Homemade Sin (15 page)

“Sure I'm interested,” Hussey said.

“Looks like I need a job too,” said Cutter.

“I could use some help cooking,” Dee Dee said, letting her hand move higher up Cutter's inner thigh. “Why don't we give this guy a job in the kitchen?” She looked deeply into Cutter's eyes.

“Can you cook, honey?” she said to Cutter.

“I never have, but I could learn.”

“Oh, I can show you how to really cook ….” Dee Dee gave Cutter a lascivious grin and moved her hand a little higher.

I bet you'd like that, Roland thought, but he said; “Eight bucks an hour. But the cook's job doesn't come with a room, do you want the job?”

“I guess I could sleep in my van,” said Cutter.

“Sure he wants it,” said Dee Dee. “Let's take you in the kitchen and show you around. She grabbed Cutter's hand and dragged him into the kitchen.    

Hussey smiled. “Can I work here around my school schedule? That is if I can make enough to go to school. I'll need more jobs than a Jamaican just to pay tuition.”

“We can work it out,” Roland said. “Pick up the key to room 213 hanging on one of the hooks behind the front desk and settle in. When you're ready to start work, come on back down to the bar.”

Smiling, Stinky retreated back through the ventilator shaft and returned to the dumpster. That bottle of purple powder was the real thing. The Holy Grail, the Rosetta stone, the key to his greatest ambition, the answer to his dark prayers. He settled back into his dumpster to think. He had plots to plot and plans to plan.

“This is the grill,” Dee Dee said to Cutter, pointing to the six-burner Vulcan range that occupied most of the wall in the kitchen closest to the bar. She was standing close, her shoulder rubbing up against his. “And here you have your oven and your deep fat fryer,” she said, turning and pointing like she was presenting a letter on the Wheel of Fortune. As she turned she rubbed her chest into his shoulder. “And over there you have your walk-in cooler and freezer.” She waved her arm at the freezer as she slid in closer to him. She turned to face him, pressing her breasts against his chest and putting her face close to his, almost touching cheeks. “If you get too hot, you can always go in the cooler and cool off,” she said in a sexy, smoky voice. “Or we could go in there and get hot together.” Dee Dee reached around and placed her hand on Cutter's butt.

“Do you still have the money you won from me?” Cutter said, while wondering if Dee Dee's hand on his butt was part of the job.

“Nope,” Dee Dee said, placing her other hand on his butt. “After you left the table I lost it all on the next hand. Let me show you the bun warmer.”

As Hussey swung open the door to the bar it was caught from the other side by Henry the mailman. Henry, a little person, looked somewhat like one of Willie Wonka's Oompa Loompas except he had a large nose and a head of hair that looked like a red, fright wig. Henry opened the door wide for Hussey to step out and bowed, his red locks dropping into his eyes. Henry crossed the room as the door noiselessly swung closed behind Hussey.

“Letter for you today,” Henry called out to Roland as he strode purposefully across the room to deliver the mail. “You got a couple of bills, but I know this is what you're looking for.” Henry called from across the bar and waved a white business-sized envelope with a colorful logo embossed in the left corner.

“I think it's from a publisher,” he told Roland as he ceremoniously handed over the letter.

Roland picked up a fruit-slicing knife from the bar and sliced the envelope flap open. His shoulders sank and he sighed as he scanned the single sentence.

“Another rejection?” said Henry.

“Yeah, it seems my work is not on their ‘list', whatever the hell that means.”

“Better luck tomorrow,” said Henry as he placed the bills on the bar and headed toward the door.

Balling up the rejection and tossing it in the trash Roland thought about Hussey. He picked up her glass to wash it and became transfixed by the precious pink imprint her lips left on the glass.

Even another rejection letter couldn't depress him for long today.

“I'm ready to go to work,” said Hussey, as she slipped behind the bar and found Roland pouring a beer. Tony was watching him with anticipation. When Cutter heard Hussey's voice he broke away from Dee Dee, opened the kitchen door a crack and listened in.

“I'm as dry as my wife's meatloaf,” Tony said as Roland slid the frosty mug down the bar to his waiting hand.

“I called the dog's owner at the race track,” Hussey said. “The owner didn't want him back at first, said he had some kind of mental problem. He said the dog hadn't won a race in months. I told him Moreover had an accident but he is up and about and better than ever. I told the owner any mental problems the dog had are probably much better. He didn't believe me so I told him to sign Moreover up for a race and he may be surprised at the new tricks an old dog can do. I told him I could bring him to the dog track today, but I don't have a car. Would you mind if I borrowed yours?”

“I was thinking,” Roland said. “The bar is pretty empty and we don't have any reservations for check-in today. Not many vacancies left anyway, the snowbirds all flocking in for the winter over the last couple of days. They all seem to come in at once, right after the first cold day up north. They're all floating around in the pool now and they won't crawl out to do the silver-backed shuffle to their rooms until dark. It might be nice to take a day off. Maybe Cutter and Dee Dee can handle the bar and the kitchen. I can drive you to the track to return the dog.”

Roland was hoping for a day alone with Hussey, to see if something would develop. Now that she had dumped that idiot Cutter, maybe he had a chance.

“I want to go to the track too,” said Cutter. He stepped out from the kitchen into the bar.

“I think you've spent enough time at the track,” Hussey said. “Besides I thought you lost all your money, and mine too.”

“I have a couple of bucks left. Maybe I can win some of your money back.”

“I can take your action right here,” Tony said. “I make a little book on the side.”

“I think I'd rather see the dog run in person,” Cutter said.

“I'm in too,” Dee Dee said, emerging from the kitchen and standing beside Cutter.

“Uh … that's not what I had planned ….” Roland trailed off. Damn! That's all I need, Hussey's ex and crazy Dee Dee hanging around. “Somebody has to stay here and run the bar and take care of the folks in the pool. Normally it would be Dee Dee or Hussey but it looks like it's you today, Cutter. You'll need to take a trip out to the pool every hour or so and take their orders. They mostly order boat drinks, like mango daiquiris and piña coladas. The mixes are in the bar fridge, just dump some of the mix and some liquor into the blender and add ice.”

“The floaters are sure to be a problem,” was Dee Dee's considered opinion.

“Alright, it's settled,” Roland said as he reached below the cash register and opened the cash box. He removed a wad of bills and began counting them. “For some reason I thought there was more money than this in here,” he said, looking puzzled.

Dee Dee looked away.

Cutter leaned in close to Tony, “I'm interested in some action,” he said. “What kind of odds can you give me on that dog Moreover?”

Tony picked up his cell phone and punched in some numbers. “This may be the start of a beautiful friendship,” he said, smiling at Cutter.

“Hey boy,” Tinker Jones, Moreover's owner and trainer, called out to the brindle greyhound.

Moreover stood beside Hussey with a glassy-eyed gaze.

“Hey boy, come on, come and get a treat.”

Moreover still stared as if he were looking through Tinker.

“I know you're probably mad at me for dumping you on the street, but you have to understand, I was upset. You haven't won a race in months. I felt bad about doing it right after and I did come back for you but you were already gone. I looked for you. I missed you. Come on over here boy and at least lick my face.”

Hussey led the dog over to Tinker. “He is not quite himself yet. Hi, I'm Hussey Paine,” she said, extending her hand, “I found him out behind the restaurant where I work, the Fugu Lounge; he was at death's door, but now he's much better”.

“What happened to him?” Tinker said.

“It's a long story, but he's alive and well now, and he's home, so take good care of him. Say ‘hi' to the nice man, Moreover,” she whispered in the dog's ear.

Moreover padded over and licked Tinker's face.

“Now that's my old Moreover,” said Tinker. “I got him on the ticket for the third race,” Tinker said to Hussey. “But looking at him, I'm not so sure. He looks a little stiff.”

“He'll be OK,” Hussey said. “I have a feeling he might even win today.”

Roland, Hussey, and Dee Dee stood by the rail looking at the little chutes where the dogs were loaded to start the races. Moreover was glassy-eyed as he stood in the chute for the third race. When the little rabbit rolled by and his gate opened, he still stood there.

“Why is he just standing there?” Roland said to Hussey.

“You gotta tell zombies what to do,” Hussey said, “or they'll just stand around all day, like government employees.” Then Hussey turned to Moreover and shouted loudly enough to be heard over the crowd, “RUN, Moreover. RUN like the wind!”

And run he did. Moreover quickly made up the ground he had lost when the other dogs had exploded out of their chutes and by mid-race he was passing the slower dogs. By three quarters of the way around the track he had overtaken the leader and was pulling away. Moreover shot past the finish line a good twenty feet ahead of the second place dog and kept running.

As he rounded the midway turn for the second time Hussey realized what was happening. “Stop Moreover!” she shouted.