Nobody's Fool

forgotten all about Rub and the booth. To make matters worse, several people had come in and were waiting near the door for a booth to be vacated. They kept looking at Rub, all alone in his big one. Had the stool next to Sully been empty Rub would have made for it, but that stool was occupied, which meant he had to choose between sitting alone at a booth for six and not having a place to sit at all. His deeply furrowed expression suggested that the conundrum might be causing a cranial blood clot.
    â€œHe
has
been even more pathetic than usual this fall,” Cass had to admit. “He was in here earlier looking for you.”
    â€œI figured.”
    â€œHe ask you yet?”
    Sully shook his head. “He keeps getting interrupted. In another minute or two he’ll cry.”
    Indeed, Rub looked to be on the verge of tears when Sully finally relented and waved him over. Jumping up quickly, he came toward them at a trot, like a dog released from a difficult command.
    â€œThere’s no stool,” he said as soon as he arrived.
    Sully swiveled on his, a complete circle. “You know what? You’re right.”
    The people waiting by the door made for the booth Rub had vacated. Rub sighed deeply as he watched them take possession. “What was wrong with the booth?”
    â€œNothing,” Sully told him. “Not a goddamn thing. Booths are great, in fact.”
    Rub threw up his hands. The look on his face was pure exasperation.
    â€œThink a minute,” Sully reminded him. “What’d you just do for me over at the house?”
    Rub thought. “Tied your shoe,” he suddenly remembered.
    â€œWhich means?” Sully prompted.
    Cass set a steaming cup of coffee in front of Sully and asked Rub if he wanted any.
    â€œDon’t interrupt,” Sully told her. “He’s deep in thought.”
    â€œI never minded tying your shoe,” Rub said. “I know your knee’s hurt. I didn’t forget.” This last was delivered so unconvincingly that Sully and Cass exchanged glances.
    Rub’s spirits plunged. He remembered yesterday. “Albany.”
    â€œHow come I was in Albany?”
    â€œFor your disability.”
    â€œAnd what did they tell me?”
    Rub fell silent.
    â€œCome on, Rub. This was only yesterday, and I told you at The Horse as soon as I got back.”
    â€œI know they turned you down, Sully. Hell, I remember.”
    â€œSo what do you do first thing this morning?”
    â€œHow come you can’t just say no?” Rub said, summoning the courage to look up. The conversation had attracted exactly the sort of interest Rub had hoped to avoid over in the far booth, and everybody at the counter seemed interested in watching him squirm. “I wasn’t the one busted up your knee.”
    Sully took out his wallet, handed Rub a ten-dollar bill. “I know you didn’t,” Sully said, gently now. “I just can’t help worrying about you.”
    â€œBootsie told me to buy a turkey is all,” he explained.
    Cass came by then and refilled Sully’s cup, topped Rub’s off. “I don’t think you heard her right. She probably said you
were
a turkey.”
    Rub put the ten into his pocket. Everybody in the place was grinning at him, enjoying how hard it was for him to get ten dollars out of his best friend. He recognized in one or two of the faces the same people who, as eighth-graders, had always enjoyed the fact that he couldn’t produce his homework for Old Lady Peoples. “You’re all in cahoots against me,” he grinned sheepishly, relieved that at last the ordeal was over and he could leave. “It’s less work to go out and earn money than it is to borrow it in here.”
    â€œDid they even look at your knee yesterday?” Cass wanted to know. In the five minutes since Rub had left, the diner had emptied out. Sully was the only customer seated at the counter now, which allowed him to flex his knee. It was hard to tell, but the swelling seemed to have gone down a little. Mornings were the worst, until he got going. He didn’t really blame Rub for not understanding why he could neither sit nor stand for very long, or how if he happened to be seated the knee throbbed until he stood up, giving him only a few moments’ peace before throbbing again until he sat down, back and forth, every few minutes until he loosened up and the knee settled into ambient soreness,