Read Online The Sleeping and the Dead by Jeff Crook - Free Book Online Page B

there staring at him and holding his hand, trying to remember where I’d heard his name before, and now that I looked at him I thought I recognized him from somewhere, maybe from television, but I couldn’t remember. I said, “With a name like that, you should be flying helicopters.”
    â€œI am a pilot,” he laughed, surprised, but also a little nervous. He let go of my hand. “How did you know that?”
    I didn’t. It just went with his face. He looked like a pilot. “Squint lines around your eyes. Young face plus old eyes equals pilot.”
    â€œI didn’t realize my eyes were old.” They were blue, hard and clear as gems, but a little sad. He looked at himself in the mirror behind the bar, examining his face from different angles. He hadn’t shaved.
    â€œI didn’t mean it that way,” I said. “I mean you look like you spend a lot of time staring a long way off.”
    He turned on his stool and rested an elbow on the bar. “Now it’s my turn.” He rubbed his chin and looked at me. “I think you’re aaaaaay … photographer.”
    I smiled despite myself. “How’d you guess?”
    â€œSquint lines.” He reached up and almost touched my right eye. “You look like you go through life with one eye shut.”
    I picked up my beer and held it to my lips without drinking. My breath fogged the glass. That was a pretty accurate description, I had to admit. This guy was some kind of philosopher.
    â€œOr maybe it’s because a person wanting to take vacation photos isn’t about to drop three grand on a camera.”
    â€œOnly if I like it.” I sipped my beer.
    â€œWhat’s not to like?” He pulled the case closer and unsnapped it. I set my beer down and lifted the camera from its leather sheath, cupping it reverently in my palms like a splinter of the true cross. When I spotted the ad for a Leica M8 in the Memphis Flyer , I called the number immediately and offered to pay the asking price in cash, even though I couldn’t nearly afford it. I’d asked James for a few days to get it together.
    I still couldn’t afford this camera. But now that I had cradled it like a newborn child in my hand, I couldn’t let it go. It felt heavy and solid for its size, the black parts gleamed, the silver parts shone, and when I turned it on, the little LCD image on the back was as clear and crisp as the HD television picture above the bar.
    I released the locking toggle to uncover the bottom. “There’s no memory card,” James said. “I didn’t know that when I listed it in the paper. I’ll knock fifty off the price for that.” I nodded and removed the 50mm Leica lens and looked inside the camera body. It seemed to be in perfect condition. I replaced the lens and turned the camera on again, looked through the viewfinder, caught him checking out my tits.
    I turned the camera off and set it on the bar. “I’m sorry. I really wish I could, but things have changed since we talked. I got kicked out of my apartment and I have to find a new place, so I can’t afford to buy this, not even at your very generous asking price.”
    â€œWhat happened?” he asked.
    â€œTo what?”
    â€œYour apartment.”
    I tucked a strand of dirty blond hair behind my left ear, wincing inwardly at how filthy it felt. “I set it on fire.”
    â€œJesus,” he smiled and covered his mouth with his hand.
    â€œIt was an accident. So, as much as I’d like to…”
    â€œTwenty-five hundred,” he said. “I know a guy who will give me twenty-five for her. If you can match that, she’s yours.”
    â€œI don’t know.…” I hadn’t expected him to come down so easily. He must have been desperate. I was tempted to find out how much lower he would go.
    â€œI’d rather sell her to you, anyway,” he said with a shy smile.
    So