Rattlesnake Crossing

At some time in the distant past, someone had gone to the trouble of covering the exterior with cedar shingles. Sun and heat had leached all the natural oils out of the wood, leaving it gray and brittle and almost charred around the edges. On the north and east sides of the building, the shingles, sagged in crooked, weary rows. On the west side of the building-the one that took the brunt of the sun-most of the shakes were missing completely, revealing in their stead a ghostly layer of faded red tarpaper painted to look like bricks.

The rest of the building didn't look much better. In both grimy front windows, chipped gold letters a

When Joa

"Howdy," the woman said. "Saw you lookin' at my sign. I make 'em all myself-the doughnuts, I mean-and keep track of every dozen, although I only change the card once't a month or so."

"That's still a lot of doughnuts," Joa

The woman gri

Joa

When the coffee came, it smelled acrid and old-as though it had been sitting in an almost empty pot on the burner for the better part of the day or maybe even longer. Usually Joa

"Cream?" Joa

Belle nodded. "Sure. What kind of moo-juice you want? We got regular cream, half-and-half, ca

In that dingy, fly-speckled place, Joa

“You must be Belle Philips," Joa

"'That's right," Belle said. "And who might you be?"

Joa

"I was actually looking for your former husband."

Belle grimaced. "It figures," she said. " Clyde 's always up to some fool off-the-wall thing. Me an' him split the sheets about six years ago now, and I say good riddance. Best thing I ever done. If I'da known how things would work out, I would of done it a lot sooner. Still see him most every day, though. Comes in here and has me cook hint his breakfast, but, by God, he pays me for it. Cash. Every day. None of this ru

Joa

Belle shrugged. "He hasn't been in so far, and once I close the doors at three o'clock, he'll be out of luck. Probably got himself a snootful last night and he's sleeping it off today. He does that, you know-drinks to excess. That's one of the reasons I divorced him-for drinking and carousing both."

"Well," Joa

"My guess is he's in the refrigerator he calls a bedroom, sleeping the sleep of the dead, and can't hear you over the sound of that damned room air conditioner of his. That's another thing about him. The man's so tight his farts squeak. He's cheap as can be about everything, but not air-conditioning, no, ma'am. Keeps his shop and bedroom so cold they're like as not to freeze your butt. Us'ta be, I'd walk in there to go to bed in the summertime and my nipples would turn to ice. Now that I'm alone, I sleep upstairs here with just a single fan. Sometimes, even in the summer, I don't bother with that."

"Getting back to Clyde…" Joa

"Want me to go over and wake him up for you?" Belle Philips offered. "We've been divorced a long time, but l still have a key. He coulda changed the locks, but like I said, he's so damned cheap…"

Glad of an excuse not to drink the awful coffee, Joa

No trouble at all," Belle said. "All's I got to do is turn out the lights and lock the door. Since I'm my own boss, I can come back later on and finish cleaning up. I do that sometimes, anyway, especially if it gets too hot of an afternoon."

While she waddled over to the door and turned the CLOSED sign to the front, Joa

Belle returned and plucked a huge, fringed leather purse out from under the counter. "Ready," she said, jangling a ring of keys. "My car or yours?"

"Let's take mine," Joa

When Belle Philips clambered into the Blazer, the seat springs groaned under her weight. She had to struggle with the seat belt to get it to reach all the way around her. "Nice car," she commented, once she was finally fastened in. "Not like one of those little foreign rice buckets. That's mine over there." She pointed to an enormous old white-fi

Joa