Cool Hand Luke - Donn Pearce [82]
Slowly he began murmuring the story, pausing for a swallow of Pepsi Cola and a drag on his cigarette. He told us how he swiped a horse out of the farm yard where he had cut his chain with an axe, riding him bareback for a couple of miles and then letting him go, jumping on a freight train that had stopped for water and riding it until dawn. Just before daylight he broke into a garage and cut off his shackle rings with a hacksaw. He found a razor, a pair of overalls and a welder’s cap in the men’s room where he shaved and washed up and changed clothes. Dressed as a mechanic he hitched rides back to Alabama and managed to sneak home. His brother gave him some money and bought him a ticket on the Greyhound bus. After making a short, surreptitious visit to his mother’s grave, he went to New Orleans where he changed his name and got a job on the outskirts of town as a plumber’s helper. And that’s where he stayed, living quietly and playing it cool.
Koko became agitated, his fingers trembling as he held the Movie Magazine, glancing down at the cover.
Aw, come on, Luke. Tell us the rest of it. How about all them broads? And them big scores you made?
I didn’t make no scores, old buddy. What do you think I am? A no-count, rotten, god damn international jewel thief like you?
Koko grinned, blinking his eyes with embarrassed pride. Then Dragline interrupted.
Well, what about all them broads? Tell us about all that real fine pussy you made out wif. You didn’t eat it all up did yuh? Ah mean, there’s still some left out there for us, ain’t there?
Oh, lover boy. I don’t know what I’m gonna do with you. I didn’t even get laid, Drag. I didn’t have time. I didn’t have no money. I had to get some decent clothes and pay rent and buy groceries. Groceries? Oh damn, I almost ate myself right into bankruptcy every single week.
Koko hooked his right hand into a stiffened claw, shaking it as though it were hot, his big lips pouted in disappointment.
You didn’t get laid? You didn’t even get laid?
Well, no. I tried. There was this waitress gal that worked where I used to eat all the time. I took her out to a picture show a couple times and sat on the porch swing with her after work. We smooched it up a little bit, yeah. But I couldn’t do no more than play stinky finger.
What? You? She turned you down? A good lookin‘ son of a bitch like you? Why I could kiss you myself.
Well, thank you, sweetheart. But my looks didn’t cut no ice with her. She was lookin‘ to get married. Settle down. All like that there. And I didn’t have a dime. And there was a couple guys kept hangin’ round who had brand new shiny cars. So, you know.
Aw Luke. Come on. Tell us the way you ought to. Loosen up a little bit. Let yourself go.
Why Koko, baby. I’m surprised at you. You know I never tell anything except what God loves. And that’s the Truth.
Aw, to hell with that stuff. Come on, Luke. We don’t wanna hear about all them two bit troubles. Tell us the way it was supposed to be. That’s what we wanna know. How do you expect us to make plans for when we get out?
I don’t know what to tell you, Koko. It’s a hard world out there. It just is, that’s all.
Well, how about this. How about The Picture?
Luke opened up the magazine and smiled.
Oh, that. I thought you boys might be havin‘ the Black Ass back here. And maybe you’d miss your old buddy Cool Hand. So I thought I’d send you this little old snapshot to kind of cheer you all up. All together that damn thing cost me about a week’s pay.
How had he been caught? He was a bit reluctant to discuss it but apparently the waitress’ rejection was harder to take than he would admit. He continued to woo her but she kept playing hard to get. Again he began drinking, habitually and heavily. Then in swift strokes of calamity, in less than one week, he lost his job, the girl refused to talk to him, he went broke