Nobody's Fool

up.”
    â€œOh,” Sully said. “That’s why.”
    â€œWhy were you driving up the sidewalk, Sully?” Carl persisted. “You ragged Rub until even he couldn’t stand it any more, and you still couldn’t let it alone. You had to make it worse. You had to completely humiliate that poor simple little fuck.”
    â€œI don’t believe I’m hearing this from you,” Sully said. “When have you ever done anything but insult him?”
    â€œThere’s a difference, Sully,” Carl said without the slightest hint of hypocrisy.
    â€œWhat difference is that, Carl?” Sully said, flicking the remains of his cigarette. “Tell me why your ragging is okay and mine isn’t, because I want to hear this.”
    â€œBecause he’s not in love with me,” Carl said.
    â€œGet the fuck away,” Sully said, genuinely furious now, sliding off the tailgate. “He’s no more queer than you.”
    â€œI know it,” Carl said. “But he’d blow you on the four corners at high noon if you asked him to, and
you
know that, Sully.”
    In fact, Sully did know it, or knew the power of Rub’s devotion. It was this knowledge, in fact, that had caused him to follow Rub up the sidewalk, hoping to joke him back into their friendship, something he’d always been able to do in the past. It had not been, as Carl had suggested, a desire to humiliate him further. Still, Sully had to admit, a simple apology would have done the trick. “I’ll make it up to him,” he heard himself say weakly.
    â€œHow?” Carl wanted to know. “You’ll buy him a jelly donut, right?”
    Sully had to snort at this. “Unless I’m mistaken, I’ll end up buying him about ten thousand jelly donuts before I’m done.”
    â€œAnd you think you can pay your debts in jelly donuts?”
    â€œI can’t even get jelly donuts out of you half the time,” Sully pointed out, relieved that they were not apparently going to argue that seriously after all. “I’d be happy if I could.”
    â€œSee?” Carl said. “That’s exactly what I mean. Always ragging. You rag that dumb cop outside the OTB every morning for a month, and then you’re surprised when he wants to shoot you. Everybody who knows you wants to shoot you, Sully. The only thing that saves you is the rest of us aren’t armed.”
    In the dark below they heard the camp door swing shut and low voices coming up the bank toward them. Carl quickly took one last drag of his cigarette, then ground it under his foot.
    â€œZip your fly too while you’re at it,” Sully advised.
    Carl checked, found it zipped and Sully grinning at him. “That’s
exactly
the sort of shit I’m talking about,” he said, his voice lowered significantly.
    â€œTell me something,” Sully said, sensing that with Toby’s arrival he would gain the upper hand. “Do you know what a hypocrite is?”
    â€œI can answer that one,” Toby said, arriving on cue. “He doesn’t.”
    â€œSee the thanks I get?” Carl appealed to Sully. “My pregnant wife is hustled off into the woods by two shady characters, I race to her rescue, and what do I get? Heartache.”
    â€œOne shady character,” Peter corrected.
    â€œBesides,” Toby said. “It wasn’t much of a rescue. You’ve been standing up here talking to Sully for ten minutes.”
    â€œDid that cop really pull his gun?” Carl asked Peter.
    Peter nodded.
    â€œYou didn’t believe me, right?” Sully said.
    Carl Roebuck ignored him. “Come here, woman,” he said, suddenly dropping to his knees.
    â€œI will,” Toby said. “But only because I want witnesses.”
    When she was within reach, Carl drew her to him, lifted her sweater and inserted his head underneath.
    â€œWould you two like to be alone?” Sully said.
    â€œAbsolutely not,” Toby said as Carl nuzzled her tummy.
    â€œHow’s my little Rodrigo?” Carl’s muffled voice came from beneath the sweater. “Was Mommy nice to you today?”
    â€œEnough,” Toby said, trying to back away. “Your nose is cold.”
    But Carl had linked his arms behind her thighs and she couldn’t move. “Rodrigo, Rodrigo, it’s your papa come to visit.”
    â€œI’ve warned him,” Toby told them, “that