But Johnny hadn’t cared about any of that. In fact, other than money, women, and guns, Johnny hadn’t cared much about anything. I couldn’t even remember how I’d gotten hooked up with the family anymore, but after seven years of dealing with them the money barely made it worth it.
And now, thanks to Johnny buying it on the operating table, I couldn’t sleep through the night.
Twenty minutes later Angela brought the bill and hurried off to seat a chattering group of tennis-playing house wives who’d just walked in. I set a twenty on the bill, got up, and pushed my chair in. The bill blew off the table onto the gray, carpeted floor and I picked it up and put it back on. The slight breeze from the ceiling fan didn’t seem strong enough to blow the bill off the table, but who the hell knew? I picked the money up and put it back on the table. I started to turn and the corner of my eye caught the bill blowing off the table again. I shook my head and looked at. Picking it up again, I put it on the table and slapped the empty glass over it. The bill stayed still.
I really needed a vacation.
Southern Utah was supposed to be nice this time of year.
I spent the rest of the afternoon with Jane, my administrator, at the practice. At 3:30 my cell phone rang. It was Vince, Johnny’s brother. This wouldn’t be fun. Vince questioned me over what happened to Johnny like a pit bull that’d just learned to speak English. I explained that the bullet had ruptured Johnny’s internal organs and nothing could be done. Vince hung up and so did I.
I looked at Jane and told her she could take off for the weekend. She grabbed her coat and left and I started to check over some paperwork when a high-pitched sound came out of the break room down the hall. I hurried to the break room and saw an empty coffee pot sizzling on the coffee maker. I turned the coffee maker off and took off the pot. Black burn marks covered the bottom of the glass and I ran it under cold water. Smoke flared from the pot and when it died out I set it in the sink. It was really hard to imagine Jane leaving the pot on the coffee maker like that, but as out of it as I’d been for all I knew I could have done it myself.
My phone rang again and I took it out of my pocket and looked at the screen. It was Johnny’s number. I watched the number blink as the phone rang and after a few seconds the voice mail light went on. About twenty seconds later the light went off. I hit play on the voice mail and a blur of static twisted into my ear. I hung up and deleted it.
I’d worked seventy hours this past week and that included the Johnny thing. I didn’t want to deal with any of these guys anymore and it wasn’t like any of them really had anything on me to force me to keep being their after-hours doc.
But these weren’t easy people to walk away from.
I closed down the office and drove home. I was meeting Star, my semi-girlfriend for dinner tonight and I wanted to get a workout in and shower up. I got home and when I walked in the house it was like I’d stepped into a sauna. I checked the thermostat but the AC was at its usual sixty-seven degrees. My skin suddenly felt cooler and I could feel the cool breeze from the vent on the wall above me. Just tired and stressed, I guessed. I got my workout in and then swam for a bit before hitting the shower.
That night at dinner, I couldn’t focus and my eyes kept shifting. Johnny’s guys knew this place. They came here a couple of times a month to blow off steam and although I didn’t recognize any faces, there were enough sharkskin suits to make me nervous. The waiter came and I ordered a Jack and coke. A minute later the waiter returned with it and I took a sip and looked around the restaurant. When I looked back half the drink was gone.
“Did you take a drink of that?” I asked Star.
She stared at me with her big green eyes like I’d started juggling the silverware. “No, Michael, you did.”
I was pretty sure I hadn’t.
“Did you see me take a drink?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said flipping her hand in the air, “I wasn’t really watching. But who in the hell else would have?” Star picked up her glass of wine and slightly shook her head as she took a sip.
I rubbed the side of my face. “I’m going to go to the bar for a second, do you want anything?” I asked.
She shook her head and I got up and walked to the sleek black bar at the front of the restaurant. The stools were all taken by men in thousand-dollar suits and their leggy dates. I walked up behind a guy in a tan suit and his date, who was wearing a shiny silver dress.
As I watched the bartender mixing drinks, a thick-necked guy sidled up to me. I could see in the corner of my eye that his black suit wrapped around his powerful frame like a scuba suit and he reeked of cologne. “Don’t make me ever hear your voice mail again,” a rough voice said.
“Look, pal,” I said, turning to him. There was no one there; all I saw was a waiter scurry by and a couple of twenty-something girls in black dresses giggling over their phone a few feet away. I rubbed my forehead. Now I’m having conversations with guys
