“They cut Zendo a bigger piece than he thought he owned, to make him happy about things. But they kept the rest of it, a big chunk, the oil land. Shelby, to make this work, had to have the mayor in on it. He knew him pretty good, see.”
“I thought I heard he run off, or something,” Hillbilly said.
Rooster nodded. “Or something. Mayor and Henry were card-playing and whore-running buddies. Shelby tells him what he knows, cause he needs the mayor to mess with the papers at the courthouse. Make it official. So he has to cut him in. Then this McBride shows up, and the mayor, he isn’t around anymore. I reckon Henry wasn’t that big a buddy of the mayor after all.”
“Ain’t it kind of scary you knowing what you know?”
“They needed me, they cut me in. I don’t get a piece of the oil, just get paid, by them. McBride mostly, but I know it comes from Henry. Now I’m in deep. And I’m scared. I don’t want to do nothing really bad, and I’m figuring that’s what they’re gonna want. Something bad. Sometime soon.”
“You’re trying to keep those maps secret, might not hurt you put a better guard on things at the courthouse,” Hillbilly said. “You’re gonna be a thief or help out thieves, figure you ought to be smarter.”
“They never thought anyone would think to look, Pete dead and all. And if they did look, so what? The original papers were gone. Then Sunset comes up with them. I should have asked for them. She’d have given them to me, wouldn’t be no problem.”
“Why didn’t you ask?”
Rooster shook his head. “I don’t never make good choices. I got to get them papers back. For her. And for me. I thought maybe you could do it, for her. It’s worth a hundred dollars.”
“That’s a lot of money right now.”
Rooster nodded.
“But you still haven’t laid it all out for me,” Hillbilly said.
“What you need to know is this: Get the papers back and she won’t get hurt, cause there’s someone will hurt her for those papers.”
“McBride?”
“Yeah, McBride. He may not do it himself, but it’ll get done. Get the papers, the maps, she’s got nothing, maybe there’s no problem.”
“Just make up some new maps.”
“The old ones show up, that’ll make a mess.”
“Tell you what,” Hillbilly said. “Hundred dollars sounds good, but that part about you being scared and the mayor missing, that don’t sound good. Thing best for me to do is to forget we talked and stay away from Sunset. I’ve had my moment there, and it was a good one, but I’m moving on.”
“Maybe you’re a lot smarter than I thought.”
“Comes to watching out for me, I’m plenty smart.”
“What about Sunset?”
“Haven’t a thing against her. She’s a woman can make a man happy. I just don’t want to be that happy, having the same woman around all the time. It’s not the way I am. I got to have bigger stakes than any hundred dollars. My rules for me is take the path where there ain’t nothing in it, and if there is, go around. See you, Rooster.”
Hillbilly went down the street. Rooster watched him for a while, then a shadow fled over Main Street.
Rooster glanced up.
At first he thought it was a flock of birds. But they were close down and he could hear the buzz of their wings.
Insects. A large swarm of them. They turned suddenly as one, darted to the top of the overhang behind the red apartment, disappeared into the woods.
It was the day of the town meeting. Sunset thought about it all morning. She also thought about Hillbilly. She sent Clyde to search for him. It wasn’t a thing Clyde wanted to do, but she knew he’d do it, knew she had that power over him, and felt like an ass because of it. But not enough of an ass not to do it.
Walking toward her car, Sunset noticed there was a lot of space between the limbs of the trees, letting in more sunlight than usual, and for a moment this confused her. Then she realized it was because lately it had been so hot and dry the trees were thirsty. Their limbs sagged, the leaves shriveled, turned brown and let loose, crunched beneath her feet like crackers.
She was thinking about the meeting when Marilyn’s pickup rumbled into the yard and parked. Inside Sunset saw not only Marilyn and Karen, but sitting next to the passenger window, a big, somewhat handsome older man. In the truck bed was a young boy.
When they got out, the man, wearing a worn-out suit coat, lingered by the truck, and the boy stayed in the truck bed. Karen came up to her mother, reached down to pet Ben, who was sitting beside Sunset in a manner of defense.
“Is Hillbilly here?” Karen asked, and her voice broke when she spoke.
“No,” Sunset said.
“Where is he?”
“I’m not sure. Who’s that?”
“I don’t know. We picked them up at Uncle Riley’s house. I heard the boy got snakebit. That boy keeps looking at me, Mama. He makes me nervous.”
“Why don’t they come on up?”
“They’re afraid of Ben.”
“Take Ben in the tent with you. Make him lay down.”
“Can I talk to you later?”
“Sure. Put Ben up.”
“Come on, Ben.”
Ben and Karen disappeared into the tent. Marilyn stopped at the water pump to pump water and wash her face. She looked up at Sunset, beads of water rolling off of her. “That’s Lee. The boy is called Goose.”
“Who are they?”
“The man is someone you ought to meet.”
“Yeah?”
“Lee,” Marilyn said, “come on over.”
Lee came over and nodded. He said, “Hello, Sunset.”
“You know me?” Sunset said.
“No. But I’d like to.”
Sunset looked to Marilyn for help. Marilyn walked off toward the great oak by the road. Goose wandered over to the outhouse and went inside.
“I don’t know you, then?” Sunset said.
Lee shook his head. “No. But we have a connection. I’m your father.”
Sunset and Lee both stood silent for a long time, then Sunset, very quickly, slapped Lee, slapped him so hard he actually went to one knee.
Slowly Lee rose, a hand to his reddened face.
“You sonofabitch,” she said.
“You hit hard for someone so little.”
“Sonofabitch.”
“Without a doubt,” he said. “If it means anything, I didn’t know you existed.”
Karen and Ben stuck their heads out of the tent. Goose came out of the outhouse in time to see Lee rising to his feet. He said, “Lee, you all right?”
“I’m fine. Just stay back.”
“Go on back in the tent,” Sunset said to Karen.
“But Mama…”
“Just once, just goddamn once, do what I tell you.”
