Sometimes they would ask him what he was grinning about. He hadn't told any of them yet-but he might.
He remembered the girl. Her car was old, but big, with lots of room, even up front. It had a muffler problem, but what Cooper remembered best was that she let him drive and got him onto the highway and then urged him on until he was going fast, so fast he couldn't do anything but drive. She kept telling him to go faster and faster and that's when she did the amazing thing and slipped down on that big front seat and told him to pay attention to his driving or he'd kill them both. But it was very hard to pay attention to his driving with her doing that to him, and she wasn't just teasing about it either. She went at him Re she was starved, with all kinds of moans and sloppy noises which he thought were probably words but he couldn't make them out because of what she was doing and he didn't know why she'd bother talking then anyway. But she was very good at it. And fast, so fast he hardly got to the part where he thought about how easy it would be to kill her before he was finished. Cooper tried to watch the road, but he swerved badly a couple of times towards the end and nearly put them into the ditch.
When he howled and cried out at the finish, she lifted up from the seat, wiping her face and laughing.
'I gather you liked that,' she said, still laughing. 'Either that or you got it caught in the zipper.'
She was slouched against her door now, looking real pleased with herself. Her blouse was open and he saw her reach her hand inside.
'Keep driving,' she said.
'Where?' he asked.
'See, that part's easy,' she said. 'You just point the car and the road'Il take you where it's going.'
Cooper didn't like her tone of voice now, but after a minute she slid her naked foot across the seat and started playing with his leg with her toes. He didn't remember seeing her ever take her boots off.
She was kind of purring now and her hand was working under her blouse but Cooper didn't like being touched so soon after and he felt like kicking her out of the car while they were speeding along.
'I could kill you, you know,' he said.
'You're about to get your chance, sugar,' she said.
Her foot was now in his lap, but what she thought she was going to accomplish with her heel was a mystery to Cooper. Grinding it around like that now just annoyed him.
'Uh huh,' he said.
'My turn,' she said.
Cooper looked at her face. If she thought he was going to do what she had just done, she must be even crazier than she was acting.
'Keep your eyes on the road,' she said. 'I'll show you where to turn off.'
He pulled the car onto a dirt lane that wasn't much wider than the car itself and that was the first time Cooper explored the piney woods.
Walking to work, he grinned at the memory.
The retard with the bug eyes was all right, Cooper liked him, he decided. He just smiled a lot and said friendly things and never tried to give Cooper advice and never made comments on how he was doing. But the guy who hung around the french-fry vat, Lyle, Kyle, whatever his name was, was beginning to be a real pain in the, ass.
Cooper had seen his kind before. He was scared shitless of Cooper-the only sign that he had any sense at allbut was trying like crazy to be friends with him. Cooper just knew he was going to have to hurt him some, if only to stop him trying to be a buddy. Cooper didn't want Kyle for a buddy, he didn't need some pimple-faced teenager for a pal, the kid didn't know his ass from a sandwich bun. If Cooper hurt him some, the kid would stop trying to be so chummy, and it would also serve to make him realize that Cooper really was dangerous. Once they thought he wasn't dangerous, they would think they could do and say anything, make fun of him any way they liked.
'Where's that girl I saw you with?' he was saying now, winking at Cooper like they shared a secret.
'Who?'
'The one I saw you with,' Kyle said.
'You never saw me with a girl,' Cooper said.
'Yeah, I did,' Kyle insisted. 'You drove off in her car. An Oldsmobile about a hundred years old.'
Cooper did not think anyone had seen him with the girl.
Kyle slipped an order of frozen potato slices into the simmering fat, which convulsed briefly with a subdued hiss.
'What was her name?' Kyle asked.
'I don't know,' Cooper said, honestly.
'Sure you do. Mayvis, ain't it? I see her around here a lot. She's a real beauty, ain't she?'
Cooper pulled the rubber garbage can from under the counter and dragged it towards the door. It wasn't really his job, it belonged to the reetard, but Coop needed to get out of that kitchen. How come he hadn't noticed Kyle watching him when he drove off with the girl?
'She's okay,' Cooper said.
'What did you do with her?' Kyle asked, his voice insinuating all kinds of things.
Cooper looked up from the garbage to stare at the kid.
He wondered if he shoved the boy's hand into the boiling fat if that would shut him up.
'Something,' Cooper said.
'I just bet you did,' the kid said, and winked again.
Then, to anyone else in the kitchen who wanted to hear, he said, 'I just bet old COOP did something mighty interesting with Mayvis.'
Somebody grunted something which Kyle took as encouragement to continue.
'He did it so good she hasn't come back,' Kyle said.
'Ain't that right, Coop?'
Cooper thought of shoving the boy's whole head into the french-fry vat, but instead he lifted the garbage can in his arms and backed out the door.
'Where'd you leave her?' Kyle persisted. 'Some of rest of us would like to find her.'
'Somewhere,' said Cooper. The screen door was yanked shut by its hinges, but Cooper could still hear them talking about him.
Clamden's chief of police loped heavily after the soccer ball, holding on to his holster with one hand while the rest of the paraphernalia on his belt-radio, baton, keys, cuffs-slapped against his hips and butt.
'You destroy the myth of the graceful fat man,' Becker said.
Tee swung mightily at the ball, catching it glancingly off the side of his boot so that it dribbled ineffectively in the general direction of Becker.
'Not fat,' Tee puffed. 'That's a paunch. It's a sign of respectability.'
'You're getting awfully respectable,' Becker said. He got to the ball in a few quick steps and rerouted it towards Jack.
Tee patted his stomach affectionately. 'Think of it as a symbol of authority,' he said. 'Underneath all this flesh and equipment, I'm lean as a whippet. The uniform is very misleading. Right, Jack?'
Jack grunted something that could have been agreement as he concentrated on the ball, his mouth open with the effort. He and Tee had basically the same skill level, and each had been kicking a ball about the same amount of time.
'Your basic criminal type is skinny,' Tee was explaining. 'Righteous bulk just naturally intimidates him.'
Jack kicked the ball to Becker and once again Becker deflected it to Tee with apparent ease. The guy was like one of those flippers in a pinball machine, Tee thought.
He barely touched the ball, hardly kissed it, and it seemed exactly where he wanted and with speed and power.
He was, once again, impressed by the easy athleticism of his friend.
Tee kicked another shot and laughed at himself.
'I'm more of a football player,' he said. 'This is a damned European game. Whoever heard of not using your hands? It's unnatural.'
'Most popular sport in the world,' Becker said, dancing to the ball and flicking it over to Jack.
'Oh, sure, the world. What do they know?'
'Speaking of your basic criminal,' Becker said.
'Now you're talking,' Tee said. 'I know him well. I can pick him out of a crowd by the dishonest way he looks
