Bad Chili

15

We awoke in the late afternoon and had dinner out of Brett’s fridge. Ham on white. While we sat naked, eating sandwiches and crunching potato chips, there was a knock on the door, and we had to rush to put on clothes.

Brett finished first by pulling on a long T-shirt. She went to the door while I continued dressing in the bedroom. I was having trouble finding my pants but finally located them under the bed in a wad. Found a sock behind a chair.

I finished dressing, went into the living room area. Ella was there. She grinned at me. She really did look like Brett’s younger sister.

“Well, I see you two have hit it off,” she said.

“We’re not doing much hittin’,” Brett said, “but we are gettin’ off.”

“Brett!” Ella said. But I could tell she wasn’t all that offended.

I smiled at Ella. Close up, I could see her very pretty face wore a black eye, partially hidden by makeup.

“You just come by to annoy us?” Brett said.

“No. I came by to talk to you about switchin’ shifts with me next week. Can it happen?”

“It might,” Brett said. “I’ll have to think on it, though. Sometimes Ole Head Nurse Meanie doesn’t like changes, and honey, I don’t know she’ll like you.”

“Yeah?” Ella said. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Same thing’s wrong with me and a couple of the other girls.” Brett gave me a soulful look. “We’re just too good-lookin’ for her. She thinks everybody ought to be uglier than her.”

“Is that possible?” Ella said.

“I don’t think so,” Brett said. “’Course, you take a few more shots to the head like that one, you might be in the runnin’.”

Ella looked embarrassed. She said, “Brett… I…”

“Sorry,” Brett said. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. Hap here, he understands.”

“No, I don’t,” I said.

“Hap Collins!” Brett said. “You do too understand.”

“I don’t mean to embarrass you either, but now that Brett’s said something, I don’t understand why you’d take this shit.”

“Brett, you shouldn’t have said anything to anyone,” Ella said. “That wasn’t right.”

“You can’t keep hidin’ it, girl,” Brett said. “That’s the worst thing to do. You hide it, you’re helpin’ him do it.”

“She’s right,” I said. “Dump the bum.”

“He’s been going to counseling,” Ella said.

“Bullshit on counseling,” Brett said. “The guy’s a turd. Flush him.”

“I love him,” Ella said.

“I loved that shit-ass husband of mine, too,” Brett said. “But one day I didn’t and I had to set his head on fire.”

“I’m not like you,” Ella said. “I got to go.”

“Ella,” Brett said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…”

“No,” Ella said. “You’re right. Think about the shift, will you?”

“Sure,” Brett said.

Ella left quickly.

When she was gone, Brett said, “Bless her.”

We were about to finish eating when there was yet another knock on the door. Brett answered. It was Ella. She was in tears. “My car won’t start. I’m going to be late. He hates it when I’m late. I thought maybe… he… I’m sorry. What’s your name again?”

“Hap,” I said.

“Hap, I thought you might help me with my car?”

“Honest truth is I can’t fix a wheelbarrow.”

“Kevin will be so mad,” Ella said.

“We’ll drive you home,” Brett said. “Okay, Hap?”

“Sure.”

We took my pickup. We drove out to the east side of town. It was a beautiful day and the rain of earlier had given it a kind of glow, like the world had been washed down and polished.

About a mile and a half outside the city limits we came to a spot where an old country store had stood. I had stopped there once and bought a barbecue sandwich. It had tasted like shit. Now the store was just a shell of a building. Windows knocked out. A door halfway down. That’s what happens when you make lousy barbecue.

We turned down a dirt road along a row of mailboxes and lights on poles, drove past a dog kennel where a half dozen hot-looking Siberian huskies watched us pass.

Shortly thereafter, we drove onto as ugly a stretch of land as I’ve seen. You could tell right off that not too many years ago woods had stood here. Someone had clear-cut it, sold off the lumber, then made a mobile-home park out of it. In this case, they hadn’t even bothered to scrape it down to the clay. Some of the stumps still remained, burned black but still standing. Between clumps of stumps and pools of rainwater, trailers stood.

We drove past a row of run-down trailers with broken toys in the yard, sad dogs on chains, and finally drove around to a fairly nice little white trailer with pink trim. The yard was clean, except for the standard redneck signpost – any kind of black car on blocks. This one was a Ford Mustang. When I was in high school I had wanted one of those. Thought I’d die if I didn’t get one. I didn’t get one and I was still living.

We parked and let Ella out. She thanked us, and as she started toward the trailer the door opened and a man came out. He had on jeans and was shirtless and barefoot. He was a stocky guy with a slightly protruding but solid-looking belly. He was about my height. Good-looking fella with a crewcut.

“Where the hell you been, Ella?” he said. “I been sittin’ here waitin’ on my goddamn dinner.”

“My car, honey,” Ella said. “It wouldn’t start.”

“My car wouldn’t start,” Kevin said in a mocking tone. “It’s always somethin’, ain’t it, bitch?”

Ella turned to us. “Thanks. I’m sorry.”

“That’s all right,” I said. “You sure you want to stay?”

“Yes,” Ella said.

“Hey,” Kevin said, “who you talkin’ to?”

“Ella…” I said.

“What do you mean, ‘do you want to stay?’”

“I mean you sound a little drunk, and maybe she ought not to stay.”

“You keep your nose out of my business, old man.”

“Old man?”

“Yeah. Old man.”

Ella took hold of Kevin’s shoulder. “Don’t, honey. They gave me a ride.”

Kevin pushed Ella down on the wet ground. Brett rushed over to help her up. “You get back in the truck, cunt,” Kevin said.

“That’s it,” I said. I had been standing outside the truck with the door open, leaning on it. I closed it and started toward Kevin.

Kevin said, “What you gonna do, fuckhead?”

“I can either sit you down and have a nice talk, or punch your lights out. Since I figure you’ll be a boring conversationalist, I like the second idea.”

“Punch my lights out?” Kevin said. “I’ll have you know I was a goddamn good boxer. I almost went pro.”

“Then I’m sure you’ve seen a left jab,” I said, and jabbed him. I hit him solid on the right eye and his head snapped back. Then I kicked hard off my back leg and caught him in the balls. I half-leaped then, caught his head as he bent over, drove it down with an elbow and lifted my knee into his face. When he came back up, his face bloody, I skipped in and caught hold of his arm and his shoulder, brought my right leg behind his right leg, and reared backwards hard as I could.

He went down quick and smacked his head against the dirt. Spittle flew out of his mouth and gleamed like a string of diamonds in the sunlight.

Ella rushed over, draped herself over him, held one hand toward me. “Don’t, Hap! Don’t hit him anymore.”

“Why not?” I said. “I’m just startin’ to enjoy myself.”

“He doesn’t mean it,” Ella said. “He can’t help himself. It’s not like him. He’s not himself.”

“Then who the hell is he?” I said. “Was he that other fella when he blacked your eye?”

“I pushed him into it,” Ella said.

“Jesus,” I said. “You better get straight, Ella. I can see a couple having a spat, even taking a slap at one another in a moment of anger. But this. Him punchin’ you around…”

Kevin had gotten up on one elbow. “You better go, man.”

“Why?” I said. “You going to whip my ass, big man?”

Brett came over and took my arm. She said, “Let’s go, Hap. Your testosterone is showing. Ella. You want to go with us, you can. You want to call someone about this. The women’s shelter. Whatever. We’ll make sure you get to do it.”

Ella shook her head. She started helping Kevin to his feet.

“You want to see the left jab again?” I said to him.

“You caught me by surprise,” he said.

“Looked to me I caught you in the eye,” I said.

“Then you kicked, like a sissy,” he said.

“Tell everybody a sissy kicked your ass, then,” I said.

Ella started helping Kevin toward the trailer. She paused and looked back over her shoulder. “Thank you, but it’s not your business. Really. It’s not your business.”

Ella went up the steps with her arm around Kevin. They went inside the trailer and closed the door. We got in the pickup and drove away.

Once we were out on the highway, Brett slid over close to me.

“You were magnificent, Hap.”

“I think I got a little John Wayne.”

“You know what?”

“What?”

“I just loved his movies. Will you take me home and seduce me?”

“Because I beat Kevin up you’re hot?”

“No. Because you got pissed when he called me a cunt. I am sometimes, but I thank you anyway.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I like what you tried to do for Ella. But she doesn’t change, Hap. She never does. I’ve tried to get her to leave him, but she keeps going back. Someday he’ll kill her.”

“I fear you’re right,” I said.