to count it."
"That's plenty."
"You give me a bill if it's more, you hear," she
commanded.
"It's already too much," I said. "I'll talk to this
Albert Griffith over in Petaluma and this Mr. Gleeson
here, and see if I can get in touch with Peggy Bain, then
I'll bring back your change. But I'm telling you up
front, it's a waste of money."
"Fair enough," she said, then glanced at the receipt
again. "What's that name? Sughrue?"
"Right."
"My momma had some cousins back in Oklahoma,
lived down around Altus, I think, name of Sughrue,"
she asked. "You got any kin down that way?"
"l got kin all over Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas,"
I admitted.
"Hell, we're probably cousins," she said, then stuck
out her hand.
"Could be," I said, then shook her finn, friendly
hand.
"Folks don't understand about kinfolks anymore,"
she said.
"World's too big for that," I said. "I guess I'd best
head for town to see if my other client is still alive and
kicking."
"Want a road beer?"
"Sure," I said, then went to the john to make room
for it.
30
When I came back, she leaned over the bar to hand
me the beer and said, "You're a drinking man yourself.
,
"Not like I used to be."
"How come?''
"Woke up one morning in Elko, Nevada, emptying
ashtrays and swabbing toilets."
"But you didn't quit," she said.
"Slowed down before I had to quit," I said. "Now I
try to stay two drinks ahead of reality and three behind,
a drunk." She smiled with some sort of superior
knowledge, as if she knew that the idea of having to
quit drinking scared me so badly that I couldn't even
think about it. "Would you keep an eye on· Mr.
Trahearne's Cadillac?" I asked.
"Get the rotor," she said, "and I'll let Fireball sleep
in it after I close nights." After I removed the rotor
from the distributor and closed the hood, Rosie nodded
at my Montana plates and asked, "Don't it get cold up
there?"
"When it does, I just drift south," I said.
"Must be nice."
"What's that?"
"Goin' where you want to," she said softly. "I ain't
been more'n ten miles from this damned place since I
went to my momma's funeral down in Fresno eleven
years ago."
"Footloose and fancy-free ain't always all it's cracked
up to be," I confessed.
"Neither's stayin' home," she said, then smiled, the
wrinkles etched into her face softened and smoothed,
some of the years of hard living fell away like happy
tears. "You take care, you hear."
"You too," I said. "See you the first of next week."
As I climbed into my El Camino, a carload of
construction workers in dirty overalls and bright yellow
hardhats skidded into a rolling stop beside me, the
31
transmission clanking loudly as the driver jammed it
into park. The men scrambled out, laughing and
shouting at Rosie, goosing each other in the butts,
happy in the wild freedom of quitting-time beers, and
they charged into Rosie's open arms like a flock of baby
chicks.
I knew the men were probably terrible people who
whistled at pretty girls, treated their wives like servants, and voted for Nixon every chance they got, but as far as I was concerned, they beat the hell out of a
Volvo-load of liberals for hard work and good times.
32
3 ••••
WHEN I ARRNED AT HIS HOSPITAL ROOM, TRAHEARNE HAD
been sedated into a deep rumbling sleep from which it
would have been a crime to awaken him. I found the
emergency-room doctor who had treated him, and the
doctor suggested that Trahearne would Jive in spite of
himself. He wasn't as sure about Oney and Lester,
though. Mter their wounds had been cleaned and
bandaged, they had split, heading back to Rosie's for
another · beer or two. As the doctor walked up the
hallway, shaking his head, I finally used my dime to caU
the former Mrs. Trahearne collect. As usual, she
sounded distantly reluctant to accept the charges.
"Well," I said more brightly than I meant to-1
blamed it on the whiskey-"! finally ran the old devil to
the ground."
"Finally," she said coldly. "In San Francisco?"
"No, ma'am," I said. "In a great little beer joint
outside of Sonoma."
"Isn't that quaint," she murmured. "In what condition did you find him?"
"Drunk," I said, not specifying which of us.
"I assumed that, Mr. Sughrue," she said sharply.
"What is his physical condition?"
"Right."
33
"Yes?"
"Yes, ma'am," I stalled. "He's fine, he's all right, he
should be out of the hospital in three or four days, and
he'll be as good as new."
"It may seem presumptuous of me to ask," she said
smoothly, "but if he is in such wonderful shape, why
then is he in the hospital?"
"It's a long story," I said.
"Isn't it always?" she said.
"Yes, ma'am ."
"You're being unnecessarily obtruse, Mr. Sughrue,"
she said. Her voice sounded pleasant and refined, but
accustomed to command.
"Yes, ma'am."
"So?"
"Well, he had a little accident."
"Yes?"
"He fell off a barstool and strained his back," I said
quickly.
"How absolutely delightful," she said. "Perhaps that
will teach him a much-needed lesson." Then she
laughed, deep and elegant, like the rich susurruses of a
mink coat being casually dragged down a marble
staircase. "But nothing too serious, I hope."
"A minor sprain," I said.
"I'm glad to hear that," she said. "I expect you to
remain by his side until he is released from the hospital,
and then stay with him during his postmortality binge."
- "Ma'am?"
"Violated flesh will insist upon wallowing in flesh,"
she said. "Particularly in Traheame's case."
"Ma'am?"
"He will insist on a drunken debauch as soon as he is
released from the hospital," she said. "You knowwine, women, and song-expensive whiskey, high-class hookers, and finally the same old sad song of regret. I
expect you to take care of him during those few days."
34
"I'll do my best," I said.
"I'm sure you will," she said. "And when he is ready
to return home to lick his wounds, I expect you to see
that he does so."
"Yes, ma'am," I said, hoping Trahearne was supposed to lick his wound only figuratively.
"Perhaps if you inform him that his beloved Melinda
is once again in the fold, throwing pots or whatever it is
she does all through the night, then he may want to cut
his debauch short."
"Yes, ma'am," I said, though I didn't have any idea
who or what she was talking about. I didn't have any
idea what Traheame would think about my presence
after his accident. Or my accident. The accident.
"Also, I'll expect a full report upon your arrival,"
she said. "Thank you and good night."
"A report of what?" I asked. But she had already
hung up the telephone. "Only a crazy man works for
crazy people," I told the dead wire, and a harried nurse
hurrying past agreed with a quick nod.
Since it wasn't my money, and since I knew where I
would probably spend the next night, I checked into the
best motel in Sonoma, ordered a huge steak and some
of that expensive whiskey the former Mrs. Traheame
had mentioned. Then I drove back out to Rosie's, got
stupid drunk with Lester and Oney, and slept on the
pool table.
"Where in the hell have you been?" Trahearne
growled as I stepped into his room at ten o'clock two
mornings later.
"A guest of the county," I said.
"Huh?"
"Jail."
"Why?"
"After the sheriff took my statement yesterday, he
held me as a material witness. Just to see if I had a
35
different version of the shooting after a night in a cell,"
I said.
"Can they do that?"
"No," I said. "But if I had complained or called a
lawyer, they would have found some minor crap to
charge me with. "
"Bastards. "
"It's okay, I've been in jail before. " Jails are jails,
and there's never much to talk about when you get out.
"Well, now that you're here," he said, "You can run
some errands for me." I reached into my hip pocket
and pulled out a half-pint of vodka. "Oh my god," he
whispered as he took the bottle from me. "You're a
saint, my friend, an absolute saint. " But before he
could break the seal, a tall, nicely rounded nurse came
briskly through the door.
"That will not do," she said as she snatched the
bottle from his huge, trembling hands. "This will be
returned upon your release."
"Now, see there, Mr. Trahearne," I said quickly. "I
told you they didn't allow drinking in the hospital."
Then to the nurse: "I'm really sorry, ma'am, I told him I
shouldn't do it, but you know how it is, since I'm just a
hired hand." Trahearne's face glowed red and greasy
with sweat, and his chest rose half out of bed. He
looked like a man intent on murder.
"Just so it doesn't happen again," the nurse said.
"No, ma'am, it won't," I said as I touched her lightly
on the arm. "And if he gives you any trouble, just give
me a call. I'm at the Sonoma Lodge. " She smiled,
nodded, and thanked me again, then carried her nicely
molded hips out the door with quick, efficient steps.
"Anytime," I said to her back.
"Son, I don't mind you making time, but not on my
time and not at my expense," Trahearne grumbled. I
lifted another halfpint out of my windbreaker pocket
36