Tishomingo Blues

'Or he wants to get me and you and Dennis in the woods and take us out with nobody seeing it. I don't mean make it look like an accident. I told you, they inspect the weapons before you take the field. It can still happen- there was a man shot during a reenactment one time, but it was a strange situation, not one you can pull any time you want. So they'd have to set it up some other way, get us out of sight of the crowd, the people watching.'

Jerry looked like he was thinking again, concentrating this time. He said, 'You tell this guy what we know, him and the redneck, Arlen, and give 'em a reason to want to take us out.'

Robert nodded, the man catching on.

'So instead of us thinking of a way to get them in the woods,' Jerry said, 'you have them thinking of how to get us in the fuckin woods.'

'And chase us,' Robert said, 'all the way to a levee road back there-I checked it out-where we put the truck.'

'I forgot about that part, the truck.'

'Doesn't work without it, Jerry.'

He looked like he was thinking again, but about what? It was hard to tell. All he did then was shrug. He said, 'Okay,' and raised his voice toward the bedroom. 'Annabanana, I'm going now.'

Robert wondered was she gonna come out to kiss him goodbye. Uh-unh. Her voice came back, 'See you later.'

'One other thing,' Robert said. 'The CIB man, John Rau? He lives for this reenacting. He's gonna be on your side, with you the whole time, and he won't leave till it's over. You hear what I'm saying? We don't want him anywhere near when we start shooting people. And we sure don't want to shoot him.'

Jerry said, 'Whack a cop-only if your life depends on it.'

'We want him far away when it goes down.'

Jerry said, 'How do we work that?'

'I'll have to think about it.'

Jerry said, 'I'll leave it up to you,' the way he left everything, and was gone to roll dice.

Robert glanced toward the bedroom as he walked to the balcony. He opened the doors and heard a woman's voice coming over the speakers, the TV woman, Diane-what was her name?calling the dives again, Diane telling the crowd they'd have to clap real loud if they wanted world champion Dennis Lenahan to hear them way up on that eighty-foot perch.

There he was in the spotlight climbing to the top.

Robert moved to the railing to watch him: Dennis looking down at the crowd looking up at him, mostly white people from around here, small groups of teenagers, the older crowd in their lawn chairs. How many, a hundred? Close to it. Dennis deciding what to show them. Or thinking about his crossroads, way up there alone in the night. Thinking about money. Thinking about years to come and where he'd be. No, right now he was cool, he was haughty seeing himself in the air. Come on, flying reverse pike.

Anne's voice came from the bedroom. 'What're you doing?'

'Watching my man.'

'Are you coming?'

'In a minute. He's about to go off.'

Every day honest people got into dealing drugs, it wasn't so unusual. Dennis wouldn't even be dealing, strictly speaking.

He had his arms raised, ready to go. Then lowered his arms and held on to the ladder with one hand as he leaned out and yelled down something and now Charlie was looking up at him. Now Charlie picked up a pole, the skimmer they took bugs out of the tank with, and mounted the ladder to the narrow walk that went around the tank and now Charlie was waving the skimmer over the surface of the water to make waves. Robert decided it was so Dennis could judge where he would enter the water, the man not taking any more risk than he had to. Good.

Anne's voice said, 'Are you coming or not?' sounding closer.

He stepped toward the doorway, quick, to see her coming out of the bedroom in her kimono, open, nothing on under it. He thought, The Open Kimono by Seymour Hare, and said, 'Wait. Don't move.' And turned back in time to see Dennis go off twisting and somersaulting to slice the water and come up with his hair slicked back in the spotlight. Hey, shit. How'd he know to make all those moves in two seconds? Maybe even less.

He felt Anne's hand slip under his shirt and move up his spine. He said, 'I love to watch people who make what they do look easy. No flaws, nothing sticking out.'

'God, I hope you're not queer for him. Are you?'

'No, I never tried that. Like I never tried the opera. Or never roller-skated. I've ice-skated and I've skied. Steve Allen says to Jose Jimenez standing there with a pair of skis, `So, you're a skier. Is that right?' And Jose Jimenez says, `Yes,' with his accent, `I'm a skeer to go down the hill.' '

He felt her hand slide down his back and out from under his shirt. Her voice, off in the room now, said, 'You want a glass of wine?'

'I'm trying to think… Yes, I would, please. I'm trying to think of what else I haven't done that people do. One comes to mind-haven't camped out.'

Anne said, 'So you've never gotten laid in a tent,' coming out with a glass of white in each hand.

'I have other strange places.'

'Movie theater?'

'Many times, in my youth.'

'Airplane?'

'Once, on a red-eye. How about you? What's the strangest place you ever did it?'

'You mean straight fucking?'

'What else we talking about?'

'You don't count a blow job.'

'Blow job, you get that anywhere.'

She said, 'Let me think… How about on the floor?'

'Everybody does it on the floor now and then. You think that's a strange place?'

She said, 'I don't want to play this anymore.'

Like that. Like when she and Jerry argued… Robert picking them up to go to some function, a wedding, and Jerry's yelling at her for never in her fuckin life being ready on time and Anne would say, 'I don't want to talk about it.' Jerry would look ready to smack her, but never did. He'd cool off and later on be calling her Queenie.

She said she didn't want to play anymore and Robert said, 'That's cool,' not caring one way or the other. He looked down at the crowd breaking up and Dennis, out of the tank now, talking to Diane Corrigan-Cochrane-that was her name-the Eyes and Ears of the North Delta, Robert thinking Dennis should have him some of that. Cute woman in her little shorts.

Anne said something.

'What?'

'I said is this going to work? What we're doing?'

'Gonna work fine.'

'Jerry thinks you're crazy.'

'He's told me that. But he's here.'

She said, 'I have a bad feeling about it.'

Robert said, 'Want me to hold you? Tell you everything's gonna be all right?'

'I'm serious, and you make fun of me.'

He could tell her she was easy to make fun of, any time she became serious like that, having the bad feeling. But he didn't. No, he showed her he was as sensitive as he had to be, saying, 'What's wrong, baby? What you worried about?'

'I keep thinking,' Anne said, 'something's going to happen to Jerry.'

What she meant was hoping. Robert said, 'Like he could get popped?'

'It's possible, isn't it?'

'You play the grieving widow till the lawyer cuts you a check?'