'Not to me. Class knows class.'
He nodded, not fully absorbing it yet, dumb with happiness. 'Wendy,' he said. She stepped next to him, copper eyes alive.
'This is for you,' the kid said, handing her the big silver trophy.
She hugged the cup. I made a motion to Fancy. We started to move off when Brewster walked up.
'Not bad, wimp,' the dummy said. 'Maybe someday we'll do it for real, you and me.'
Sonny turned his eyes to Brewster. Different eyes, now. Gunfighter's eyes— calm and hard. 'You know the Old Motor Parkway, Brewster? Where it goes off–road, past the tannery? There's a bridge at the end of the dirt road. A rickety old wooden bridge…only room enough for one car at a time. Tell you what…you meet me there tonight and we'll go down that road. First one over the bridge wins.'
'You're fulla shit!'
'Midnight, okay?'
'Crazy fuck!' Brewster said, walking off.
'Sonny…' I said.
'He'll never show up,' Sonny told me. Not a kid anymore.
It was almost four in the afternoon when we finally pulled out of the airport lot. Sonny and Wendy were going their own way. Me, I needed a pay phone.
'It's me,' I told the Mole.
'They get in and out?'
'Yes.'
'They find it?'
'I don't know yet.'
'About time you put your top back on,' I told Fancy as I climbed back into the NSX.
'Oh, come on. It looks just like a halter, doesn't it? Anyway, I got excited— I wanted a flag to wave, you know?'
'Yeah. It worked out great.'
'Sonny's so different,' she said. 'He's really changed.'
'He hasn't changed at all, girl. What happened was he's just starting to be himself.'
'That's how it works?'
'Sometimes. For some people. Like what you do in your greenhouse— seeds to buds to flowers, right? Depends on the soil, the weather…parasites, crop dusters…the whole works.'
'Is that going to happen to me, Burke?'
'It already is.'
The scenery swept by the windows of the low–flying car, a green blur. Fancy was quiet, playing with the band of the cowboy hat in her lap.
'You promise?' she asked.
'Promise what?'
'That I'm changing…getting to be me.'
'Yes.'
We neared the turnoff for her street. Fancy put the cowboy hat back on her head, reclined her seat until she was lying almost flat, looked up from under the brim.
'Can we go back to your place?'
'It's not a good idea.'
'How come?'
'People could be…listening, like I told you before. I'm not sure or anything, but I want to play it safe.'
'Is that why you took me…outside that first time?'
'I guess it was.'
'I…liked it there. Outside. Could we…?'
'After it gets dark,' I told her.
The parking lot at Rector's was empty, as deserted as yesterday's hot restaurant. I nosed the Lexus through a full circuit, checking, Fancy following in the NSX.
'I don't see why we have to take two cars,' she'd complained, hands on hips in her living room.
'If someone…a member, say, just happened to pass by, it wouldn't spook them to see your car, right?'
'Of course not. I told you.'
