“Well,” I said, “me and Leonard get to not go to jail, or maybe just avoid some long, inconvenient court time. You get the pleasure of our company.”
“Doesn’t sound like much of a deal,” Jim Bob said.
“It’s not,” I said.
“Well,” Jim Bob said, “considering that we get nothing out of this, and I’m doing this just because I know you guys and sort of like you better than guys I don’t, count me in.”
I looked at Tonto.
He nodded, said in his almost sweet little voice, “I owe Marvin one.” He glanced at Marvin. “And after this, we’re through. Right?”
“Right,” Marvin said. “We’re even.”
“Everyone in?” I said, and held my hand out over the table.
“So we’re supposed to put our hand on top of yours?” Jim Bob said. “All for one, and one for all?”
“Yep,” I said.
“Too silly,” he said.
Leonard put his hand on top of mine. “I’m in.”
Brett put her hand on top of his. “Actually, I’m not going to be here, but hey, in spirit, okay?”
Marvin got up carefully from his chair with his cane and edged over and put his hand on top. “I will do what I can, all things considered. Hell, I got all of you into this, so I got to show solidarity, right?”
“Damn right,” Leonard said.
“Oh, hell,” Jim Bob said, and put his hand on top. “I always was a sucker for that musketeer jive.”
Tonto grinned. He even had big teeth. “Hell, why not.”
He put his hand on top of Jim Bob’s.
“Maybe we could have some kind of saying,” Leonard said. “You know, something that’s just for us. A slogan. A motto.”
“No,” Tonto said, removing his hand. “Maybe we won’t have that.”
“Yeah, that idea sucks,” Jim Bob said, pulling his hand back.
“Even I don’t like that,” Brett said, and picked up her coffee cup.
“Got to vote no,” Marvin said.
“Yeah, I’m out on that one too,” I said.
Leonard looked hurt. “Spoilsports.”
26
After finishing up the coffee and cookies, we had a real breakfast of eggs and toast and bacon, and Brett did the cooking; then I left with her and drove to the bus depot. It was one of the hardest things I had ever done, and I knew then—well, I had known before, but I knew all over again, down deep and tight to the bone, that I loved this woman dearly and that she was a part of me, like a heart or a liver. I had loved my first wife and she had been a shit and I had loved her anyway. Then she betrayed me, got herself killed, and nearly got me and my buddy Leonard killed. I still loved her for a year after that. But not the way I loved Brett. It’s only right that when you find the one you care about that you keep that part that’s you and not give it all away, but by the same token I’m old-fashioned in that I feel when you do find the right person you are part of a whole, and when the other leaves, a bit of you is no longer there. And when they leave and you think you might never see them again, it’s like more than a part of you is gone. It’s like being ripped in half and your half has been cast to the wind.
She was dressed in jeans and sneakers and had on a big sweater and a sweater cap that her hair stuck out from under like a flaming waterfall. The bus depot had very few people in it, and we sat down on a bench. A bus depot is one of the loneliest places in the world, and it doesn’t help when the bench you’re perched on is near the restrooms and they stink of recent trips, and when people walk out, the tile, dampened by urine and bad flushes, makes a sound like someone pulling duct tape off a hairy dog’s ass.
We sat for a while, the sun rising higher and eating away at what was left of the darkness, and then we heard a bus come and they called it over the speaker. It was Brett’s ride. I walked her out. There were others getting on, and we stepped back and let them. She had a small bag with her. It had a few clothes and her toiletries in it, a book and some magazines. She set it down by her feet like a trained pet.
“Well,” she said, “don’t get yourself killed.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise? For me?”
“Hell, I promise for me and you.”
“Cross your heart?”
“Big-time,” I said, and crossed my heart.
“Make sure Leonard doesn’t get killed either.”
“You got it.”
“I guess you can kind of watch out for Jim Bob and Tonto.”
“All right.”
