Thinner - Stephen King [82]
'I'm sorry to call you at home, Richard,' he said, 'and so late.'
'Fuck that, what's wrong?'
'Well, the immediate problem is that I've been shot through the hand with a ' He shifted slightly, his hand flared, and his lips peeled back over his teeth. 'with a ball bearing.'
Silence at the other end.
'I know how it sounds, but it's true. The woman used a slingshot.'
'Jesus! What -' A woman's voice in the background. Ginelli spoke briefly in Italian to her and then came back on the line. 'This is no joke, William? Some whore put a ball bearing through your hand with a slingshot?'
'I don't call people at ' He looked at his watch and another flare of pain raced up his arm. ' at three o'clock in the morning and tell jokes. I've been sitting here for the last three hours trying to wait until a more civilized hour. But the pain ' He laughed a little, a hurt, helpless, bewildered sound. 'The pain is very bad.'
'Does this have to do with what you called me about before?'
'Yes.'
'It was Gypsies?'
'Yes. Richard '
'Yeah? Well, I promise you one thing. They don't fuck with you anymore after this.'
'Richard, I can't go to a doctor with this and I'm in I really am in a lot of pain.' Billy Halleck, Grandmaster of Understatement, he thought. 'Can you send me something? Maybe by Federal Express? Some kind of painkiller?'
'Where are you?'
Billy hesitated for just a moment, then shook his head a little. Everyone he trusted had decided he was crazy; he thought it very likely that his wife and his boss had gone through or soon would be going through the motions necessary to effect an involuntary committal in the state of Connecticut. Now his choices were very simple, and marvelously ironic: either trust this dope-dealing hood he hadn't seen in nearly six years, or give up completely.
Closing his eyes, he said: 'I'm in Bar Harbor, Maine. The Frenchman's Bay Motel. Unit thirty-seven.'
'Just a second.'
Ginelli's voice moved away from the telephone again. Billy heard him speaking in a dim platter of Italian. He didn't open his eyes. At last Ginelli came back on the line again.
'My wife is making a. couple of calls for me,' he said. 'You're wakin' up guys in Norwalk right now, paisan. I hope you're satisfied.'
'You're a gentleman, Richard,' Billy said. The words came out in a guttural slur and he had to clear his throat. He felt too cold. His lips were too dry and he tried to wet them, but his tongue was dry too.
'You be very still, my friend,' Ginelli said. The concern was back in his voice. 'You hear me? Very still. Wrap up in a blanket if you want, but that's all. You've been shot. You're in shock.'
'No shit,' Billy said, and laughed again. 'I've been in shock for about two months now.'
'What are you talking about?'
'Never mind.'
'All right. But we got to talk, William.'
'Yes.'
'I Hold on a second.' Italian, soft and faint. Halleck closed his eyes again and listened to his hand broadcast pain. After a while Ginelli came back on the phone. 'A man is going to come by with some painkiller for you. He
'Oh, hey, Richard, that's not
'Don't tell me my business, William, just listen. His name is Fander. He's no doctor, this guy, at least not anymore, but he's going to look at you and decide if you ought to have some antibiotics as well as the dope. He'll be there before daylight.'
'Richard, I don't know how to thank you,' Billy said. Tears were running down his cheeks; he wiped at them absently with his right hand.
'I know you don't,' Ginelli said. 'You're not a wop. Remember, Richard: just sit still.'
Fander arrived shortly before six o'clock. He was a little man with prematurely white hair who carried a country doctor's bag. He gazed at Billy's scrawny, emaciated body for a long moment without speaking and then carefully unwound the handkerchief from Billy's left hand. Billy had to put his other hand over his mouth to stifle a scream.
'Raise it, please,' Fander said, and Billy did. The hand was badly swollen, the skin pulled taut and shiny. For a moment he and Fander gazed at each other through the hole