Read Online Savage Season by Joe R. Lansdale - Free Book Online Page B

occupied, looked much older.  It appeared to be held up with nothing more than the smoke and grease from the kitchen.  The huge plate glass was so grimy you could hardly see movement behind it.  Someone had made an attempt to wipe it clean on the outside but hadn't bothered rinsing the soap; it looked like the end result of a Halloween prank.
    The inside looked no better.  The floors were scuffed and dirty and tables had been poorly wiped.  There were two men at one table eating.  They eyed us and nodded as we came in.  In the back a young man sat staring into space, sipping coffee.
    There was a fat blond woman in thinning green stretch pants at the counter.  She gave us a quick glance and went back to her coffee and cigarette, said something to the thin, oily-headed man behind the counter.  He managed a laugh, like a leukemia patient trying to be cheery.
    We sat and kept our arms off the table.  The fat blond woman got down off the stool and came over with menus.  Pretty sneaky, the help blending in with the clientele that way.
    We ordered, and about the time our meal arrived, Paco came in.  He had on faded khakis and a blue baseball cap today.  The cap hid some of the ugliness of his head.  No one stared; they all worked at not doing that, and you could tell.
    He saw us, smiled, and the smile was nice; the only part of him that wasn't ruined.
    He came over and Leonard made room and Paco sat down beside him.  We went through the casual greeting bullshit you go through, and the waitress shrugged off the stool and came over with her cigarette in her mouth and asked around it for Paco's order, then went away.
    "She didn't even bother with a menu," Leonard said.
    "I always get the same thing," Paco said.  "Pancakes.  Her asking me is simply a ritual."
    Surprise.  The food was great.  I was wiping up the last of my eggs with a piece of toast when Paco smiled at me and said, "Place looks like a toilet, but what comes out of the kitchen could pass for ambrosia.  They got someone back there knows what cooking is all about."
    When Paco's order came and he finished eating, I said, "How do you live, you and the guys? Trudy the only one working?"
    "I don't get too many indoor jobs with this face," Paco said.  "Nobody in a store wants to look at me all day.  I do some jobs here and there.  Move across country doing different things, farm and yard work mostly.  Sometimes things that aren't legal or aren't quite legal.  Right now, you could say I'm between jobs.
    "Trudy works at the Dairy Palace east of town.  She doles out hamburgers.  I'll tell you now.  Don't eat there.  The food's for shit.
    "Howard's got a job at a gas station.  Pumps gas, changes tires, fixes flats, runs the wrecker service.  He's getting in good with the owner so he can get use of the wrecker.  Told the guy that way his wife—Trudy's going as his wife—won't have to pick him up.  He thinks they're gonna let him have the wrecker soon and we can use it to pull the boat out some afternoon."
    "If there is a boat," Leonard said.
    "I don't let myself think any other way," Paco said.  "There's a boat."
    "You got Trudy's kind of dedication," I said.
    "I don't know she's so dedicated," Paco said.  "She wants to be, but I don't know she is.  I don't know her like Howard knows her, or maybe you know her, but I know her type.  I've heard her talk about you two, and I've heard Howard talk, and I see how burned out you are, Hap, and I got to draw some conclusions.  I think she's a quitter.  She likes to get all the sticks and tinder for the fire, likes to light it, but doesn't want to be there when it starts to smoke too much and get too hot.  By then, she's out of there, gathering new sticks, starting new fires, then she's away from that one before it gets going good.  Leaves someone else to mind the blaze, lets them take the heat and smoke and get all burned up.  She's got a knack for picking guys who'll martyr for her, ones who think