“Are you saying that just to make me feel better?”
“A little. But I also mean what I say. You can’t carry everyone’s problems, every bad thing that happens to someone you know around on your back like a boulder. That boulder is going to get heavier and heavier, and finally, you won’t be able to bear it. You’ll go down before your time. My advice is feel guilty only about the things that happen to me because of our association and jettison the rest.”
25
After two weeks or so, in the middle of the night, on a weekend, mine and Brett’s nights off, the phone rang. Brett was so deep in sleep she didn’t hear it. I had become so accustomed to sleeping part of the day, I found it difficult to sleep at night on the weekends. Brett, on the other hand, would have shamed a hibernating bear.
I rolled out of bed and went around on Brett’s side where the phone sat on a nightstand. I sat down on the bed and answered it, expecting it to be one of Brett’s worthless children with their tit in the wringer, their dick in a crack.
It was Jim Bob.
“Que pasa,” he said.
“Where are you?”
“I’m at a phone booth in the center of town. I called John’s place, but no answer. I called Hanson and he’s coming in. We thought we’d gather up at John’s place or Brett’s. That okay?”
I thought about it a minute. I said, “Come over here. But don’t knock the house down, Brett’s asleep.”
“Can you get in touch with Leonard?”
“I can. I’ll have him meet us.”
“Be there in a moment. And I got a little surprise for you.”
“I didn’t know you knew my size. Is it revealing?”
“Just in all the right places.”
“Well, come on then.”
I called Leonard’s place and he answered. I could hear country music in the background.
“You having a hoedown?”
“Me and John was dancing. He dances like someone sawed off about half his foot.”
I told him what Jim Bob had said.
“We’re on our way.”
“Well, don’t let Bob drive.”
“He’s grounded. Sonofabitch rooted around one of the blocks holds up the porch, made it collapse. No movies, dates, or giving him the car for a week.”
Jim Bob arrived first. He knocked gently on the door and opened it. He said, “I really didn’t know your size, so I got you something else.”
“And what’s that?”
Jim Bob stepped aside and I saw Ferdinand standing there, wearing a simple white shirt and blue jeans. There was a scabbed scar on the right side of his face. He was leaning on a cane.
“Well, I’ll be goddamned. Come on in.”
Ferdinand came in, suddenly grabbed me and hugged me. He started to cry. “You must think me an awful man,” he said.
I peeled him off of me and guided him to the couch. “I don’t think anything,” I said. Which was a partial lie. I had my opinions about Ferdinand. Some of them good, some not so good.
“How did you find him?” I said.
“Let’s wait until the others are here. I’d rather not tell it twice.”
About fifteen minutes later Hanson arrived. He was wearing Charlie’s porkpie. I was surprised to see him using a walker.
“You’re out of your chair?” I said as I let him in.
“Your skills of observation are as sharp as ever,” Hanson said, his black face beaming. “Feeling is back in my legs. Been using this for about a week now. Doctor thinks I keep up the physical therapy, martial arts training, the feeling will come back completely.”
I sat him on the couch, introduced Ferdinand.
About thirty minutes later John and Leonard arrived. When Ferdinand saw Leonard, he got up and extended his hand. Leonard took it. Ferdinand began to weep.
“Just sit down,” Leonard said.
“I’ll make tea,” John said.
“Of course you will,” Leonard said.
I decided to slip back in the bedroom for a moment. When I got in there, Brett was stirring. I said, “Baby, if you don’t want to repeat your Gypsy Rose Lee act, I’d advise you to dress before you come in the living room.”
“What’s going on?”
I told her.
“I’ll be out in a moment.”
John was pouring tea into cups and putting the cups on a tray when Brett came out. Her hair was beautifully tousled around her face. She was wearing a white T-shirt and white shorts. I introduced her to Ferdinand. She sat on the arm of the couch.
Jim Bob was sitting in a chair near the coffee table. He sipped his tea and set it on the table. He said, “I’ve got an interesting story for you people. I’ll try and give you the Reader’s Digest version.
“To sort of capsulize the theme, let me say, Hap, that you inadvertently stepped into a nest of vipers.”
“Hell, I know that.”
“No. You don’t know. This thing has some twisties and some turnies.”
“Twisties and turnies?” Leonard said. “Is that some kind of exotic underwear?”
“Sophisticated private eye talk,” Jim Bob said. “Don’t you fret none now, Leonard. It’s over your head and it isn’t your fault.”
Jim Bob turned his chair backward and sat so that his arms lay on the backrest. He said, “I’m gonna nutshell for you what this is all about. Ferdinand filled me in on some of it, and me and him sort of guessed out the rest, but I figure it’s pretty accurate.
“Beatrice’s father borrowed money from someone known for loaning money and not being nice about it. High interest. Strong-arm tactics. It was the only way he could get the money he needed to send Beatrice to the States to go to the university. Deal was, she’d graduate in four years, and then pay back what was borrowed with money from her new job, whatever it was. In the meantime, Ferdinand had to pay something back every week. And this amount didn’t count toward the amount borrowed. It didn’t even count as interest. The man who loaned the money, Juan Miguel, saw it as collateral on the major loan. Best I can describe it.”
“If you don’t mind me saying, seems like a pretty dumb kind of loan,” Leonard said.
“Yes,” Ferdinand said. “But I wanted for her what I could not give her. She was to pay it back.”
“Let me finish this,” Jim Bob said. “Beatrice goes to the University of Texas, and bails. That’s the bottom line. She gave up on it and came back to Mexico without the debt paid. That meant Ferdinand had to pay every week and she had to help. In the long run, this being a lifetime deal until they could pay back the loan in full, this might not have been a bad way for Juan Miguel to go. Just have them keep paying until they’re both in the grave. This might surpass the loan. And say somehow they make back the loan, pay it all off, well, okay. He gets his money back with interest, plus all the money they’ve been paying weekly to keep him from breaking something.
“Then there’s a new wrinkle. Through old contacts at the university, Beatrice finds out that some Mayan facades-”
“What?” John asked.
“Mayan facades are painted stucco on the fronts of temples. These had been found by looters in the jungle, and they had contacted university scouts to let them know they had them available for a good price.”
“Is this kind of thing legal?” Brett said.
