The Two-Bear Mambo

'Damn, isn't this one hell of a special Christmas?'

'Yeah. Merry Christmas. Listen here, Hap. I ain't been sleep­ing all that good. Cold in there and the sweet aroma of dog whiz is about to make me puke, then you yelling and all, but it's also because I been thinking.'

'Careful now. Don't hurt yourself.'

'Much as I hate it, we call and Hanson hasn't heard anything, I think we got to go back to the Chief. Officially report Florida missing, set him on the case.'

'What would he care?'

'Guy like that, he may already know what happened to her. It's not that I think he'll find her, but he may do something gives us a lead to where she is. Or gives us an idea what hap­pened to her. We want to push him a little. Make him nervous.'

'You think he's behind all this? Maybe head of the Knights of the Swollen Left Nut, or whatever they are?'

'I don't know. I'm clutching at farts, but we got to clutch at something. And speaking of that, I'm gonna go clutch at my blankets, and I'm coming back in here, and you and me are gonna share this bed.'

'Oh God, Leonard, has my manly physique finally caused your hormones to bust the blood vessels to your brain?'

'No, but I'm cold, and I figure we can share our blankets and some body heat.'

'You make me so hot when you talk like that.'

'Hap, you tell any of my friends I shared a bed with a hetero­sexual, even if it was just to keep warm, I'll kill you. Thing like that got around, it could ruin my reputation. By the way, you wearing perfume?'

'Florida,' I said. 'It's in the mattress.'

'Oh.'

He came back with his blankets and we shared the mattress. Just before he closed his eyes, he said, 'Wake me when Santa comes.'

It was warmer that way, Leonard and I sharing. I slept better, deeper. But near morning I awoke from yet another dream.

This time Florida and I had been naked, sitting in lawn chairs, and we were on a little raft made of crude-cut logs, sail­ing down a dark river on a moonlit night. The moon was high in the sky and bright. When Florida turned to look at me her eyes were full of the moon. Two white orbs slick as wet bone inside dark tunnels. She said, 'Come on and love me, Huck, honey.'

Then we were beneath the water, cold and wet and alone. She had her arms around my neck, and she was heavy, and she was dragging me down, down, down to the bottom of the great black river, and no matter how hard I fought, she wouldn't let go.

I got up, dressed, had a soda pop and a couple slices of lunch meat, and waited for daybreak.

Chapter 13

By morning the rain had slowed, and when Leonard woke we drove into town for coffee and a real breakfast. We had plans to call Hanson.

Grovetown was starting to stir. Christmas holidays were gone, and stores were open. The cafe was hopping. Tim's filling station had two cars in the drive. One driver, a fat lady wearing a bright field of flowers on a dress constructed of enough material to parachute a Land Rover from a speeding jet, was putting gas in her car, the rain beating down on her blue-haired head with a vengeance.

At the full-service pump, behind the wheel of a gray pickup, an elderly man with a face tight as a sphincter muscle rolled his window down and coughed blue-gray cigar smoke into the rain.

Tim was filling the pickup's tank, had his head bent so that water was running off his cap. Both the fat woman and the elderly man took note of us, just in case we were planning on hijacking their vehicles. Tim looked up, saw us, gave us a wink.

We went inside the store, hung around until Tim was finished. He came in and grinned at us. 'Y'all decide you want some of them pickled pig's feet after all?'

'No,' I said, 'but we'd like to make a call to LaBorde, if you'll let us. I can give you enough money to cover it.'

'Long as you pay, you can call goddamn Australia.'

Tim showed me the phone behind the counter, and allowed me some privacy. I called Hanson at home first, didn't get him. Tried the cop shop, still didn't find him. I asked for Charlie, and they put him on the line.

'It's me,' I said. 'Checkin' in. Seein' if Florida showed up.'

'Nope,' Charlie said, 'and that means you haven't found her either.'

'It don't look good. She's been here, but she isn't here now. We're gonna look around today, but I don't get the idea the Chief here is much worried what happened to Florida. I think you need to get some real law down here. The Rangers maybe.'

'Her not being there doesn't mean anything's happened to her.'

'So I keep hearing, but I got some bad vibes.'

'Thing occurred to me, was what if she used this trip to go on and leave Hanson for good? You know, an easy way to keep on going. It's possible.'

'Yeah. But not likely.'