But Bucky doesn’t like it. Alice doesn’t pick up on it, but Billy does. He just doesn’t know why.
15
They go for groceries, Billy wearing his wig and a pair of dark glasses Bucky finds for him in the clutter of stuff – what he calls Irish luggage – he hasn’t unpacked yet. At King Soopers Billy pays cash. They go back up Edgewood Mountain Drive, the Fusion thudding and bumping and forging grumpily ahead over the last two miles.
Alice helps Bucky put the things away. He looks at the plantains she purchased doubtfully but says nothing. When that chore is done, she says she’s tired of being cooped up and asks if it would be okay for her to take a walk. Bucky tells her that if she goes out the back door, she’ll find a path into the woods. ‘Steep slope, but you look young and strong. Might want to put on some bug dope. Check the bathroom.’
Alice comes back with her sleeves rolled up trucker style, slathering on Cutter. Her cheeks are shiny with it.
‘Don’t mind the wolves,’ Bucky says. Then, seeing her alarmed expression: ‘Kidding, kiddo. The oldtimers say there haven’t been wolves around here since the 1950s. All hunted out. Bears, too. But if you can make it a mile, you’re going to come to one hell of a view. You can look across I don’t know how many miles of gulch and ravine to a big old flat clearing on the other side. Used to be a resort hotel there, but it burned flat many a moon ago.’ He drops his voice. ‘It was reputed to be haunted.’
‘Watch your step,’ Billy says. ‘You don’t want to break an ankle.’
‘I’ll be careful.’
When she’s gone, Bucky turns to Billy with a smile. ‘“Watch your step, you don’t want to break an ankle.” What are you, her daddy? God knows you’re old enough to be.’
‘Don’t get Freudian. She’s just my friend. I couldn’t tell you exactly how that happened, but it did.’
‘You said they roughed her up. Does that mean what I think it does?’
‘Yes.’
‘All of them?’
‘Two out of three. One of them just jizzed on her belly. That’s what he said, anyway.’
‘Jesus Christ, she seems so … you know, okay.’
‘She’s not.’
‘No. Of course she’s not. Probably never will be, not completely.’
Billy thinks that, like too many depressing ideas, it’s probably true.
Bucky gets two beers and they go out on the front porch. Billy has parked the Fusion beneath, nose-to-nose with the Cherokee.
‘She seems to be coping, at least,’ Bucky says when he’s resumed his rocking chair. Billy has taken another one. ‘Got some guts.’
Billy nods. ‘She does.’
‘And she can read a room, as they say. Maybe she did want to go strolling, but she mostly left so we could talk.’
‘You think?’
‘I do. She can have the spare room while you stay here. A bunch of my stuff’s in it now, but I’ll clear it out. The bed’s stripped and I don’t know if there’s sheets, but I saw a couple of blankets on the shelf in the closet. That’ll do for three or four nights. Since you’re not sleeping with her, you get the attic. Most times of year you’d freeze or boil up there, but right now it should be just about perfect. I’ve got a sleeping bag somewhere. Maybe still in the back of the Cherokee.’
‘Sounds good. Thanks.’
‘Least I can do for a guy who’s promising me a million dollars. Unless you’ve changed your mind about that.’
‘I haven’t.’ Billy gives Bucky a sideways look. ‘You don’t think I’ll get it.’
‘You might.’ Bucky pulls a pack of Pall Mall straights out of his shirt pocket – Billy didn’t know they still made those – and offers it to Billy, who shakes his head. Bucky lights his smoke with an old Zippo, the Marine emblem and Semper Fi embossed on the side. ‘I learned a long time ago not to sell you short, William.’
They sit for awhile without talking, two men in porch rockers. Billy thought Pearson Street was quiet, but this place makes Pearson Street sound like downtown. Somewhere far off someone is using a chainsaw, or maybe it’s a wood-chipper. That and a light breeze sighing through the pines and aspens is the whole soundtrack. Billy watches a bird go stiff-wing gliding across the blue sky.
‘You should take her with you.’
Billy turns to him, startled. Bucky has an old tin ashtray loaded with filterless butts sitting on his lap. ‘What? Are you crazy? I thought she could stay here with you while I track Nick down in Vegas.’