Nobody's Fool

lately.”
    â€œI don’t know much about it,” Sully admitted. “I know Ralph’s been in the hospital.”
    â€œIn and out,” Jocko said. “They’re about a gazillion bucks in debt. Got to be.”
    â€œI doubt it,” Sully said. “Ralph worked for the post office all those years. He’s got to be covered.”
    â€œInsurance usually gets the first eighty percent,” Jocko admitted. “You ever tried to pay the other twenty after something major?”
    â€œI’m not saying they don’t have problems,” Sully said.
    â€œI shouldn’t tell you this—” Jocko began.
    â€œThen don’t, for Christ sake,” Sully said.
    â€œOkay,” Jocko said agreeably enough.
    Sully studied him sadly. He waved at Will, who waved back. “What?” he said finally.
    â€œJust be careful of Vera if you run into her,” said Jocko, owl-eyed behind his thick glasses, unusually serious.
    â€œI’m always careful around Vera,” Sully told him. “I wear a cup, in fact.”
    â€œYou miss my point. She’s the one I worry about, not you.”
    Sully frowned. Jocko, a pharmacist, often knew medical information about people in town. “She isn’t sick?”
    â€œNot exactly,” Jocko admitted, adjusting his glasses up the bridge of his nose significantly. “If this goes any farther, you’re going to have to find a new source of pain pills.”
    Sully promised not to tell anyone.
    â€œAbout a month ago, one of my clerks caught her shoplifting. I got back just in time to keep her from being arrested.”
    â€œYou’re kidding,” Sully said, because Jocko so clearly was not kidding.
    â€œI wish.”
    â€œI can’t believe it.”
    â€œNeither could I. I took her back in the office and she came unglued. Un-fucking-glued, Sully. She scared the shit out of me. I thought she was going to have a breakdown right there. Sobbing about disgracing her father. Sixty years old, and she’s worried about ruining her father’s reputation.”
    â€œWhat’d you do?”
    â€œGave her a Valium and sent her home and told her to forget it. She hasn’t been back since. She’s shopping at the drugstore out by the interstate now.”
    Sully nodded. “No good deed ever goes unpunished.”
    â€œI’m grateful,” Jocko said as though he meant it. “When I was a kid, one of my friends stole a toy truck of mine. I saw him take it, and I could never face him afterwards. I felt more guilty than if I stole
his
truck.”
    Will met them at the back door. He was holding a ticket. Sully had given the boy his triple ticket the day before to hold on to for luck. Sully couldn’t quite read yesterday’s results from where they were standing. “What was yesterday?” he asked Jocko.
    â€œFour-five-seven.”
    Sully nodded, took the ticket from Will, glancing at it with disinterest.“I haven’t been off the schnide all week. You’re supposed to be able to pick one of the three, aren’t you?”
    â€œJust as well you didn’t hit yesterday,” Jocko commiserated. “The payoff would have just pissed you off. Nice two-eight daily double, though, for the magician who could have picked it.”
    Sully blinked at the ticket Will had handed him. Two-eight, it said. “Here’s the magician right here,” he told Jocko. He’d completely forgotten he’d bought the boy a ticket, let him pick the numbers. In fact, he’d been about to tear the ticket up.
    Jocko examined the ticket, then the board, then Will, who was beaming and blushing. “That’s the genuine article. Hundred and eighty-seven fifty.”
    â€œHow do you like that?” Sully said. “You’re rich.”
    Jocko handed Will his racing form. “Who do you like today, kid?”
    Sully and the boy had been sitting outside at the curb for nearly five minutes when Rub, who had all kinds of things to tell Sully, couldn’t take it any longer. First Sully didn’t come, and then he still didn’t, and then he finally did come, and now he was finally here but still wouldn’t get out of the car. A lot had happened since Rub and Peter had left Hattie’s over three hours ago, and Rub didn’t approve of any of it. It wasn’t bad enough that Peter had just gone off like he was the boss and could give himself