how unbelievable, and do it without watching yourself doing it.
The movie star smoked a cigarette after. In bed. She actually smoked a cigarette. He went in the kitchen, fixed a couple of light Scotches and brought them back. The movie star acted a little like a kitten. She seemed much younger with her clothes off, not at all self-conscious. She gave him those secret looks, sly smiles that were familiar. (But did she have secrets? Now?) She asked him how he would photograph her. He said he'd like to think about it.
What he thought about though, what he was most aware of, was a feeling. It was not unlike the way he felt and wondered about things when he was looking at his photographs.
He felt--lying in bed with Jean Shaw, after--relief. There, that was done.
And wondered if he had learned anything about illusions, since that time when he was twelve years old and first fell in love.
There were other feelings he had that he would save and look at later. All things considered, he felt pretty good. The movie star was a regular person. Underneath it all, she was. Except that she was never a regular person for very long.
She said, 'You're good for me, Joe. Do you know that?'
Familiar. But he didn't know the next line, what he was supposed to say, and the words that came to mind were dumb. So he smiled a tired smile and patted her thigh, twice, and left his hand there.
She said, 'I have a feeling you're the best thing that could happen to me, Joe.'
Another one, so familiar. He sipped his Scotch. He looked at the ceiling and a scene from Deadfall, early in the picture, began to play in his mind. Jean Shaw saying to Robert Mitchum, 'I have a feeling you're the best thing that could happen to me... Steve.'
And Robert Mitchum, giving her that sleepy look, said...
Chapter 11
THERE WAS THE Had a Piece Lately Bar. There was the Play House, the Turf Pub. There was Cheeky's. 'Don't go in there without me,' Cundo Rey said. 'They liable to tear you to pieces, fight over you.'
'Queers,' Nobles said. 'I love queers. Jesus.'
There was Pier Park. Go in there at night and get anything you want, light up your head.
Nobles said, 'Those guys have dough, huh, that sell it.'
Cundo Rey said, 'Yes, is true.' Low behind the wheel of the Trans Am, holding the beast in as they cruised, he said, 'But they got guns.'
Nobles said, 'Shit, who hasn't.'
They cruised Collins Avenue and Washington, staying south of the Lincoln Road Mall, Nobles peering through smoked glass at the activity along the streets, all the little eating places and stores and bitty hotels, every one of the hotels with those metal chairs out front. Nobles said, 'You ever see so many foreigners in your life?' After a few more blocks of sightseeing he said, 'I think I'm having an idea.'
Cundo Rey was learning not to say anything important unless he was sure Nobles was listening. Nobles didn't listen to very much. Sometimes Cundo wanted to tie him to a chair and press a knife against him and say, 'Listen to me!' Shout it in the man's ear.
He said, 'I thought you had an idea already.'
'I got all kinds of 'em.'
He was listening. Talk about him, he listened.
'The woman is still there,' Cundo Rey said. 'I saw her again. The guy is there, I think. I didn't see him good to know what he look like, but he's there. Why wouldn't he be, if he live there?'
'I'm waiting on the spirit to move me. It ain't the same as heisting cars, Jose. You gotta be in tune.' Nose pressed to the side window. 'You know what it's like down here, you read the signs? It's like being in a foreign country.'
'You want to hear my idea?' Cundo Rey said.
'I want to get something to eat, partner. My tummy says it's time.'
'Listen to my idea.'
'Well, go ahead.'
'Shoot the guy,' Cundo Rey said. 'You want to shoot him, shoot him. You want to shoot him in the back, get it over with, it's okay. You want to use a knife, you want to push him off a roof--any way you like, okay.'
'That's some idea, chico.'
'No, that's not the idea. That's to get him out of the way, so you can think of the woman.'
'Watch the road. I don't want us having a accident.'
'Okay, you want the woman? You know how to get her?'
'I'm certainly anxious to hear.'
'You save her life.'
'I save her life. Like out swimming?'
'Listen to me, all right? You listening?'
'Go ahead.'
'She gets a call on the telephone or she gets a letter that say, Pay me some money or I'm going to kill you. A hundred thousand, two hundred thousand--how much has she got? You have to figure that out, how much you want to ask for. Okay, then you find the guy that sent her the letter and kill him. You her hero and she loves you. She say, take me, take my money, anything you want, baby, I'm yours.'
'I find the guy sent her the letter...'
'Exactly.'
'What guy?'
'Any guy. What difference does it make? Go in the La Playa Hotel, down the end of this street, is full of guys you can use. Set the guy up--don't you know anything? Make it look like he's the guy, see. Tell him to come to her room in the hotel--somebody want to buy some poppers from him. He goes up there, you shoot him. The woman say, 'Oh, my hero, you save my life.' She give you anything you want.'
'That's how you do it, huh?'
'Listen, maybe even you use the guy you want to shoot anyway. Is it possible? If he's on drugs maybe?'
'Little shit, he's gonna need something for pain, anyhow.'
'But the best part--'
'That's if I don't put him all the way outta his misery.'
'You listening to me?'
'I thought you was through.'
'The best part,' Cundo Rey said, 'see, the woman is so ascared she pays the money. She leaves it some place the letter tells her. You comprehend? See, then you shoot the guy. The guy is dead and the police, nobody, they look in the guy's place, but nobody can find the money. You like it?'
Nobles said, 'You been reading the funnypaper, haven't you? I love to hear boogers like you talking about setting people up and shooting 'em--Lord have mercy, like you done it all and taken the midnight train more'n once, huh? Cundo, you little squirt, let's go get us something to eat.'
A place called Casa Blanca looked fine to Cundo. Nobles said he didn't feel like eating Mex. Cundo tried to tell him it was a Cuban place, there was a big difference. Nobles said dago chow was dago chow. He picked Eli's Star Deli on Collins near Fourteenth, saying he had never ate any Jew food before, he'd like to give her a try.
So they went in. Nobles had a Henny Youngman on rye, said hey, boy, sucking his teeth, and ordered a Debbie Reynolds on pumpernickel. He told Cundo, watching him pick at his cole slaw, he ate like a goddamn owl. He picked--why didn't he eat?
Cundo Rey tried Nobles with, 'See, they all in the yard, all around the embassy of Peru, all these thousands of people waiting to leave Havana when it first started, when Fidel decided okay. But they don't have no food. So you know what they ate? They ate a papaya tree, man. The whole tree. Then they ate a dog. You know what else they ate? They ate cats, man. They killed and ate the cats.'
