Billy Straight

“Not a night watchman, a day watchman, because there's nowhere to sleep- you have someplace to sleep?”

“Sure.”

“It's dangerous around here at night,” he says, coming even closer. “You been on the streets awhile, haven't you?”

I don't answer.

“I'm not trying to be nosy, so

The way he says that, the change that comes over his face- like something I learned in science. Metamorphosis. I know he's telling the truth.

“That must have been a long time ago,” I say.

He stares at me. Cracks up. “Yeah, a real long time. Back in the Stone Age.”

His laugh is fu

“Ah, he can smile, too. So maybe life's not so bad after all, eh?”

That wipes the smile from my face.

“It is?” he said. “Someone hurt you that bad?”

Inside the shul he shows me a little closet in the men's bathroom where the cleaning stuff is kept. A broom, a dustpan, a mop and pail, Windex for the glass, Lemon Pledge for the wood. Some silver polish, too, but he leaves that there. Sees me looking at it.

“C'mere, so

“So

He shrugs, holds out his hand, and we shake. His hand feels like a hunk of dried meat.

“Nice to meet you,” he says.

“Same here.”

He brings me into the main room of the shul. At the front is this big carved-wood cabinet that I never had a chance to open, reaching to the ceiling and covered by a blue velvet curtain. He pulls a cord and the curtain opens. Behind it are these doors with twelve little carved scenes- Bible scenes. I recognize Noah's Ark, Moses in the cradle. Some other stuff doesn't mean anything to me.

Nothing about Jesus. Of course. I think: This is weird; what am I doing here?

Behind the carved doors are three things also covered in blue velvet with Jewish writing with wooden poles sticking out on top and bottom and silver handles, just on top. The closest one says, Dedicated by Saul and Isidore Levine in memory of their father, Hyman. Hanging over the front are silver plates.

“Know what these are?” Sam asks.

“No.”

“Torahs. The Jewish Bible- you believe in the Bible, don't you?”

I don't know what I believe in, but I nod.

“So you understand these are holy, right?”

“Don't worry, I won't steal the silver,” I say.

He turns red as a tomato. “That's not what I was implying, so

“Got it.” Even though I know what he was really saying.

We arrange it this way: I'll sweep and mop the entire shul, including the bathrooms, Windex the windows, and Lemon Pledge the wood. The last job will be polishing the silver, because he needs to bring me more rags.

“Also,” he says, “the silver polish is pretty strong, so don't breathe it in too close, got it?”

“Got it.”

“I'm serious,” he says. “You don't sniff stuff, do you? Glue, paint- you don't do that, right? No drugs?”

“Never,” I said. “Not once.”

“I believe you,” he said. “You seem like a nice kid. I'd like to know what you're doing out on the streets, living on crackers, but it's your business.”

I say nothing.

He says, “I just don't want to come in here, find you knocked out by silver polish fumes. Believe me, I know about these things, owned a hardware store for forty years. At the end, junkies and lowlifes were coming in buying all the glue and fixative- it was pretty obvious none of them ever installed a commode.”

Boy, he can really talk.

“I'll be careful,” I say.

“Another thing. Today is Thursday, tomorrow night we have services. Saturday, too, so I can't use you at all on Saturday.”

“Fine. After today, I don't think there'll be anything to do.”

He puts his hands in his pockets. “So now the important part: How much do you want?”

“Whatever you think is fair.”

“Whatever I think? Meaning if I say two pe

“I think you'll be fair.”

“Flattered, so

I think for a while. How much do they pay kids to flip burgers at McDonald's? I don't know. I really don't know. “Two dollars an hour.”

“Two dollars an hour? Minimum wage is over five. You don't think you're minimum wage?”

“Okay, six.”

“Five-fifty.”

“Fine!” I shout, and it surprises me.

“I'm not deaf,” he says. “Five-fifty an hour, and I figure you've got, what, eight, nine hours- let's say fifty bucks total. Here's an advance.”

Out comes his wallet and suddenly there're two ten-dollar bills in my hand and, not believing my good luck, I stick them in my pocket.

“The rest you'll get when you finish- I'll come by in a few hours to check.”

He moves closer again, stops. “One more thing: This is a cash deal, no withholding for taxes, Social Security. So don't report me to the government, okay?”

46

The way Motor Moran figured it, if he'd had a good scoot, he'd nevera noticed it.

He was thirty years old and, except for those four months guarding that junkyard in Salinas, had never worked a real job. Arts-and-crafts prison shit didn't count- he'd never been in a real pen, anyway, just local shitholes, DUI, drunk and disorderly, a month here, a month there.

Life owed him something before he died. This could be it.

The kind of scoot his dick was quiverin' for cost. Like a '72 Shovelhead, Zenith carbs, nuclear displacement, polished cases- everything polished, satin chrome. Somethin' chopped, Paughco Fishtails, unleaded valve seats, powder-coated frame with a lot of flake in it. Give the whole thing a nice big stretch with some Ke

A double seat. Chromed passenger pegs, 'cause you had to have a chick in back, holding on for dear life as you took her on a face-blasting putt.

Not Sharla, that stoned-out skank. One of those wenches you saw in Easy Rider. The putt would turn her on, and pulling over at some rest stop, he'd serve her some Motorized pork for lunch.

Oh, man, if he had the dough, he could have it all.

His current scoot was an Abomination Before the Lord, thrown together from corroded spare parts, fastened with Bondo and rewelds and prayer. He'd even snuck some Jap parts in places you couldn't see. H-D emblem on the frame, but for all the Harley parts in there, the fucking thing might've said Slant Special.

At least it made noise. The Jap stuff never made noise.

The day he took the bus into Bakersfield, the bucket o' bolts hadn't started for three days straight. He found the trouble quickly enough. Troubles: starter gear so rotted there was a fucking hole in it; spark coil stone-dead; plugs wasted. The worst thing, the voltage regulator had wires that were coming apart, rattier than Sharla's hair. A hundred bucks minimum, so far, and the belt assembly looked ready to go, another two C's.

All he had left of Sharla's FDIC was sixty bucks, and he took it, left her snoring, and began the painful walk to the Bolsa Chica bus station.

Knowing sixty wouldn't get him far with Spanky, but maybe he could haul trash outta the shop, do some construction work over at Spanky's house- his bitch was always remodeling.

Anything to be rollin' again.

Riding the fuckin' bus, all those greasers staring at him. Those drippy brown eyes askin' the question any retardo would ask: Where's your scoot, man?