The Skin Show (12 page)

He
crossed the parking lot, his shoes scuffing along the cracked cement. Grass and
weeds sprouted through the many jagged fissures. The concrete was the color of
sand with oil stains spattered throughout. He noticed the service station door
was up and a car was inside, raised on the lift. Clattering sounds resounded
from the garage, but he saw no one working.

The
bells jangled loudly when he entered the store. The heavy door slipped from his
hand and slammed shut. He stood there, letting the door finish trembling in its
frame. The sounds of an air socket wrench carried through the walls. It felt a
tad cooler in here, but from the din of hums, Andy guessed the scarce amount of
cool air was coming from fans.

The
inside of the station matched the outside: filthy. The tiled floor was missing blocks,
the non-cracked sections smudged with dark-colored gunk. There were no other
customers in the small building, just a woman sitting behind the counter,
looking as if she’d been built with the station and was just as worn down. She
had yet to acknowledge Andy had entered the store. Her attention seemed to be
fixed on a tabloid newspaper opened in front of her on the counter. Approaching
the counter, he noticed inside the paper was a black and white photo of a hairy
beast with a bold caption below it that stated: Wooly Booger!

“Excuse
me,” he said, his voice flat.

She
made a responsive grunt.

“Do
you have fresh coffee?”

“If
you can stomach it, there’s some in the back.” She pointed, not taking her eyes
away from the article. “It’s
complamentry
.”

Andy
smiled at her mispronunciation, and nodded. “Thanks.”

“Don’t
thank me; you haven’t tasted it yet. Might put hairs on your chest…or make ‘em
fall out.”

Andy
made his way to the back, passing half-empty racks. What stock of snacks he saw
were powdered in dust and well past their expiration dates. He arrived at a
small folding table. The free coffee was provided by a tarnished, overused Mr.
Coffee coffeemaker. The pot was filled halfway with what could have been the
same kind of tar used on the road. It was all he had to choose from, so he
would take it.

Grabbing
a Styrofoam cup from the stack beside the pot, he filled it with coffee. It was
thicker than what he was used to, glopping into the cup like oil. There was a
tan-colored container that claimed to be creamer. He sprinkled that in, and
added three packs of sugar. Then he mixed them all together with a stirring
straw. Finished, he dropped the stirrer in the trash.

He
was heading for the door when the woman spoke again. “Ain’t seen you ‘round
here before.”

“Huh?”

“You’re
not local.”

“Oh,
no. Not from around here.”

“Could
tell by the car you’re drivin’.”

He
wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he said, “Just passing through your
lovely town.”

She
snorted. “Lovely my pasty ass. If you like a whole lotta nothin’, then I guess
it’s a beaut.”

Andy
laughed politely. “It’s not so bad, is it?”

“A
lot goes on out there that we tend to ignore just for the sake of keeping up
‘pearances.”

‘Pearances?
Does she mean appearances?

“It
be best you keep driving and don’t stop again until you’re far away from this
part of the state.”

“Why?”
He thought about asking her if she knew of The Skin Show. Her foreboding
attitude made him think she knew a lot more than she was willing to admit.

“That’s
the kind of question that gets people in trouble. You starts asking the whys
and hows and you have to see em for yerself. Just heed my a’vice and don’t make
no stops until you cross into Webster County. That’s a nice little spot. Famous
for their Halloween carnivals and whatnot.”

Andy
wondered if she was the kind of person who offered this so-called
advice
to
any customer who happened to stop in for more than just gas. Probably so. The
more he put thought to it, the more he figured she was one of those
doomsayers—a tourist trap in her own right. Someone for passersby to talk about
during their long drives.

“Thanks,”
he said. “I’ll be sure to do that. I appreciate the coffee.”

She
swatted a hand at him, offering a “Bah.” Then she hocked, turned to the side,
and spat somewhere below the counter. “Keep your doors locked.” Her eyes went
back to the article. He’d lost her to the Wooly Booger once again.

Andy
opened the door. The juddering bells announced his exit.

Outside,
muggy air fell over him like a heavy blanket straight from the drier. He
squinted at the harsh sunlight bouncing off the concrete. He could feel sweat
in his hairline as he walked to the car. Sitting the coffee on the roof, he
opened the door and glanced inside.

Karen’s
seat was empty.

His
chest tightened, heart lurched. “Shit!” Spinning around, he scanned the parking
lot. She was nowhere in sight. He thought about calling for her but realized
how stupid he might sound. He checked inside the car one more time, as if maybe
she’d just materialized right back in the seat, sleeping as he’d left her.

She
hadn’t.

“Damn
it all.”

He
looked at the road. No cars were coming from either direction. But, since the
pumps were so close, he headed onto the blacktop. It always felt strange
walking on a road, wrong somehow, with a chancy hint. He could feel heat
seeping through the bottoms of his shoes. Back in the fifth grade, his science
teacher had taken the class outside at the end of the school year to show them
how an egg would fry on the asphalt when it was hot enough. Felt like his feet
might fry if he didn’t get them off the road.

He
was starting to turn around when a hand clapped down on his shoulder. He loosed
a holler as he spun around.

Karen
recoiled, throwing her arms in front of her face. “Don’t shoot! I’m innocent!”

Heart
slamming against his chest, he was both relieved and mad to see she was unscathed.
“Where
were
you?”

“The
bathroom.” She pointed to the rear of the building. “Relax. Car rides make me
have to pee a lot. Should I have asked permission first, Daddy?”

Smirking,
Andy shook his head. “I didn’t know where you’d disappeared to.”

“So
you thought I might have started walking because you were taking so long?”

Shaking
his head, Andy started for the car. “I didn’t take that long, did I?”

“I
thought you’d moved in.”

“Hardy-har.”

“I’m
a riot, right?”

“Oh…you’re
something.” He stopped at the car, gazing at her over the roof. She stood on
the other side, watching him, an eyebrow arched. He grabbed the coffee from up
top. “I just don’t know what yet.”

Karen
smiled. “Hmm? Oh, you know you love me. Pretty soon, you’ll realize you won’t
be able to live without me.”

“That’s
a bold prediction.”

She
shrugged. “Tell me soon if it’s true or not.”

“Yeah,
sure.”

They
climbed into the car. After the doors were shut, Andy thumbed the auto-lock
button. He put on his sunglasses, giving Karen’s legs a glance from the safety behind
the dark lenses. Her skirt had fallen back, showing almost all of her left
thigh. He forced himself to look away. Then he cranked the car. Hot air
buffeted them from the vents. It quickly turned cool, and Andy sighed as the
comfortable air drifted across his sweaty skin.

“Gonna
share that coffee?” Karen asked.

“Sure.”
He held the cup out to her. She took it from him. He hoped she’d washed her
hands. He doubted the bathroom was anywhere close to sanitary. “I was warned the
coffee might not be up to standard.”

“Who’s
standard?”

“Health
Code’s.”

Laughing,
Karen raised the cup to her mouth and took a small sip. She smacked her lips as
she considered its taste. “I’ve had worse.” She took another polite swallow,
then passed it back to Andy.

He
drank some, realizing Karen was being very generous in her opinion. It tasted
like flat cola mixed with sand and too much sugar. If it kept him awake while
not poisoning him, he’d consider it a triumph.

Putting
the car in drive, he gratefully pulled away from the Gas Trap Gas Station.

 “Should’ve
gotten a map,” said Karen. “When we were at the gas station?”

“Would’ve,
should’ve, could’ve.” Andy shrugged. “Didn’t think about it.”

“Neither
did I. But, what good would it have done us, really?”

“At
least we’d know if we were still traveling west. Hopefully turning left was the
right idea.”

“If
not, we can always turn around. How long should we go before giving up?”

“Tricky
question. We might not go far enough and think it couldn’t possibly be out any
farther.

“How
are we on gas?”

Andy
checked. “We’re good.”

“Okay.
Let’s drive until we’re absolutely convinced it’s not this way. But, the phone
lady said to go west, and the highway sign back there said this way was west.”

“Yeah…okay,”
said Andy.

“Can
I ask you something?”  

“I
don’t know. Usually whenever someone asks permission it means the question
might make the other person upset.”

Karen
wriggled her eyebrows. “Well…” She stopped.

“Wow.
That bad, huh? Should I smoke?”

“Why
don’t we pull off somewhere and eat some cold pizza, drink some lukewarm tea,
and you can tell me what happened between you and Danny.”

“Shit…”

“I
really would like to know. He didn’t like talking about it too much.”

“And,
you think I do?”

“I
think you’ll talk
more
about than he would.”

Andy
looked ahead of them through the windshield, plenty of luscious scenery,
meadows and trees. A wide selection of locations for a picnic area.

So,
Andy eased the car onto the shoulder, killing the engine. Karen gathered the
pizza and tea, passed him the jug, and climbed out. Andy followed, dropping his
keys into his pocket. He checked both directions for cars, and saw nobody.
Hopping over the ditch, they walked into the meadow. Tall grass rubbed their
legs, making scratchy sounds.  

Sitting
on the puffy weeds, the pizza box and tea jug between them, Karen ate while
Andy lighted a cigarette. He was beginning to get used to the taste, which
worried him. He might even start to like the taste again.

There
was a constant mild breeze that wafted over them, stirring the lazy
wildflowers, making their bushy tops ripple in a wave. Andy detected a faint
aroma of burning wood hanging in the air, but had no clue where it could be
coming from since he saw no smoke.

“Feels
good to be out of the car for a while, doesn’t it?” said Karen. She leaned back
on an elbow, stretching out her legs. The pizza was pinched between her thumb
and forefinger. She hadn’t put her shoes on, which Andy had protested, but he
liked watching her toes wiggle.

It
was hard to believe two hours had passed since their last pit stop at the gas
station with the lava-thick coffee. “Yeah, but I wonder if we’re wasting too
much time.”

Karen’s
nose wrinkled. “I really don’t care if we are. This is nice. We need the break.
Staying cooped up in a long car ride can get to you after a while, you know?”

Smiling,
Andy agreed. The weather was nice and warm, not humid. The breeze was cool and
refreshing on his skin.

“So,”
said Karen. “You were saying?”

Groaning,
Andy flicked ashes off his cigarette. “Why do you want to know?”

“Okay.
I’ll tell you. It’s obvious you still love your brother or you wouldn’t be
doing this just to find out where he is.”

Andy
wondered if it was for his brother or Nicole that he was doing this. Both,
probably, but mostly Nicole.

Karen
kept talking. “You must believe he didn’t…do
that
to Nicole, or you
wouldn’t be trying to clear his name. That is what you’re doing, isn’t it?”

“Honestly,
I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. Maybe I’m just so used to tracking
Danny down and cleaning up his messes that even one that’s as big as this, I
have to intervene.”

“I
don’t believe that.”

“Well,
I’ve always had to. When we were kids and Danny had issues at school with
bullies, it was me who resolved those issues. If he was doing shitty in a
certain class, Dad made me study with him. And whenever Danny would finally
pass after all the hard work I put into helping him, it was Danny who got all
the credit. His good grades, as rare as they were, covered our fridge. You had
to dig through his just to see one of mine. And, usually, I was the one who
hung it up there.”

“Maybe
he was babied so much growing up…he couldn’t make it on his own as an adult.”

“I’m
sure that has a lot to do with it. He was spoiled as a kid. I don’t know what
made
him
so special.”

“Sounds
like you have a lot of pent up hostility towards Danny.”

“Maybe
I do.” Andy puffed on the cigarette.

“Do
you think it comes mostly because of Nicole?”

Andy’s
stomach felt like it dropped into his legs. “What is this, a mental evaluation
or something?”

“I’m
just curious where it really turned to shit for you guys.”

“When
we were kids, it wasn’t so bad. I mean, we fought, but it was no different than
any other siblings, you know? Once we became teenagers, I started running
around with Lou Ambrose. We smoked a lot of weed, and sometimes we’d experiment
with harder drugs, but I could never really get into it. Weed was all I ever
needed.” Andy chuckled. “I can’t believe I’m telling this to a probation officer.”

“Afraid
I’m going to make you pee in a cup?”

“Maybe.”

“I’m
off duty. It’s cool.”