Cruddy - Lynda Barry [68]
The sheriff mooed.
“I’ll be jingled,” said the father, pouring himself another.
When Pammy said she was ready for bed and the father said good night and followed her up to her chambers, the sheriff said, “Let me walk you to the trailer, son. It’s pretty dark out there.”
Chapter 31
UDDENLY I was shivering. “I assure you,” said the Turtle. “I promise you, the sleeping giant will wake.” The whole day had passed. I could see the sky darkening on the other side of the grimy garage window. I felt around for my clothes and started putting them back on.
The Turtle patted around for his shirt and pulled a paper twist out. “Wait, wait, we’ll have a fatty and I’ll try again. It’s the Windowpane. Shouldn’t have dropped two. Hillbilly Woman, sit back down.”
“I’m freezing,” I said. My teeth vibrated against each other. “Let’s go,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”
We walked down the alley and I felt the confusion of wanting his arm around me and hating his arm around me. His breath had gone back to rasty again. I felt freaked by what we did. As the Windowpane drained away my jaws kept clenching until I could feel my teeth springing. The Turtle passed me Sir Fatty Bone III and I was thankful for it. It slowed down the murdering shocks that were shooting through my mind. The question of did it count. What we did in the garage. Did it count without the word, that word, penetration. Did it count without that? He tried but he couldn’t. He was ready, but the sleeping giant was too wasted.
He squeezed me. He said, “Hillbilly Woman, I have yet to hear about your finger. Yes. Absolutely. We must do it all again. I must hear the rest of the story. We will find a place and you will keep talking.”
I said, “What happened to my finger is that it got infected and the father cut it off, OK? The End.”
He said, “I sense an irritation.” His voice had a hurt tone. “I sense there is a thought which you are having about me.”
The sky was streaked with the marks of sundown. A jet trail glowed in the ugliest pink. My eyes felt raw. The Windowpane had twisted time so badly. The day had seemed a minute long but in that minute my life uncoiled.
We were at the end of an alley and I was trying to decide what to do. The Turtle was looking very sad. His eyes looked dark and large with the barest rim of tiger-colored iris. The Turtle said, “I sense you will leave me. I sense our love has died.”
He sounded so sincerely troubled. I was thinking, what if it is love but I just can’t tell? I never kissed anyone before him. I never anythinged with anyone. It could be love and I could be wrecking my chances. And this made me freak and put my arms around him. He smelled sour. I thought about the power of love and tried to ignore the smell. He kissed me very hard, moving his head in circles and his teeth scraped against mine. It smelled like something was rotting inside of him. I couldn’t help pulling away.
“Hillbilly Woman, what is it? What has gone wrong between us?”
“Turtle,” I said, “I’m sorry.”
He said, “Hillbilly Woman, please lay it on me. Truthfulness at all times. Absolutely.”
I couldn’t say anything.
He said, “It’s because I’m Canadian, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“Canadian. Yes. I confess it before you.”
The Monkey at Diggy’s had warned me. He had told me.
I said, “Do you know Neil Young?”
“Hillbilly Woman. Absolutely! Would you like to meet him?”
And that’s when I started the crying.
And half an hour later I was still crying. I did not know if I would ever stop crying. I was laying in somebody’s front yard and I could not stand up. The Turtle said, “Hillbilly Woman. I did not think you would take it so hard.”
He said, “Hillbilly Woman, it’s the Windowpane. You are very sensitive to acid.”
He said, “Hillbilly Woman, please, you are very loud for this time of day in this sort of neighborhood. The lady has just come out onto the porch. The lady has gone back inside and I fear she is phoning the authorities.”
He said, “Hillbilly Woman, rise. I cannot stay here much longer.”
He didn’t. By the time the cops arrived he was gone. An officer came