my privates. Actually, that reminds me of a good one. This mom, she finds her kids playing doctor on the back porch, and she says to them, When Daddy gets home you’re going to get a good licking! Which is what-Oh, wait. Damn.
— I’m going to get you a joke book or something, said Lee.
— I know so many good ones but I frig them up every time.
Sylvain barked at the town kid: Were you born like this or what?
Then he stood up from the string-line and started walking towards his truck. As he passed Lee and Bud, he said: Another smoke break, eh, boys?
— I see you got yourself a helper, said Lee.
— I’d hire you two if I wanted to lose money till next summer.
The familiar feeling overtook Lee quickly. He pushed away from the wall and flung his cigarette down in one motion. He turned the carving knife, held it up, and then pitched it into the ground a pace away from Sylvain’s boots. The blade didn’t catch the dirt and the knife bounced aside.
— Do you have a fucking problem with me?
— Lee, said Bud.
— Shut up.
But Sylvain just clicked his tongue against his teeth. He took on a slow smile. He reached out and clapped Lee on the arm: Mon frere, a long time I was worried about you. Now, I don’t worry.
He carried on towards his truck, laughing. Bud skirted around Lee and picked the carving knife up from the ground. Lee balled his hands into fists and squeezed them and then let them go slowly. He took a long breath and held it in the pit of his stomach and then released it. It had been a long time since the anger had taken hold of him like it just had. He tried not to think about that too much.
— Oh boy, said Bud. Oh boy. Okay. I guess we can do more work now.
— I’m going to have another smoke.
— It’s … you know, one an hour.
— I’m going to have another smoke. Do you want one?
He offered his pack and Bud took one.
When Sylvain came back from the truck he tipped Lee a wink as he passed them by, and then he yelled at the hired kid to quit screwing around.
That evening Lee took Helen to the Chateau Royale steakhouse on the other side of the town docks. As they went inside, she was smiling at him over her shoulder. His fingertips were in the small of her back. They were greeted with smells of searing meat, and they were shown to a table towards the rear of the dining room. Helen looked at the table and looked at the back of the restaurant and she voiced a faint, thoughtful sound, as if something were on her mind. Whatever it was, she didn’t say it.
Lee hung his jean jacket on the back of his chair and sat down. The steakhouse’s red interior walls were hung with paintings of castles, pastoral scenes, bullfighters. Just above their table was a picture of a lone parapet on a hill.
— I’ve never been here, said Helen.
— Me neither. I walked by it a couple times. I thought it looked like a good place.
A waitress came and asked what they would have to drink. Helen asked for a white wine. Lee asked for a Coca-Cola. The waitress left them.
— You could have a glass of wine with me. White wine is like not drinking at all.
— That’s okay. I’ll stick with the cola.
— Look at where we are.
— Where we are?
— Look at where we’re sitting. I mean, really.
— This place is alright. It’s nice. They got all the right smells for me.
The waitress came with their drinks on a tray. Helen gestured for Lee to order first. He asked for a striploin well done and a baked potato. Helen ordered the surf ‘n’ turf. She winked at him, told him sometimes you just had to spoil yourself. They lit cigarettes after the waitress had gone again.
— How was work? said Helen.
— We put up insulation all day. I had to have a cold shower for the itch to go away.
She nodded, drank her wine.
— I saw a guy I knew, said Lee. A long time ago. Before I went up. He didn’t look much different. We talked a bit. I don’t know what he’s doing. Probably got hitched and had some kids.
— Do you wish that was you?
— What?
— Do you wish you’d gotten hitched and had a couple kids?
— I don’t know, said Lee. It’s an idea I never gave any thought to. Who’d want me as their old man?
— Parents, well, it takes a certain kind, doesn’t it. Look, Brown Eyes, if you’re meant to have a family, you will. Everything happens for a reason. Karma.
— My sister and her kids, I don’t know, it seems like a lot of craziness to have kids tearing around all the time. But I guess I don’t mind it, either. It’s kind of what you’re supposed to do. Some of the cons I was in with, they had their wives and their kids come to visit them and whatnot. It would have been good to have that … Anyhow, look, I’m not saying I’m dying to have a family. All I’m saying was I saw that guy. His life went one way and mine went the other.
The waitress came with their suppers on wooden cutting boards. Helen asked for another glass of wine. Lee broke open his potato and started to pile it onto the steak. He piled the vegetables on as well and drowned it all in A1 sauce.
— Oh, said Helen. Really.
He looked up at her. The cutting board before her was loaded with steamed vegetables, an eight-ounce steak, and four shrimp. She’d cut off a chunk of the steak and was holding it up for him to look at.
— Does that look rare to you?
— It’s pink, said Lee.
The waitress returned with Helen’s wine.
— This is not rare, said Helen. I asked for rare.
The waitress set the wine down.
— I’m real sorry about that. I’ll get it taken care of.
The waitress took Helen’s meal and went back in the direction of the kitchen. Lee sat for a moment and then put his knife and fork down.
— You may as well go ahead, said Helen. You must be hungry. Doesn’t look like they messed yours up too bad.
Lee started into his supper. He talked around mouthfuls of food: My sister and her husband said they want to meet you. They want to meet this gal I told them about.
— This gal, is that right? Anyway, I see you haven’t given up on the idea that somebody might try to snatch your food. Look at that, you’re halfway through already.
— I was hungry.
He felt her foot against his leg.
— I can see that. So do your sister and her husband drink? Or are they straight-arrows like you?
— Straight-arrows, huh. No, they don’t drink either. I thought I told you, he’s a pastor. He preaches at, what’s it called, Galilee Tabernacle.
When Helen’s supper came back she made the waitress wait till she’d checked the meat for rareness. Then she ordered another glass of wine.
She was barely starting her meal as Lee was finishing his.
— That was good, said Lee.
— You eat everything. You eat the fat.
— Hey, you take a look at what they fed me for seventeen years. You’d eat everything too. I’d eat that damn bone if I could. How’s yours?
