CHAPTER 17, EXCERPT 2
He stared into Judy’s cloudy eyes. She was shorter than he was but somehow she seemed to be looking down at him. He stepped around her and went into the living room. There were easy chairs, small tables and lamps in the corners, and a plush silver-gray couch against the wall with a new-looking, dark wood coffee table in front of it. On top of the table was a tall glass with melting ice inside, a red aluminum fifties-era ice bucket in the shape of an apple and a circular decorative tray, an antique or something, red with green tropical foliage painted around the circumference and a black-and-orange tropical bird in the center. A small pile of white powder and a rolled up hundred dollar bill lay on top the bird’s breast. At its claws were a few loose red capsules and various pills of different colors. A half-empty bottle of Smirnov stood next to the tray like a guard. One soldier not yet dead.
Frank walked over to the couch and lowered himself down, trying hard not to act drunk. He glanced back at Judy and she was still staring down at him with that goddamn gotcha smirk. He leaned back, crossed his legs at the ankles and gave her the evil eye. “So tell me what really did happen that night, Judy,” he said. “I bet Ray never made it back to Zenith, did he?”
Frank kept his eyes on her as she came to the edge of the coffee table. She didn’t walk, she slinked.
“We were going to give him a ride home, Frank. That’s the truth. I told him he’d get over me. I told him we were poison for each other, but he didn’t want to hear it. He was locked into this trip that I was the only woman he’d ever love, the only one who’d ever understand him, that kind of shit. Fuck, Frank, you know how he got when he was loaded. Well, he was fucking maxed out that night on a mix of speed and downs. He’d go from helpless crying to anger and sarcasm in a heartbeat and then back to hatred again. Then he’d get that lost-little-boy look and pout. I tried to tell him I’d always have a soft spot in my heart for him but we’d never be any good for each other—but he was like a fucking broken record, constantly repeating the same shit I’d been hearing for days. And yes, all right, we did have a little reunion fling there for a while. And that was definitely a mistake. Shit, you know, I wanted to let him down easy but he got the wrong idea, I can see that now. But at the time I thought if I was nice to him for a little while he’d begin to see my point of view.”
“And what exactly was your point of view, Judith?”
She gave Frank a peculiar smile. “That I was going to marry Richard Pillsbury and Ray was better off without me. But I told Ray weeks ago that I’d be able to provide him with drugs, samples from Richard’s pharmacies and things. I thought that might help him settle down, you know, accept my reality and move on. I never expected him to come out with the undying love nonsense.”
“It was just nonsense to you, wasn’t it.”
“You ever had a former lover you couldn’t shake, Frank? The feeling’s over for you but she won’t let go, won’t listen, won’t take no for an answer?”
Frank thought back to high school and Carole Strewler. “Yeah, I guess,” he said. “But you still haven’t told me what happened after you left The Cottage.”
She bent over and stubbed out her cigarette in an ornate silver ashtray on the coffee table, her dress riding up high on her gorgeous thighs. Frank tried not to look but couldn’t stop himself. “As soon as we walked out of The Cottage, Ray flipped out. He started yelling and throwing punches at Lew and Lew had no choice but to hit back. They stood there in the parking lot fighting and I couldn’t believe how many times Lew hit him before Ray got knocked down. After that Ray calmed down and he seemed like he was fine, like he got the bad stuff out of his system. We were gonna drive him back over to Zenith, he was saying he just wanted to go home, and I gave him a couple reds so he could sleep. But then we were going out to the car and he got this crazy look and grabbed my goddamn tits and tried to shove his tongue down my throat and I slapped him. I thought he was gonna haul off and bust me one but he just made this weird face, somewhere between a laugh and a cry, said ‘Fuck you, bitch,’ and took off running. Ran off into the dark and I never saw him after that. I swear, Frank.”
(To be continued)
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