While The Cat's Away...

I was down at the Corner the day after Sam left for Fort Worth which was ...a Monday...finishing up some paperwork before taking it home to Bill for review. The prospect of watching Bill sit down in the recliner with a lap full of paper was always an amusing one. I had Hiatt going in the CD player and was cheerfully singing along with it when I heard Elmore come in. He was probably on his way over to Beth and Sam's.

Deb:  ...I'm shredding the documents...I'm keeping my mouth shut...Hey,
Elmore!  We got Beth's invoice!...I'm running on radio silence...I'm
letting the record speak...

Beth had offered to design a webpage for the Corner for cost.  We had
seen her work and were eager to have her do something for us, but neither
Elmore nor I wanted her to do it for nothing.  I had assured her we would
pay her the going rate, then Elmore came in and, in his artfully artless
way, suggested that she bill us at twice her normal fee just to see if 
Bill was paying attention to what he was signing.  Bill had decided that he
wanted final reviewal of all of our payments.  No reason, just because he
could.  The final bill was something like three times what she would have
charged anyone else.

Elmore:  Give 'er here...

Elmore made a great show out of looking the invoice over.  Normally he
just countersigned where I told him, when I told him.  But since this little
scam was his idea, I could hardly blame him for wanting to savor it.  After
a moment or two, he picked up his pen and scribbled his signature beside
mine.

Deb:  ...you know what my father said...well I'm not gonna tell you...bury
it in the middle of the stack and I'll take it home with me...some words
that I try to live by...it's none of your goddamn business...

Elmore stuffed the invoice in the pile, about halfway down, and grinned
at me.

Elmore:  Won't be around till t'night, Ma...goin' t'work on the page over
t'Beth's.

Deb:  Y'know, Elmore...I wanted to talk to you about that, a little.  Do
you mind an opinion?

Elmore:  Opinions's 're like assholes, Ma.  Ever'body got one an' they all
stink.

Deb:  Got me there, Elmore, but still...I've been thinking about all the...
the...

I stopped, hesitated, unable to find an adequate phrase to describe 
Elmore's behavior on the day of the barbecue.

Elmore:  Showin' off I was doin' Saturday.

Deb:  Good enough.

Elmore:  I know, Ma...but it don't hurt to show her what she's missin' out
on.

Deb:  I don't suppose so...but you're putting her in a terrible position,
between you and Sam and it's not fair to her.  You'll wind up making her
choose...and she might not choose you.

Elmore's face was a study.  He kept his eyes on his hands, cracking his
knuckles as he worked to sort his thoughts out.

Elmore:  I ain't gonna...do nothin'.  I never had her...guess I'm used to 
not havin' her...might not even know what t'do with 'er if'n I did.  All
that college...she's so smart an' look at me, wouldn't know nothin' 'cept
I went into the Corps.  Been married, spent years gettin' the snot beat outa
me...an all I ever come back to was Beth.  Sam's what she wants...an' Sam
hurts 'er, why I guess I'll be beatin' hell outa Sam.  But if'n he leaves
'er there won't be nothin' for him t'change his mind 'n come back to, cause
I'm gonna be there.

Deb:  Elmore, I think she knows that.  In fact, I'm sure of it.  I just felt
like I needed...to say...something.  You can tell me to butt out if you 
think I'm stickin' my nose in where it doesn't belong.

Elmore:  Like with my car?

Deb:  Yeah, like with your car.  I still don't know what in the name of God
you need with that thing...

Elmore and Bill had gone out one day to buy a car and had returned with
a black HummVee.  Elmore grinned down at me and gave me a poke in the
shoulder.

Elmore:  Same thing you need 'th that Prowler y'come home with Friday.

I had..seen a Plymouth Prowler in a local showroom.  The roadster had
talked to me for a good hour while I spent time in the WalMart across the 
street buying underwear.  When Bill's underpinnings were sufficiently
augmented, I drove across the street to look at the Prowler.  Two hours
after that, I went home to get Elmore so he could drive the Expedition home
while I followed in the Prowler.  Bill had had an absolute fit for as long
as it took him to get the spare keys.

Deb:  One for you, Elmore.  

I grinned back at him and for several minutes we nudged and whacked at
each other's sides like a couple of self-respecting six year olds.  Then
Elmore climbed in his Hummer and I climbed in my Expedition to drive home.

Elmore:  Hey, Ma...where's the Prowler?

Deb:  Three guesses and the first two are wrong.  I never should have given 
Bill those keys...

Elmore was gone all day, and he didn't arrive to open up the Corner until
a half hour after I'd returned and started turning on the lights.  Beth
came with him and sat down at the office computer to make additions to the
webpage.  Elmore spent a lot of time in the office that night.

Beth:  Where's Bill?

Deb:  Beatin' up my Prowler.

Beth:  Your what?

Bill crashed into the office, flipping the keys around his index finger 
and grinning like an ape.

Bill: Damn!  I love that car!

Deb:  So do I.

Bill:  Y'wanna borrow it, say sumpin', punk.

Deb:  I'll say something, alright!  It's my damn car!!!!

Bill was virtually unaffected, smiling genially as he came to me to
administer the kind of rough hug that usually shut me up for as long as five
minutes.

Bill:  I didn't hear a damn word you said.

He blew on out into the main bar, to tour the floor and see what was going
on.  I followed him for a minute or two, trying to work up the nerve to kick
the shit out of him.  When the floor became too crowded to swing my foot, I
retreated to the office to grumble and bitch.  When I got there again, Beth 
was hard at the webpage and Elmore was bent over her chair with a hand on her
shoulder and his chin in her hair.  Very chummy.

Deb:  Bill...hey...quit lyin' to people about my goddam car and come here,
will you please.

Good Old Boy:  HER car?

Bill:  Mouth's writin' checks and I'm gonna cash 'em outa her ass.  'Scuse
me, boys.  What the hell you want?!

I took a deep breath, changed my tone completely, so he would know I
wanted his help and advice.

Deb:  Elmore...

Bill:  What now?  When're you gonna quit thinkin' you need t'take
care of that boy?...

Deb:  Never, but so what.  Please talk to him...please.  He says everything
is innocent but...

Bill:  But what?

Deb:  But nothing.  He listens to you.

Bill:  He knows how t'play the game, baby.

Deb:  But with Sam away, the rules have changed.

Bill's face lit up and he started to laugh.

Bill:  You protectin' the Dawg?  What the hell for?

Deb:  Cause I like to waste my time, cantcha tell?

Bill caught my face in his big hands, more to get me to hold still than
anything else, because there was no room for a headlock.  I wrapped my
fingers around his wrists.

Bill:  Okay, alright, settle the hell down, I'll talk to him.  Back behind
the bar, now.  Go on.

I nodded, lightly squeezed his wrists and turned for the bar.  He planted
his boot in my backside, just hard enough to lift me off the floor.  I set 
to dispensing drinks and Bill strolled on into the office.  Moments later
Elmore practically ran out.  He was calling over his shoulder as he came
toward me.

Elmore:  Yessir!  Okay...Bill wants ya in there, Ma.

Deb:  How sweet.

As soon as I put foot through the door Bill had me in a headlock.  Beth
balanced me on the other side.  He maneuvered us over to the desk, where he
had laid out a familiar looking invoice.

Bill:  That look familiar to either one of you smartasses?

Beth:  Kinda looks like something of mine.

Deb:  Damn!  I think I signed it.

Bill:  I think you did, too, Punk.

The headlocks tightened, but there was no way to apply the Wedgie-Matic.

Bill:  'S been paid...but don't think I don't look.

He turned us loose, but he was grinning hugely.  Beth got an extra goose
and I got the breath squeezed out of me, then he left us alone.  Beth sat
back down at the computer, groaning when her bottom hit the chair.  I
stretched out on the couch.

Deb:  How're you and Elmore doing?

Beth:  The page is coming right along.  And he is so very sweet...too
sweet sometimes.

Deb:  When's Sam coming home?

Beth:  I don't know...depends on when he gets his man.

Deb:  No ifs?

Beth:  Don't even go there.

That was good for a laugh.

Beth:  He was always my...

Beth stopped, and even I could see the pain in her eyes.  I knew that
pain wasn't for her, but for Elmore, which made it that much harder for her
to bear.  It would have been easier to blow Elmore off if he'd been a jerk
or a blowhard, the problem was that he was neither of those things.

Deb:  He still is.

Beth:  I know...I know.  Do me a favor, will you?

Deb:  You know it.  What?

Beth:  Just stay close, as much as you can.  He watches himself around you
and Bill.  It's not like he'll try anything, but it will be easier on him
if he has to think about what he's doing.

Beth's eyes were knowing and sad.  They must have had their share of
moments over the course of the week to bring that sort of look to her face.
I nodded once, then slowly left the office.  There had been a time when I
had envied her that effortless ability to make men go to war for her, sort
of a vest pocket Helen of Troy.  Not anymore...not when it seemed to hurt
as much as it did. Elmore was busy behind the bar, pouring beers and 
shooting the shit with the fellows and the waitresses and Bill.  I came up
behind him and hugged him warmly around the waist.

Elmore:  Hey, Ma...what's that for?

Deb:  Don't know. Elmore.  I just wanted to, I guess.

Bill:  Easy, little mama.  Ain't as bad as all that.

Apparently he had talked to Elmore.  Maybe more than once.  In any
case, I'd had enough of the Corner for one day.  I gathered up my purse and
conned Beth into coming home with me to work on the webpage there.  Beth
headed directly to the office to boot up the computer while I played back the
voicemail.

Sam:  Hey, baby, I've been tryin' your cell all night.  Where've you been?
Comin' home in the morning, be there at seven, gate 21.  Pick me up?

Beth's face lit up.  And though I felt bad for Elmore all over again, it
was impossible not to respond to that look.  I had to grin at her.  I'd
never worn such a look myself, mostly because Bill never warned me when he 
was coming back, but it was wonderful to see it on someone else.

Beth had finished tweaking the page by the time Bill and Elmore rolled in
at midnight.  The Corner was still open, but Elmore had insisted on hiring
an assistant manager whom he had known on the fight circuit.  The guy was
slower than molasses, but honest, and more grateful for the job than he had
vocabulary to express it with, and he would shut her down for the night.
Bill caught me effortlessly to his hip and carted me down the hall to bed -
my ankle was bugging me and I suspected the weather was about to change 
again.  He had other ideas not directly related to ankle or weather, but I
was fine with those, too.  Still, at four something woke me, and I headed
back to the front of the house.  Halfway down the hall I saw the dim blue
glow of the television and I was sure I knew what I would find when I got to
the front room - Elmore asleep in front of some lame infomercial.  I was
sure Beth was long gone.  Instead I saw Beth resting comfortably against
Elmore's chest, sound asleep.  Elmore was wide awake...unwilling to miss 
even a minute of these last few hours of having her entirely to himself.

Deb:  What's up with this, Elmore?

Elmore:  We got talkin' an' she fell asleep.

Deb:  Looks like it.  Sam's due in at seven...

Elmore:  I know.  Goin' t'pick 'im up.

I watched his hands, moving constantly, softly, soothingly against her
back, and I had conflicting thoughts.  Those hands looked dangerous to any
woman's resolve...yet something in me wanted Sam to do a few more of these
extended jaunts, for Elmore's sake.  I shook my head, hard.

Elmore:  'S'matter, Ma?

Deb:  Nothing, Elmore...just me.  You takin' her home first?

Elmore:  Naw.  Jus' gonna tell Sam she had a late night an' came on over
here cause she was lonesome for company.

I reached down, touched Elmore's cheek briefly and smiled.

Deb:  Put her in the spare room before you go, okay?

Elmore returned the smile, then shifted his attention back to the
television, and the woman in his arms.  I knew myself to be superflous,
and padded on back to bed.  At that moment, Elmore didn't need a single
thing more to be completely content.

The sound of two big men doing their best to be silent woke me instantly.
Bill never made the slightest effort to be any quieter than he wanted to be
and I slept like a baby through his comings and goings.  This was so
different.  I went no farther than the door and saw as much as I needed to.
Sam, seeming to be utterly exhausted, stood outside the door to the room I
knew Beth was in.  Elmore stood next to the door across the hall.  He was
going through living hell, but I really doubted Sam saw any of it.

Sam:  Thanks for lookin' after my girl, Elmore.

Elmore:  Any time, Sam.

Sam went into the guestroom and closed the door behind him.  Elmore's
little bit of heaven was over.  I stood, silently applauding Elmore for the
tremendous show of dignity, and I felt a big hand close over my backside.

Bill:  Still wish ya had a shitload of guys on your case?

Deb:  No.  One's enough, if he's the one you want.

Bill slipped his other arm across my collarbone and fitted his chin into
the hollow of my shoulder.

Bill:  The one you got says back to bed...'s too damn early.  Dontcha
worry 'bout Elmore...he'll be fine.  Now come on...

He tugged on me, steering me back to his bed, and he had no idea how 
gladly I went.

TO BE CONTINUED...