who ain’t never had any pussy. You ever had any pussy?”

That did it. I snapped. I beat my fingers on the edge of the table, letting out a whole slew of “Do, do, do”s, snapping my head back and forth.

“
What is this shit?” Boo said. It sounded like he was filled with anger but I couldn’t be sure without looking at him. Whenever I had an outburst, I had a tendency to either close my eyes or stare straight ahead. I managed to bring it under control. Sir Boo was the only thing standing between me and the outside.

Sitting there and listening to him talk made me think maybe I’d been had. Had Maria lead me into her bedroom simply because she was mad or had Boo really not touched her in the last two years?

“
You know what I think?” Sir Boo thumbed his mustache. I ticked and thrashed. “I think you know exactly what Maria’s pussy’s like. Joo fuck Maria?”

I never really thought he’d ask that. My lips drew back, tenuous against my gumline. I tried to say no but my tongue wouldn’t get out of the way and I could only make a kind of gurgling sound.