happen to them is being a jerk, then I'm a jerk. Grovetown is a scary place for black folk to go hang around and try to pry into stuff, but she went anyway.'
'Florida doesn't strike me as that brave,' I said. “Least not in that way. Considering my own experiences with her, I'd say she's been cautious in the past.'
'She's cautious till she wants something,' Hanson said.
'True,' I said. “Selfishness is one of her major traits.'
'She got to Grovetown,' Hanson said, 'cooled some, called to say she was okay, and that things between me and her had reached a wall. She called again a few days later to say she was okay, and things were going good, but she didn't give details, and she said she'd have someone come for her stuff when she gets back.'
'So you're split up?” Leonard said. “Like me and Raul. It's like a disease going around.'
'Guess that means you don't get to keep the aerobic book and the one on making love to a man,' I said.
'Looks that way,' Hanson said. “I gotta tell you. I like that gal. Really. But I gotta tell you too, and this will sound like some horseshit since I've been fuckin' her, but it was getting so our relationship was more like father and daughter, her being so much younger. Thinking so different and all.'
'I don't think I like the sound of that father and daughter stuff,' Charlie said. “Not with you throwing the pork to her.'
'You know what I mean,' Hanson said. “I think I was gonna cut it off between us. I didn't feel right. Maybe it's not just because she's so young, but because I still love my ex-wife, goddammit. You know, like that's gonna go somewhere.'
This was a new wrinkle. I said, 'So if you were developing a more father-daughter relationship than a romantic one, and she cut the romance off, why are you so moony? And why does your kitchen look like a tornado blew through it?”
'She spent the night with me morning before she left,' Hanson said. “We had an argument. It got out of hand. I grabbed her. I'm ashamed of that, but I did. But she got right up in my face, see, and it was just reflex. I grabbed her and hurt her arm a little. It wasn't on purpose, guys, really. I'm no woman beater.'
'We're all human,' I said. “Everybody fucks up now and then.'
'Really, I never hit a woman in my life, and I didn't hit her, but I grabbed her. She could be so infuriating. She was standing in there with the refrigerator open, looking for something for breakfast, and that's when the argument started and the door got left open. She pulled some celery out of there, hit me with it, and I grabbed her. When I realized what I'd done and let her go, she snatched up the frying pan and hit me on the shoulder with it and burned me, dropped it on the floor. I still got the egg on my pajamas. She left five minutes later and I haven't changed a thing in there since.'
'Kind of a shrine, huh?” Leonard said.
'I keep telling him she'll get over it,' Charlie said. “Hell, she called from Grovetown, didn't she? She knows Marve just lost his cool, and she had something to do with it. They're both to blame. A lesson was learned.'
'It's not the getting back together that's bothering me,' Hanson said. “I mean, not that way, you know. I'm just worried about her down there, and if I go check on her, that's just more male chauvinist stuff, and there's no reason she should report to me, and theoretically, she's out of my life, but . . .'
'Why don't you go there anyway?” Leonard said. “You could see she's all right, and if you're telling it straight, it's not like the relationship is coming back together anyway. Or that you want it to. So what's it matter she gets mad at this point?'
'I'd like to end this on a note of respect,' Hanson said. “Not like I'm spying on her.'
'And you think these two dimwits showing up down there ain't gonna make her suspicious?” Charlie said. ”Hell, she knows them. She knows Hap biblically.'
'Thanks, Charlie,' I said, 'you certainly know how to defuse a tense or worrisome moment.'
'It's different,' Hanson said. “She sees you two, you could say Charlie told you about her, and you thought you might go down and check on her. Old times' sake.'
'Oh, now I told them about her,' Charlie said.
'Maybe you could act like you'd like to take her on a date, Hap. Something like that.'
'That sounds convincing,' Charlie said. “I can see why you been so tired all week. All the heavy thinking it took to come up with that, I'd be strained too.'
'Yeah, you're right, Charlie,' Hanson said. “It won't work. It was a major stupid idea. It's like I been having a sack of shit for a head lately. Idea like that sucks big time.'
'I can feel a draft from it over here,' Charlie said.
'Yeah,' Hanson said. “Let's have some eggnog, then, Hap, Leonard, we'll take y'all back to the hoosegow.'
'Grovetown,' I said, 'it's a place I been wanting to visit. I'd just like to go by the house, get a change of clothes, maybe a paperback to go.'
'Unless, of course,' Leonard said, 'you'd prefer we leave tonight. Right now.'
Chapter 4
It was after midnight, Christmas Day, when I took the wheel of Charlie's car and drove him over to Leonard's. Idea was, Leonard was going to get his car and follow me to Charlie's place. I'd drop Charlie and his car off, then we'd leave in Leonard's heap. Charlie was just too drunk to drive.
It had grown quite cold and it was a clear night. Kind of night I relished when I was a kid. My dad, who worked as a mechanic, or at the foundry from time to time, would go out in the yard with me and we'd throw a blanket over our shoulders and sit on the porch stoop and look at the stars. We were well out in the country then,
