Read Online The Gift of Women by George McWhirter - Free Book Online Page B

ice cream and their tongue keep one special lick for them.
    Then, I remember I see the run-over guy, one night, at the Club de Tenís . He shove out the door. He rock up and down on the Club de Tenís sidewalk, which is all wreck with the truck and with the taxi. The sailor boy slip, and he turn, yell good and loud at this ol’ man in this Mexican shirt. You know them silk shirt, like jacket with pockets. That old guy, he hold that other shipmate – his sailor friend, he hold him by the arm. He say, “ Puto , no tokay .” Then, he yell, “ No tokay o te mato .”
    â€˜ Tokay , te mato ,’ that what he say. He as mad as Rose-Marie when I touch the wallet to find this run-over guy name.
    I confess. I got this one habit. I sneak big sundowner before Rose-Marie finish the siesta. I go to the lobby, talk to the porter, then I go down the street see what new at the Club de Tenís . That when I see the old guy.
    One of the Anglos at La Copa and me, we watch that mêlée between this angry old guy and those two sailor. Anglo tell me, “You find those fags, fucked to death at your feet, don’t interfere! That there is a love triangle. Old gentleman there is keeping that young one he’s got by the arm and he is pissed at his new playmate. Mexicans fix problems like that with guns. Don’t interfere.”
    â€œMe,” I say. “One guy be eating the balls of the other guy on a plate, and all I say is bon appétit!”
    But Rose-Marie say I nosier than her mother. ’Fact, her mother love me more than Rose-Marie for I got all this stuff to tell.
    The old guy I see one, maybe two time more. He have the condo down this street by the beach. I see him drive in, Friday, 8 p.m., then, Monday, 7 – ’e drive out same. Same thing nex’ Friday an’ Monday.
    You bet I watch. Giving the eyeball a refill with jus’ sunshine get boring, if you got one month to kill. You bet I get to watch this street like it my neighbourhood.
    This old guy, he got his condo so he be near the big naval base. Anyway, that time in the street, when they play the love triangle. It a real ding-dong match. The old guy take the black ball for the squash. He squeeze his thumb in it, and he flick it in the face of the run-over guy. He take the birdie thing and he squish it on the run-over guy head.
    But the run-over guy, he too flat and bad beat-up for that birdie or some ping-pong bat to be the murder weapon.
    Anyway, we go get taxi and tell this Mister Tiger guy. We tell him what I tell you, Clement. Them Mexican at the desk lick up our French, like it ice cream, but they talk English back. The Acapulco Mountie, he talk French good, and he talk it until we go back and we see this cadaver with all the Mexican cop in Acapuko stare at it. Then, he not talk, he say nothing in Mexican or English.
    â€œ Merci,” he say for the statement, “ merci,” for the old guy description. For the condo informations, the informations about the birdie and squash ball that the ol’ guy squeeze. “ Merci. J’aime le Québec, c’est pour les raisons de famille que je suis de retour au Mexique.”
    He say all this in French, like he talk to himself. He has this wife, a Mexican woman, and her family not like the police – detective of the police, no better. She think Mexican police are the criminals, he say. He say he tell her we go to Canada where the police have respect, and he study, and he work so he can make RCMP, but the wife, she stay in Mexico with the son. See what happen to him, Mr. Tiger, in le Canada , first.
    Next thing, he tell me she say she divorce him. So, he come down for get back the respect of his son. And he still pay so his wife can eat les petit-fours , les entrecôtes . Now, he say, I will see you and Rose-Marie to your hotel, Jean, and you will have the protection of my department.
    â€œWhy we need the protection?” Rose-Marie ask. And when