Thirty-two
“That was a good guitar,” Catfish said. He had his arms around Estelle, who had pressed her face to his chest when the monster attacked Winston Krauss.
“I didn’t realize,” Estelle said. “I didn’t think it would do that.”
Catfish stroked her hair. “That was a good car too. That car never broke.”
Estelle pushed Catfish away and looked in his eyes. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“What I knew is that boy wanted to get up close to a sea monster and that’s what he got. Case you didn’t notice, he was happy when it happened.”
“What now?”
“I think we ought to get you home, girl. You got some paintings gonna come out of this.”
“Home? Are you coming with me?”
“I ain’t got no car to go anywhere. I guess I am.”
“You’re going to stay? You’re not afraid of losing the Blues and getting content?”
Catfish grinned, and there was that gold tooth with the eighth note cut in it, glistening in the morning sunshine. “Dragon done ate my car, my guitar, my amp—girl, I got me enough Blues to last a good long time. I’m thinkin I’ll write me some new songs while you makin your paintings.”
“I’d like that,” Estelle said. “I’d like to paint the Blues.”
“Long as you don’t go cuttin your ear off like old Vincent. A man finds a one-eared woman stone unattractive.”
Estelle pulled him tight. “I’ll do my best.”
“Course, there was a woman I knowed down Memphis way, name of Sally, had only one leg. Called her One Leg Sally…”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“What you wanna hear?”
“I want to hear the door closing behind us, the fire crackling in the stove, and the tea kettle just coming to a whistle while my lovin man picks out ‘Walkin’ Man’s Blues’ on a National steel guitar.”
“You easy,” Catfish said.
“I thought you liked that,” she said, and she took his spidery hand in hers and led him up over the bluff to find a ride home.
Theo had never felt quite so overwhelmed in his entire life. He sensed that the excitement and the danger of it all was over, but he still felt as if a beast every bit as intimidating as the one that had just sunk into the sea was looming over him. He didn’t know if he had a job, or for that matter a home, since his cabin had been part of his pay. He didn’t even have his bong collection and victory garden to crawl into. He was confused and horrified by what had just happened, but not relieved that it was over. He stood there, not ten feet from where Molly Michon was standing in the surf, and he had no idea what the rest of his life had to offer him.
“Hey,” he called. “You okay?”
He watched her nod without turning around. The waves were breaking in front of her and foam and sea-weed was splashing up over her thighs, yet she stood there solid, staring out to sea.
“You going to be okay?”
Without turning, she said, “I haven’t been okay for years. Ask anybody.”
“Matter of opinion. I think you’re okay.”
Now she looked over her shoulder at him, her hair in a tangle from the wind, tear tracks down her face. “Really?”
“I’m a huge fan.”
“You had never heard of my movies until you came to my trailer, had you?”
“Nope. I’m a huge fan, though.”
She turned and walked out of the surf toward him, and a smile was breaking there on her face. A smile with too much history to it, but a smile nonetheless.
“The narrator says you did good,” she said.
“The narrator?” Theo found himself smiling too, as close to crying as he had come since his father had died, but smiling nonetheless.
“Yeah, it’s this voice I hear when I don’t take my meds for a while. He’s kind of a prick, but he’s got a better sense of judgment than I do.”
She was right there in front of him now—looking up at him, a hand on her hip, a challenge in that movie-star smile—looking more like Kendra the Warrior Babe than she ever had in the posters, the five-inch-long scar standing glorious over her left breast, seawater and grime streaking her body, a look in her eyes that comes from watching your future get nuked—repeatedly. She took his breath away.
“Do you think the three of us could go out to dinner sometime?”
“I’m on the rebound, you know?”
His heart sank. “I understand.”
She walked around him and started up the bluff. He followed her, understanding for the first time how the pilgrims had felt following the Sea Beast to the cave.
“I didn’t say no,” Molly said. “I just thought you ought to know. The narrator is warning me not to talk about my ex over dinner.”
His heart soared. “I think a lot of people are going to be talking about your ex.”
“You’re not intimidated?”
“Of course. But not by him.”
“The narrator says it’s a bad idea. Says the two of us put together might make one good loser.”
“Wow, he is a prick.”
“I’ll get some meds from Dr. Val and he’ll go away.”
“You’re sure that’s good idea?”
“Yeah,” she said, turning back to him again before climbing up to where the pilgrims waited. “I’d like to be alone with you.”
What the man in the driver’s seat didn’t seem to understand was that as far as this Mercedes was concerned, Skinner was the alpha male. The man smelled of fear and anger and aggression, as well as gunpowder and sweat, and Skinner didn’t like him from the moment he got into the car: Skinner’s new mobile territory. So Skinner had to show him, and he did so in the traditional way, by clamping his jaws over the Challenger’s throat and waiting for him to take a submissive posture. The man had struggled and even hit Skinner, but hadn’t said bad-dog, bad-dog, so Skinner just growled and tightened his jaws until he tasted blood and the man was still.
Skinner was still waiting for the Challenger to submit when the Tall Guy opened the car door.
“Good dog, Skinner. Good dog,” Theo said.
“Get this fucking animal off me,” the Challenger said.
Skinner wagged his tail and tightened his jaws until the Challenger made a gurgling sound. The Tall Guy scratched his ears and put some metal on the Challenger’s paws.
“Let go now, Skinner,” the Tall Guy said. “I’ve got him.”
Skinner let go and licked Theo’s face before the constable dragged the sheriff out onto the ground and stood on the back of his neck with one foot.
The Tall Guy tasted like lizard spit. That was strange. Skinner considered it a moment, then his doggie attention span ran out and he bounded out of the car to go see what the Food Guy was doing in the back of the truck. The Tall Guy’s female was breaking out the back window of the truck with a metal stick. Skinner barked at her, trying to tell her not to hurt the Food Guy.
“Is the creature still there?” Gabe asked Molly as he climbed out of the back of the Suburban. Skinner was frisking and jumping on him, and with the handcuffs he couldn’t ward off the damp affection. “Down, boy. Down.”
“No, he’s gone,” Molly said as she helped Val and Howard out of the Suburban. She nodded to Val. “Hi, Doc. I think I’ve had an episode or something. You’ll have to debrief me in session or something.”
Valerie Riordan nodded. “I’ll check my calendar.”
Theo came around the back of the Mercedes. “You guys okay?”
“You have your key?” Gabe asked, turning his back to Theo to show the handcuffs.