Long Time No See (10 page)

LEMARRE:

All right, Jimmy, let’s talk about this one more time.

HARRIS:

What for? I’m sick to death of talkin’ about that.

LEMARRE:

So am I.

HARRIS:

So let’s forget it, Doc.

LEMARRE:

No, let’s not forget it. If
we
forget it,
you
won’t be able to forget it.

HARRIS:

Shit.

LEMARRE:

Tell me about the Christmas tree.

HARRIS:

It’s a Christmas tree.

LEMARRE:

What kind?

HARRIS:

A regular Christmas tree.

LEMARRE:

And your mother and father are decorating it, is that right?

HARRIS:

Right, right.

LEMARRE:

And you and your friends are sitting on the floor watching them.

HARRIS:

Right.

LEMARRE:

How many of you?

HARRIS:

Five, countin’ me.

LEMARRE:

Just sitting there, watching.

HARRIS:

On the couch, yeah.

LEMARRE:

You said on the floor.

HARRIS:

What?

LEMARRE:

You said you were all sitting on the floor.

HARRIS:

The floor, the couch, what’s the difference?

LEMARRE:

Well, which was it?

HARRIS:

The floor.

LEMARRE:

In the living room.

HARRIS:

Mm.

LEMARRE:

In your living room, is that right?

HARRIS:

Right, right, I told you.

LEMARRE:

And how old are you in the dream?

HARRIS:

I don’t know. Eighteen, nineteen. Something like that.

LEMARRE:

But your father died when you were six.

HARRIS:

Yeah.

LEMARRE:

Yet in the dream you’re a teenager watching him decorate the tree.

HARRIS:

Well, it’s a dream, right?

LEMARRE:

There was a carpet on the floor, you said.

HARRIS:

A green carpet.

LEMARRE:

In the living room.

HARRIS:

Yeah.

LEMARRE:

Is it a thick carpet?

HARRIS:

Yeah.

LEMARRE:

But when the Christmas ornaments fall, they break, don’t they?

HARRIS:

Yeah.

LEMARRE:

On the thick carpet.

HARRIS:

Yeah.

LEMARRE:

And they make a loud noise.

HARRIS:

Yeah.

LEMARRE:

What kind of a noise?

HARRIS:

Crashing. They’re Christmas balls crashing, that’s the noise.

LEMARRE:

Uh-huh.

HARRIS:

Drums. Like drums, you know.

LEMARRE:

Is that what they sounded like? Drums?

HARRIS:

Yeah. On the record player.

LEMARRE:

What record player?

HARRIS:

There was a…Somebody was playing the drums.

LEMARRE:

Where?

HARRIS:

On the record.

LEMARRE:

What record?

HARRIS:

There was a record playing.

LEMARRE:

In the living room?

HARRIS:

No, the…

LEMARRE:

Yes.

HARRIS:

The clubhouse. Oh, Jesus.

LEMARRE:

What?

HARRIS:

Oh, Jesus Christ.

LEMARRE:

What is it, Jimmy?

HARRIS:

He…

The door opened.

“Hi,” Janet said. “I got waylaid, I’m sorry.” She was carrying a cardboard container of coffee in each hand. She put them both down on the table, and then sat beside Carella and crossed her legs. “I hope you like it sweet,” she said.

“I like it sweet,” he said.

“Good. Did you find anything?”

“A major breakthrough.”

She took the lids off the coffee containers, and then moved her chair closer. “Mind if I read with you?” she asked, her knee touched his.

“No, that’s…fine,” he said, and reached for one of the coffee containers and almost knocked it over. His hand was shaking when he picked it up. He sipped at the coffee, and then began reading again. He was very much aware of Janet sitting beside him, her head close to his, her knee brushing his under the table.

HARRIS:

The clubhouse. Oh, Jesus.

LEMARRE:

What?

HARRIS:

Oh, Jesus Christ.

LEMARRE:

What is it, Jimmy?

HARRIS:

He…

LEMARRE:

Go on.

HARRIS:

It was Lloyd.

LEMARRE:

Who’s Lloyd?

HARRIS:

The president.

LEMARRE:

The president of what?

HARRIS:

Our club.

LEMARRE:

What club?

HARRIS:

The Hawks. In Diamondback. Before I drafted.

LEMARRE:

What about Lloyd?

HARRIS:

He was dancing with her. In the clubhouse, down in the basement. We was sitting on the floor, the five of us. There was drums goin’ on the record, lots of drums, sounded like…lots of drums.

LEMARRE:

Who was he dancing with?

HARRIS:

His woman. Roxanne.

LEMARRE:

And you and four other boys—

HARRIS:

Was sittin’ on the couch watchin’ them. They was dancin’ fish, Lloyd turn to us, he say, “What you lookin’ at, get yo asses out of here.” Roxanne say, “They don’t
got
to go if they tired.” Lloyd say, “They got to go cause I
tell
them to go.” She turn to us, she say, “You goin’ let him tell you what to do? The boys say, “Hell no,” they get up off the couch and grab him.

LEMARRE:

Where did he want you to go?

HARRIS:

Upstairs.

LEMARRE:

Why?

HARRIS:

’Cause we was just sittin’ there listenin’ to the drums.

LEMARRE:

What did Roxanne mean? About your being tired?

HARRIS:

We
was
tired, man. We been rumblin’ all the past month.

LEMARRE:

Rumbling?

HARRIS:

Gang-busting. With the enemy, man.

LEMARRE:

When was this, Jimmy?

HARRIS:

Just before I got drafted.

LEMARRE:

How old were you?

HARRIS:

Eighteen.

LEMARRE:

And you belonged to a gang called the Hawks?

HARRIS:

Yeah, a club.

LEMARRE:

And you’d been fighting with another gang?

HARRIS:

Started in December.

LEMARRE:

And when did this happen in the clubhouse? Was this still December?

HARRIS:

Just before Christmas.

LEMARRE:

You’d been fighting with another gang all that month—

HARRIS:

Heavy fighting, man.

LEMARRE:

And now you were resting.

HARRIS:

Yeah, and Lloyd told us to go on up.

LEMARRE:

What did he mean by that?

HARRIS:

I told you. Upstairs.

LEMARRE:

But Roxanne said you didn’t have to go if you were tired.

HARRIS:

Damn straight, man. The boys told Lloyd to shove it up his ass. Then they all grabbed him, you know, pulled him away from Roxanne where they were standin’ there in the middle of the floor. Record still goin’, drums loud as anything. Guy banging the drums there.

LEMARRE:

Who grabbed him?

HARRIS:

All of them. I was just watchin’ is all.

LEMARRE:

Then what?

HARRIS:

There’s this post in the middle of the room, you know? Like, you know, a steel post holdin’ up the ceiling beams. They push him up against the post. I got no idea what they fixin’ to do to him, he the president, they askin’ for trouble there. I tell them. Hey, cool it, this man here’s the president. But they…they…

LEMARRE:

Go on, Jimmy.

HARRIS:

They don’t listen to me, man. They just…They keep holdin’ him up against the tree, and Roxanne’s cryin’ now, she’s cryin’, man.

LEMARRE:

The tree?

HARRIS:

The post, I mean. Roxanne’s cryin’. They grab her. She fightin’ them now, she don’t want this to happen, but they do it anyway, they stick it in her, one after the other, all of them.

LEMARRE:

They raped her, is that what you’re saying?

HARRIS:

I tried to stop them, but I couldn’t. They carried her outside afterward, they picked her up and took her out.

LEMARRE:

Why?

HARRIS:

’Cause she bleeding. ’Cause they hurt her when they were doin’ it.

LEMARRE:

Where did they carry her?

HARRIS:

The lot.

LEMARRE:

What lot?

HARRIS:

In there, man.

LEMARRE: