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“Capturing the raw energy, resilience and murky lawlessness of a bitter wilderness, Northwoods Pulp Reloaded by T.K. O’Neill is a stirring and wild collection.” – SPR review
“Hole in the World”
“The fire’s going, folks,” I hear Roy say and I turn to see him standing in the doorway of the den smiling peacefully at the both of us.
I can also see the fear in Ginny and the panic starting to rise.
“Ginny?” I say, “Why don’t you get us all some brandy or something nice like that? Roy and I need to talk over our plans. The snow is really starting to pile up out there. Look at it come down…. ”
“Must be over a foot on the ground already,” Roy says.
“What would you boys like?” Ginny inquires, always the proper hostess.
“I’ll have what you’re having, Ginny,” I say, looking in her eyes for something that isn’t there.
Ginny gets up and walks to the kitchen.
“Roy,” I say, “we need to get the fuck out of here as soon as we finish the drinks. Guy that owns this place got busted, Ginny’s new husband. The local cops got to be onto it by now. Do you feel like someone’s watching us? I do. They gotta be watching this house. Maybe the storm’ll keep ’em away. You think we can make it out of here?”
He ignores my paranoia and tries to smooth things out: “It’s pretty much all downhill from here to the lake, podner. We’ll just have to see what it’s like. Sometimes it stays warm enough down there to keep the snow from sticking. Melts when it hits the blacktop.” He nods and scratches at his chin. “I can at least get us back to lovely Evergreen Point.”
“Fuck that. I have to get back to Superior to pick up my car.”
“So we will then,” he says. He squints at me. “Through rain and sleet and snow, always go with Injun Joe.”
I shake my head and smile weakly and try to figure him out.
Ginny comes out of the kitchen with the drinks and brings them to a table near the mammoth hearth and the hissing, popping fire. The huge living room sports big leather chairs, two couches and an antique looking rocker I bet Ginny picked out from a catalog. Roy and I sit down on a darkly luxurious couch adjacent to the table with the drinks and stare at the blaze. Ginny takes her drink to one of the leather chairs, crosses her legs and sort of sinks into herself like she’s trying to close out the world.
That first brandy burns a bit going down—Moser never bought top-shelf booze in his life—but I feel so warm afterward that I let Ginny talk me into one more.
About halfway through the second one—which is bigger than the first—I start remembering how it used to be with Ginny, Stu and me when we first teamed up. Then I look at her there staring at the fire and acting helpless and I start to think it could be like the old days again, this time without Stuart. That thought leads me into another brandy. And before you know it, I’m feeling all that old pain again, just when I thought it was gone.
Then Roy pulls a joint out of his pocket and holds it up. “Anybody mind if I smoke?”
We suck that baby down and we calm down some and Roy takes up Ginny’s offer to go for a tour of the place. I get up and walk over to the picture window overlooking the road. It’s a lot darker outside than it should be. The snow flies by in sheets. Man, sweet Virginia—how I can ever forget her?
She and Roy come back down the stairs and walk silently back to the fire. Roy goes to poke at a dangling log and Ginny turns to me.
“Ginny,” I say, thick voiced, “Why don’t you come with us? You and I can have a life away from all this trouble. We can make a new start somewhere: new names, new clothes, new haircuts.” Why did I say that? Damn. I wasn’t going to start that shit.
Ginny turns away from the fire and looks into my eyes and for a second I think she’s going to say yes. I can hear the emotion caught in her throat: “Roy, you know I’ll always love you,” she says. Tears float at the edges of her sweet brown eyes. “You know I remember how it was before—before it happened… before you….”
Then her face glazes over and I know I’ve lost her yet again. She goes on with the stabbing: “But you and I both know that it can never be like that again. We’ve been through all this before. It’s impossible, Donny; you know that. I’m going to stay with Stu.”
“You’ll stay with that piece of shit until you’re both back inside for Christ sake. Spend the rest of your time sending love letters. What the fuck is the hold he’s got on you, Virginia?”
“Stuart and I are married, Donny. And I intend to honor the marriage vows, if it’s the only decent thing I ever do in my miserable life.”
“Probably be the last thing, honey.” I couldn’t ask her about the kiss. I knew. She can’t help herself. I look over at Roy who’s still stirring the fire and ask him if he’ll go warm the car while I say my final good byes. He looks at me knowingly, grabs his jacket and leaves, politely saying thank you and nice meeting you.
Roy shuts the door behind him and Ginny brings me down a set of stairs to the unfinished basement where she rummages around inside a large food freezer and fishes out a seafood box with 278,000 dollars inside. She counts out a hundred and ten thousand for Stu’s bail and sets it aside on the workbench, putting the rest in a plastic garbage bag and wrapping it up nice and tight for me. I ask her for a paper grocery sack, saying I can recycle it later for luggage replacement. She doesn’t smile at my weak attempt at levity, just pulls open a workbench drawer and brings out a packet of casino receipts and a wallet full of fake IDs. She hands them to me.
So call me Rick Tomasy. New name, new game. A few dollars short but still on the outside. One just has to see the possibilities, the positive light, Roy might say. But first I have to check the freezer real good to see if there’s any more cash my old sweetheart may have forgotten. Part of me wants to grab her hair and twist a little—just until she yelps a bit—to see if there are any stashes left around she might have conveniently overlooked. But I can’t do that—not to Ginny. Unless maybe if I picture her sucking Stu’s dick and laughing at me because she knows it wouldn’t do me any good.
And that’s why I’m going to leave, clean. Say goodbye to Ginny and walk right up the basement stairs. Grab my jacket and bang—I’m out the door. Yeah, I’ll prove how easy it is, believe me. Because if I stay, I might kill her, I swear to God.
(To be continued)
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