Nobody's Fool

listening to Rub and half to the singing of his own knee, blinked and looked over at his friend, who was patiently waiting for him to turn the key in the ignition so they could go home to the big ole turkey. Rub was only vaguely aware of having spoken in a foreign language, and when he saw Sully staring at him, he concluded that for once he knew something somebody else didn’t. “To each his fuckin’ own,” he translated for Sully’s benefit.
    Sully was still laughing ten minutes later when he dropped Rub off in front of his house. “Uh-oh,” Rub said, and Sully saw why.
    Rub’s wife, Bootsie, was coming down the walk from their apartment, and she had a pretty good head of steam up, given her size. As Wirf was fond of observing, there was enough of Bootsie to make two perfectly ugly grown women and enough left over to make the ugliest baby you ever saw. When angered, as she apparently was now, she was a fearful sight.
    Sully rolled down his window anyhow. He’d managed to avoid hostilities with Zack last night by remaining seated and being friendly, and he wondered if the same tactic might work again. He had his doubts. UnlikeZack, Bootsie liked to fight. “Happy Thanksgiving, dolly,” he called. “How are you?” What she looked like was a complete list of a man’s past sins come to life, bent on retribution.
    â€œMy Thanksgiving turkey’s burnt to shit, is how I am,” she said. “You don’t have no work for him all fall and then you make him work Thanksgiving and ruin the damn holiday is how I am.”
    One of the things Sully was never able to get Rub’s wife to understand was that he himself wasn’t an employer, that Rub didn’t really work for him, that he wasn’t Rub’s boss. Her difficulty in grasping the situation may have been in part due to the fact that Sully seemed to be the one who provided the work (since there wasn’t any when Sully
didn’t
provide it) and because Sully was the one who paid Rub for his services and because Sully told him what to do and when, which made Sully look enough like a boss to Bootsie that she was disinclined to draw the crucial distinction. Sully guessed this wasn’t the proper time or place to press for clarification.
    â€œWell,” he said. “I am sorry. It’s the way these things go sometimes. The job took us a little longer than we figured.”
    â€œRuined the whole holiday is all,” Bootsie said, though Sully thought he detected a slight softening in her tone. Rub wasn’t taking any chances. He’d made no move to get out of the truck, and it was clear to Sully that he had no intention of entering into the conversation. Sully was on his own for the moment. Later, Rub knew, he’d be on
his
own, so for now he’d let Sully fend for himself.
    â€œI suppose we could have just turned our noses up at the money,” Sully admitted. “Thanksgiving or no Thanksgiving.”
    Bootsie mellowed another degree in volume without giving in. “The dime store only gives me three goddamn paid holidays a year, and you have to go and ruin one of them.”
    â€œWell, we’ll leave Christmas alone,” Sully assured her. “I promise.”
    Bootsie leaned forward so she could glare at her husband. “You gonna get out of there, or do I have to come around and drag you out?”
    Rub reached for the door handle. “I was just saying good-bye to Sully,” he explained lamely.
    â€œYou had the whole damn time my turkey was burning up to say good-bye. Get out of the damn truck.”
    Rub did as he was told without exactly hurrying. Bootsie watched him, relenting a little more. “You might as well come in and help us eat the fucker,” she told Sully. “He started out weighing twenty pounds and he still must weigh about eight.”
    â€œI’d love to, dolly,” Sully told her, “but I’ve got a previous engagement.”
    Bootsie snorted. “In other words, you ruined two damn turkeys. Mine and somebody else’s.”
    In fact, Sully hadn’t considered this, and he didn’t like to now. However unlikely, it was possible that Vera was holding the Thanksgiving meal for him, growing more and more homicidal as the bird dried out.
    At home, Sully drew a hot bath and climbed in. He was too tired and he hurt too bad to stand in the shower. He didn’t remember falling asleep, but he