Rain Gods (Hackberry Holland 2)

?No, she?s normal. I never could figure why she got involved with the likes of me.?

?Where y?all living??

?A low-rent joint up the road.?

Bill seemed to wait for the next words Pete would speak.

?I?ve been thinking about something,? Pete said. ?That woman back yonder at the meet??

?The wet-brain??

?I wouldn?t call her that.?

Bill picked up the check and studied it, then looked irritably in the direction of the waitress.

?She was willing to confess to something maybe she didn?t do,? Pete continued. ?Or i

f she did do it, she was willing to confess to it and maybe go to prison. For her, it didn?t make any difference. She just wants to be forgiven for whatever she?s done wrong in her life. That takes guts and humility I don?t reckon I have.?

?That broad can?t add,? Bill said, getting up with the check in hand. ?I?ll meet you outside. We need to haul freight. I got to get some shut-eye.?

Pete waited in the parking lot, chewing on a plastic soda straw, looking at the stars, Venus winking above a black mountain in the west. What had Bill said earlier about a two-year sobriety chip? He hadn?t bothered to accept it? That one didn?t quite slide down the pipe. That would be like turning down the Medal of Honor because the ceremony conflicted with an evening of color-matching your socks.

?Ready to roll?? Bill said, exiting the café.

Pete removed the soda straw from his mouth and looked at Bill in the glow of a neon beer sign.

?Problem?? Bill said.

?No, let?s boogie,? Pete said.

?You still haven?t told me where you live.?

?At the red light, turn east and keep going till you run out of pavement.?

?I thought you said you lived up the road, not east,? Bill said, trying to smile.

?I guess I?m not that sharp when it comes to the cardinal points of the compass. Actually, our place is so far back in the sticks, we got to bring the sunshine in on a truck,? Pete replied. ?That?s a fact.?

Bill was quiet as they drove eastward through hardpan countryside dotted with mesquite and old tires and scrap metal that sparkled like mica under the moon. He put a mint on his tongue and sucked on it and looked sideways at Pete as the SUV hit chuckholes that jarred the frame. ?How much farther??

?Another five or six miles.?

?What the hell do you do out here??

?I?m shaving and treating fence posts for a fellow.?

?That?s interesting. I didn?t know there was that much wood around here.?

?It?s what I do.?

?How about your girl??

?She?s got a little Internet business.?

?Selling what? Lizard turds??

?She does right well with it.?