Donny pushed the bill back at him. Gave you a raise, he said. Twelve dollars an hour. I didnt want to say anything in front of the others. Meaning Luis and a fourth man, Dwayne. Youre worth it, buddy. Dont want you looking for the grass to be greener somewhere else. He winked. Nice to know youre an honest man, though.
He waited until after dinner to tell Julia, and accepted her congratulations. But Im not surprised, she said. Patsys mother didnt have any stupid children. Hes right about that, youre worth it, and hes smart not to chance losing you.
Next thing I know, he said, youll be telling me Ive got a future in this business.
It may not look like it. I dont suppose the pay amounts to much, compared to what you used to get.
I used to spend most of my time waiting for the phone to ring. When I worked I got paid okay, but you cant compare it. It was a different life.
I can imagine. Or maybe I cant. Do you miss it?
God, no. Why would I?
I dont know. I just thought this might be boring, after the life you were used to.
He thought about it. What was interesting, he said, and not all the time, but sometimes, was the aspect of having a problem and solving it. You rip out a dropped ceiling and youll find all the problems any man can ask for, and you can solve them without anybody getting hurt.
She was silent for a long moment, and then she said, I think wed better see about getting you a new car. Whats so funny?
Dot used to complain that Id go off on tangents. Master of the Non Sequitur, she called me.
So you want to know how I got there?
Its not important. It just struck me funny, thats all.
How I got there, she said, is I was thinking it sounds as if you might want to hang around for a while. And the one thing that could screw things up is that car of yours. The license tags may be a dead end, but if you got pulled over and they asked to see the registration
Id have the papers that were in the glove box when I switched plates at the airport. I thought of doctoring them, substituting my name and address for whats on there.
Would that work?
It might get past a quick glance, but not a long hard look. And its an Iowa registration for a car with Tennessee tags being driven by a damn fool with a Louisiana license. So no, Id have to say it wouldnt work. Thats why I havent bothered to try.
You could stay under the speed limit, she said, and obey every traffic regulation, and never even risk another parking ticket. And then some drunk rear-ends you, and the next thing you know youve got cops asking questions.
Or some cop could come back from a vacation at Graceland and wonder why my Tennessee plate doesnt look much like the ones he saw up there. I know, there are all kinds of things that could go wrong. Im putting money aside, and when Ive got enough saved
Ill give you the money.
I dont want you to do that.
You can pay me back. It wont take long, youre making an extra two dollars an hour.
Let me think about it.
Im all for that, she said. Think all you want, Nicholas. Saturday morning well go car shopping.
There wasnt much shopping involved. The next time he saw Donny, he mentioned he was going to be looking for a car. You get yourself a truck, Donny said, and youll never be happy with a plain old car again. Donny knew somebody with a Chevy half-ton pickup, not much on looks but mechanically sound. It would have to be all cash, Donny said, but he could probably find somebody to take the Sentra off Nicks hands. Keller said he already had somebody lined up.
The trucks owner was an older woman who looked like a librarian, and it turned out thats just what she was, at what she described as the big branch library in Jefferson Parish. Keller couldnt guess how shed wound up owning the truck, and her air suggested she was somewhat baffled herself. But the papers looked okay, and when he asked the price she sighed and said shed been hoping to get five thousand dollars, which made it pretty clear she didnt expect to. Keller offered four, figuring to meet her somewhere in the middle, and felt almost guilty when she sighed again and nodded her agreement.
Julia had driven him to the womans house in the Taurus, and he followed her back and parked out in front on the street. He told her how hed wanted to raise his own bid when the woman said yes to four thousand, and she told him not to be silly. Its not her truck, she said.
Not anymore. Its ours.
It was never
hers. Some man owned it, her son or her boyfriend or I dont know who, and one way or another she wound up with it, and believe me, the trucks not the saddest part of the story. What?
I was just thinking, he said. You realize youre not more than a handful of notes away from a country song?
The Sentra wound up in the Mississippi. If hed felt guilty lowballing the librarian, he felt worse deep-sixing a car that had given him trouble-free performance for months. Hed eaten in it, hed slept in it, hed driven it all over the country, and now he was showing his gratitude by dumping it in the river.