“What I was doing was taking you out of the race, old man.” Teddy grinned.
Owen stepped in now, threw a big left hand with some weight behind it, caught Teddy full on the side of his face, wiping the grin off and sending him down on the asphalt drive. Owen figured that was the end of it and started walking away. He didn’t see Teddy pick up an impact wrench, but he felt it break his collarbone that took a year to heal. Owen didn’t press charges, but Teddy lost his Cup ride, got booted off the circuit. No one would touch him after the assault. He heard Teddy was driving on the dirt tracks for a while and then disappeared from racing.
Owen was tired. He closed his eyes now and hoped when he opened them he’d see Kate sitting on the edge of his bed.
SIX
Celeste put the bottle of Cold Duck under her arm, holding the handles of the plastic bag in one hand, opening the car door with her other hand and getting in.
Teddy said, “Get my candy bar?”
Celeste said, “What do you think?”
“I knew,” Teddy said, “I wouldn’t be asking.”
Celeste opened the bag, reached in, grabbed a Nestle Crunch, handing it to him.
He slid the sleeve off the candy bar and peeled back the tin foil, broke off a piece and put it in his mouth. Now he put the Z28 in gear, hit the gas and pulled out of the parking lot, tires squealing.
Teddy said, “What the hell took so long?”
“I had some trouble,” Celeste said. “Man forgot his manners.”
“Teach him a lesson, did you?”
“Let’s just say he’s going to have one whopper of a headache when he wakes up.”
Teddy finished the candy bar, rolled the tin foil into a ball and threw it in the backseat. “Want to tell me what happened?”
Celeste heard a siren and said, “Think you could go a little faster?” They were on 94 passing City Airport outside Detroit.
“What’s the matter?” Teddy said. “You got to go tee tee?”
He didn’t catch on real fast.
Teddy said, “Give me a beer.”
Celeste opened a minicooler on the floor next to her feet, took out an ice-cold can of MGD dripping water, and handed it to Teddy. She wiped her cold wet hand on her jeans. He popped the top, took a long drink and put it between his legs.
“Anyway,” Celeste said, “I was standing in line waiting to pay for a bottle of Cold Duck, this rude dick with ears steps in front of me with a couple six-packs like I wasn’t there.”
“What’d he look like?”
Celeste said, “Just a normal-looking redneck in Levi’s and a wifebeater, could’ve been your twin brother.”
“Didn’t look anything like me,” Teddy said. “I seen him get out of a red Dodge 4? 4, go in the store.”
She liked messing with him, pushing him to a point where he’d start to get angry and then ease up. A Wayne County sheriff ’s deputy blew past them going the other way, Ford 500, lights flashing.
Teddy looked over at her. “You do something back there?”
His little brain was starting to catch on. “That’s what I was getting to, if you’d let me continue.”
Teddy fixed his attention on the rearview mirror, watching the cop car.
“I said to him-”
“Who?” Teddy said.
“Redneck in the party store,” Celeste said. “You got the attention span of a fucking gnat.”
“If you weren’t taking all day to tell this exciting story, maybe I’d be able to follow you.”
“I said to the redneck…” She looked at Teddy. “Still with me, or should I go slower?”
Teddy gave her a dirty look.
“I said to him, ‘What am I, invisible? You don’t see me standing here?’
“Know what he said? Nothing. Ignored me.”
Teddy brought the beer can up to his mouth, finished it, squeezed the can almost flat and threw the empty over his shoulder into the backseat and glanced at Celeste. “Another one bites the dust.”
She opened the cooler, took out a can of MGD, gave it to Teddy, reached over and wiped her wet hand on his T-shirt.
He said, “Hey, you’re getting me all wet.”
“I was standing behind him. Gripped the Cold Duck bottle with two hands, swung it like a baseball bat, hit him on the side of his head, and believe me I got all of it. Would’ve been an off-the-wall double. The bottle exploded and he went down, crashing to the floor and didn’t move. The skinny geek manager behind the counter whose name was Jerry asked if I could find everything okay? And was there anything else I needed.”
Teddy drank some beer and played air guitar to “Lookout Mountain” by the Drive-By Truckers, looking over at her occasionally, grinning.
“I said, ‘Jer-Bear, I need two packs of Marlboro Lights, some Juicy Fruit, a couple of Nestle’s Crunches, a twelve of MGD and a bottle of Cold Duck.’ And while he was getting everything together, I thought, what the hell. He put it all on the counter, looked up at me and I said, ‘There is one more thing-I’ll take your money, too, all of it, including the big bills under the tray.’ I had the. 38 Ruger pointed at him. He cleaned out the register and asked me if I wanted a bag. ‘No, dumbshit,’ I said, ‘I’m going to walk out of here, let everyone see the money I just robbed.’ Know what he said then? ‘Paper or plastic?’ You believe it?”
Teddy’s eyes were glued to her now. “What kind of dumbfuck stunt was that? You don’t go in, rob a place by yourself-you don’t know who’s in the back watching you on a video monitor, come out with a shotgun.”
“It just happened. Police would’ve come one way or the other. I figured I’d take advantage of the situation. What’s the problem? You’re going to get half of what’s in the bag and it was a piece of cake.”
“You don’t do that,” Teddy said. “We got rules.”
The car was drifting over the center line now, heading for an approaching SUV.
Celeste said, “We got rules on the highway, too-you keep your car in the lane, don’t run into somebody head-on like you’re about to do.”
Teddy looked up, swerved right, went too far, and overcorrected, the Z28 sliding off-road on gravel. Celeste thinking they were going into the ditch, but Teddy surprised her, got it under control, and they were back on the highway, cruising like nothing happened. He’d said he was a racecar driver-and maybe he was.
“Don’t say nothing,” Teddy said. “Don’t say a fucking word.”
They rode in silence, Celeste staring straight down the road listening to the Truckers doing “Hell No, I Ain’t Happy”:
There’s a lot of bad wood underneath the veneer
She’s an overnight sensation after twenty-five years
Teddy trying to sing along, getting a word right here and there like he knew it-in a voice that didn’t understand tone or style.
After a time, Celeste said, “Want me to drive, let you enjoy your buzz?”
Teddy looked over and grinned. “Tell me why I shouldn’t haul off and pop you?”
“ ’Cause if you do, I’ll leave you.” She pulled the Ruger out and aimed it at him. “Or maybe I’ll shoot you.”
“Go ahead,” Teddy said. He looked at her with a lunatic grin and started turning the wheel back and forth, the Z28 doing slalom turns in the lane, going wider, tires making contact with gravel.
Celeste said, “What’re you doing?”
“What’re you doing?” Teddy said.
“Fucking with you,” Celeste said.
“Me too,” Teddy said.
