Hard Rain Falling - Don Carpenter [79]
But he knew better. When the excitement went away, he was left with the sour knowledge that Billy was trying not so much to escape via his memory, as to find out, in fact, why the harmless, lonely life he lived had led him straight to prison. Not the specific crime; he knew what that was, but the things that changed him into a man who would commit such a crime. He had written a phony check and been caught for it; that was his crime. But what he wanted to know was, how did it happen that a wise fellow like himself had done such a stupid thing. He never did find out, but he told some good stories.
“Man, I tell you the queerest thing ever happened to me was up in Idaho. I’ll never figure that cat out if I live a thousand years. I was in this all-night joint; I come about a hundred miles to get in this crap game in this guy’s garage, you know, and man, I spent a good half-hour losin every penny I had, an so I cut out an went for this all-night poolhall an was just sittin there out of the weather watchin some old white cats playin billiards an wonderin where in hell I was gonna get some food. Man, you can say what you want about this joint, but you get three squares and a flop, and when you aint got em, they’re somethin! I thought of everythin. Hock my stick? What stick! My magical Willie Hoppe Special? What a joke! I bought that son of a bitch about a month after I left Seattle, you know I just had to have one, an then some cocksucker in Walnut Creek, man, took and busted it over his knee when I wiped him out in snooker. I got another one later; left it at Whitehead’s when I got busted at last. Sell my ass? Sho, I read about cats doin that, you know, they get busted an sit around the bus depot cussin like hell, an then some cute guy comes along an gives em half a million to cop their joint; well, shit, I thought about it, but I didn’t want to, and man, I didn’t even know how! I thought about bustin into a house an stealin the family fur coats, but shit, I’m too chickenshit for that kind of action, and anyway, what the hell do you do with a fur coat? I didn’t know any fences. You hear a lot of shit about that. Man, every big-city poolhall’s got about fifteen guys always hangin around tryin to sell you a watch or a radio or somethin, but you never see these guys with any bread, do you? Hell, no!
“Anyhow, I’m sittin there in this poolhall and in comes the guy; it must of been two in the mornin, dressed in this business suit, nice-lookin guy, maybe fifty, looked like an executive, you know? He sits down and watches this billiard game, too. There wasn’t nothin else happenin in the joint; one old guy in back cleanin off the tables, the houseman asleep back of the candy counter, you know; and then this executive comes up to me an wants to know if I want to play rotation for two dollars or somethin. Rotation! Well, shit. Maybe he’s a queer, I think, and now’s my big chance to sell my ass; but then, you know, maybe not. I says to myself, Billy, you been an honest man all your goddam life, and now you’re broke! Play on your guts, Billy, and take that man’s two dollars, and if you lose, let him try to find two dollars worth of your hide. I don’t know who that cat was or what he thought an never did find out, but he sure wanted to play. So I did it, I got up an played him rotation, half scared he’d find out I was broke, half scared he’d beat me; but hell, he handled a cue like it was a deadly snake, and man, he couldn’t hit his ass with a six-by-eight.
“We played, and I kind of kept it down an beat him by about ten points, man that game took twenty minutes, and he pulls out this wallet and opens it up, and you can see me kind of leanin over to look inside while I’m rackin the balls, and he pulls up two singles, bran new lookin, an throws em on the green and wants to play for four! Well, I says to myself, you got money for breakfast. You could throw it in right now, because