doing the talking.
Veil leaned in close, dropping his voice. “It wasn’t Hap who did it. But Hap knows all about it. And if you keep your mouth shut long enough, you will too. Then you can decide who to trust. Deal?”
Leonard gave Veil a long, deep look. “Deal,” he finally said, leaning back, waiting to hear the story.
Veil turned and looked at me, and I knew that was my cue to tell it.
2
“It was back in my semi-hippie days,” I said to Leonard. “Remember when I was all about peace and love?”
“The only ‘piece’ I ever knew you to be about was a piece of ass,” Leonard said kindly. “I always thought you had that long hair so’s it could help you get into fights.”
“Just tell him the fucking story,” Veil said. “Okay? I’ve got work to do, and I can’t do it without Leonard. You two keep screwing around and the guard’s going to roll on back here and—”
“It was in this house on the coast,” I said. “In Oregon. I was living with some folks.”
“Some of those folks being women, of course.”
“Yeah. I was experimenting with different ways of life. I told you about it. Anyway, I hadn’t been there long. This house, it wasn’t like it was a commune or nothing, but people just … came and went, understand? So, one day, this guy comes strolling up.Nice-looking guy. Photographer, he said he was. All loaded down with equipment in his van. He was a traveling man, just working his way around the country. Taking pictures for this book he was doing. He fit in pretty good. You know, he looked the part. Long hair, but a little neater than the rest of us. Suave manner. Took pictures a lot. Nobody really cared. He did his share of the work, kicked in a few bucks for grub. No big deal. I was a little suspicious at first. We always got photographers wanting to ‘document’ us, you know? Mostly wanted pictures of the girls. Especially Sunflower—she had this thing about clothes being ‘inhibiting’ and all. In other words, she was quick to shuck drawers and throw the hair triangle around. But this guy was real peaceful, real calm. I remember one of the guys there said this one had a calm presence. Like the eye of a hurricane.”
“This is motherfucking fascinating and all,” Leonard said, “but considering my particular situation, I wonder if you couldn’t, you know, get to the point?”
Seeing as how Leonard never read that part of the Good Book that talked about patience being a virtue, I sped it up a bit. “I was out in the backyard one night,” I said. “Meditating.”
“Masturbating, you mean,” Leonard said.
“I was just getting to that stage with the martial arts and I didn’t want any of the damn marijuana smoke getting in my eyes. I guess I was more conservative about that sort of thing than I realized. It made me nervous just being around it. So I needed some privacy. I wasn’t doing the classic meditation thing. Just being alone with my thoughts, trying to find my center.”
“Which you never have,” Leonard said.
“I’m sitting there, thinking about whatever it was I was thinking about—”
“Pussy,” Leonard said.
“And I open my eyes and there he is. Veil.”
“Now
that’d
be some scary shit,” Leonard said.
“Looked about the same he does now.”
“Yeah? Was he wearing that Armani suit?”
“Matter a fact, he wasn’t,” I said. “He looked like everyone else did around there then. Only difference was the pistol.”
“I can see how that got your attention,” Leonard said.
“It was dark. And I’m no modern firearms expert. But it wasn’t the stuff I grew up with, hunting rifles, shotguns, and revolvers. This was a seriously big-ass gun, I can tell you that. I couldn’t tell if he was pointing it at me or not. Finally I decided he was just kind of … holding it. I asked him, politely, I might add, if there was anything I could do for him, short of volunteering to be shot, and he said, yeah, matter of fact, there was. What
Veil leaned in close, dropping his voice. “It wasn’t Hap who did it. But Hap knows all about it. And if you keep your mouth shut long enough, you will too. Then you can decide who to trust. Deal?”
Leonard gave Veil a long, deep look. “Deal,” he finally said, leaning back, waiting to hear the story.
Veil turned and looked at me, and I knew that was my cue to tell it.
2
“It was back in my semi-hippie days,” I said to Leonard. “Remember when I was all about peace and love?”
“The only ‘piece’ I ever knew you to be about was a piece of ass,” Leonard said kindly. “I always thought you had that long hair so’s it could help you get into fights.”
“Just tell him the fucking story,” Veil said. “Okay? I’ve got work to do, and I can’t do it without Leonard. You two keep screwing around and the guard’s going to roll on back here and—”
“It was in this house on the coast,” I said. “In Oregon. I was living with some folks.”
“Some of those folks being women, of course.”
“Yeah. I was experimenting with different ways of life. I told you about it. Anyway, I hadn’t been there long. This house, it wasn’t like it was a commune or nothing, but people just … came and went, understand? So, one day, this guy comes strolling up.Nice-looking guy. Photographer, he said he was. All loaded down with equipment in his van. He was a traveling man, just working his way around the country. Taking pictures for this book he was doing. He fit in pretty good. You know, he looked the part. Long hair, but a little neater than the rest of us. Suave manner. Took pictures a lot. Nobody really cared. He did his share of the work, kicked in a few bucks for grub. No big deal. I was a little suspicious at first. We always got photographers wanting to ‘document’ us, you know? Mostly wanted pictures of the girls. Especially Sunflower—she had this thing about clothes being ‘inhibiting’ and all. In other words, she was quick to shuck drawers and throw the hair triangle around. But this guy was real peaceful, real calm. I remember one of the guys there said this one had a calm presence. Like the eye of a hurricane.”
“This is motherfucking fascinating and all,” Leonard said, “but considering my particular situation, I wonder if you couldn’t, you know, get to the point?”
Seeing as how Leonard never read that part of the Good Book that talked about patience being a virtue, I sped it up a bit. “I was out in the backyard one night,” I said. “Meditating.”
“Masturbating, you mean,” Leonard said.
“I was just getting to that stage with the martial arts and I didn’t want any of the damn marijuana smoke getting in my eyes. I guess I was more conservative about that sort of thing than I realized. It made me nervous just being around it. So I needed some privacy. I wasn’t doing the classic meditation thing. Just being alone with my thoughts, trying to find my center.”
“Which you never have,” Leonard said.
“I’m sitting there, thinking about whatever it was I was thinking about—”
“Pussy,” Leonard said.
“And I open my eyes and there he is. Veil.”
“Now
that’d
be some scary shit,” Leonard said.
“Looked about the same he does now.”
“Yeah? Was he wearing that Armani suit?”
“Matter a fact, he wasn’t,” I said. “He looked like everyone else did around there then. Only difference was the pistol.”
“I can see how that got your attention,” Leonard said.
“It was dark. And I’m no modern firearms expert. But it wasn’t the stuff I grew up with, hunting rifles, shotguns, and revolvers. This was a seriously big-ass gun, I can tell you that. I couldn’t tell if he was pointing it at me or not. Finally I decided he was just kind of … holding it. I asked him, politely, I might add, if there was anything I could do for him, short of volunteering to be shot, and he said, yeah, matter of fact, there was. What
Similar Books
