Read Online Country Hardball by Steve Weddle - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Steve Weddle
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payment to you, you know. Kinda on account.”
I didn’t say anything. I thought about her asshole boyfriend. His worthless self.
RECEPTION
My Aunt Velma wiped the Red Man juice from her chin, put the coffee can back on the TV tray. “Doyle, you just need to get yourself down there and fix her antenna is what you need to do.”
“I will, Aunt Vee, I will. Just gotta finish this up first,” I said. I pulled my cap up, sleeved off the sweat from my head.
I’d been staying with my aunt off and on for the past year, ever since I’d gotten laid off from the flooring place outside Magnolia. Price of gas these days, wasn’t worth it anyway. I’d finished a line of caulking on the inside of the leaky window and was cleaning it up with the edge of one of those credit cards they send you in the mail. Sign up and spend $5,000 and I’d get 5,000 points to take the family to Disney World. I don’t have a family.
So I dragged the edge of the card along the window frame, worked the caulking into the corners as best I could, then used a rag to wipe off all the excess. I wiped the card off on the same rag, then slid the card into my pocket where I used to keep a wallet. “She say what was wrong with it?”
“Said it was broke. I don’t need her and her niece coming up here every damned day to watch my stories with me and eat up all my goddamned food. I swear I’ve never seen a girl put away so many gizzards in one sitting.”
Her stories.
As the World Turns
.
Guiding Light
. Her stories. Her world. When I started staying here, she’d send me out on errands in the early afternoon so I wouldn’t get in her way. Most days I didn}, should have been’t have anywhere else to go, so I’d just walk up and down the road picking up cans out of the ditches. Down to Mr. Tatum’s place and then back again was pretty close to long enough for me to stay away. Usually managed enough cans to make it worthwhile, too. After a while I’d stay and keep my mouth shut. Little while after that, I’d say something about one of the characters. One day I said Blake Thorpe looks like Miss Angela down at the Texaco. Turns out my aunt doesn’t much care for Miss Angela. I didn’t say too much after that.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said, using a loose nail from the windowsill to clean some of the caulk from under my thumbnail, “but I’m not much of an electrician.”
“Weren’t much of a plank layer before that, were you?”
“They cut me back. Wasn’t my fault the housing market went to hell.”
She wiped a little more Red Man from her chin. “You watch your mouth, young man.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Guess it wasn’t your fault Ellie walked out on you, was it?”
I sent the tip of the nail into my thumb, coughed. “No, ma’am.”
“Right. Right. What’s she doing now? Who’s she staying with?”
“I don’t know.”
“I heard somebody down at the beauty shop say they saw her with that Dwayne boy used to go around with MeChell from the insurance place. Robert’s youngest.”
“I wouldn’t know. I don’t see her that much.”
“Yeah, well, whose fault is that?”
I don’t know how it went so wrong with Ellie. I should have done things differently, I guess. I just never knew which things. I walked to the back of the house to the couch where my pillow and radio were and scanned for any afternoon baseball games. On a good day, sometimes I could get a Texas Rangers game. I didn’t much care for any of them, but if they were playing the New York Yankees, at least I’d have someone to root against. Sometimes it just works out better to root against something.
The weather was pretty clear, which isn’t always the best for picking up games on the radio. But after the weather we’d had, I’d take clear and quiet. Last week we had some awful storms come through. Took out a church up near Emerson and a couple of old farmhouses. Flooded most of the back roads around here. And other smaller problems. Like
I didn’t say anything. I thought about her asshole boyfriend. His worthless self.
RECEPTION
My Aunt Velma wiped the Red Man juice from her chin, put the coffee can back on the TV tray. “Doyle, you just need to get yourself down there and fix her antenna is what you need to do.”
“I will, Aunt Vee, I will. Just gotta finish this up first,” I said. I pulled my cap up, sleeved off the sweat from my head.
I’d been staying with my aunt off and on for the past year, ever since I’d gotten laid off from the flooring place outside Magnolia. Price of gas these days, wasn’t worth it anyway. I’d finished a line of caulking on the inside of the leaky window and was cleaning it up with the edge of one of those credit cards they send you in the mail. Sign up and spend $5,000 and I’d get 5,000 points to take the family to Disney World. I don’t have a family.
So I dragged the edge of the card along the window frame, worked the caulking into the corners as best I could, then used a rag to wipe off all the excess. I wiped the card off on the same rag, then slid the card into my pocket where I used to keep a wallet. “She say what was wrong with it?”
“Said it was broke. I don’t need her and her niece coming up here every damned day to watch my stories with me and eat up all my goddamned food. I swear I’ve never seen a girl put away so many gizzards in one sitting.”
Her stories.
As the World Turns
.
Guiding Light
. Her stories. Her world. When I started staying here, she’d send me out on errands in the early afternoon so I wouldn’t get in her way. Most days I didn}, should have been’t have anywhere else to go, so I’d just walk up and down the road picking up cans out of the ditches. Down to Mr. Tatum’s place and then back again was pretty close to long enough for me to stay away. Usually managed enough cans to make it worthwhile, too. After a while I’d stay and keep my mouth shut. Little while after that, I’d say something about one of the characters. One day I said Blake Thorpe looks like Miss Angela down at the Texaco. Turns out my aunt doesn’t much care for Miss Angela. I didn’t say too much after that.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said, using a loose nail from the windowsill to clean some of the caulk from under my thumbnail, “but I’m not much of an electrician.”
“Weren’t much of a plank layer before that, were you?”
“They cut me back. Wasn’t my fault the housing market went to hell.”
She wiped a little more Red Man from her chin. “You watch your mouth, young man.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Guess it wasn’t your fault Ellie walked out on you, was it?”
I sent the tip of the nail into my thumb, coughed. “No, ma’am.”
“Right. Right. What’s she doing now? Who’s she staying with?”
“I don’t know.”
“I heard somebody down at the beauty shop say they saw her with that Dwayne boy used to go around with MeChell from the insurance place. Robert’s youngest.”
“I wouldn’t know. I don’t see her that much.”
“Yeah, well, whose fault is that?”
I don’t know how it went so wrong with Ellie. I should have done things differently, I guess. I just never knew which things. I walked to the back of the house to the couch where my pillow and radio were and scanned for any afternoon baseball games. On a good day, sometimes I could get a Texas Rangers game. I didn’t much care for any of them, but if they were playing the New York Yankees, at least I’d have someone to root against. Sometimes it just works out better to root against something.
The weather was pretty clear, which isn’t always the best for picking up games on the radio. But after the weather we’d had, I’d take clear and quiet. Last week we had some awful storms come through. Took out a church up near Emerson and a couple of old farmhouses. Flooded most of the back roads around here. And other smaller problems. Like
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