Gin Palace 02 - The Bone Orchard

Augie’s, Gale had been our nurse – on the night shift during my stay, and the day during Augie’s. I knew really very little about her, though I remember laying up nights waiting for the sound of her sneakers in the hallway and guessing the details of her life beyond these walls. What I did know about her was that she was ten years older than I, that we had gone to the same high school, and that she was married to a veterinarian but had no kids. She had about her a tenderness I’ll never forget.
    She was tall and slender, built like a tennis player, and had short dark hair that I used to watch grow until she’d come in one night and it was cut back, and then I’d start watching it grow all over again. Her face was lined prematurely – she lived in the sun -- but I think it only added to her looks. She was wearing nurse scrubs and the same short haircut as usual when I spotted her down the long, bright corridor. She was at the nurse’s station, talking, and stopped mid-sentence suddenly and abruptly left when she saw me. She walked down the long corridor to meet me, surrounded by a glare that came in through the large picture window at the other end of the corridor. The light was almost blinding.
    I started toward her, my hands in my pockets. We stopped just a few feet short of each other.
    “What are you doing here?” she asked. Her reaction was a mixture of happiness and deep concern. “You look like hell.”
    “A long night.”
    She thought about that, eyeing me closely. She was never fond of the way I lived. I could smell her now – a mixture of rose water and hand cream. These smells grabbed at me like two powerful hands.
    “You okay? What’s going on?
    I didn’t know what else to do but say it.
    “Augie was arrested last night.”
    “My God, what happened?”
    “He was attacked outside his house. He shot someone, killed him.”
    “I don’t understand. It sounds like self defense. Why -- ?”
    “Augie saw a gun but the cops couldn’t find one on the scene. There’s some kind of shit going on.”
    “When isn’t there?”
    “They’re charging Augie with manslaughter.”
    “Jesus, Mac. Jesus. What can I do?”
    “Around the same time he was getting jumped, someone jumped me outside the Hansom House. I cracked his right knee hard with a bottle of Galliano. I need to know if anyone came through the emergency room last night with a busted knee.”
    “I can find that out for you. Is Augie in jail now?”
    “He should make bail and be home by this afternoon.”
    She nodded thoughtfully for a moment, then said, “You know, I’ve never seen anyone make the kind of recovery he did. He’s a tough man.”
    “That’s why we keep him around.”
    “It’s good that you two stick together like you do. You need each other, I think.”
    “They’re stacking the deck against him,” I said, “and I need to find out why and who. The man with the limp is all I have to go on. He’s my only chance at clearing Augie.”
    “I’ll find out what I can.”
    “Thanks, Gale.”
    She reached up then and gently touched my shoulder with the palm of her left hand, touched it where the scarred-over bullet wound was. I remembered all those nights talking to her as I lay in bed, listening for her in the hallway, the smell of her lingering after she was gone, her presence in my room. I remembered staring at the ring on her finger and wondering why my luck was so bad. It was painkillers and sleeping pills causing my mind to rotate into a downward spiral of self-pity, but I spent most my nights damning my life and waiting for her to walk in, and after she left, I waited for her to come back again and fought for sometimes hours against sleepiness and hopeless desire.
    After a moment Gale removed her hand and said, “How’s Tina?”
    “She’s fine. She’s her father’s daughter, I see that more and more each day.”
    “I remember how she’d come by everyday after school, around the time Augie was getting out of physical therapy. Most of the time he’d be in a bad mood and try to take it out on her, but she’d just give it right back to him, both barrels.” She smiled and laughed at that. “They deserve each other.”
    “Definitely.”
    “Your taking care of her made it easier on him, you know. I think that’s why he got better so fast. One less worry, you know. One less thought keeping him awake in the night.” She paused, then said, “Where is she now?”
    “My place.”
    “Once more unto