“Just his pride,” I said. “And maybe one of the two brain cells he had. That leaves him one so he knows how not to shit himself. Now, come on.”
Donny looked at Smoke Stack, then at me. “I don’t know.”
“We had a deal. You can come, or Leonard here will pistol whip the goddamn shit out of you and we’ll take you anyway. You can go without knots and bruises, or we can fix you up. You get to choose. And you get to choose right now.”
Donny nodded.
“We’ll be taking all your guns,” Leonard said. “We’re gonna make Donny crawl under the porch and bring them out. He’s going to do that without pulling one, so that way we don’t have to shoot him. You can check for your pistols at the bottom of assorted lakes, creeks and rivers. And if you follow us, I will personally shoot holes in your head and when they find you, your guns will be shoved up your asses.”
WHEN WE WERE in the car, Donny seated in back, said, “But he was so much bigger.”
“David and Goliath,” I said. “Ever read that passage in the Bible?”
“No. What’s it mean?”
“It means David got lucky,” I said.
“Only Hap wasn’t lucky,” Leonard said. “He was skilled. Smoke Stack, he’s got big arms and a big mouth, but he was gonna get you killed, kid. We done you a favor, and you don’t even know it.”
“I don’t believe that,” Donny said, but his voice didn’t hold a lot of conviction.
“Yeah, well, you can be stupid, or you can be lucky, and right now, you’re goddamn lucky,” Leonard said.
“I didn’t think anyone could do that to Smoke Stack,” Donny said.
“Your problem, kid,” Leonard said, “is you haven’t been doing a whole lot of thinkin’, just reactin’, and you hadn’t been around long enough to know life ain’t like the movies. I get the whole lost-your-parents thing. Been there. But that don’t have to turn you stupid. That’s a choice, like wearing green stretch pants. You don’t have to do it.”
“My brother shouldn’t have done this,” he said. “He shouldn’t have asked you guys to do this.”
“Woulda, shoulda, coulda,” I said. “We’re trying to save you from yourself. But, we got a time limit, boy. You fuck it up later, then we done what we could. You can go back to being stupid and probably shot to death in a car out in the woods. But, for right now, we got other plans.”
“What plans?” Donny said.
“Pancakes,” Leonard said.
WE WENT TO my place and made pancakes. It was late by the time we did, and Brett came in. She was carrying a newspaper. She saw Donny sitting at the kitchen table with a large glass of milk and a plate of pancakes covered in syrup. He was eating heartily. Leonard sat across from him with a Dr Pepper. Leonard thought Dr Pepper went with most anything. Brett nodded at Leonard and Donny, said to me, “So, you found a child in the yard and took him in to raise.”
“Found him under a rock,” I said. “Can we keep him? We’ll build him a pen out back.”
She smiled at me. “We’ll think it over. You got any more pancake batter?”
“Coming right up, banana pancakes,” I said. “I should work at IHOP I’m so good at this.”
I went about making her pancakes. While I did, she sat at the table and looked at Leonard for an explanation. Leonard told her all about it.
Brett looked at Donny, said, “Honey, you could have been in some real trouble.”
“I just wanted to make some money.” he said, and the way he looked at her it was hard to determine if he was seeing a sister figure, a mother, or someone he wished he was old enough to date. Brett had that effect on people.
“So taking someone else’s money is okay so you can have some?” she said.
“Smoke Stack said it’s not someone’s money if they can’t keep it,” Donny said. “And besides, that’s bank money, it’s insured.”
“Someone pays out the insurance, baby boy,” she said, “and that might be me if I bank there.” She picked up the newspaper and hit him a pretty good whack in the back of the head. “Bad dog. Bad, bad dog.”
Donny lowered his eyes, said, “I didn’t think about it like that.”
“You haven’t been thinking,” she said. “You been hearing some bullshit, is what you been hearing, and I got to say, for you to take it as fact, you must want to believe it. There’s people born stupid, but you’re one of those Hap calls the Happily Stupid. They believe what they hear, not what they investigate or think about. They’re the ones that don’t listen to news, they listen to opinions and editorials and think it’s news. Rumors and lies and sometimes the truth. It’s all the same to them.”
“I haven’t had it so good,” Donny said.
“So, you’re like a special case?” Leonard said.
“Ain’t no one matters but yourself,” Donny said. “That’s what Smoke Stack told me.”
“Then that means you don’t matter much to him,” I said. “He’s telling you the truth when it comes to his philosophy. He doesn’t care about you or anyone else. You’re just a cog in the machine, and he wouldn’t mind replacing you with another cog at the drop of a hat.”
I put Brett’s pancakes in front of her and heated up the syrup a little in the microwave. I brought it to her and then got her a cold glass of milk. I sat down across from her.
When I sat, I put my hands in front of me, clasped together, and Brett said, “You okay, Hap?”
“I cut my knuckles.”
I held them out for her to see.
“So you did.”
“I think I can use some sympathy.”
“We’ll talk about it when we go to bed,” Brett said.
WHAT WE ENDED up doing was not going to bed right away, but calling Marvin, and getting him out of bed, and pissing him off, but he came over anyway. He came over with the information about the body found in the woods, and in fact, he had gotten a copy of a photograph from one his cop friends, had it in a big yellow envelope. We didn’t look at it right away.
Once he had some of my pancakes, his attitude was better. We went into the living room, and Marvin told Donny some of what he knew. He took the photo out of the envelope and showed it to Donny. It was a clear photo of a man behind the wheel of a car. He had a hole in his forehead, and he was swollen up so bad his shirt collar had rolled into the swell of his neck. Insects had been at him, and a string of ants were clearly visible crawling into his nose.
“No gun was found,” Marvin said. “He didn’t shoot himself.”
“That could be anyone at anytime,” Donny said.
“Yeah, it could,” Marvin said. “It’s a possibility it is someone unrelated to your buddy Smoke Stack. It could be a pumpkin painted up to look like a man. But I don’t think so. Timing’s right, the description of the car fits.”
“There’s lots of cars like that one,” Donny said.
“You got me there, kid. You’re bound and determined to get yourself killed. So have at it. You want to take the chance it’s not connected, that’s your bailiwick. Me, I’m going home.”
Marvin stood up, leaving the photograph on the coffee table.
On his way out, Marvin picked his hat and cane off the back of a chair, said, “Nice knowing you, kid. Next time I see you, it’ll be in a photograph like that one.”
Marvin went out and closed the door.
“Bullshit,” Donny said.
“He’s just trying to help,” Brett said.
“He’s trying to scare me,” Donny said.
“Yeah,” I said, “he is. I hope it’s working. You damn well better be scared. This is some serious business we’re talking about. Smoke Stack, he’s a loser. He’s so cool and important, why’s he live in that shithole and have a bunch of other losers hanging around him, and that includes you. But it doesn’t have to.”
“He does all right,” Donny said.
