Vernon God Little (12 page)

‘They're hot and perky, Pastor,' Mom whisks the napkin off a tray of pessimistic-looking bakes, offering it up like it was a feel of her tits twenty years ago. Gibbons' new Timberlands chirp a trail across the linoleum.

He grabs a cake, then turns to smile at me. ‘And you're my deputy for the day?'

‘That's your boy,' says Lally, ‘he'll give a hundred and fifty percent.'

‘Awesome, I'll put him on the bake stall – we're hoping to raise ten grand today, for the new media center.'

Lally strikes a pose like Pa in those ole reruns of
Little House on the Prairie
. ‘This town sure is teaching a thing or two about community spirit, Pastor.'

‘God knows the Tragedy Committee has worked miracles to bring some good out of the devastation,' says Gibbons. ‘Word is, one of the networks might even put us national today.' He pulls focus from infinity to Lally's face. ‘Wouldn't be – your people, would it, Mr Ledesma?'

Lally smiles the smile of a doting God. ‘I'll certainly be giving you some camera time, Pastor, don't you worry. The world will be yours.'

‘Oh my,' Gibbons does the coy padre off that ole army hospital show. ‘All right, Vernon,' he says, nudging me toward the door. ‘The Lord helps those who help themselves . . .'

‘See you there,' says Mom.

Lally follows us onto the porch. As soon as we're out of Mom's sight, he grabs my ear and twists it hard. ‘This is the way forward, little man – don't blow it.'

Son of a stadium full of bitches. I rub my ear on the way to the New Life Center; the pastor listens to the radio as he drives, nose up to the windscreen. He doesn't talk to me at all. We pass Leona Dunt's house, with the fountain in front. Her trash is out four days early again. That's to help you take stock of all the rope-handled boutique bags, and razor-edged boxes barfing tissue and ribbon. You could sell her a fucken turd if it was giftwrapped, I swear.

The Lozano boys are out hawking T-shirts on the corner of Liberty Drive. One design has ‘I survived Martirio' splattered across it in red. Another has holes ripped through it, and says: ‘I went to Martirio and all I got was this lousy exit wound.' Preacher Gibbons tuts, and shakes his head.

‘Twenty dollars,' he says. ‘Twenty dollars for a simple cotton T-shirt.'

I slouch low in my seat, but not before Emile Lozano sees me. ‘Yo, Vermin! Vermin Little!' he whoops and salutes me like a fucken hero or something. The pastor's eyebrows ride up. Thanks, fucken Emile. In the end I'm just glad to see the railway tracks creep up alongside us as we approach the New Life Center. The radio is pissing me off now, to be honest. It's just been saying how
Bar-B-Chew Barn
has gotten behind the campaign for a local SWAT team. Now it's making noise about the hunt for the second firearm. They don't say exactly where they're fixing to hunt; like,
they don't say they're specifically going to hunt around Keeter's or anything. If they were going to hunt around the Keeter property, you'd think they'd say it.

The New Life Center is actually our ole church. Today the lawn and carpark have been turned into a carnival market, a laundry-day of tousled whites flapping under the sun. The banners we painted in Sunday school all those years ago have had the word ‘Jesus' painted over with ‘Lord'. I help the pastor unload the car and carry stuff to a cake stand right next to the train tracks. He installs me there, as caretaker of the cake stand, and – get this – I have to wear a fucken choir gown. Vernon Gucci Little, in his unfashionable Jordan New Jacks, with fucken choir gown. After ten minutes, the morning freight train lumbers past my back, honking all the while. It never honks if you don't stand here in a fucken choir gown.

You don't know how full my head is of plans to disappear. The crusher is that I got identified by Pam at the bus depot, so they'll just be waiting for my face to show up again. Truth be told, they probably installed a fucken panic button or something, In Case of Vernon. Probably connected it to Vaine Gurie's ass. Or Goosens's pecker or something. It means I'll have to cross country to the interstate, maybe find a truck on its way from Surinam, or a driver who hasn't seen the news, a blind and deaf driver. Plenty of 'em out there, if you listen to Pam.

As the sun pitches high and sharp, more folk wander into the market. You can tell they're making an effort not to seem drained and bleak. Drained and bleak is what town's about these days, despite the joy cakes. They ain't setting the world on fire with sales, I have to say. Everybody keeps a safe distance from the joy cakes. Or from me, I guess. Mr Lechuga even turns his desk away from me, over by the prize tent, where he's selling lottery tickets. After a while Lally and my ole lady arrive. You can't actually see them yet, but you can hear Mom's Burt Bacharach disc playing somewhere. It cuts through the gloom
like a pencil through your lung. Nobody else would have that disc, I fucken guarantee it, with all these jingle singers going, ‘
Something big is what I'm livin for
,' all tappetty-shucksy, bubbly silk pie, just the way she likes. A typical stroke-job of musical lies, like everybody grew up with back then, back when all the tunes had a trumpet in them, that sounded like it was played through somebody's ass.

‘Well hi Bobbie, hi Margaret!' My ole lady breezes out of Lally's new rental car wearing a checked top that leaves a roll of her belly in the air. I guess she quit mourning already. She also has sparkly red sunglasses. All she needs is a fucken poodle to carry, I swear. The vacuum in her ass no longer sucks her hair into a helmety perm, now it hangs wanton and loose.

Lally wanders up to my stall and prods a joy cake. ‘Turnover?'

‘Four-fifty,' I say.

‘The smiles on these cakes aren't even facing the right way – come on, Vern, lure the bucks in – these aren't the only cakes in the world, you know.'

‘Thank fuck for that,' I want to say, but I don't. You'd think I had though, for the fucken daggers he stares at me. Then he just strolls away.

‘Nice gown,' he snorts over his shoulder.

Mom lingers back. ‘Go ahead, Lalito, I'll see you at the sizzle.' Her eyes flick over the crowd, then she sidles up to me like a spy. ‘Vernon, are you
all right
?' That's my ole mom. I swell with involuntary warmth.

‘I guess so,' I say. That's what you say around here if you mean ‘No'.

She fidgets with my collar. ‘Well, if you're sure – I only want you to be happy.' That's what you say around here if you mean ‘Tough shit'. ‘If you could just get a job,' she says, ‘make a little money, things'd be fine again, I know they would.' She squeezes my hand.

‘Mom, with Eulalio around?
Please
...'

‘Well don't deny me my bitty speck of happiness, after all that's
happened! You always said be
independent
– well, here I am, asserting my
individuality
as a woman.'

‘After what he did to me?'

‘After what he did to
you
? What about what
you
did to
me
? This is something special with Lally, I know it is. A woman
knows
these things. He already told me about an amazing investment company – over ninety percent return, virtually guaranteed. That's how much they offer, and he told
me
about it, not Leona or anyone else.'

‘Yeah, like we have money to invest.'

‘Well, I can take out another loan, I mean –
ninety percent
!'

‘With that snake-oil merchant?'

‘Oh baby – you're
jealous
,' she licks her fingers and rubs a trail of spit across an imaginary smudge on my cheek. ‘I still love you the most you know, golly, I mean . . .'

‘I know, Ma – even murderers.'

‘Hi Gloria, hi Cletus!' She leaves me with a kiss, then sashays east up the stalls, dragging my soul in the dust behind her. Don't even ask me what the laws of fucken nature say about this one. I mean, you see reindeer and polar bears on TV, and you just know they don't get alternating rage and sadness over their fucken loved ones.

Next thing you know, my goddam heart stops beating anyway. Just clean fucken stops in its tracks, the whole damn thing. I immediately fucken die. There, less than ten feet away, steps Mrs Figueroa – Taylor's mom. God, she's beautiful too. The waistband on her denims throws a shadow on her skin, which means there's space in there. Just the up-thrust of her butt keeps her jeans up. Not like my ole lady, who just about needs a fucken military harness. My mouth quivers like an asshole, trying to say something cool to win her over, to get Taylor's number. Then I see a fucken choir gown on my body. By the time I look back up, the meatworks' barber has stepped in front of her. He doddles through the crowd towards the beer stand, dressed like he's at a fucken funeral or something.

He bumps into my stall on the way. ‘Sorry, miss,' he says to me.

Mrs Figueroa laughs, to finish me off. Then she's gone. The barber catches another ole guy's eye across the beer stand. ‘I'm gettin a posse up,' he calls, ‘to hep the Guries find that weapon. Cleet, if you're interested, we're headin out in about an hour.'

‘Where'll we meet?'

‘Meatworks – bring the kids, we'll barbecue after the hunt. We're gonna cover the trail through Keeter's – word is, the teacher Nuckles said somethin about a gun out there, afore he went haywire.'

Jeopardy. I have to get to Keeter's. My eyes search the market for a window of opportunity, but all I see are drapes in the form of Lally, Mom and the goddam pastor. Then I just keep fucken seeing them; with Betty Pritchard, without Betty Pritchard. At Leona's champagne stand, away from Leona's champagne stand. I tingle cold in the heat for a whole hour, then another. Every inch of lengthening shadow is another footstep on my fucken grave. Georgette Porkorney arrives. Betty comes to meet her, they walk past my stand.

‘Look, he's just so
passive
,' whispers George. ‘Of course he'll fetch trouble if he stays so
passive
...'

‘I
know
, just like that, ehm – Mexican boy . . .'

George stops to do a double-take at Betty. ‘Honey, I don't think passive's the word, in light of everything.'

‘I
know
...'

The only relief comes with Palmyra; she musses my hair and slips me a Twinkie. Finally, at two o'clock, the pastor goes into the prize tent with Mr Lechuga.

‘Bless you all for supporting our market,' a loudspeaker blares. Clumps of people move towards the tent. You can see Mom, Lally, George, and Betty on the far side of the lawn, mooching by Leona's champagne stand. You can't actually see Leona, but you know she's there because Mom throws back her head when she laughs.

‘And now,' says Gibbons, ‘the moment you've all been waiting for – the grand prize draw!' Everybody turns towards the tent. My window opens.

‘Hey dude!' I call a passing kid, of the kind that can't close their lips over their braces, like they have a fucken radiator grille for a mouth or something. ‘Wanna job for an hour?'

The kid stops, looks me up and down. ‘Not in a freakin dress I don't.'

‘It ain't a dress, duh. Anyway, you don't have to wear it, just mind these cakes awhile.'

‘How much you payin?'

‘Nothing, you get a commission on sales.'

‘Flat or indexed?'

‘Indexed to what?' Like, the kid's only fucken ten years ole, for chrissakes.

‘
Vol
-ume,' he sneers.

‘I'll give you eighteen percent, flat.'

‘You for real? These stupid cakes? Who ever heard of a
joy
cake anyway, I never heard of no
joy
cake.' He turns to walk away.

‘And here's the winning ticket,' says Gibbons. ‘
Green forty-seven!
' A sluggish frenzy breaks through the tent. The kid stops, and drags a mangled pink ticket from his pocket. He squints at it, like it might turn fucken green. Then Mom's voice occurs.

‘Well, oh my Lord! Here Pastor,
green forty-seven
!'

The ladies and Lally clot around her, cooing and gasping, and hustle her into the tent. Boy is she boosted up. My ole lady never won anything before.

‘Dude!' I call metal-mouth back.

‘Twenty bucks flat, one hour,' he says over his shoulder.

‘Yeah, like I'm Bill Gates or something.'

‘Twenty-five bucks, or no deal.'

‘Here's the lucky winner,' says the pastor, ‘of this sturdy, pre-loved refrigerator, generously donated, without a thought for their own grief, by the
Lechugas
of
Beulah Drive
.'

That's the last you hear of my ole lady's voice. Probably forever. What you hear is just Leona.

‘Oh –
wow
!'

‘Thirty bucks,' the kid says to me, ‘flat, one calendar hour. Final offer.'

I'm hung out to fucken dry by this fat midget, who could just about net crawdads with his fucken mouth. Or rather, I would've been hung out to dry if I was even coming back to pay him. But I ain't coming back. Today I'll give the gun a wipe, grab my escape fund from the bank, and blow the hell out of town. For real.

‘It's ten after two,' says the kid. ‘See you in one hour.'

‘Wait up – my watch says quarter after.'

‘It's fuckin
ten
after – take it or leave it.'

Whatever. I rip the gown off and stuff it into a box under the table, then I run crouched alongside the railroad tracks toward the green end of Liberty Drive. Preacher Gibbons's voice echoes down the line behind me. ‘Speaking of refrigerators, did y'all hear the one about the rabbit?'

Glancing over my shoulder, I see Mom run crying to the restrooms behind the New Life Center. But I can't afford any waves. I have to grab my bike and fly to Keeter's. Strangers mill around Liberty Drive corner, next to a new sign erected in front of the Hearts of Mercy Hospice. ‘Coming Soon!' it reads. ‘La Elegancia Convention Center.' A real ole man scowls from the hospice porch. I pull my head in and start to cross the street, but a stranger calls out to me.