feet. I shoved the shotgun down behind the seat and
crouched behind the driver’s side rear quarter.
Jesse hit the light. The windows were fogged up, so I
could see very little, but the hysterical chatter of teenagers
caught naked, making out in Mom’s Honda, was fairly
universal. The boy opened the driver’s side door, saw me,
slammed it shut and locked it. Oh, yeah, that was gonna
keep the bad guys out. I gestured to Jesse to get back in the
truck.
“That was probably a good deed,” he said. “I did not see
any condoms in evidence.”
The Honda started, flew down the road with a jerk of
shifting gears.
“Why don’t we leave the truck here, take a walk and
scout around on foot? That’s always a better way to get the
lay of the land.”
“Yeah, okay. I’ve got the flashlight. Can you grab that
shotgun?”
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“I said no already and I meant it. You don’t use guns to
scare people. And if we need somebody killed, I’ll just choke
him to death.”
Jesse rubbed his throat. “You nearly choked me.”
“I did not. Don’t be a pussy. And if I did, you deserved
it.”
“Are you gonna turn me over your knee and spank me?”
“You wish. Now where are we going?”
“Another block up, then down to the left.”
“Alright. Let’s cut the chatter.”
We walked in silence, the air cool and still. Jesse
pointed to Sadie’s house when we got close, then he leaned
up and spoke in my ear. “There’s an alley out back.” I
nodded for him to go ahead.
The alley looked empty, but I pulled Jesse up against
my chest. “Wait a minute. Give your eyes a chance to get
used to the dark. Then look again. Look for something
moving.” We waited, his back snug against my chest, and I
could feel his racing heartbeat slow and steady under my
hand.
He raised his hand, pointed, and we stood very still,
watching the spot. I studied it for a moment, then I got it—it
was the lit tip of a cigarette. I gave my eyes another second,
studying the scene slightly out of focus, then I had it. He was
sitting on the lowered tail of his pickup, smoking. He’d
pulled the truck between some trash cans. I took a step
back, and Jesse followed me.
“Same thing with the kids. You circle around and shine
your flashlight on him. Hold it up high, and right into his
face. Got it? He’s gonna run right toward me, either in his
truck or on foot. I’ll catch him either way.” Jesse nodded, left
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me, moving quietly down the street. I waited until I could see
him moving down the alley, then I started up to meet him.
He did his part perfectly, and the dipshit bolted down
the alley, his cigarette still in his mouth, ran straight into my
arms.
I jerked him around, pulled his arm up between his
shoulder blades. He was fighting, blustering, “What the fuck
you think you’re doing, man? I’m not doing anything wrong,
I mean, shit, I was just out….”
Jesse joined us, flashed the light in his face. “Remember
me?”
The guy froze. He smelled like he’d been a few days out
in the sun without a shower, and his wrists were slick with
sweat. “What are you doing here?”
“Queerbait, right? I think the last time you asked me
that, you said, ‘What the fuck are you doing here, queerbait?’
I told you then to stay away from Sadie. You didn’t think I
was talking to you?”
“She asked me to come, bring her some shit. She
thought she had a connection down here, but the guy wasn’t
around. Or wasn’t ready to trade if she spread her legs.”
Jesse raised his arm, brought the flashlight down across
the guy’s mouth before I could move. He spit out blood,
blubbering again. I leaned into his ear. “I would shut up
right now. You’re in more trouble than you know.”
We all were. Like it was answering my last words, the
red and blue lights of a Brewster County Sheriff’s
Department cruiser lit up the alley. A young deputy got out,
a Latina no more than twenty-five, and The Original opened
up the passenger-side door.
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I held the dipshit’s wrists until the deputy got to us,
then I held them out to her. She gave me a look that said
we’d be speaking later, but she didn’t question what we were
doing, just lifted the handcuffs off her belt and closed them
around his wrists. She hauled him to the back of the cruiser,
put him in. By that time Sadie was out on the porch,
wrapping her robe around her. “Granddad! What’s going
on?” She flew into his arms. I looked at Jesse. He was
looking for a quiet place to stash the flashlight.
“Give it to me,” I said. “That’s a good flashlight. The
blood will wash off.” I stuck it in my back pocket.
The deputy motioned us over. “What are you two doing
here?”
“I had a bad feeling my cousin was in danger from her
abuser,” Jesse said, pulling the ball cap off and running his
fingers through his hair. “We came to check she was okay.”
“And?”
“And we found the perpetrator hiding in the alley behind
her house.”
Her eyebrows rose at
the perpetrator
, and she bit down
on her lip to keep from laughing. “I suppose he fell?”
“No. I hit him in the mouth with a flashlight. It was
necessary.”
I sighed, stared up at the heavens, begged for patience.
When I looked back down, Jesse was grinning at me. “God, I
have got to paint you with that look on your face. That’s like
the tenth time I’ve seen it.”
“Did the kids in the Honda call 911?”
She looked at me then. “Sadie called, the kids in the
Honda called, Jesse Clayton Senior called.”
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The Original had his arm around Sadie. “You come on
back to the house with me.”
“She can stay in my room,” I said. I was starting to
wonder how many grandkids were going to show up.
The Original shook his head. “Her cousin wants to help
out so much, he can do something useful. She can stay in
his room.” He waited until the deputy climbed back in the
car and rolled down the alleyway. “Jesse, if you so much as
put one finger on that shotgun, I am going to beat your sorry
ass. Talking to you is like talking to a God-damned brick
wall. I told you no. What did you not understand about
that?”
Jesse looked at me for help, but I just held up my
hands. He put his hands on his hips. “Mary took it away
from me.”
“Thank you for keeping this shit-for-brains grandson of
mine off death row for killing another idiot with my shotgun.”
I hadn’t known him long, but the old man was ready to spit
nails, anybody could see that.
Sadie pulled her robe closed, held the fabric together at
the neck. “Granddad, I’m gonna stay here with Mama. As
long as he’s in custody, I’m okay, right?”
“Yes, darling. They’ll call before anything else happens.
But you come on over to my house in the morning, we’ll talk
about what’s best to do.”
“Okay, Granddad.”
After she had been bundled back into the house, The
Original turned to look at Jesse. I started walking back to my
truck.
“Did you hit that boy, Jesse?”
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“Yeah, I did. It would have been better if I could have hit
him across the mouth with the shotgun. All I had was the
flashlight.”
I glanced back at them. “He deserved it,” I told the old
man. “He had a smart mouth. If Jesse hadn’t popped him, I
was thinking about dislocating his shoulder.”
No one had anything else to say. When we got to my
truck, Jesse slid into the middle, and The Original climbed
in after him and shut the door. When we got back to the
house, we all three made for the kitchen and took seats.
Then Jesse got back up and put on a pot of coffee.
The Original looked at me a long time. “Why did you let
that idiot boy drag you into another piece of trouble? I know
full well who is responsible for this and who was responsible
up in Alpine.”
Jesse turned from the coffeepot. “Granddad, that’s not
fair.”
The Original pointed a bony finger at him. “You just
keep your peace.” He looked back at me. I don’t know if he
was expecting some kind of answer, but I wasn’t sure I had
anything to say.
“You wouldn’t expect me to let him go by himself?”
“No, I guess not.” He turned to Jesse. “Son, can’t you
see that Lorenzo has got things to do? He came down here
for something and you’re just sweeping him up in all your
nonsense and distracting him from his work!”
Jesse looked at me, his eyes troubled. He rubbed along
the angle of his jaw. “Mary, I didn’t mean….”
“You didn’t do anything. Jesse, you mind if I talk to your
Granddad in private?” They both looked startled, and Jesse
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nodded, went out of the kitchen with another long look at
me.
“Mr. Clayton, if this isn’t a good time for me to be here, I
can always find another….”
He was shaking his head. “No, sir. You and I made an
arrangement, and I want to stick to it. But I’m worried, son.”
He looked at me a long time then, his eyes such a beautiful
blue, like Jesse’s. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to
get wound up in that boy’s business. Since he was a kid, it
was like living with a bunch of honeybees in the house.
Things always seemed to get stirred up around him.”
I sat back, studied the worry in his face. This wasn’t
about Alpine and it wasn’t about a little head-knocking in
the middle of the night. We must have been louder than I
thought, out on the couch in the studio. “I like Jesse a lot.
He’s smart. I like listening to him talk about his art.
Anything else going on between us, it’s not going to be a
problem. Not for me. I hope not for you. We’re just learning
how to be friends, getting to know each other.”
He waved this away like he was brushing off one of
those honeybees. “I’m not trying to get into your business. I
was just worried. Jesse could talk an Eskimo into buying an
icemaker.”
Okay, I got it now. “He didn’t talk me into anything.
I’m….” Something seemed to catch in my throat, and The
Original got up, poured me a cup of coffee. He set it down on
the table and looked away so I could say it out loud and not
be embarrassed. “I’ve always been with men. You know, that
way.”
“Well, that’s your business, like I said.” He sighed,
poured another cup of coffee and sat down at the table. “It
must have been hard in the corps.”
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“No harder than anything else. Most of the time, we
were too busy working to worry about it.” And he grinned at
me then. “If you feel uncomfortable with this, then you just
tell me, and I’ll find my own way. Things are getting more
complicated than I expected, pretty damn fast too. I don’t
intend to bring trouble into your house.”
“I think we’re good.”
“Sir…. That man, the one Jesse calls the dipshit. He
suggested your granddaughter may have a problem with
drugs. That’s why Jesse hit him. But if it’s true, she might
need some help. From a doctor, or a clinic.”
He drank his coffee real slow, eyes squinted like he was
looking into the sun. “It’s crossed my mind. I’ll look into it.”
“I think I’m going back to bed.” I walked down the hall,
stopped in the door of my bedroom.
Jesse poked his head out of the room next door. “Well?
Are we in trouble?”
“You might be.” I grinned at the look on his face when
we heard The Original shouting down the hall.
“Jesse! Get your butt in here, son.”
I listened to them yelling at each other for a few
minutes, then Jesse walked down the hall and stuck his
head in my door. I had to laugh at the comical look of
outrage on his face. “Can you believe it?” He was whispering.
“He thinks I lured you away to the dark side! You better ’fess
up, cupcake.”
I rolled over. “I got cartoons to draw.”
EARLY the next morning, the truck with Jesse’s painting