Part 9 (2/2)
”So let me understand this,” she said, ”we're here for what, three hours, we just finished making love, and you want to go out right now and see this old guy, who was a friend of your father's?”
”I told you about Ike, he was like a father to me after my old man died.”
”I wouldn't say he was like a father to you. More like the G.o.dfather. He set you up big time in the business is what you mean, and now you want to work for him again. Isn't that what this is about? I should have known that's why you wanted to go to A.C.”
”You're way off, Rina, that's not it at all.”
”Oh, so you wanted to come here to make me happy, making me come back to where I was at the lowest point in my life. You can't even bear to hear what happened to me in A.C., can you? Not even to this day.”
He turned away from her and looked at a sliver of the sky barely visible through the blinds. How could a sky be both blank and blue? He hated it when she was sarcastic and bitter. ”You can tell me,” he said, hoping she wouldn't. ”Really, you can tell me.”
”Forget it,” she shot back in her tough-girl voice, though when he turned back to look at her again her eyes were moist. ”I'm not making that mistake again. I don't need to tell you any of that s.h.i.+t 'cause I know it hurts you.”
”Well, I didn't bring you here to hurt you, either. You seemed like you wanted to come more than you didn't. And I wasn't even thinking about Ike when I suggested it, I swear. About your past, I guess I just blocked it out. I'm sorry.”
”What were you really thinking about wanting to go to Atlantic City?” (She said the name of the place as if it were Afghanistan or North Korea.) ”Well, number one, it's an obvious place to go to for fun-not for you maybe, I understand, but in general-and second, I was thinking of my father and my family. We went to A.C. a lot when I was a kid. Those were good times for me, that's all.”
He briefly considered telling her how his father used to hold his hand in the water but decided not to.
”So you never thought of Ike at all?”
”I thought of him later. When you said you'd rather go to Ventnor or someplace like it, I remembered then that he lived there now.”
”And that's when you decided you had to see him?”
”Yeah, it grew on me. I miss him, that's all. It's not about dealing.”
”So why's he like you so much?”
”I don't know. He has problems with his own son. His son's about the only person in the business who had trouble working with him.”
”But you said you were staying out of it. You said you were gonna get a real job or else finish school or both. You've said a lot of things to me.”
”Said it and meant it. Look, why don't you come with me to see him? See for yourself. It's just about friends.h.i.+p, that's all. But friends.h.i.+p's a lot.”
”No, I'm not gonna rain on your parade.”
”Are you kidding? I want you to come. I'm proud of you. I wanna show you off, okay? I want you to get to know Ike. He doesn't need me to push his merchandise. Believe me, the guy has a fleet of workers and behind them a fleet of wannabe workers.”
”Oh geez, I'm so impressed. It's almost like meeting Einstein, I guess.”
”Come on, you don't have to be sarcastic. I'm sure you'll like him. And I really want you to come with me. I mean it.”
She looked at him with a serious expression in her hazel-green eyes. It was strange. He had almost the same color eyes as her but hers expressed so many more emotions.
”I must need my head examined to stick with you.”
”What?”
”What? You're a drug dealer. You're gonna get busted. Just like every dealer I've ever known. And you're gonna get me busted too.”
”What are you talking about?”
”I must love to have tragedies happen to me. They got a word for people like me?” she said, getting out of bed.
He stared at her body in awe. Couldn't believe sometimes that she was his lover and knew then that he wanted her as his wife one day. But he couldn't tell her yet. Maybe later on when they'd finally gone to Atlantic City.
”So what have you decided?” he said.
”I'm coming with you, you know that. But I gotta get ready first.”
One other thing he loved about Rina, she always looked great when they went out. Not just good but appropriate for the occasion too. It took her a lot of time but it was worth it. This time it wasn't so bad because he hadn't smoked, which would make the time seem longer, but had taken a 'lude he had in his pocket just to take the edge off waiting. Somehow Quaaludes and Atlantic City went together like a sunset over the ocean, he thought.
While she was primping, mostly with her hair and makeup, he found Ike's address in his old address book. He wondered if he should call first but decided it would be more fun to surprise him. Then he wondered what he'd say if Ike wanted him to do a deal. Could he really say no to Ike? But anyway, that could wait for later. He knew Ike wouldn't ask him in front of Rina, especially with her dressed kind of conservatively in a light pink dress and her brand-new beach shoes that she bought back in Fort Lee. She was a cla.s.sy woman and Ike appreciated cla.s.s. He was lucky, unimaginably lucky, to have Rina as his girl, he knew that. So what if she'd had to hook for a while years ago? The woman had been handed a nightmare life right from the start, her own father doing her when she was only twelve.
”How do I look?” she asked, emerging from the bathroom with a big smile.
”Like heaven.”
”Now you're the one who's not talking,” she said to him in the car.
They were less than a mile from Ike's house and he was thinking how nice her perfume smelled and how nice it would be to smell her when they made love later and then, for a moment, wondering why he was visiting a criminal like Ike, however benevolent his personality might be.
”You feeling nervous about seeing him?”
He shrugged. ”A little.”
”Go ahead, have a hit. I'll have one too. It won't kill us.”
”You mean that?”
”Yah, of course. I ain't a cop. Pull over into that alleyway by the Italian restaurant. We can do it there.”
They took their emergency traveling joint from the glove compartment, lit up, and each took two hits.
”It's hard to stop, isn't it?” he said. ”When the pot's so good.”
”We can do the rest later, after we see Ike,” she said, suddenly looking sad.
”What's the matter baby?”
”You know, it isn't easy for me even being near Atlantic City. You know why I went there in the first place, don't you? I told you about my father.”
”Yah, of course you told me.”
”I mean, why'd he have to f.u.c.k me, huh? What kind of guy does that to his own daughter when I wasn't even thirteen yet? He was already getting plenty of women on the side, you know, what'd he need me for?”
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