Part 7 (1/2)

Sue grinned wickedly. ”Oh, I always bring that.”

I got fl.u.s.tered. ”Well, all right then.”

Sid came out. He had on clean clothes. ”You the angel that washed these?”

”Thats me,” Sue said.

Sid took Sues hand, bowed down and kissed it. ”You got a big heart, young lady.”

Sue seemed to eat up this cornball s.h.i.+t, and I got a little angry. She smiled and said, ”Oh, it was easy”

”Im gonna keep your aunt company. You guys have a ball.”

”Well try,” Sue said.

Sid went into the rental office, while I went to take my shower. My clothes from the road, all washed and folded, were waiting inside for me. When I came out, Sue was nowhere to be seen, so I headed back to the trailer.

She was inside, sitting on my bed, already spinning the wheel on my iPod, which she had lifted from my pack. That burned me a little, but I tried to put that stupid feeling aside. I should just be glad to have her company. I noticed she hadnt bothered with my books.

I sat down on the edge of Sids bunk. The trailer was so small our knees were almost touching.

”Not bad, not bad,” Sue told me. ”No rap though?”

”I dont like that hip-hop s.h.i.+t.”

Sue shrugged. ”Your loss. Lets listen to some Foo Fighters.”

She dropped my iPod into a dock she had brought Soon the music was filling the trailer. I bet Sid wouldve had a fit if he had to listen to our music, him and his geezer tastes. So much for his surface coolness.

We talked a little, mostly about school and stuff. Around seven-thirty, I began to get hungry. Last night I had been too tired to think about my stomach, but tonight was different.

”What do you guys do for supper around here, with the diner closed?”

”Oh, sometimes I whip up some mac and cheese, or nuke some fried chicken. Why, you hungry?”

”I could eat something.”

”Lets go then.”

We carried my iPod and the dock back to Sues rooms. She fixed the food while I sat at the tiny table in the kitchenette. When she was done, we both chowed down.

”Man, that was great. Can I give your aunt some money to buy some more groceries for us?”

Sue had lit a cigarette. She kept looking at the clock on the wall. It was nearing eight-thirty. ”She wouldnt mind.” Sue got up abruptly. ”Kid, would you mind cleaning up? Ive gotta be someplace.”

”Uh, no. I mean, sure, go ahead.”

Sue ran out. I wanted to look where she was going. Was someone picking her up, or was she taking Anns car again? But I held back. Her business was her own.

I pumped up the volume as I cleaned the dirty dishes and pans. It mustve been pretty loud, because soon Sid stuck his head in from the office and yelled, ”Kid A! Turn that s.h.i.+t down!” Didnt I predict hed hate my music this loud?

Four.

Ann counted out the money into my hand, which was kinda puckery from hours in dishwater. ”Thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, sixty-five. That seem fair, Kid?”

I did some quick addition in my head. When you figured in my share of Yasmines tips, my pay for the past week came to about a hundred bucks. No taxes taken out either, since Ann was doing everything under the table. Even back home, when I had an after-school job for a few months at the mall stocking shelves at a Sam Goodys, I had never made that much. I felt rich.

”Yeah, thats cool.”

I gave Ann a big smile, but the one she gave back was kinda lame. I got worried.

”Anything the matter? Is it the money? Can you really afford to pay me and Sid?”

Ann tucked some loose hair behind her ear. I noticed a streak of gray mixed in with the brown. ”Well, more or less. You two have been invaluable around here the last week. Deer Park is looking better than ever. Yasmines not b.i.t.c.hing so much about being overworked. Even Angie smiles once in a while. But business is flat, and I was basically just sc.r.a.ping by even before I added you and Sid to the payroll. I dont mind though, because the difference between paying you guys and not paying you doesnt really represent much of a margin. If I ever decide to close this place, my decision wont hinge on what I spend on the help. Its the costs like electricity and propane and food and gasoline, unavoidable stuff that keeps going up and up, that are going to kill me.”

This was more information than I really wanted. I wondered if this was the kind of boring thing Ann and Sid talked about each night, when Sid hung out with Ann on the couch in the front office of the lodge, with a c.r.a.ppy old black-and-white Radio Shack tv filling the time between guests showing up. After that first night, when Sid came back to the trailer so late and a little grumpy, and I had thought he was maybe s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g Ann, I had changed my mind about what they were up to. Sid didnt seem boastful enough to be getting any. I figured hed be grinning all day like a happy idiot if he had gotten into Anns pants, and wouldve let something slip to me. But he hadnt. And besides, Sue also felt that there was nothing nasty going on between her aunt and Sid. And she should know, since she shared her bedroom with Ann.

But even if the adults had to waste their time on this business s.h.i.+t, it didnt apply to me. I wasnt the owner of Deer Park, and I didnt feel like I should have to worry about the survival of the business. On the other hand, I had made the mistake of asking Ann how things stood, and I figured I should at least sound like I was taking her problems seriously.

”Thats tough, Ann. Maybe things will turn around for this place. The whole countrys hurting right now, I guess, but if things pick up-”

Ann smiled bigger then. ”Youre sweet, Kid.” Without any warning, she grabbed me and hugged me. She felt pretty s.e.xy for a geezer babe, and I got kinda nervous that maybe Id embarra.s.s her with a woody, so I pulled away as quick as I could without seeming like I was trying to escape. My face felt hot. I remembered something I had meant to do, and doing that thing meant a welcome change of subject.

”Uh, Ann, Sues been feeding me supper almost every night in your apartment. I wanna give you some money for groceries.”

I dug a twenty out and handed it to her. ”Is that enough?”

”Kid, you dont have to bother.”

”No, no, I really want to. Its only fair.”

She tucked the money into her pocket. ”Okay. Anything special you want me to lay in?”

”Uh, how about some of those frozen pocket things, with the cheese inside?”

Ann laughed. ”Ill get a stack of them, and any other horrible junk food I can possibly bring myself to purchase.”

”Neat. Uh, Ann, Im gonna go help Sid with the painting now.”

”Go, go.”

I took off my ap.r.o.n and left the empty diner. It was four in the afternoon, and Yasmine and Sonny had gone home. I didnt know where Sue was.

As I walked across the lawn toward the cottages, I felt kinda mixed up inside. The money in my pocket made me happy. And I didnt feel guilty for taking it, despite Anns tight finances. After all, the Prophet says, ”Before you leave the market place, see that no one has gone his way with empty hands.” But being tied down to this steady job, postponing my travels on the road. Well, that still sucked, no matter how hard and how often I tried to pretend it didnt. I felt like Jack when he had signed up for the fire ranger school. ”I wasnt a free bhikku any more.” The tug-of-war between the two feelings, and between the two books, left me confused.

I wondered if maybe Sid hadnt been right when he said Kerouac and Gibran just didnt belong together.