Hick - Andrea Portes [49]
“C’mon, kid, I told you I had errands.”
“Keep driving.”
“Well, fine but I thought you might wanna know that Glenda called and was asking about you and wanted us to meet her at the Motel 6 in Devil’s Slide.”
“Motel 6? Yeah, right. I don’t believe you.”
“Cause she said Lloyd was having a meeting and she didn’t want to ruin it, what with it being business and all. She said she owed you.”
“Owed me what?”
“I dunno. She just said she did.”
“Hm. Sounds weird.”
“Well, look, she said to be there. You can come or not, but, if you don’t, she’s gonna take it out on me, so you can see my dilemma.”
I stop in my tracks and ponder the sun setting yonder over the horizon. I’ll be double fucked if I have to spend the night out here in a ditch with not even my bag for a pillow. The truck idles next to me and I take a deep breath. There’s something inside me whispering whatever you do, don’t get in that truck, don’t get in that truck, don’t get in that truck, but I am kicking myself knowing that in just a split second I am gonna sigh and throw my hands up in the air and get right back in that truck.
Eddie doesn’t look at me as we scratch out onto the road towards Devil’s Slide. He doesn’t look at me and he doesn’t say one word about Glenda or what she owes me.
TWENTY–SIX
I guess you could say my feelings towards Eddie are balanced somewhere between fear and want. There’s a feeling I have, when I look at him, that he’s about to vanish before my very eyes, like some magic cowboy trick conjured up to scare me but keep me on the edge of my seat. And I am. I cannot get off my toes for a minute for fear that he’ll be gone for good and I’ll be an all-alone girl. it’s that feeling of impending abandonment that keeps me clinging to him like he’s the last train out of crapville.
He’s an ugly man. No doubt about it. He’s crooked on the inside and on the out, like his mind warbled in on itself and his body just followed suit. But there’s something in his eyes, something rough and cunning, that keeps me from opening that truck door, tumbling out onto the gravel and running back to Jackson.
There’s a wish I have, when I close my eyes. I pray that he’ll fall for me. And it’s just cause I know he won’t that I want this so bad. There are no spells I can cast, no webs I can weave, no magic words and candles burned. it’s like he can see right through me, straight to the core and has it on fact that I ain’t worth it.
Two miles outside Devil’s Slide, we pull into the Motel 6. Not my dream date. I twiddle my thumbs in the car while Eddie checks us into the furthest room from the road. I look around for Glenda’s car but I guess she’s not here yet. Makes sense, she had farther to drive and maybe got a late start. The moon hangs silver in the sky, waning. There’s a few stars turning on, one by one, but mostly they’re just getting warmed up.
We walk into number 12 and it’s like the room is made of cork. There’s a silence while the two of us stare at the double bed, made crisp.
“That’s all they had, kid, don’t complain.”
“All right.” I nod. “But how’s Glenda gonna find us?”
“Don’t worry bout it.”
“Wull, should we leave a message?”
“Already did.”
He turns on the TV and some long-haired man with a tan starts screaming at us, from the box, telling us we better not miss out on the last chance to buy his brand new-fangled exerciser. Eddie lays down on the bed and starts flipping through the channels, all the way through and then back again, all the way through and then back again. He settles on the crime channel, talking about some lady found