“Hold on a minute,” Betty said. “What did he just say?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. Everybody’s happy, right? Let’s go see the tenants…”
“What did he say?… KEEP UP THIS PACE??”
“Figure of speech,” I said. “What say we have a drink with the…”
But the owner turned toward Betty. I grimaced involuntarily.
“There’s nothing to worry about, miss. I’m not as mean as I look. I’m not asking you to do them all without even taking a breather…”
“AII what…? What do you mean ‘THEM ALL’?”
For about a millionth of a second the guy looked surprised, then he started smiling.
“Well, I’m talking about the other bungalows, obviously. Is there something you don’t understand?”
I couldn’t move. I was sweating blood. Betty was still sitting on her paint can. She looked up at the owner and I thought she was going to go for his throat-that or spit flames.
“You think I’m going to waste my time painting all those things?” She sizzled. “Are you joking or what?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?” he asked.
“I don’t know… I can’t make up my mind… I’ll tell you in a second…”
She jumped up. She grabbed the can of pink paint. The lid sailed over our heads like a Frisbee. Everything happened so fast that no one had time to move. I feared the worst.
“Betty… no!” I begged.
But it didn’t stop her. She ran to the owner’s car and emptied the whole can on his roof. Gallons. Indian pink. The guy sort of hiccuped. Betty smiled at him, her teeth showing.
“See…” she said. “I don’t mind painting your car. It goes pretty fast. But I’m afraid I’ll have to say no on the rest of it. I’m afraid I’m not up to it just now.”
With that she split. It took a few seconds for us to get our wits back. The paint oozed down to the middle of the doors.
“It’s really no big deal… no harm done… It washes off with water… It just
I washed his car. It took me over an hour. It was all I could do to calm him down. I told him everything would take care of itself, that she was having her period, that she was very tired, that the heat made her edgy, that she’d be the first to apologize, that, hey, what say we forget the whole thing ever happened, and why don’t I also paint all the garbage cans and lamp posts while I’m at it…?
He climbed back into his car, gritting his teeth. I gave an extra little polish to the windshield before he drove off in a cloud of dust. Then I was alone in the alley. It was almost nightfall and I was wiped out, at the end of my rope. But, I knew that the tough part was still ahead of me-at thirty-five life isn’t a joke anymore. You have to look things straight in the face. The tough part was going to be Betty. I gave myself five minutes, then started over. I saw the lights shining in the house. Five little minutes, with my nose in the air, to sniff the winds of disaster. I think that was the moment things started taking a strange turn.
Betty had the bottle out on the table. She was sitting in a chair, head down, legs apart, all her hair falling forward. She waited a few seconds before she looked up at me. I’d never seen her so beautiful. I’m a subtle guy-I saw right away that she wasn’t just angry, she was also sad. I couldn’t have stood that for too long.
“Jesus Christ, what the hell is this all about?” she said in a muffled voice. “What have you got going with that asshole?” I walked over to the table and poured myself a drink. I had to breathe a little more heavily, since I was carrying such an enormous weight on my shoulders.
“He wouldn’t agree to let you stay here unless we went to work.It’s not so hard to figure…”
She giggled nervously and her eyes shone like marbles.
“Right. Let’s see if I understand-I have to knock myself out on all those fucked-up buildings in order to have permission to rot in this… Jesus, don’t you think it’s a little like pissing in the wind?”
“In a way.”
She poured herself another drink. I did the same. I was sweating a little.
“You just can’t get away from those bastards,” she went on. “They’re all over the street. But you got to kick their ass, you can’t talk sense to them. What drives me crazy is how you let yourself get fucked by that guy, how you could go for a thing like that.”
“I tried to weigh the good and the bad,” I said.
“You shouldn’t have. You should have just told him to go fuck himself-it’s a matter of pride, for Christ sakes! What does he think-that we’re just a couple of degenerates only fit to shine his shoes? I’m the real jerk, I should have just scratched his eyes out!”
“Listen, if I have to paint the buildings to make sure we can stay together, then I’ll paint the buildings. I’ll do more than that. It seems like nothing next to what I get out of it.”
“Oh shit. Why don’t you try opening your eyes? My God, you’re totally nuts! Look at this hole we live in-and that bastard paying you peanuts to bury yourself in it! Look at yourself! You’re halfway through your life! You want to tell me exactly what you’ve got out of it so far? You want to show me what’s worth getting yourself fucked over for?”
“It’s okay. We’re all still in the same place. There’s no big difference.”
“Excuse me, but that`s bullshit! What do you think I’m doing here with you? What good is it if I can’t admire you, be proud of you? We’re wasting our time here! This place is only good for learning how to die!”
“Okay, all right. But what do you want to do-leave here with your hands in your pockets, only to go somewhere else and start the same shit all over again? You think you can just go out and pick money off trees? You think it’s worth the trouble?”
We had another drink. We had to gather our strength to continue bitching.
“Anyway,” she said, “how in the world can we keep living like this-without any hope, with nothing at all, no ambition. Shit, you’re still young, healthy-it’s like they’ve already cut your balls off. I just don’t get it.”
“Yeah, well, there’s another way to look at it,” I said. “The world is a zoo. At least here we have a little peace, far from the madding assholes, with a porch and a nice place to fuck. I think you`re the one who’s nuts.”
She looked at me and shook her head. She finished her drink.
“Oh shit,” she said. “Here I go again, stuck with another jerk! I should have known better. Something always goes haywire with men.”
I went to the fridge to get some ice cubes, I had just about had it with this discussion, after the day I’d had. I went and lay down on the bed, my glass on my stomach, one arm behind my head. She turned around to look at me, her chin resting on the back of her chair.
“What’s really wrong with you? What is it that doesn’t work right?”
I raised my glass to toast her. I took my shoes off. It probably was not the best thing to do. It was like giving the signal to charge.
She jumped to her feet, legs firmly planted, hands on hips.
“Don’t you feel suffocated here? Don’t you want to breathe? Well, I do! That’s right, I need a little air!”
Saying that, her eyes started sweeping around the room with a crazy look in them. I felt she was going to attack something-maybe me. They settled on the cardboard boxes-there was a stack of them piled up in the corner. I didn’t have much room, but it never bothered me. I just filled up boxes from time to time and left them there.
She let out a small shriek and grabbed the first box she could lay her hands on. She lifted it up over her head. It didn’t have anything too important in it-I can’t say that I remembered exactly what was in there. I didn’t try to stop her. It went right through the window. I heard the sound of things breaking.
She did the same with two other boxes. I finished my drink.
At the rate she was going she’d tire out quickly.
“Yes!” she said. “I need air! I need to BREATHE!”
Then she went for the box that I kept my notebooks in. I stood up.
“Hold on,” I said. “Leave that one alone. You can finish off the others if you want…”
She pushed the hair out of her eyes. She seemed intrigued. She was out of breath from her little cleaning spree.
“What’s in there?”
“Nothing special. Just some papers…”
