Finding My Thunder (11 page)

Finding My Thunder 16

Danny
liked to pick up hitchhikers. The first time he did it, it was a guy and his
girl traveling over the summer. They were following some of the big war
protests scheduled in the big cities all over this land. They planned to end in
D. C. in October.

The
guy wanted to know if we wanted to drop some Mescaline with them when they got
to the river.

“No,”
Danny said. “Don’t be doing that in my car.”

The
guy said, “That’s cool, man.”

They
were headed to the river to camp. Danny took them about twenty miles down the
highway and dropped them off in one of the towns.

“Those
were some real hippies,” Dickens said.

It
was only ten miles later we pulled into a gas station to use the restroom and
when I came out to the car Danny was talking to an older man who held a paper
bag. That man got into the back seat and Dickens scrambled over the front to
sit between Danny and me. The guy had a flat-top and wore tan workpants and a
t-shirt and black boots. He was muscular and looked to me like he’d done jail
time.

Nobody
talked much before we took him down the road and dropped him off in the middle
of nowhere as he requested. “Thanks, brother. Give ‘
em
hell over there,” he said to Danny.

When
we pulled away from that guy, Dickens said, “No more hitch-hikers.”

And
I said, “No more convicts with
paperbags
!”

Danny
laughed. “Didn’t you ever hear help your neighbor?”

“I
think that’s our quota,” I said.

“He
looked just like Jimmy Hoffa,” Dickens said.

Danny
and me about fell over laughing, cause that’s exactly who he looked like.

So
the next time we passed a couple of long hairs with their thumbs out Danny kept
going.

We
blared the radio and sang along some. Dickens loved the song, “Wild Thing.” He
was in back again and reached over the seat and blasted it up. He sang the
lyrics with so much grit Danny and me laughed like crazy.

Then
we played Pea Punch with all the
Volkswagon
bugs,
only Dickens punched Danny too hard, and me sometimes too and Danny got on him
and threatened to let him out at the next station. Then he made him apologize
to me and he wasn’t allowed to really touch me, he could just say, “Pea punch,
Hilly.”

Well,
I had forgotten the lunch Naomi packed back home, so long about eleven we were
looking to buy some food. We reckoned to go to a grocery store, but Dickens begged
Danny to find a drive-in restaurant with hamburgers and French fries like Paul
had taken them to once in Memphis.

Danny
said we’d look in the next town but if they didn’t have one he would have to
take what came and not complain. Well I was about dying for a cigarette but I
didn’t want to light one up in front of Dickens. But Danny finally did and he
offered me a drag and I looked back at the boy and he was staring at me and I
said, “Don’t ever smoke. And don’t tell your mom I do.”

And
he said, “I’m not a snitch.”

So
I took a drag and I felt a little weird, knowing what Naomi would say, that we
were here to be an example to others and hypocrites said do as I say and not as
I do. But it tasted so good to pull on that smoke I didn’t care as much as I
should have.

“I’m
such a hypocrite,” I whispered to Danny and he laughed.

“Get
over here,” he said.

I
didn’t want Dickens to feel left out. “Hey,” I said, “you want to come up here
and sit by the door and I’ll sit in the middle for a while?”

Danny
groaned. “You sit still,” he warned Dickens as I scooted over and he climbed
the seat to squeeze in by the door. Right away he started to play with the
radio. Danny told him to cut it out.

So
I sat by Danny and he took my hand and we tooled down the highway with the hot
wind beating through the windows. “Hey tell him one of those stories…
hookman
,” Danny said.

“Oh
yeah, tell me that,” Dickens said.

So
I did…telling him about this boy and girl who went to the drive in and it was a
run-down place with scratchy speakers and there wasn’t hardly anyone there so
they parked in the back by themselves….”

“So
they could kiss,” Dickens sang, and Danny laughed.

“And
they were all snuggled up watching the movie,” I said, “…and they heard
something scratching on the trunk and he got out to look….”

Up
ahead were two girls hitchhiking. The one with her thumb out wore cut-off
shorts and army like boots and a halter. The other sat on a suitcase with her
legs crossed. More hippies. They looked kind of fearless and free like they
lived on the road.

“Oh,
pick them up,” I said.

“I
thought you didn’t want me to,” he said, but he was already slowing down.

The
one with her thumb out signaled to the one sitting and they ran for the car. They
opened the door and got in and the smell of sweaty bodies once again filled the
car. “I’m Katrina,” thumb girl said, “and this is Joanne.”

They
asked how far we were going. Danny asked instead, “Where you headed?”

“Well,”
Katrina said, “damn you’re cute.” Then they both laughed, and I looked at
Dickens and his eyes were huge with admiration and excitement for his big
brother. I didn’t know what my face looked like.

“This
is my girl, Hilly,” Danny said.

“Lucky,”
Katrina said and I was speechless that of all the trees in the forest Danny
Boyd was taking shelter behind me. And Joanne added in a low voice, “We don’t
mind sharing.”

Dickens
fell against the seat and let his mouth drop wide with glee.

“We’re
only going to the next town,” I said even though it had been my bright idea to
fill the car with free love.

“That’s
okay,” Joanne said. “Every mile we ride we don’t have to walk.” They were
headed to an outdoor concert.

Danny
asked them if it had been hard to get rides.

And
they laughed and Jane said, “I like me a good ride.” And they laughed some
more.

Dickens’
face was so red I thought his cheeks might blow. He looked back there and Jane
rubbed her hand through his hair. “Someday you’ll be a heartbreaker, too.”

His
legs went straight and his behind lifted off the seat. I put my hand on his
knee and pushed him back into the seat.

The
was a
truckstop
ahead and Katrina and Joanne got
excited about that. “We can get off there,” she said.

“Least
I hope so,” Joanne laughed.

Once
they were out I breathed a big sigh.

“Dang,”
Dickens said watching them walk away all
roundy
and
twitchy hipped.

“That’s
the last of my bright ideas,” I told Danny and he laughed and kissed me.

We
were searching for hamburgers. There was a diner on the square in this little
town we were in. It looked like Mac’s but bigger and brighter. Dickens was so
excited his words tripped all over themselves. It didn’t seem to take too much
to get him going.

Danny
led the way to the chrome covered door and held it wide and we went in. A big
picture of a hamburger, fries and a chocolate shake was over the counter. “That’s
what I want,” Dickens said loud enough to attract the attention of the three
old crew cuts in there wearing their flannels in all the heat.

We
walked to a booth in the back. I used the bathroom and then Danny, then
Dickens. Danny and me sat on one side and the other was blank waiting for
Dickens to return. “He doesn’t get to go much…and they never eat out. So he
gets excited,” Danny said.

“Pretty
much the same for me,” I said. “I’m excited too.”

He
kissed me again. The waitress cleared her throat and slapped down three menus
with splattered plastic covers on them. Dickens slid into the booth other side
then. “I want that,” he said pointing to the picture of the American trinity.

“Chocolate
shake or strawberry?”

He
flushed red and looked at Danny. “Chocolate?”

“It’s
your shake,” Danny said.

“Could
I have both?”

“No.
You can get another later.”

“Okay,”
he said like he was deciding the fate of the world. “Give me chocolate.”

He
tackled the rest of the decisions with equal concern—just catsup on his
burger—extra salt on his fries. Okay, give him cheese on his burger too. And
yes, Danny said, he could have a Coke on the side and a slice of peach pie.

Danny
and me ordered
lickity
-split and the gum chewing
bee-hive hair was off with our orders.

Danny
put his arm around me and gave a squeeze.

“Sickening,”
Dickens said, his face all red again.

We
played tic-tac-toe on a napkin. I went first with an X. After I made it, Danny
said, “That’s a kiss.” And he kissed me.

Then
when Dickens wrote an O, Danny said, “That’s a hug.” And he squeezed me again.

He
kept grinning at Dickens every time he kissed me or hugged me. It was working. The
boy who didn’t want to answer to Dick was so grossed out and agitated he
squirmed all over but it kept him occupied. Pretty soon we were engrossed in
our little game and Danny continued to kiss me on the cheek and squeeze me
around the shoulders as me and his brother filled those napkins.

There
was no happier meal than that greasy, sugary feast the waitress set before us. There
was no happier time.

The
boy’s farm was located on the outskirts of a busy river town. All that was
visible from the road was an iron gate with an arch overhead and a sign affixed
high that said, “St. Joseph’s Boy’s Farm.” The gates were propped open for visiting
day. The road was graveled and cut through woods and climbed upwards. Once it
leveled out some there was another gate and a man who sat in a little roofed
house. Danny pulled up there and gave him Sukey’s name.

“Two
visitors,” the man read from his clip-board, peering into the car.

“Yeah,
just two of us going in,” Danny said. He had to show the man his driver’s
license. His mother had called ahead and made the appointment for him to visit.
The guard asked for my identification, and Danny said, “She’s not going in. Just
me and my brother.”

Dickens
leaned forward so the guard could see him.

The
old guy gave Danny two badges and told him what building to report to. We
continued to drive onto the grounds and Danny parked the car by a big station
wagon.

“Well,”
he rubbed over his thighs, “this is it then.” It was a bunch of buildings, a
farm house, and a brick house looked like a school, then several buildings
scattered about.

Danny
leaned forward and spoke to Dickens, “Take note not to ever come here,” he
said. “This is where the bad boys go.”

“I
ain’t ever coming here,” Dickens scoffed, but I could hear the fear in his
voice.

Danny
turned to me then and he was looking at my lips so I kissed him. “He don’t know
you’re along,” he said meaning Sukey didn’t know I was along or in Danny’s life
at all.

“I
figured. But…is he locked up?”

“Yeah.
He’s confined…not locked up.”

He
kissed me again.

Dickens
said, “Yuck,” and got out.

“I’m
glad you came,” Danny whispered.

“Me
too,” I said.

“You
gonna be alright out here?”

“Sure.
I might go sit under that tree. I brought my book.”

“We
won’t be too long. He don’t have much to say I ain’t heard the hundred times
he’s called the house.”

“Go
on,” I said. “I’ll be alright.”

He
got out and stretched and I could see his t-shirt ride up and his flat belly
muscles and Lord. I felt a big sigh come out of me, heard it too. I could hear
Nina Simone singing “Just say I Love Him,” like Mama used to play sometimes
when I was lying in bed, Nina’s deep slow voice so full of the things I felt
now, being in love.

Danny
told Dickens to get the box out of the trunk and he threw him the keys then he
bent and looked in at me. “You gonna be alright?”

I
nodded, this smile on my face I hadn’t smiled before. It was new.

“Pretty
girl,” he whispered, and his eyes were kind of
melty
.

“Pretty
boy,” I whispered back and he laughed out loud and slammed the door. Then he
leaned on the open window and stuck his head in and said, “Give me a kiss.”

And
I leaned over and put my hand on his dark forearm and felt the hair, the soft
man and I kissed him. And he said, “Don’t talk to any of these losers. Anyone
gives you trouble just wait in the car and lay on the horn.”

I
laughed then. “Are they walking around out here?”

He
laughed. “Some of them are. They can even work in the town. But there’s plenty
of people around. Just…they’re probably horny as hell. Just ignore them. Maybe
I shouldn’t have brought you.”

“No,”
I said because his good mood was leaving quick and he was looking around now. “I’ll
be fine. Just get in there.”

“Will
you come on?” Dickens said holding the big box.

“This
won’t take long,” he said again, some worry now.

I
saw the badges on the dash and gave them to him. “Go on. I’ll be fine.” I
pulled my book out of my bag.

He
pushed off then. I heard him say to Dickens, “Remember to keep your mouth shut
about Hilly.” Then he took the box from his little brother and they walked the
pretty long way to the big brick building.

They
had a similar walk but they didn’t really favor enough to be taken as brothers.
I could see how Dickens worshipped Danny and hung on his every word. His face
when he thought Danny was leaving him back in Ludicrous. I wasn’t the only one
who would be nursing a broken heart the day Danny went away.