Cool Hand Luke - Donn Pearce [88]
Still. That son of a bitch wasn’t satisfied. Oh, hell no. We gotta drain some gasoline outta the truck and soak our shoes in it. And the bottoms of our pant legs. Cause Luke didn’t wont the dogs to have our scent even if they did find the truck. How ‘bout that? Ah mean, that’s playin’ it cool, now ain’t it?
So we got away clean. We’re out there in the woods. We beat the gun and we beat the dogs both. And Luke. Like he ain’t never built a day of Time in his life, he’s startin‘ to cut the fool. He’s out there whistlin’ and grinnin‘ and he says to me, he says, “Listen, you stupid bastard. Don’t you go lightin’ no matches now. You’ll give us a hot foot that won’t wait. We’ll go straight to Glory like the Fourth of July.” But ah jes grinned back at him and ah says, “Listen. Don’t call me by none of yore gawd damn family names. Ah might jes be forced to knock yore funny lookin‘ haid off. Haw! You call that thing a haid? It looks like an onion what fell off a truck goin’ down Route 301 at sixty miles an hour.”
Then Luke says, “You think you’re real bad. Dontcha Fat Boy?” And ah says, “Naw, ah ain’t bad. Ah’m jes a little bitter that’s all. Like a lemon. So’s you can suck me.”
Dragline squatted there in the sand of the church yard. Idly he reached down and grasped the center link of his chain, rubbing it between his fingers, feeling how thin it had become in the past year. And yet he was thinking of something else, smiling and remembering. Then he began murmuring again, resuming his story.
He and Luke went through the woods, laughing and joking. When they found a comfortable spot beneath a large tree they sat down and had their supper; a half-dozen oranges picked in a grove and two bars of peanut brittle they had put away in their pockets for the occasion. Then Dragline went to work on Luke’s shackles with the big file from the tool truck, filing off the rivet heads and spreading open the rings. Grinning, Luke massaged his calves and ankles, stood up and walked around in a circle, taking long, gigantic steps. Picking up the leather straps and strings and both sets of chains he drew back and flung the whole apparatus far off into a palmetto bush.
Well. Ah’m sure damn glad to get rid of them things.
Dragline was beside himself with happiness, hopping and skipping around like a school boy, laughing and giggling and throwing out his arms in wide, jerking, uninhibited gestures.
We’re free! Think o‘ that, Luke. You son of a bitch! Free! We are as of right now, as of right this fuckin’ minute, sure ‘nough, big ass Free Men!
Not yet we’re not. We got to get out of these clothes. And find us some food. We got to find us a place to hide where we can lay low until the heat is off us. And we got to get us some loot.
You jes let me worry about all that, old buddy. If we can git to mah place in Clewiston we got it made. Clothes, spendin‘ money—everything. Ah got an uncle that can git us a jug o’ shine. And ah knows some gals too. Some nice, big titted country gals.
Oh, no. We cain’t stick our necks out runnin‘ around with no broads now, Dragline. Later—yeah. But not now. Besides, the very first place they’re gonna look for us is where we live. We got to stay the hell gone from there.
Man, are you done gone stir-crazy? If ah cain’t git me no pussy, what the hell’s the sense in me runnin‘ in the first place? And we ain’t got to stay at mah place. We’ll jes slip in and out real quick-like. At night sometime. Hell, they cain’t be hangin’ around there all the god damn time.
No. Maybe not. We’ll see. I guess we could head on down that way in any case. We got to go somewheres.
They knew where they were and had no trouble finding the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad tracks which would lead them to the Tampa area and then beyond. After walking a mile or so through the woods they reached the roadbed and waited until dark before continuing south. They were certain they had made a clean getaway