over the snooty clerk at the gas station, and it sounded as if it was scraping against the tire. He could steal one from somebody else, but not this late at night, not unless he got real lucky and saw someone just getting into or out of a car. He had never learned how to steal a car without a key. Somebody had tried to explain it to him once, but Cooper found it confusing and far too much trouble when all you really had to do was take somebody's key away from him. He decided to wait until morning when lots of people were getting in and out of cars, then he would drive back to that Dairy Queen where he had seen that girl. She was a cute little girl with her hair all braided like that. She didn't look anything like Mayvis, but she smiled when she took his order and seemed real helpful.
He wondered if he couldn't get her to help him the way Mayvis did and then maybe she'd do some of the other things Mayvis did for him. He had already found a good place in the woods where he could take her.
The Reverend Tommy was more agitated than usual when he finally returned to the trailer after the show and the increasingly extended meeting with fans and converts that succeeded the revival meeting itself He should — never have let Aural do any actual healing. Now that she helped him out by laying on hands, the people could not get enough of her.
'Did you see her tonight?' Rae did not need to be told that he was referring to Aural.
'During the show? Of course.'
'No, not during the show. Afterwards-did you see her afterwards?'
'No, darling, I hurried back here to get ready for you.'
Rae was wearing a new magenta teddy and she touched it with both hands, hoping for a reaction. She didn't think the color was the best for her complexion, but Aural had helped her to find one that was cut long enough to hide the thickest part of her thighs and it was available only in magenta.
'Well, you won't believe what she's up to now,' he said, paying no notice to her lingerie.
'What is it?' Rae asked cautiously. Tommy expected Rae to share his outrage over Aural's ever-rising stature, but Rae not only liked Aural, she was becoming increasingly indebted to her for her tips on how to make Tommy her sex slave. His bondage was a long way from complete, but Rae felt she was making progress. He hadn't noticed the teddy yet, but he might later when he took it off her.
'She was standing on a box, ' Tommy said. 'Can you believe that? A goddamned box.'
'She was standing on a box?'
'Don't you get it? The box makes her taller, taller than anybody. There she is, her head above everyone's, her goddamned little face shining like she's an angel. She does enough of that onstage. The last thing I need is for her to be carrying a box around so everyone can gawk at her offstage, too.'
'You think it was her box?'
'Of course it was her box, Rae. You normally see any boxes outside the tent after a show? Boxes don't just grow out of the ground, they don't just materialize. She put it there, she planted the damned thing so she'd be taller than me.'
'Maybe someone brought it for her? One of her fans?'
'None of my fans come equipped with boxes, do they, Rae? That just isn't the kind of thing people bring with them to a show. We're not crating oranges here, you know. How come you take her side, how come you're always defending her?'
'I'm not defending her, Tommy. She certainly shouldn't have brought a box, that's for sure.'
'You're on her side, ain't you?'
' 'Course not…'
'Why not? Everybody's on the side of the angel-hahhah, some pun. You might's well team up with her, too.'
'I'm on your side, darling.' Rae fumbled with his belt with one hand while rubbing him with the other. 'For Christ's sake, lay off, Rae.
Can't you see I'm upset here? I'm too mad to fuck.'
I 'I'm just trying to comfort you, Tommy.'
Rae continued to work on his belt. Aural had told her of the value of discreet insistence. Any healthy man, according to Aural, could be diverted from just about anything else in life by his erect organ if a woman went about It in the right way.
'Well, I've got a little surprise coming for our sweet angel-face,'
Tommy said. He allowed Rae to pull his pants to his ankles, scarcely noticing. 'She's going to have a visitor pretty soon.'
'Who's that, honey?'
'let's just say he ain't her biggest fan,' Tommy said, laughing. 'You might call him her anti-fan.'
Rae slipped her hand down the back of the Reverend Tommy'.s shorts with a conviction taught to her by Aural.
It was not a move she would ever have thought of making on her own. She wiggled her finger a few times. That got Tommy's attention.
'Whoa!' he said, but he didn't mean stop. As it turned out, Tommy wasn't too mad to fuck after all.
The next morning, after the Reverend had gone out and she and Aural were sharing coffee in her trailer, Rae told her what Tommy had said about her anti-fan. Aural had shrugged.
'What is that suppose to mean?'
'He said it like it was the anti-Christ or something,' Rae explained.
'He's sicking the devil on me, is that it'? The man's been preaching too long-he's beginning to believe it himself.'
'it didn't sound good, Aural,' Rae said. 'He laughed when he said it, but he wasn't joking. I think he's up to something. You best be careful.'
'My anti-fan? Sugar, I don't know what that means, but unless it's got a couple of heads, I'm not too worried.' Aural patted her boot, and when Rae wrinkled her brow in puzzlement, Aural showed her the knife for the first time. She pulled it loose from the Velcro strip and held it in her palm.
'Honey, what is that for?' Rae asked, shocked.
'Whatever is necessary,' Aural said. 'You can imagine.'
'Well, no, I can't.'
'What world have you been living in?' Aural demanded. 'You mean to say you don't carry anything to defend yourself with?'
'Defend myself from what?'
'Well, the Reverend Tommy, for starters.'
'Honey, the Reverend and I are getting on real well, thanks to you.'
'Sure-now. That don't never last. What do you expect to do if he takes it into his mind to beat on you?'
Rae paused, considering her loyalties in the matter. It was not a fierce struggle. 'He has done that from time to time. But only when he was upset.'
'Figures. And what did you do about it?'
'What was I supposed to do?'
'There's lots of options. What did you do, Rae?'
'Nothing.'
'Nothing? Just let him beat on you?'
'I asked him to stop.'
'Rae, in my opinion doing nothing is not an option.'
She held up the knife. 'This is an option.'
'I couldn't.'
'He don't have to know that. Make him wonder. You never know, it might just add a little spice.'
'He's so much stronger..
'He's got to sleep sometimes, don't he? Just remind him about the lady who cut her husband's dick off and threw it in the vacant lot.'
'She didn't.'
'Bless her heart, she did. It was all over the papers and teevee. You didn't see that? It just naturally perked up every woman I know. I tell you what, the good Reverend has heard about it even if you ain't. You can just bet them old boys is whispering to each other all across the country, 'Guard your pecker at night-and for God's sake
