Dirty South

56

It was night now and I drove for about an hour, down to the bar, then back home, where I called JoJo. I finally found him and Bronco at the Spotted Cat in the Marigny watching a guy I knew named Washboard Chaz and some twenty-year-old Italian kid who I’d heard could play Robert Johnson note for note. They were drinking Dixies and laughing with Chaz, his beaten washboard propped in his hands, when I walked into the dark little bar off Frenchman. The place was a narrow shot of bar with a small wood stage by the door and a grouping of mismatched chairs by a plate-glass window. Candles in glass bowls flickered from small tables and on top of the bar.

I bought a Dixie from the bartender, said hello to Chaz while exchanging places with him, and took a seat.

“Think he’d do nicely for a Wednesday night,” JoJo said.

“How’s the kid?”

“Note for note,” JoJo said.

“No shit?”

“No, sir,” he said. “And Eye-talian to boot. How ’bout that?”

Bronco clicked open his stainless Zippo and lit a Kool. He nodded at me, his cheekbones and red-black face something out of a history book. Men clearing the Delta with mules.

I walked outside where I’d left Annie next to a hitching post and let her drink the last few sips of my beer. I went back in and settled back in my seat so I could see where she was tied.

“You still gonna do a red-beans-and-rice on Monday?”

“Be a fool not to,” I said.

“When did that stop you?” JoJo said, his eyes watching mine. No grin forming on his face.

“Where’s the kid?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Left with some hoodlums in some kind of pimped-out truck.”

“How long?”

“Couple hours,” he said. “I ain’t got time.”

“Bronco?” I asked. He turned. “You enjoyin’ the sights?”

He turned to watch a young girl in a red silk dress make herself thin, sliding through the crowd at the bar. He nodded, smoke coming out his nose. “Mighty fine.”

I found alias alone at his mansion. The door was open, the rooms cavernous without any furniture. I followed the lights and ended up out on his back patio, where he lay reclined in a lounger staring up at the night sky. He had a forty by his side and his tan lug-soled boots crossed at the ankles. He looked over at me and then looked back up at the stars.

“What’s up?”

Annie trotted over to him and started licking his mouth.

“Damn, dog,” he said, kind of laughing like he was twelve.

I looked away. “I talked to Teddy,” I said.

“He say anything about givin’ me my damned dogs back?”

“He told me about you taking his credit cards last year.”

He didn’t turn, pushing Annie away with the back of his hand.

“No one likes to be lied to,” I said.

“What you talking about?” he said. “I never said shit about that.”

“So you admit taking his cards,” I said.

“We was just funnin’.”

“That’s called theft.”

“Man, get that pole out your ass,” he said. “Teddy spends more money on toilet paper.”

“Stand up,” I said.

He mumbled something.

“Stand up,” I repeated. The sound of my voice made Annie’s ears wilt. She walked away.

ALIAS slid his feet to the ground, stood in his sloppy Saints jersey, and groggily looked up at me. The black sky and stars seemed like a dome above our heads. The moon huge and split in half like a paper prop on a small stage.

“I know about Dahlia,” I said. “Don’t much blame you; she has plenty of heat.”

“That bitch? Man, you trippin’. What’s wrong with you, Nick?”

“You told Teddy I wanted to keep half the money I find.”

“Bullshit.”

“I’ve known Teddy for twelve years,” I said. “I’ve known you two weeks.”

I looked away from him at the hard concrete surrounding his pool. Stray boxes and packing tape littered on the ground. I could feel the summer beginning to move in, ready to harden, before that final heat of August when it leaves us.

The sudden thought made me think of family trips to the beach and the way everything faded.

“Go, then,” he said. “Ain’t got time for you.”

“I let you in,” I said. “JoJo and Loretta took you in like they did for me.”

“Go!” he yelled. “Get out of here.”

“You’ve lost it.”

“What?”

“My trust.”

“Fuck you, man. Fuck you and your trust and your goddamn ways.”

I turned with Annie, feeling her wet snout against my hand as I walked back through the empty white rooms.

In my rearview, I saw him watch me as I drove away, the red glow of my taillights cast over his face.