Nobody's Fool

pack. Carl took it. “Let me have the whole pack. I’m going to stick around for a while,” he said, studying Sully in the pale light of the street lamp. He tossed the pack of cigarettes onto the dash. There was just enough light for Sully to see that Carl’s jaw was a balloon, his grin hideous. “You look like a man who’s just discovered the cruel truth of life,” Carl ventured.
    Something stirred inside the dark car, and Carl looked down at his lap. “It’s okay, darlin’. Go back to sleep,” he said. “I’ll roll up the window in a second.”
    From inside, a murmur and then silence.
    â€œYou gotta see this,” Carl whispered after a moment, reaching behind him to flip on the dome light. He left it on for only a second, but that was long enough. At first Sully thought the girl Didi had simply fallen asleep with her head in Carl’s lap, but then saw that she had his flaccid penis in her mouth like a pacifier. “Isn’t that sweet?” Carl said.
    â€œAdorable,” Sully said. “I hope she doesn’t have a nightmare.”
    â€œ
You
hope.”
    â€œI’m going home,” Sully said. “I’m tired, and you’re too fucked up to talk to, even.”
    â€œAin’t it the truth,” Carl said.
    â€œDon’t go upstairs,” Sully told him.
    â€œOkay,” Carl said.
    â€œI mean it,” Sully warned him.
    â€œI know you mean it.”
    â€œThen don’t.”
    Didi sat up and rubbed her eyes. “It’s cold,” she said sleepily, shivering. “Hi, Sully.”
    â€œNow look what you did,” Carl said, rolling up the window.
    Sully would have liked to warn Carl one more time, but he was too exhausted to make him roll down the window again.
    On the way to Rub’s an odd thing happened. The day’s bizarre events unreeling through his mind, Sully missed his turn, went one block too far and turned there, not realizing his mistake and suffering a stunning loss of orientation as a result. This dark street was clearly one he knew, a street in the town he’d lived his entire life, yet despite its familiarity he suddenly had no idea where he was. How had these houses come to be on Rub’s street? Where had the house that Rub and Bootsie rented disappeared to? He squinted in the dark at each house he passed, certain that theirs would appear any moment and his sense of equilibrium would be restored. When it didn’t he stopped in the middle of the street and just sat, thankful that it was late, that there was no one around to witness this, that he’d be spared the humiliation of rolling down his window and asking someone for directions. In the end there was nothing to do but back up, and so he did, understanding his mistake only when he’d backed all the way to the intersection and saw the street sign. A minute later when he pulled into the driveway next to the small two-family house where Rub and Bootsie lived, he gave the horn three short, light taps, his signal for Rub to come out and get instructions for tomorrow. Bootsie had made bail by calling her sister in Schuyler, and rumor had it she’d left the courthouse on the warpath. Sully had no intention of encountering her tonight if he could help it.
    Blessedly, it was Rub’s round head that appeared at the window, and a moment later he came out in his undershirt, boot laces flapping, and climbed into the El Camino, where it was warm. He faced away, though, until the dome light went off. Sully opened his door so it would come back on and he saw Rub’s swollen eye.
    â€œJesus, Rub,” he said, closing the door again.
    Rub shrugged. “What am I supposed to do? Guys aren’t supposed to hit girls.”
    â€œYou aren’t supposed to let them hit you, either,” Sully pointed out for argument’s sake.
    â€œI didn’t let her,” Rub explained. “She just did it.”
    â€œYou’re supposed to duck,” Sully explained.
    â€œI did,” Rub explained. “She done this with her knee when I did duck.”
    â€œWell,” Sully sighed. “I guess you did all you could, then.” Rub shrugged.
    â€œMeet me at Hattie’s in the morning. Early. Six-thirty. We’re going to move some shit out of the house on Bowdon first thing. I wish we’d thought to do it before we took the floor up.”
    Rub said he wisht they had too.
    â€œWhat are