'Cord's real sensitive,' Pud said. 'They're like that.'
The room was too small. The air was too close. The emotions were too raw. I felt claustrophobic.
'I'll buy breakfast,' I said.
Pud nodded.
'Some coffee,' he said. 'Coffee'll make us feel better.'
'You take a shower,' he said to Cord, 'and get dressed. We'll meet you at Finney's.'
He looked at me.
'Joint downstairs,' he said. 'They got a couple booths.'
He patted Cord's shoulder once and stood up and led me out of the apartment. Cord was still sitting on the bed sniffling.
There were in fact two booths in Finney's sandwich shop. We sat in the second one. It was against the back wall, opposite the counter, where a man and a woman were eating scrambled eggs and grits, and a grill man was busy at his trade. The young woman who worked the counter had a bright blond helmet of big hair. She also worked the booths. When she came over, with her hair and her order pad, Pud requested orange juice, ham, eggs over easy, grits, toast, and coffee. I settled for coffee.
'Poor bastard,' Pud said.
'Cord?'
'Yeah. I mean I knew, we all knew, that he was a chicken fucker. Walt had to bail his ass out a couple times. And we all figured he wasn't fucking Stonie.'
The waitress brought Pud's juice, and coffee for both of us.
'I mean he's queer as a square donut.'
'Stonie knew it too,' I said.
'Sure.'
'What kept them together?' I said.
Pud drank his orange juice in one long pull, and put the empty glass down.
'How the fuck do I know? I wasn't a pretty good linebacker, I'd a flunked outta Alabama my freshman year. It was like he was okay as long as she was taking care of him.'
'So why'd she stop?'
'Taking care of him?'
'Yeah.'
Pud did a big shrug.
'Fucking Clive raised some weird daughters,' he said.
'Tell me about it.'
The waitress came with Pud's breakfast. He ate some of it before he spoke again.
'After Walt died, everything got really funky around there. I don't know exactly what was going on, but the girls were spending a lot of time together.'
'Stonie and SueSue?'
'And Penny. They'd go down to the barn office and shut the door, and be in there a long time.'
He ate a bite of ham.
'Then one day SueSue gives me a call at the business office and asks me to come down to the barn. I do, and she's there and so is Stonie and Cord, and Penny and that jerkoff Delroy. Penny's sitting behind the desk, and she's as nice as pie, but she tells us we gotta leave. That we are no longer welcome on Clive property.'
He ate some egg, pushing it onto his fork with a piece of toast, and drank some coffee, and gestured at the blond counter girl for more coffee.
'And I say, 'For crissake, I'm married to a Clive.' And Penny says, 'That will be taken care of.' And I'm looking at SueSue and she's not looking at me. And I see Cord staring at Stonie, and she's not looking at him either. They're both looking at Penny. And I say, 'SueSue, for crissake, what is this?' And she shakes her head and won't look at me, and Penny says, 'It is too painful for my sisters, I'll talk.' '
The man and woman at the counter finished breakfast, left a dollar tip, and walked out of the shop. The blond waitress scooped the tip.
'So I say, 'I'll be fucked if you're gonna just run me off like a stray dog.' And Penny nods, and she's so nice, she says, 'I have asked Mr. Delroy to see to it.' And Delroy says, 'You have until Monday.' And…' Pud spread his hands and raised his shoulders. 'That's it. Monday Delroy and four guys show up at my house and walk me off the property with nothing I couldn't pack in a suitcase.'
'Is it your house?'
'Do I own it? No. It's on Clive property. Walt owned it. Same for Cord's place. Walt owned everything.'
'You and SueSue having trouble?'
'No more than we ever had.'
