moving about in the other room.
'What's that noise?' I asked.
'The ironing board. He gets upset, he sets it up, irons clothes.'
We sat for another twenty seconds or so. The clock in the kitchen ticked loudly. The ironing board squeaked louder and louder. Leonard said, 'Think maybe we could have a double funeral, and Charlie could throw him out?'
'Sorry, man. I think he'll get over it.'
'He will or he won't, but you don't be sorry, Hap.'
I got up. I pulled on my coat. 'This is going to sound funny, Leonard. But is everything okay between us?'
'It always has been.'
'I'll see you tomorrow.'
'Bright and early,' Leonard said.
Chapter 27
Next morning, on the way to Leonard's, I tried to remember the first time I'd seen Florida, tried to figure if I was still in love with her, or just had my feelings hurt because she chose Hanson over me. Had I lost a love or a battle? Both?
Was I searching for her by going back to Grovetown, or searching for something of myself ? Both?
I just loved it when I got all Zen and shit.
I pulled up in Leonard's drive, got out in the rain and went to the door. He opened it before I could knock. He had a twelve-gauge shotgun with him, a backpack and a sleeping bag bound up in a waterproof wrapper.
'Good to see you still got a bazooka left,' I said.
'I got another one in the house, and a handgun in my coat pocket, you want it.'
'I brought my snub-nose. I don't like that I brought it, but I did. I get away from it too long these days, it's like I left my dick in the other room.'
'You see, your manhood is tied up in your weapons, Hap. The revolver is a phallic symbol for your repressed manhood. Your impotence.'
'For the first time in my life, I believe that.”
We loaded his stuff in the back of the pickup. I had my stuff there too and had fixed a tarp over it to keep out the rain. By the time we had Leonard's stuff under there, we were both soaked.
Leonard slid his shotgun into the gun rack above the seat; a baseball bat already resided in the top slot. It was a bat I'd taken off a thug once who thought he was going to break my knees, but he forgot to quit talking before he started hitting, so I'd taken it away from him, broken his nose, and kept the bat. I usually kept it in the house, but I was glad to have it now. It made me feel slightly more comfortable. Leonard's shotgun added to the comfort, as did the snub-nose in the glove box and the truck's heater.
I backed out and we started up the street. I said, 'Raul all right?'
'Well, we didn't sing 'The Sound of Music' together in the shower this morning, so I don't think we're all that rosy. We've really done that, you know?'
'Showered together?'
'That and sang 'The Sound of Music' We do it quite well, actually.'
'Raul still leaving?'
'I don't know. I don't want him to. I told him if he did, to call the bowling ball head brothers to watch the place. Hell, I can't figure Raul. He's all mopey and shit. Today is the anniversary of when we met, and he wanted us to go out to dinner, go to a movie, do some serious fucking. I wanted us to do that too, but I didn't want it getting in the way of me killing somebody.'
'Easy, now.'
'I'm gonna do what I gotta do.'
'I'm not sure we got to do that.'
'Let me say this, Hap, then I'll shut up. I meant what I said yesterday. We got to do this thing because of who we are, or who we want to keep being. Whatever degree it takes, we got to go to that degree. You believe that?'
'I'm not going to kill anyone. On purpose. I'm going to find out about Florida, and if I can hook Brown up with that, and what happened to us, that'll make me extra happy.'
'I don't think we can undo a beating, Hap. But I got to go back there and face that town. Find Florida. Someone gets in the way of either, I might have to put a hole in them. And by the way, I packed us a nice sack lunch for later. It's in my pack.'
'Bullets and lunch,' I said. 'You think of everything.'
'Bottom line is this, Bubba. It's you and me. Anything and everything else fucks up, it's you and me. We're gonna see each other through this, do what we got to do if the sun comes up or don't. And that's the long and the short of it.'
'That's the truth,' I said.
