Страница 68 из 226
Her voice was breathy, and he thought she probably giggled a lot. The thought of her giggling made him smile. “It wasn’t nice.”
“You live upstairs?” she asked.
Perhaps she was seventeen. “I just work there. You know if you keep on staring at me like that, I’m go
She giggled.
He leaned back in the tub. “See, I told you.”
“Oh…” She gestured mock frustration, left—she had to push past De
“Yeah, well. I guess we couldn’t leave him down there.”
“I guess not.” De
He nodded, only realizing now that De
“Whisky,” De
“That’s fine.”
“You write all this?”
“Yeah. Leave it alone.”
“Oh.” Quickly De
Kidd nodded and ground his knuckles in the soap. “I got all that junk off my face?”
“Nope. On the side, under your chin.”
He lathered there. The lantern showed the suds gone tan.
De
“Your scrawny ass hanging over the back of your pants.”
“Yeah?” De
But when Kidd sloshed the lather off his face, De
“With Nightmare?”
“Yeah.”
“It was a fuck-up.” De
“What you guys run after?” Kidd drank some more, and rubbed the rusty soap on his stomach.
“You all that interested in scorpion shit?”
Kidd shrugged. The soap bobbed away.
De
“Not that interested.” He retrieved it, pushed it between his toes.
“You ask her, she’ll tell you if she thinks you wa
Kidd took another drink, and fell to scrubbing again. His nails were lined—ruined rim and bitten cuticle—with brown. He dunked his head, rubbed it, lifted it; dark streaks wormed from the drippings.
“Here you go, kid.” De
“I thought scorpions didn’t wear shirts.” Kidd stood up in the loud water to soap his groin.
De
“How old are you?”
“Eh…sixteen,” followed with a questioning glance.
Fifteen, Kidd decided. “I’m practically a dozen years older than you. Stop calling me kid.”
“Huh? You are?”
“Yeah. Now throw me that other towel.” As he caught it, the door crashed back. Dragon Lady lurched in, dark face twisted, stained teeth bared, shaking a fist with one finger up. “Look, when you go back upstairs, you tell that bitch to cut it out, you hear? It’s driving me up the fuckin’ wall! God damn, I know it’s her kid, but—well, Jesus Christ, she been whining up there a fuckin’ hour!” She looked at the ceiling and bellowed: “I mean, go out and take a walk, lady!”
“Dragon Lady…” De
“We dragged the cocksucker up there for her! She keep it up, I’m go
Anger and the cold air: his erection, anyway, was gone. “The walls are thin.” He rubbed himself with the bunched towel.
“Dragon Lady?”
“What do you want?”
“The…Kid was asking about the run.”
Kidd sensed the hesitant disobedience was some acquiescence to previous commitment. But he could not be sure whether the newly implied capital was respectful or mocking.
“Yeah?” Dragon Lady’s anger was quickly exhausted.
“Look, lemme out of here and see what I can do upstairs,” Kidd said. “We’ll talk about it some other time.” He wished Mrs. Richards would quiet too.
“Oh, yeah. Sure. Try and shut her up, huh?” Dragon Lady backed out again.
“You don’t want the vest?” De
The crying suddenly rose in pitch. Outside, Dragon Lady said, “God damn!”
“Yeah, I want the fucking vest.” Kidd stepped from the tub, reached down, and drained the whisky. Twin warmths of agreement and alcohol turned through him.
De
Kidd sucked his teeth again and toweled his groin. “What’s she here for, anyway?”
“Dragon Lady?” De
“Yeah.”
“You remember when you were here last time, Nightmare was collecting us for the run?” De
“Oh.”
The door opened again. The girl stood there, with a plastic cup this time. “Oh,” she said. “I didn’t know you were…” That was to De
“You don’t give a fuck whether he finished it or not,” De
“I’m finished.”
She blinked rapidly, while they exchanged mug for cup. Then, without glancing at De
De
In black jeans and leather vest, Kidd went into the front room.
“Oh, man!” Dragon Lady was saying. “This is just too much—”
The crying was louder here.
“Dragon Lady,” Smokey said, tugging at the tassels of her macramé belt, “why do you shout things up there like that? It…it isn’t necessary!”
“Well,” Dragon Lady said, thumb hooked around hers, “if I was making that big a fool of myself, after about an hour, I don’t know as how I wouldn’t appreciate somebody telling me to cut it out—like they meant it!”
Which Smokey seemed to think was fu
“Look,” Thirteen said, with settling gestures of the palms, “if your neighbor, I mean your own neighbor is going through that, you’re just obliged, obliged, see, to put up with—”
Dragon Lady threw her glass. It missed Thirteen. Smokey ducked too. “Hey, watch…!” Thirteen shouted. Pieces of glass rocked on the floor. Wine licked down the wall. Smokey just blinked and looked like she didn’t know whether to be amused or angry.
But Dragon Lady launched into a doubled-over laughter. “Oh, Thirteen…Thirteen, you are so—” Chains swung, flung back around her neck as she stood. “You are so chicken shit!” She laughed again.
Maybe, Kidd thought, scorpions just yelled loud, laughed a lot, and threw things.
“Baby!” Dragon Lady shouted. “Adam! We go