The Two-Bear Mambo (3 page)

"She spent the night with me morning before she left," Hanson said. “We had an argument. It got out of hand. I grabbed her. I'm ashamed of that, but I did. But she got right up in my face, see, and it was just reflex. I grabbed her and hurt her arm a little. It wasn't on purpose, guys, really. I'm no woman beater."

"We're all human," I said. “Everybody fucks up now and then."

"Really, I never hit a woman in my life, and I didn't hit her, but I grabbed her. She could be so infuriating. She was standing in there with the refrigerator open, looking for something for breakfast, and that's when the argument started and the door got left open. She pulled some celery out of there, hit me with it, and I grabbed her. When I realized what I'd done and let her go, she snatched up the frying pan and hit me on the shoulder with it and burned me, dropped it on the floor. I still got the egg on my pajamas. She left five minutes later and I haven't changed a thing in there since."

"Kind of a shrine, huh?” Leonard said.

"I keep telling him she'll get over it," Charlie said. “Hell, she called from Grovetown, didn't she? She knows Marve just lost his cool, and she had something to do with it. They're both to blame. A lesson was learned."

"It's not the getting back together that's bothering me," Hanson said. “I mean, not that way, you know. I'm just worried about her down there, and if I go check on her, that's just more male chauvinist stuff, and there's no reason she should report to me, and theoretically, she's out of my life, but . . ."

"Why don't you go there anyway?” Leonard said. “You could see she's all right, and if you're telling it straight, it's not like the relationship is coming back together anyway. Or that you want it to. So what's it matter she gets mad at this point?"

"I'd like to end this on a note of respect," Hanson said. “Not like I'm spying on her."

"And you think these two dimwits showing up down there ain't gonna make her suspicious?” Charlie said. ”Hell, she knows them. She knows Hap biblically."

"Thanks, Charlie," I said, "you certainly know how to defuse a tense or worrisome moment."

"It's different," Hanson said. “She sees you two, you could say Charlie told you about her, and you thought you might go down and check on her. Old times' sake."

"Oh, now I told them about her," Charlie said.

"Maybe you could act like you'd like to take her on a date, Hap. Something like that."

"That sounds convincing," Charlie said. “I can see why you been so tired all week. All the heavy thinking it took to come up with that, I'd be strained too."

"Yeah, you're right, Charlie," Hanson said. “It won't work. It was a major stupid idea. It's like I been having a sack of shit for a head lately. Idea like that sucks big time."

"I can feel a draft from it over here," Charlie said.

"Yeah," Hanson said. “Let's have some eggnog, then, Hap, Leonard, we'll take y'all back to the hoosegow."

"Grovetown," I said, "it's a place I been wanting to visit. I'd just like to go by the house, get a change of clothes, maybe a paperback to go."

"Unless, of course," Leonard said, "you'd prefer we leave tonight. Right now."

It was after midnight, Christmas Day, when I took the wheel of Charlie's car and drove him over to Leonard's. Idea was, Leonard was going to get his car and follow me to Charlie's place. I'd drop Charlie and his car off, then we'd leave in Leonard's heap. Charlie was just too drunk to drive.

It had grown quite cold and it was a clear night. Kind of night I relished when I was a kid. My dad, who worked as a mechanic, or at the foundry from time to time, would go out in the yard with me and we'd throw a blanket over our shoulders and sit on the porch stoop and look at the stars. We were well out in the country then, and there were no streetlights, and with the house lights off the stars glowed in the black satin heavens like white dots of neon.

Dad was a heavy man and very tired and we didn't play ball together or do any of the classic stuff fathers and sons are supposed to do. He put in twelve-hour days and did hard manual labor, so he wasn't up for much ball chasing when he came home. But he did his best. He taught me about the woods when he had time, went to my school plays, made sure I had money for comic books, and found the time, now and then, when he should have been sleeping, to sit on the porch and point out the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, and he had names for some of the other stars I've forgotten, but they weren't the names you normally hear. They were names given the constellations by his father or grandfather, and they had known the stars as well as a seasoned truck driver knows a road map.

Dad told me stories while we looked at the stars. He had known Bonnie and Clyde. He had driven around Gladewater, Texas, with them one Fourth of July and tossed firecrackers out the windows of their automobile. At the time, he didn't know they were being pursued by every law enforcement agency in Texas.

Late one night during the depths of the Great Depression, down by the railroad track where he was hoboing, he and his friends had met Pretty Boy Floyd. He had fought bareknuckle and wrestled at county fairs for money. He knew handed-down stories of Billy the Kid, Belle Starr, Sam Bass, and Jessie James, and when he was a child, he'd seen Frank James giving a talk in a Sears store on the ills of crime. He may have yarned a little, but I liked it all anyway.

Now, the stories I heard were off the late-night news. Rapes and serial murders and child molestations. Children with guns and no imagination and less ambition. It wasn't a world my father would have understood. Last time I had seen him was a Christmas many years ago. He looked as if he'd just viewed the new world he was living in for the very first time and didn't like it and didn't want to stay. He was dead in two weeks. A heart attack and he was out of there.

When we got to Leonard's, I knew he was hoping Raul hadn't left, but Raul's Ford station wagon was gone. There were a couple of cops there, watching the place. Leonard thanked them, shooed them off, and Charlie let him.

Leonard went inside while we sat in Charlie's car with the engine running and the heater turned high. It was quite cozy. Charlie was pretty drunk, but when he spoke his words were clear, so I figured he still had a few brain cells left.

"Here's y'all's Christmas present," Charlie said. "Some advice. Don't do this thing for Hanson."

"It beats jail," I said.

"You ain't goin' to jail. You know that. Hanson ain't gonna do shit. He'll get Leonard out of this. He knows the Chief knows he knows about the crack house. Chief knows Hanson is gonna nail him one day, somehow, if he don't get rid of him first. They're just playing some kind of cat-and-mouse shit. Chief fires him, Hanson can make a big enough stink all the fumigators in LaBorde couldn't get rid of it. Chief knows he's got to get rid of Hanson, but he hasn't figured how. Gives him every shit job there is, hoping he'll get killed. But Hanson, he takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. So, what I'm saying is, Hanson decides to get Leonard off, he'll get him off. He knows enough about where the bodies are buried to handle that."

Charlie turned to look at what was left of the house next door. A charred frame, a pile of gray ash, and a few wisps of smoke. "You know," Charlie said, "that is Leonard's best job yet."

"He likes his work. And Charlie, thanks for the advice, but odd as this sounds, Hanson's kind of a friend. Considering Florida and I once had this thing going, I think he's pretty much in need or he wouldn't ask me to get involved."

"All right," Charlie said, cracking the passenger window and getting out a cigarette. "I give you that. “He pushed in the car lighter. "But this is his problem. Not yours. He feels there's something really wrong, he ought to take care of it himself. He ought not send citizens down there to do his dirty work."

"I think he's just a little concerned is all and doesn't feel it's a legal matter."

"Grovetown is a shithole, Hap. You ought not go down there with Leonard. They don't like black folks unless they're swabbing out a toilet or sweeping a floor. That's the main reason Hanson didn't want Florida going down there. He thought it was dumb some little black gal like her going down to Honky-land. He told her so. She thought it was some kind of male chauvinist bullshit. He was just talking good sense. There's people down there don't believe civil rights is a real law. They still think everyone ought to own 'em a nigger. Let me tell you something. I spent a week in that armpit on account of my sister's husband, Arnold—may he grow like an onion with his head in the ground. He left her. He was working the lumber mill there, had this thing going with a secretary, decided one day this clippie’s pussy was all he wanted to smell, so he and her got out of Grovetown and left Sis sittin' on her ass with two kids, both of 'em in diapers. I had to go over there and get her. There were arrangements to be made. Old bills. Some things to sell. Usual shit. I sent her home and stayed to do the stuff she wasn't emotionally fit to do. I went into that town three, four times a week, and I tell you, man, it's like a time warp. Hardly any blacks come into town if they haven't got some kind of business—like buying groceries. Getting gas. Necessary stuff. And they see a white man coming they step off the sidewalk and assume a Rastus position. All teeth and bent heads. It's what's expected of them. It's what they know. They don't do that, Klan over there—or rather some offshoot of it, calls itself the Supreme Knights of the Caucasian Order, or some ridiculous handle like that—decides some black is uppity, they'll come down on 'em. Blacks in Grovetown are outflanked. Whites have all the power there. All the power."

"Lot of blacks would argue it's that way everywhere."

"And they'd be wrong. Everywhere ain't like Grovetown. They go to Grovetown, they're gonna find out things are a lot better elsewhere than they think. They're gonna find what it's like to be back in the sixties, before that Civil Rights Act. They're gonna realize things aren't near as bad as they've been. Except in Grovetown. Late as four, five years ago, a black woman was tarred and feathered by some of those Klan ass wipes. She was raped too, ten, fifteen times. Guys did that are the kind of creeps would stand up and tell you how whites and blacks ought not to be together, and whites and blacks shouldn't date, but they don't mind stealing some black pussy from some poor woman, tarring and feathering her. Hot tar, Hap. That shit is intense. That's not something anyone wants on them. She damn near died 'cause most of her pores were closed up. And then there was one other little touch. They sewed up her snatch. Sewed it up with a leather-craft needle and baling wire."

"Good God. What the hell did she do to get them down on her?"

"You'll like this. They didn't like the way she dressed. She was some young gal, nineteen, twenty at the oldest. Grew up in Grovetown, went off to the university here, went back to Grovetown for spring break, forgot how to play the game. Maybe thought times had changed. Year or two to someone that young is an eternity. Maybe she took an Afro-American course and bought a dashiki. Thought 'cause of that the whole world changed. She developed some pride, like anyone ought to. But then she went home and got that knocked out of her. Word was—and this was based on a couple of unsigned, unaddressed letters the editors of the university paper got from Grovetown— this all happened because this Klan offshoot thought she wore, as they put it, 'provocative clothing of an indecent nature,' and that the university wasn't for 'colored,' and such things as education were wasted on them. It was signed the Grand Exalted Cyclops of the Supreme Knights of the Caucasian Assholes, or whatever the fuck they are."

"They certainly sound like a progressive bunch."

"The letter denied she'd been raped, said if anything she'd been cavorting with her 'colored friends' before she was tarred and feathered, and then there was some bullshit about women in general and how they ought to stay home and raise kids and not venture into the world of men, and so forth, and that she had gotten sewn up to suggest, symbolically, that the world didn't need any more black babies."

"Sometimes you got to wonder if we're all part of the same human race."

"We aren't. Those motherfuckers are evil aliens. Got to be. Way I figure, one of those crackers came on to that gal, figured he had him a little nigger sweetie just couldn't wait to give a big white man some pussy, and when she turned him down, it pissed him off. He and some of the boys got together, caught her off some place, and he got what he wanted. And so did his friends. Used the Assholes of the Caucasian Knights as a blind. It's just plain old rape and brutality, justified with bullshit rhetoric."

"Anyone ever arrested for that?"

The cigarette lighter had popped out long ago and cooled. Charlie pushed it back in. "Nope. No one over in Grovetown seemed to know anyone in any kind of Klan-like organization. No one had seen a thing. They got away with rape and brutality. No telling what it done to that young woman. Not just physically, but emotionally."

"Do you know any nicer bedtime stories than this one, Charlie?"

"Nope. All I know is them kind. It's all I see. It's all I hear about. Don't go, Hap. It ain't for you."

"I guess Hanson figures we can take care of ourselves."

"Hell, yeah. He knows you can. You guys are dumb asses, but ain't no one ever said you were cowards. Hell, man, Leonard, that motherfucker would wade through the fires of hell with a hand bucket half full of creek water if he thought he was doing the right thing. And you, well, I ain't got you all figured out yet. But no one's so tough they can beat a town. You go over there and fuck around, don't come whining to me someone tars and feathers your ass and sews your dick to your leg. Or worse . . . Damn, I'm sick. My wife is gonna kill me I come in like this."

The lighter popped out and Charlie lit his cigarette. He turned and blew smoke through the crack in the window. He replaced the lighter and leaned back in the seat, held the cigarette tight between his knuckles.

After a moment he said, "I'm just telling you that you ought not do this thing. Hanson doesn't want to do it because he's a cop. Not his jurisdiction. And him being black, it'll look like he's stirring trouble with all this stuff going on down there about that guy hanging himself. Then you got the bit about he don't want Florida to know he's sniffing her ass. Add it up, it comes out two plus two equals shit."

"I appreciate your concern."

"You feel you just got to do it, leave Leonard here. Not only is he black, in case you haven't noticed, but he's got a smart mouth, same as you. He can't stand to let anyone think they're putting one over on him. Guys in Grovetown, they can't stand a smartass black guy. And it's not like Leonard is quiet about being queer, neither. He ain't bashful, you know what I mean?"

"I know what you mean."

"Man, you think a black guy will work their bowels, you add queer to that, toss in you and him together doing your stooge act, it's like throwing gasoline on a fire."

"Leonard wouldn't let me go by myself, even if I wanted him to. Not since Hanson asked him to go.”

"That's where Hanson fucked up," Charlie said. "He ain't thought a clear thought in damn near two weeks. He's really messed up. A week from now. A month. He'd know better'n to ask something stupid like that of either of you."

"Leonard told Hanson he'd go. Leonard says he'll do something, he'll do it, Charlie. You know that."

Charlie sighed. "I'm too drunk to argue. Let me just sum up here, Hap. You and the Smartest Nigger in the World go to Grovetown, it's askin' for trouble. But if you're goin'—" \">

He eased his ass up, got his wallet out, unlimbered it, and gave me two hundred and fifty dollars. "You'll need this."

"I don't want to take it, Charlie, but I got to."

"I know."

I put the money in my wallet, said, "I been sitting here wondering how I was going to afford this little trip. I hate to keep sucking off Leonard, and it's not like he's rich either. He sunk a lot of his inheritance into this house. Fixing it up."

"Well, that ain't really enough money. You're gonna have to dip into Leonard's jack, but as for that two hundred and fifty, don't worry about it."

"That's good of you, Charlie."

"Naw it ain't. Ain't my money. Hanson gave that to me to give to you before we left his place."

*

I dropped Charlie and his car off at his house and Leonard followed. We wished Charlie a Merry Christmas when he got through puking off the side of his porch, then I drove Leonard's car back to his house while Leonard sat on the passenger side, looked out the window and brooded.

"Was Raul's stuff gone?” I asked.

"Yeah. There was one box of his things in there, packed with an address label on it. Had a note asking me to mail it to him at his parents'. Said he'd pay me back. My Christmas present for him was on top of the box. Unopened.

"This your first spat?"

"We had one every goddamn day, but I guess this is the worst. We were fighting right before I burned those assholes' house down. I don't even remember what me and him were arguing about. I think that's why I beat those fucks up and burned their place down. I mean, you know, I don't like 'em, and that's the biggest reason, but shit, these days, I get worked up, I burn whatever house is there down. It lets off some tension. "