'You don't want any part of what we are, but you said you wanted to do a job. There were things we had to do today, like go to straight jobs.'
Leonard looked at me. 'Straight jobs, Hap?'
'That's what they used to call square jobs, back in the beatnik days,' I said.
'Ah,' Leonard said.
''Straight is, relatively speaking, a sixties term, still popular today.'
'Ah.'
'I'm surprised you haven't heard it.'
'I've been kind of outta step.'
'It's not funny,' Howard said. 'Chub ran some errands for us. But you two, we had no idea where you were. There were things we needed to talk about this morning. Plans needed to be made. We were all about our business but you two.'
'You didn't say what Paco was doing,' I said.
Paco grinned even wider. Poor guy. In that face, the fine white teeth made him look a little bit like a sun-dried barracuda.
'I think he's playing favorites,' Leonard said. 'I hate that kind of thing.'
'Paco has earned his keep in the past,' Howard said. 'I haven't seen what you two can do. But it smells like what you can do is drink beer.'
'But can you tell how many we've had?' I said. 'Smelling it from over there is good, but I want you to say how many we drank.'
'And what brand,' Leonard said.
'No use trying to talk to them when they're like this,' Trudy said. 'They'll go on until you get tired or mad. You can't reason with the fools.'
'Fools?' Leonard said. 'Now that's rude.'
'I'd as soon the two of you pack up and get out,' Howard said.
'We'll decide when we get out,' I said.
'And if we stay,' Leonard said, 'we still won't report to you. You're just some guy we don't know, that's all.'
'Besides,' I said, 'while you been fretting about what we been doing, we've been down in the bottoms looking for the Iron Bridge.'
'And?' Chub said.
'We didn't find it,' I said. 'We're going to give it three days. I don't come up with it, maybe we will get out. You can go your own way then. We won't tell on you or anything. You'll have our blessing.'
'Anything look familiar?' Trudy asked.
'No,' I said, 'but it's been a long time since I been there. But I can solve all this easy. I can just ask someone. A classmate, an old-timer. It might be thought odd if one of you asked, not being from here. I can claim nostalgia, wanting to look around at the old growing-up place.'
'I'd rather you not,' Howard said. 'It'd probably work out all right, but I think if we can get through this without it being mentioned anywhere, better off we are.'
'I agree with that,' I said. 'I'm just saying what we can do if things get too difficult. I leave, and you'll have to ask. And even if you're told, you'll never find anything down there. You'd need a guide. Then you'll be tying one more person into it you don't know.'
'As Leonard pointed out,' Howard said, 'we don't know each other.''
'True,' I said, 'but I sense something special about you and me and Trudy. We could be one big happy family.'
Howard uncrossed his arms. I could see the patch on his shirt pocket. It said FLOYD.
'You guys are pushing your luck,' Howard said.
'Please don't start that again,' Trudy said. 'I don't want to see Hap or Leonard hurt you, Howard.'
Howard looked at her as if she had just sliced his nuts with a knife. 'He might not be so lucky this time,' he said.
'Luck hasn't got a thing to do with it,' Leonard said.
'Why don't you guys arm wrestle?' Paco said.
'Don't you start in too, Paco,' Howard said. 'You're starting to sound like them. What you've done doesn't hold you forever.'
'Well,' Paco said, shaking out a cigarette, 'I hate that.'
'Floyd?' I said.
'What?' Howard said, then it dawned on him. 'It's just a shirt.'
'Man with no pride in his name or shirt, it's hard to know what to think of him,' Leonard said. 'He could be anybody and not even care. I'd want my own name on my shirt.'
