'Who was he workin' for?' I asked.
'You know that dude dropped outta the mayor's race?'
'Matthew Teran?'
Teran had a good chance at winning the mayor's race in L.A. but he'd just withdrawn his name a few weeks before. Nobody knew why.
'Yeah, that's him. You know all them politicians is just robbers. Why I remember when they first elected Huey Long, down in Louisiana—'
'How long Lips gonna be here?' I asked, to cut him off.
'Week or so.' Junior didn't care what he talked about. 'They bring back some mem'ries, don't they. Shit, they was playin' that night Mouse pulled me off your ass.'
'Thas right,' I said. I can still feel Junior's foot in my kidney when I turn the wrong way.
'I should'a thanked'im for that. You know I was so drunk an' so mad that I might'a kilt you, Easy. And then I'd still be on the chain gang.'
That was the first real smile he showed since I'd been with him. Junior was missing two teeth from the lower row and one upper.
'What ever happened to Mouse?' he asked, almost wistfully.
'I don't know. Today's the first time I even thought about him in years.'
'He still down there in Houston?'
'Last I heard. He married to EttaMae.'
'What's he doin' when you seen'im last?'
'Been so long I don't even remember,' I lied.
Junior grinned. 'I remember when he killed Joe T., you know the pimp? I mean Joe had blood comin' from everywhere an' Mouse had on this light blue suit. Not a spot on it! You know that's why the cops didn't take Mouse in, they didn't even think he could'a done it 'cause he was too clean.'
I was remembering the last time I had seen Raymond Alexander, and it wasn't something to make me laugh.
I hadn't seen Mouse in four years when we ran into each other one night, outside of Myrtle's saloon, in Houston's Fifth Ward. He was wearing a plum-colored suit and a felt brown derby. I was still wearing army green.
''S'appenin', Easy?' he asked, looking up at me. Mouse was a small, rodent-faced man.
'Not much,' I answered. 'You look jus' 'bout the same.' Mouse flashed his gold-rimmed teeth at me. 'Ain't so bad. I got the streets tame by now.'
We smiled at each other and slapped backs. Mouse bought me a drink in Myrtle's and I bought him another. We traded back and forth like that until Myrtle locked us in and went up to bed. She said, 'Leave the money fo' what you'all drink under the counter. Do' lock itself on the way out.'
''Member that shit wit' my stepdaddy, Ease?' Mouse asked when we were alone.
'Yeah,' I said softly. It was early morning and empty in the bar but I still looked around the room; murder should never be discussed out loud, but Mouse didn't know it. He had killed his stepfather five years earlier and blamed it on another man. But if the law ever found out the true circumstances he'd have been hanging in a week.
'His real son, Navrochet, come lookin' fo' me last year. He din't think that boy Clifton done it even though the law said he did.' Mouse poured a drink and knocked it back. Then he poured another one. 'You get any white pussy in the war?' he asked.
'All they got is white girls. What you think?'
Mouse grinned and sat back, rubbing his crotch. 'Shit!' he said, 'that might be worf a couple'a potshots, huh?' And he slapped my knee like in the old days when we were partners, before the war.
We were drinking for an hour before he got back to Navrochet. Mouse said, 'Man come down here, right in this saloon, and come up on me wit' his high boots on. You know I had t'look straight up t'see that boy. He had on a nice suit wit' them boots, so I jus' slipped down my zipper when he walk in. He say he wanna talk. He say les step outside. And I go. You might call me a fool but I go. And the minute I get out there and turn around he got a pistol pointed at my fo'head. Can you imagine that? So I play like I'm scared. Then ole Navro wanna know where he could fine you …'
'Me!' I said.
'Yeah, Easy! He heard you was wit' me so he gonna kill you too. But I'as workin' my stomach in and out and you know I had some beer in me. I'as actin' like I'as scared and had Navro thinkin' he so bad 'cause I'm shakin' … Then I pulls out Peter and open up the dam. Heh, heh. Piss all over his boots. You know Navrochet like t'jump three feet.' The grin faded from his lips and he said, 'I shot him four times 'fore he hit the floor. Same amount'a lead I put in his fuckin' son-of-a-whore daddy.'
I had seen a lot of death in the war but Navrochet's dying seemed more real and more terrible; it was so useless. Back in Texas, in Fifth Ward, Houston, men would kill over a dime wager or a rash word. And it was always the evil ones that would kill the good or the stupid. If anyone should have died in that bar it should have been Mouse. If there was any kind of justice he should have been the one.
'He caught me one in the chest though, Ease,' Mouse said, as if he could read my mind. 'You know I was layin' up against the wall wit' no feelin' in my arms or legs. Everything was kinda fuzzy an' I hear this voice and I see this white face over me.' He sounded almost like a prayer. 'And that white face told me that he was death an' wasn't I scared. And you know what I told him?'
