On shaky ground,
you get shook.
— Foke
As I fled the house, I got maybe five feet out the door before I collided with a mountain of a man who was there, waiting. He wrapped his arms around me.
"It's aight, Hose. It's over."
"Foke?"
"It's aight. Dat wasn't s'posed ta happen. You good. It's aight."
A voice came from inside the house.
"POWER."
"Yo, wassup with da power?" Foke said. "Ya disable it?"
"I... I... I did."
"Hey, Nono! Hose flipped da breakers! Find da box!"
Then Foke's voice got softer, and he said, "You find what you came fo', or you needa go back in?"
"I... I got it."
"Aight. You gotta go now. Nono gon' do his thing. Man's an artist. He gotta do it his way, but you don't wanna be here. Feel me? Yo, listen, Boogie don't work for me no more. Well, Boogie don't do nothin' no more, but he left my crew couple weeks back. He went freelancin', but we had eyes on him. Boog was comin' for you to send a message. Message received. He out."
Then the door closed, behind me, followed by the sound of I don't know what. A grinder? It was too deep, too low, and too garbled to be a leaf blower.
"Gotta go," Foke said. "You don't wanna be here. Go on home. Get a drink. Relax. Nothin' changes tween you an' me. We good. Take some time to get yo' head right. Hose, nothin' here is on you. Boogie fucked up. Boog's gone."
He said Boogie was on shaky ground, and when you're on shaky ground, you get shook. But I was the one who felt shook.
I got in my car to drive home, but I couldn't let Claire see me like this. Shaken. So I drove away, and then drove some more.
Before I realized it, I was on Route 30, east of Merrillville. Wanatah wasn't far. I wondered if Billy was working the bar at The Brass Buckle. I wondered if he'd recognize me. I'd been gone for four years. Had it really been that long?
It was eleven o'clock at night by the time I got there.
"Dandy! Holy shit. Look at you."
"Hey, Billy, I was wondering if you'd be here."
"Of course I'm here. I'm always here. Take a seat. What can I get ya'?"
I ordered a whiskey sour, because I was in a sour mood, but as I watched him pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice, I couldn't help thinking it was a little too on the nose.
"Billy, remember the night I was working here, when Butch set MJ's house on fire?"
"Mary Jane? Wow, yeah, I remember that."
"Why did everybody think I did it?"
"Nobody thought you set the fire, Dandy."
"Then why did everybody act weird around me, like they couldn't even look at me?"
"Oh."
"Oh, what?"
"You mean, you don't know?"
"Jesus, Billy. Just fucking say it."
"Look, you did a great thing, getting her son out of there. You probably saved his life."
"I DID SAVE HIS LIFE."
"But you didn't wake up Mary Jane. People assumed you were pissed at her or something, because you left her there."
"JESUS CHRIST."
"I'm just telling you what people thought. They thought you left her there, on purpose."
"She was already dead, so I got her kid out."
"No, she wasn't. She was still alive when firefighters got there. They got her out, but she died on the way to the hospital."
"I swear to God, I thought she was dead."
"She wasn't. She'd been drinking that night. She was sleeping it off."
"Fuck. Townies must think I'm a monster."
"Dandy, you were a handful."
"I fucking hated this town."
"Yeah, you did, and you never missed a chance to let everybody know. I know your childhood was rough, but this town is a great place to live. It's quiet. It's safe. Good people."
As I looked around the bar, I spotted faces I recognized, but nobody I cared to see.
"Billy, does Linda still live in that place behind Wana Pizza? Linda Goodman?"
"No, she left last year."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah. Somebody was stalking her. She was getting tons threatening postcards from all kinds of places. Police looked into it, but they couldn't figure out why it was happening."
"Threatening postcards?"
"Yeah, it was wild. She received hundreds of postcards from around the world that said, 'I know where you live. Get out.'"
"HOLY SHIT."
"It was really bad, and it went on for a while. One day, she just left. She moved in with her aunt, in Keensboro."
"Where the fuck is that?"
"It's a little town off Route 1, east of Mount Carmel, in the middle of nowhere. It's sad, too, 'cause Linda owned her house here. No mortgage or anything. It's mine now. I mean, not really, but I have the keys. She gave 'em to me the night she left. You remember John, right? He was drunk and needed a place to sleep it off. She was here, dropping off a scarf she crocheted for my mom. Linda was so sweet. She was always making stuff for people. Anyway, she gave me the keys to the house and said John could spend the night there. I got in touch a month later, because she never came back. She told me to keep the place. She offered to sell it to me for basically nothing. I've been keeping it in shape, in case she comes back, or until somebody figures out what to do with it. It's such a nice old house. Good bones, y'know?"
"Oh, so it's your love shack now?"
"I meant the house has great details. Dandy, I'm married. Wife's got a baby on the way too. I'm gonna be a dad. I've already started buying baby stuff. It's adorable."
ADORABLE?
Billy Jaworski was a family man? And uses words like Adorable?
"Where'd you find this woman, Billy?"
"She found me. One night, she came in with some friends. She was sittin' on the same stool you're on now. The more she talked, the more I hoped she'd keep on talking. We're coming up on our third anniversary soon. It's pretty great."
I ordered another drink, but Billy stopped me.
"That's your third. I can't keep serving if you're driving. Need a place to spend the night?" And I thought, "Here it comes. Once a hound dog, always a hound dog, eh?"
He said, "I'll give you the keys to Linda's place. You can drop 'em off here, tomorrow. Give 'em to whoever's working the bar. Should be Joe. We open at 11, but no rush. Anytime's fine."
"For a second there, I thought you were gonna say you should join me."
"Oh, Dandy. I'm not kidding. I'm in love. It's not a puppy-dog love kind of thing, either. When I go home at night, I look to see if the light's on because it means Georgie's still up. Even if she's got nothing to say, I want to hear it."
"Georgie?!?"
"Georgette. Until I met her, I didn't really know the difference between a house and a home. Let me tell you. That difference? It's everything. It's what you need."
I told him he was wrong, but we both knew I was lying.
I said, "Right now, the only thing I need is another drink."
We both knew I was wrong about that, too.
After two more whiskey sours at The Buckle, I stumbled over to Linda's house. I was tempted to break in, for old times' sake. Using the keys felt like cheating since I didn't run a scam to get 'em.
Linda's mailbox was stuffed to capacity. Most of it was junk, but there was a postcard, from Lima, Peru. It said, "I know where you live. Get out," and nothing more. Goddamn. I tried to do something nice and holy shit did it backfire. I'm bad even when I try to be good.
This whole night was turning out to be one big disaster.
I got Boogie killed and ended up back in Wanatah, sleeping in Linda's house. Everybody thinks I left MJ in the fire to die. Can you imagine what they'd think if they knew I was the reason Linda left? It wasn't even a prank. I was trying to do something kind.
"The postcards should have had a fucking poem!!!"
God, people are the WORST.
"ASSHOLES!!! EVERY ONE OF 'EM!!!"
And I'm worse than them!
"EVERY ONE OF 'EM!!!"
I had Steve killed a few years ago, so I could make an easy score. I took a man's life for eighty grand. And I used the money to buy his house. I even sold his car to a chop shop.
"OH THAT'S BAD!!!"
Steve. Then Boogie. I know Boogie wasn't my fault, but still... it's a thing and I did it.
"FUCK!!!!!"
Do it once, it's a thing you did. Do it twice...
"DO I KNOW WHERE THE BATHROOM IS???"
Uh oh.
"Living room is spinning!!!"
Oh no.
"Uuuuhhhrrrgaaahd..."