“And you?” I said.
“Well enough. Are you ready to go into town?”
“I suppose we are. Maybe you could show us a store or two where we can buy a few things. We left some stuff at the other hotel, but we haven’t the inclination to go back for it.”
“Some bellhop is wearing Hap’s new underwear right now,” Leonard said.
“I will just check on my father, wash a little, change clothes, then we will go.”
She rushed inside quickly, as if she might burst into tears at any moment. I started to follow. Leonard took hold of my arm.
“Leave it be, buddy. It’s not your problem. You can’t solve everyone’s problems. Look at it this way. You can’t even solve your own.”
“Point,” I said. “Damn good point.”
A little later, when Beatrice had herself together, looking fresh in a blue blouse, she drove Leonard and me into town, to the hotel where I had rented us a room.
After Beatrice had gone up with us to see our room, which though not fancy was nice, I walked her back to her car.
She opened the door, said, “You have been very kind.”
“I have to say the same.”
“I have been loving, have I not?”
“You have.”
“No complaints?”
“No complaints,” I said. “You’ll give our best to your father?”
“Of course,” she said.
She got in the car, pulled the door to. The window was open, she leaned out of it.
“I think, in another time, things could have been different,” she said.
I wasn’t sure I wanted them to be that different. I liked her, but I didn’t love her. I loved Brett, goddamn me.
Still, I couldn’t help myself. “How did it go?”
“Go?”
“You know. With the men who wanted to rent your boat?”
“You don’t want to know,” she said, and I saw a tear well up in her eye. I started to push it, remembered Leonard’s advice.
“Whatever you say,” I said.
“Goodbye, Hap. “
“Goodbye, Beatrice.”
She drove away, and I thought that was the end of it.
16
I was in the hotel room, taking off my shoes, getting ready to lie back on my bed and rest a bit, when Leonard, who was already reclining on the other bed, said, “You know what we should do, Hap?”
“I hope you’re not going to suggest anything sexual.”
“Nope. I didn’t bring any of my devices with me. But, now that you mention it, we could catch a mouse and grease him up, let him run up our ass. That might be fun.”
“We don’t have a mouse.”
“There are little black turds next to that hole in the wall to the left of the electric socket by the TV set. So that tells me there are mice.”
“Now you’ve piqued my excitement. But alas, we’ve nothing to grease the mouse with.”
“You’re right. And who’s to say we can catch one? They’re pretty fast, you know.”
“All right, I bite. What should we do?”
“Stay.”
“Stay? I thought you wanted to go.”
“I wanted to get you away from that woman. Women make your head mushy. I tell you, she’s a manipulator.”
“Not much of one. She dumped us off and went home.”
“It would have been just a matter of time, Hap. What we ought to do is just go ahead and turn this into a vacation. Have Charlie wire us some money just like you planned. But we do it a little different. We can get a flight out of Cancun in a couple weeks, be home a few days before we’re supposed to go back to work.”
“Don’t you want to see John?”
“Of course. I love him. But this is our chance for a vacation. We’ve never really had one. Not a real one. Not a good one. Things we do tend to go wrong. This could be different.”
“We’ve already been abandoned by our own cruise ship.”
“Yeah. Well, you’re right.”
“Cruise ships are noted for their hospitality. Their ability to deal with cantankerous assholes. Yet, somehow, you found a way to piss them off.”
“It was just that one guy.”
“You’ve been in a fight. You’ve been knifed. That’s not quite as good as being shot, but it ought to count for something. And your hat was destroyed.”
“True. You’re right. It’s not a totally different kind of trip for us, is it? There’s some of the old charm still there. But the rest of it, we can make it uneventful. We get up late. We eat late. We wander around town. Maybe go fishing. Get out on the water.”
“I don’t like water. I’ve seen all of it I want to see.”
“We could see the sights. I wouldn’t even mind going back to Tulum. Wouldn’t it be nice just to hang? Nobody trying to kill us. No one beating on us. It could be rejuvenating.”
“People do try to hurt us a lot, don’t they?”
“On the nosey. Maybe that should tell us something.”
“What?”
“I’m not sure. I think we irritate people.”
“We? You got a mouse in your pocket?”
“If I did, we’d be in business. A dry mouse, but in business… But tell me, Hap. Doesn’t that sound like a pretty damn good idea?”
“A dry mouse?”
“A real vacation.”
“You know, it doesn’t sound too bad at that.”
Early the next morning I went downstairs and expanded our stay at the hotel to a week. I put it on the charge card, knowing full well I was working on the edge. It might not take more than a couple of pennies for it to be full.
I didn’t want to use the hotel phone, because the prices were jacked up, so I walked down the street to the same pay phone I had called from before, dialed Charlie to let him know our plans. He seemed bored to hear I was calling. When I told him what we had in mind he wasn’t bored any longer.
He had already raised some money, and was surprised we were staying. So was I, but I was glad to break him out of his boredom. I consider it a kind of special accomplishment to rattle Charlie.
I told him Leonard wanted a real vacation and I felt like I owed it to him. So far, this one hadn’t been as bad as our other outings.
Charlie agreed that it hadn’t been as bad as it sometimes gets. He also agreed to wire us the money, tell John we were all right, and explain our plans.
On my way back to the hotel I was surprised to see Beatrice sitting in her car out front. When she saw me walking up, she got out, leaned on the hood.
