Pop. 1280

'Aw, pshaw,' I said. 'Comes to that, Ken, I ain't forgetting all the things you've done, neither.'

'Well, anyways, I'm obliged to you,' he said.

'Why, it was a positive pleasure doin' it,' I said. 'A positive pleasure, and that's a fact.'

8

Ken showed up at breakfast time the next morning, looking mighty peaked and pale and wrung-out. But all shook-up as he was, he managed to toss a lot of flattery at Myra and to say a few kind words to Lennie, so she treated him pretty nice. Not real nice, because she knew he'd spent the night in the whorehouse-which was the only place he could have spent it-but as nice as a lady could treat a gentleman under the circumstances. She kept urging him to have something to eat, and Ken kept turning it down with thanks and saying that he hardly ever et anything in the morning but just a little coffee, which was all he wanted now.

'I got to watch my weight, ma'am,' he said. 'I ain't got a naturally handsome figure like you and your fine-looking brother.'

Lennie giggled and spit at him; feelin' pleased, you know. Myra blushed and said he was just a great big flatterer.

'Me? Me, flatter a woman?' Ken said. 'Why, I never heard the like!'

'Oh, you! You know I don't have a really good figure.'

'Well, maybe not. But that's because you ain't fully developed yet,' Ken said. 'You're still a young girl.'

'Tee-hee,' Myra giggled. 'You awful thing, you!'

'You just wait until you fill out a little,' Ken said. 'Wait until you're as old as your brother.'

Well, sir, lies like that can take a lot out of a man even when he's feeling good. Which Ken sure wasn't. He was just carrying on out of habit, and from the looks of him he was just about to the end of his rope. Fortunately, it seemed to occur to Myra about then that she was being a little too friendly with Ken and that she was letting him get pretty gay with her. So she froze up all of a sudden, and started clearing away the dishes. And Ken said his thank-yous and goodbyes, and I got him downstairs to my office.

I handed him a quart bottle of white whiskey. He took a long, long drink, gagged, gulped and leaned back in his chair. Sweat popped out on his forehead. He shuddered all over, and his face turned a few shades whiter. For a minute! thought he was going to be one sick man; all that lying and flattering to Myra had been just too much for him. Then, all at once, the color flooded back into his face, and he stopped sweating and shaking. And he drew a long, deep sigh.

'God-dang!' he said softly. 'I shore needed that.'

'Fella can't ride a horse with one stirrup,' I said. 'Have another one, Ken.'

'Well, god-dang it,' he said. 'God-dang it, Nick, I don't care if I do.'

He had a couple of more drinks, which brought the bottle down to about the halfway level. Then he said he guessed he'd better slow down a little bit. And I told him to just take his time, he couldn't get a train back home for a couple of hours yet.

We sat there for a minute or two, not saying much of anything. He looked at me and looked away again, and a kind of shy-sly look came over his face.

'Mighty handsome young fella your brother-in-law,' he said. 'Yes, sir, mighty handsome.'

'And he's an idjit,' I said. 'Anyways, he sure ain't quite right in the head.'

Ken nodded and said, yeah, he'd noticed that. 'But maybe that might not make too much difference to a certain kind of woman, you know, Nick? Say a woman that was a lot older than he was. A woman that was pretty ugly and pretty apt to stay that way.'

'Well, I just don't know about that,' I said. 'I wouldn't say you were wrong but I sure wouldn't say you was right either.'

'Well, maybe that's because you ain't real bright,' Ken said. 'Why, I'll bet you there's a woman right in this town that would really pree-fer Lennie to a fella like you. I ain't saying that you ain't a plenty good lookin' fella yourself, but probably you ain't got as long a dingle-dangle as he has-they tell me them idjits are hung like a stud-hoss. And, anyways-'

'Well, now, I don't know about that,' I said. 'I ain't never had any complaints in that department yet.'

'Shut up when I'm talkin'!' Ken said. 'Shut up and maybe you'll learn somethin'! I was about to say that everything else being equal, which I doubt like hell in your case because all of them idjits have got dongs you could skip rope with, but-but irregardless of that a woman still might rather have a dummy pour it on her than a normal fella. Because she don't have to put on for him, know what I mean? She can boss him around. She can be just as haggy as all hell and twice as mean, and she can still get what she needs.'

I scratched my head and said, well, maybe so. But I still thought he was wrong about Lennie. 'I know for a fact that there ain't no woman in this town that's got any use for him. They pretend that they do, to keep on the good side of Myra, but I know they all hate his guts.'

'All of 'em! '

'All of 'em. Except Myra, of course. His sister.'

Ken snorted and ran his hand over his mouth. Then, he kind of got a grip on himself, and his talk slowed down a little. But he still couldn't get off the subject.

'Ain't much family resemblance between Lennie and your wife. Hardly know they was brother an' sister unless someone told you.'

'That's right, I guess,' I said. 'Can't say that I ever thought much about it.'

But I had thought about it. Yessir, I'd thought plenty about it.

'Was you acquainted with Lennie before you married? Know that you was goin' to have a idjit for a brother-in-law?'

'Well, no, I didn't,' I said. 'I didn't even know that Myra had a brother until afterwards. Came as quite a surprise for me.'

'Uh-hah!' Ken snorted. 'Well, don't be surprised if you get another surprise some time, Nick. No, sir, don't you be surprised at all.'

'What?' I said. 'How do you mean, Ken?'

He shook his head, not answering me, and broke out laughing. I laughed right along with him.

Because it was a pretty good joke, you see. I was a joke. And maybe I couldn't do anything about it right now, but I figured I would some day.

Ken took a couple more long drinks. I stood up and said maybe we'd better be going. 'Got quite a little walk to the station, and I want you to meet a few fellas. Be a big treat for 'em to meet a big-city sheriff like you.'

'Why, now, I bet it would be that,' Ken said, staggering to his feet. 'Prob'ly ain't every day they get to meet a real man in a pisspot of a town like this.'

'Tell 'em how you took care of them two pimps,' I said. 'They'll be right impressed hearin' how you took on two pimps all by yourself, and gave 'em what-for.'

He blinked at me owlishly. He said, what pimps, what the god-danged hell was! talking about, anyway? I said, the pimps I'd warned him about last night-the two that were bound to try to give him some trouble.

'Huh?' he said. 'What? Did you tell me somethin' like that?'

'You mean you let 'em get away with it?' I said. 'Ken Lacey took dirt from a couple of low-down