Tishomingo Blues

26

NEWTON HOON SAT IN HIS TRAILER with a jelly glass of bourbon watching the news: that little TV girl with the two last names in the woods showing where James Rein and Eugene Dean had shot each other, saying both men were from Tunica but nothing about Rose.

There she was now in the glade saying this was where Arlen Novis, former Tunica County sheriff's deputy, and Detroit realtor Germano Mularoni staged their duel, calling them reenactors in a senseless confrontation of views that resulted in each man's death. Oh, is that right? No mention of Walter. No mention of the smoke or the two greasers-Newton thinking of the one he'd asked that time where the nigger was and the one said he'd gone to fuck your wife. It had set him off, sure, even knowing it wasn't true. One, Myrna wasn't ever home, she played bingo every night of her life. And two, not even a smoke'd want to fuck her, Myrna going four hundred pounds on the hoof. Try and find the wet spot on her.

Now he was watching a helicopter view of the glades, the woods, the levee road and over to the reenactment site, the tents struck and gone, nothing to see but the barn with the muster sign still on it and empty land.

So much for believing what they tell you on the news. Hell, he'd seen the whole thing.

Phoned Walter yesterday and today and got his answering voice both times, Walter saying he was away from his desk but to leave a message. Both times Newton couldn't think of how to say what he wanted. Let Walter know he saw him shoot Arlen and it was gonna cost him. He didn't think he should leave that as a message, he needed to tell Walter to his face. He called Walter's office in Corinth and was told he was at Southern Living in Tunica. Newton said no he wasn't. They said yes he was, if he'd gone someplace else he'd have let them know.

Last night Newton had gone over to the Tishomingo, see if the smoke was still around, and there was the diver putting on his show. He had a good crowd, too, since he'd been on TV and people wanted to see him dive. Newton had nothing personal against the diver-else he'd set up in the trees with a deer rifle and pick him off the ladder. What Arlen should've done. He went inside the hotel to the reception desk and asked, the way Walter would say it, what room the colored fella was in. The girl desk clerk asked him who he was referring to. Newton said, "The jigaboo." He said, "Jesus, how many you got staying here?" The girl asked him what was the guest's name, so she could see was he registered. That was the trouble, shit, he couldn't think of it. Newton went out to the parking lot and roamed up and down the aisles for twenty minutes looking for the black car, came back to the front of the hotel and there it was. He might've known. The big-shot coon had it in valet parking.

Newton saw what he'd have to do: sit in his pickup with sweet rolls and Pepsis and watch the car. Mr. Negro leaves to drive back north, pull up next to him on the highway and give him a load of double-ought buckshot. After that he'd have time to find Walter and make his deal.

Annabanana wasn't buying the news accounts of what happened, but wouldn't ask Robert directly how he'd made it look the way it did. She'd say things like "Four different guys shoot each other at the same time, almost in the same place, and the cops don't have a problem with that?"

"You know why?" Robert said. " 'Cause they all bad guys got shot. Sheriff's people and the CIB won't have to deal with 'em no more. And what looks like happened is all they have. No witnesses, no kind of clues lying around out there to go on. Anybody look suspicious? Uh-unh, 'cause we all look alike in the uniforms, become part of the crowd. You know what I'm saying?"

Robert stood at the opening to the balcony watching the diving show, Dennis performing on the springboard at the moment, showing his stuff, Charlie making the announcements.

Anne was packing. She'd come out of the bedroom when she had something to say and Robert would catch her.

"What did John Rau ask you?"

"If I saw it developing," Anne said. "If I thought it had anything to do with Jerry's background, his Detroit connections. I said, `In the real estate business?' "

"Same kind of things they asked me, for three hours."

"John was nice. I cried a little, sniffled, blew my cute nose. I could've had him on the floor."

"You think of any other strange places?"

"The shower?"

"Girl, your next husband, get yourself a straightup business executive thinks doing it in the shower would be a trip." Robert put on his white voice. “`In the shower? Really?' " And said, "They gonna let you have the body tomorrow for sure?"

"John doesn't see a problem. I'm not looking forward to the flight."

"Baby, they won't prop him up next to you, they'll put him in with the luggage."

"I don't know why," Anne said, "but I had a feeling he was gonna get popped."

Robert left that one alone. She asked if he was coming to the funeral. He said he'd most likely fly up for a day or two. Anne went in the bedroom and he looked out at the show, nothing happening, Dennis getting ready for the next one, taking time, maybe getting ready for the one Charlie told him Dennis was doing for the first time here, his fire dive.

He heard Anne say, "Are you worried about me?"

Robert turned to see her in the bedroom doorway in her little bra and panties. He said, "Not with all you have at stake. There ain't any way you'll blow it. But you know John Rau could come at you again, pull that Columbo shit. You think you're off the hook, he comes back and says, `Oh, by the way, you not sleeping with that colored fella, are you?' "

She came toward Robert in her undies. "I'll tell him oh, once in a while, to change my luck. Shall we?"

"Baby, just another few minutes. Dennis is out there finishing his act."

"I thought you two broke up."

"I haven't seen him except on TV, but we talked on the phone. Gonna get together tomorrow. Baby, come on watch this with me, Dennis gonna light himself on fire and dive off the ladder." He looked out at the show again and said, "He's doing it, climbing up the ladder with his cape on." Anne came to him and he put his arm around her shoulders and felt her skin. He said, "You gonna miss me, you know it? Gonna miss the fun." He said, "Look, see him up there? The cape's been soaked in high-test gasoline. He wears two pair of black cotton warm-ups underneath, a hood on the sweatshirt he pulls closed with the string. He went in the pool a minute ago to get the warm-ups soppin', wet as they can get. I think it's his only protection."

"He lights himself?"

"Charlie lights him. They run a line from a battery up there to a squib, a baggie with black powder in it. Charlie pushes the switch and Dennis lights up, becomes a human torch. I said to Charlie, `Is this symbolic? He's the fiery cross of the Klan, he hits the water and puts it out, extinguishes racism?' Charlie says, `He just calls it the fire dive.' " Robert smiled with his white teeth.

They watched Dennis, at the forty-foot level, become a ball of fire and he stood there on the perch not moving, not even seen but he was there, inside the flames, and Robert yelled from the balcony,

"Jump!" And Dennis did a straight dive into the pool.

Robert said, "Man."

Anne said, "Big fucking deal."

Dennis walked around the rim of the tank in sixty pounds of wet clothes looking for Loretta in the crowd, the young girls screaming, but didn't see her. Loretta hadn't been here last night, either.

Billy Darwin, bent over and walking with a cane, Carla helping him, came around behind the tank where Dennis was getting out of the wet warm-ups and the wet suit he wore underneath. Darwin didn't mention his injury. He told Dennis that fire dive was a show-stopper and asked if he could do it from the top perch. Dennis said he wouldn't want to go in headfirst from eighty feet with all that weight on him, it was too steep. He said he'd jump lit up, "But how would you announce it, as the death-defying fire jump?" Billy Darwin said, "Going off the top's tricky, but you sure get a rush, don't you?" Carla didn't say anything about the fire dive. She said, "You looked cute on TV, in your uniform." Meaning when Diane and her crew caught him in the Union camp Sunday.

It was right after the shooting and he had come back through the woods with Robert, Dennis trying to decide if he should go tell Loretta what happened or wait till she heard about it, and there was the video camera in his face. All Diane asked him about was the reenactment: if he had fun, if he took it seriously, if he thought he'd ever do it again. Robert stood watching and John Rau, coming into the camp, had looked over at them. Dennis answered yes to all the questions, not having time to think with all he had on his mind. After the interview Diane said, "Are you ready to talk to me yet?" Meaning the Floyd Showers business. "Remember you said you would." He remembered it wishing he'd never told her he was on the ladder that night-Diane using her soft eyes on him, asking if he wanted to go to Memphis. Once she found out Arlen was dead… Robert saved him, Robert saying, "Come on, man, we gotta go," and Dennis told her he'd be in touch. In the car Robert said, "You notice John Rau was let out of their prison? He saw us, too, knows we weren't someplace else." That was Sunday, the business with Diane.

Billy Darwin and Carla left and Charlie said the TV lady was here tonight, without her crew. "I imagine you'd like to see her. She said to tell you she's in the bar. But let me mention, Vernice's fixing a late supper for you. She's hoping you come right home after this. You don't, you'll miss a fine spread and Vernice'll be hurt, but what do you care?"

Dennis was dressed now in his jeans and a work shirt. He said, "Wait for me. I have to go up and unhook the squib wire." Charlie said he'd be in the bar and Dennis said, "But Diane's in there."

"You're a big boy," Charlie said. "You don't want to talk to her, you say you have to go home and eat."

Dennis went up the ladder to the forty-foot perch, unhooked the wire and dropped it. He stepped around to the other side of the ladder to go down, and saw the figure standing out on the lawn watching him. No one else around. He knew without seeing her face it was Loretta.

In a short black skirt and some kind of lightcolored blouse. She said, "I couldn't come yesterday, I was at the funeral parlor."

"I looked for you."

"I wanted to but-you know, there things have to be done."

He said, "Do you have a car?" and saw her smile because she had asked him that.

"I do now. I have two, but don't know where one of 'em is."

"Can we go somewhere?"

"I won't take you home. There's still too much of Arlen in the house." She said, "Did you want to get something to eat," her voice slowing down, "or go to a bar, or a motel?"

"I know where we can go," Dennis said, took Loretta into the hotel where they got a suite for one night and had a wonderful time.

They did. They turned on music and took their clothes off and just let loose being a man and a woman who couldn't keep their hands off each other. They made love and had vodka drinks and calamari. Loretta said, "Sunday was the best day of my life. I don't mean-you know, Arlen dying. I mean from the time you came in the tent to wash my back. I'm amazed I asked you to do it, but I'm so glad I did. I can live offa that one the rest of my life. Even with it being so hot in there. Now I have another one-whatever this day is, Wednesday? I'm gonna think of them both together."

Dennis said, "We're just getting started."

She said, "Oh, God, I hope so. Did you burn yourself out there?"

"I never do."

"God, you're a daredevil and you're fun. You aren't the least bit stuck on yourself."

He said, "I saw you standing in that black skirt and I knew it was you."

She said, "It's old."

"I love your legs. I love your body."

"How about my head?"

"I love your head. Are you hungry?"

They had room-service crawfish etouffee Dennis said was as good as you got in New Orleans. He told her about a guy named Tonto Rey who said the best he ever had was in Tucson, Arizona. How about that. Loretta said she'd never had it before but it was good. They watched each other as they ate and would touch each other's hands. They didn't talk about Sunday. She didn't mention Arlen. She didn't ask Dennis what he did after he left the tent. He asked if she watched the battle reenactment. She said no, "I sat outside in that dumb skirt and thought of you, and smelled you, and could feel my hands in your hair. You have nice hair." She said, "Are we spending the night?"

"I was planning on it."

"Tomorrow's the funeral. I have to leave here early." She said, "I hate to come right out and ask, but am I gonna see you again?"

She fascinated him. He said, "Of course."

"You're not running off right away?"

"This is my last week, but I'm pretty sure I'll be here the rest of the summer. My boss has come to respect what I do."

"You know what brought us together?"

"Yeah, Naughty Child Pie."

She said, "You care for me, don't you?"

"I really do."

"You know why?"

"It's something that, I don't know, just happens. I meet girls and I think, Yeah…? I meet you and I think, Yeah, 'cause you're on my mind every minute after."

"That's how I feel," Loretta said. "I can't wait to put my dear husband in the ground and get on with my life."

Dennis said, "Will you hurry?"

He got home at eight-thirty the next morning: Charlie still in bed, Vernice in the kitchen, her magazine open on the table. She said, "Well." She said, "You must've had quite a time. Did you fall in love?"

He could say yes, he believed he did, but told her he fell asleep.

"That's what you do, after. You go to Memphis?"

"Why would l?"

"Charlie said you were meeting that TV girl with the two names."

"I wasn't meeting her."

"Well, according to Charlie, she was meeting you. He said a fan bought him a drink, he turned back around and she was gone. He thought you two must've got together."

"I never even saw her. Listen, I'm sorry I missed supper. What was it?"

"It don't matter now, does it?"

"I staved at the hotel. I took a room. see what it was like. You know that desk clerk Patti, blond, semi-big hair?"

"Yeah, Patti."

"She comped me."

"You dog. You seeing her?"

"She's way too young."

"And she's got that overbite," Vernice said, "we use to call buckteeth."

"She's nice though."

"She better be. You want some breakfast?"

"I've had my coffee."

"Sit down, I'll fix you some eggs. You diving this afternoon?"

"I'm not sure yet. Robert's picking me up." "You haven't mentioned him since his friend got killed. The one Charlie went to Memphis for, remember? I saw his wife in the lobby, sunglasses, a cute black suit. She can wear clothes. But there's something-I don't know what it is. Like I wouldn't be surprised to turn the page of this magazine and there she'd be, in the sunglasses."

"How're Nicole and Tom doing?"

"They've learned the identity of her secret lover."

"Who is it?"

"Some Eyetalian guy. You want a couple fried eggs or not?"

Newton watched the valet boy get in the Jaguar and pull out to circle around to the hotel entrance where Mr. Negro was there waiting, his sunglasses on. Newton had slept in his truck all night and had a cup of coffee to go earlier. He wedged a hunk of Copenhagen behind his lower lip, sucked on it and turned the key. He was surprised when Robert Taylor -that was the boy's name, same as a movie star's the way to remember it-drove south to Tunica and stopped at a house on School Street, up from those bail-bond offices. He was surprised again when the diver came out of the house and got in the car. Now where? It turned out they went south again on Old 61. Newton didn't care where they were going. This stretch of road was the place to pull alongside and give 'em the double-ought buck.

Except, goddamn it, he could keep the black car in sight, but not catch up to it to do the job.

Robert didn't put his music on this time, in the car. He'd asked Dennis to drive with him to see Walter Kirkbride. There was something he wanted to tell Dennis and they could talk on the way.

Riding along now Robert said, "The fire dive-man, I saw that, I knew more than ever you're the man I want."

Dennis said, "Thanks anyway."

"Your conscience," Robert said, "won't let you do it. That's the trouble having a conscience, why I control mine, only listen to it when I want."

"You have your own way of reasoning things," Dennis said.

"Bend it when I see the need. I told you everybody believed Robert Johnson must've sold his soul to play the way he did? But Robert Johnson never said he did or didn't?"

"I remember."

"Well, who would know better than the man himself? What he did was leave the Delta, went down to Hazlehurst where his mama lived, and went to the woodshed. You know what's meant by woodsheddin'? It's getting off by yourself and finding your sound, your chops, what makes you special. Robert Johnson went off for a couple of years and learned his style. He went back to the Delta… Sam House says, `He finished playing and all our mouths were standing open.' You understand what I'm saying?"

"You want something," Dennis said, "work for it. If I want to run a diving show, get off my ass and make it happen."

"What I want to tell you," Robert said, "I could help you. I won't make a promise till I see how this deal goes, get Walter Kirkbride in line. It works, I could maybe back you."

"Why?”

'Cause you my man. 'Cause you got the nerve louse yourself in high-test and go off the lad

"You mean if Walter goes in with you?"

"If Walter works for me. That's part of what I seed to know. See, I been looking for him, but Walter's hiding out, shaky after killing a man. But I believe I know where to find him."

No more than a minute later they turned left at the Dubbs intersection and Dennis said, "We're gong to Junebug's?"

Yes, they were, through the lot and around back o where the two trailers stood, and a car. Robert aid, "You recognize it?"

" Arlen 's Dodge."

"The one Walter drives," Robert said, "when he comes to see his sweetheart, Walter keeping his romance a secret."

Dennis said, "Unless Arlen left it."

Robert turned the car around to drive out. That's what we gonna find out."

Newton came along expecting to see the black car parked in front of Junebug's. It wasn't. It wasn't up the road, either, even though it was heading that way and couldn't be out of sight this quick. Newton coasted past the roadhouse, got ready to give her the gun and glanced at his rearview mirror.

Hell, there it was, coming around from behind Junebug's, and stopping to park.

They went in, Robert carrying his attache case, and crossed the dance floor to the bar, both of them glancing around to see the place empty, Robert saying now, "My man Wesley. I brought you a present, man, you gonna love. Gonna not want to take off." He laid the case on the bar, snapped it open and brought out a LET'S SEE YOUR ARM T-shirt. Robert held it up for Wesley to read and then tossed it to him. "Take off that redneck tank top, Wes, and slip into something stylish."

Wesley said, "Why can't I put it on over?"

"Do it, man, be trendy. But tell me something. How long's my buddy Walter been back there with his honey, a few days now?"

Wesley said something with his head inside the T-shirt.

"What was that, Wes?"

He said, "Yeah, I guess," pulling the shirt down his narrow trunk. "The girl took food out there to him. I wondered, you know who's gonna be running this place now?"

"My man Dennis'll fill you in," Robert said. "Fix him a cocktail while I go look in on the lovers."

Newton parked next to the black car. He took his shotgun from the rack across the window behind him and slid out of the pickup. He was anxious now and it made him want to take a piss. He was thinking he could step inside, shoot both of 'em and then go to the men's. No, he better take his leak first, right here. Piss on Mr. Negro 's car.

Dennis had a longneck beer he took sips from telling Wesley he wasn't exactly sure if the ownership would pass to somebody, or if there were other partners. Dennis said, "But they could be dead, too, couldn't they?" Thinking of Jim Rein and Eugene Dean. And that other one, with the beard, the me they didn't know what happened to. Or would t go to Arlen's wife?

How about that? Loretta could end up owning his place. And if Robert wanted to use it as a dope tore he'd have to buy it from her. It could speed up getting Loretta out of that life she was in.

Robert walked around the Dodge Stratus to the trailer, went up to the door that had Traci lettered on it in that old-fashioned script and knocked. He waited and knocked again.

"Traci?"

Her voice came from in there. "I'm not seeing anyone today."

Robert said, "Girl, I don't want you. I need to see my business partner, Mr. Kirkbride. Would you open the door, please?"

It opened a few inches and he saw her face, showing concern, looking out at him.

"What is it you want?"

Robert raised his voice. "Walter, step out here, will you? While I'm still exercising my patience?"

Wesley laid his forearms on the bar and leaned on them, his white skin blue with old tattoos Dennis couldn't make out. He moved Robert's attache case aside and brought the lid down without snapping it closed. He had asked Wesley how long he'd been working here. Wesley said since Arlen bought into Junebug's.

"I'm Arlen's uncle on his daddy's side."

Dennis said, "You aren't that much older."

Wesley said, "You don't need to be."

He looked past Dennis and pushed up from the bar to stand straight. Dennis half-turned and saw Newton inside the door with his double-barreled shotgun, pointing it this way as he came toward the bar and then stopped about twenty feet away to look around.

"Where's everybody?"

Wesley said, "Nobody's come in yet."

"Where's the nigger?"

Wesley motioned toward the back. Dennis looked that way, in time to see the door next to the bandstand come open. There was Robert, there was Walter coming behind him with Traci. Dennis watched Newton put the shotgun on them.

Newton saying, "My Lord, I couldn't prayed and expected this. Both of you at once?"

" Newton," Robert said, "you come by for a cold beverage?" Like he didn't see the shotgun pointed at him. "Lemme buy you a beer." Robert started toward the bar.

Newton yelled at him, "Stay where you're at!" Robert stopped and looked puzzled, frowning at Newton.

"What's wrong?"

Newton motioned with the shotgun for Walter and Traci to move away from Robert, saying, "Walter, I don't want you hurt. We gonna talk after."

Dennis, his eyes on Newton, slipped his left hand inside the attache case, his fingers working through papers and folders to feel the grip of Robert's pistol, the Walther PPK that James Bond carried.

Walter was saying, "After what?"

"After I shoot the nigger," Newton said. "We're gonna go to your office for my paycheck."

Walter said, "I don't know what you mean."

Dennis had the gun in his hand now. He was sure Robert kept it loaded, but didn't know if it was ready to fire. Or if he'd have to pull back that top part first, the slide. If there wasn't a bullet in the chamber there'd be a click when he pulled the trigger and then, he was pretty sure, there'd be one in there.

Robert, still frowning, was saying to Newton, "Come on, man, tell me what's on your mind."

Newton had already said it, he was going to shoot him, and had the shotgun at his shoulder aimed right at Robert. Dennis didn't see he had a choice now, he pulled the trigger and the gun fired inside the case, through it and took out a bottle of Jim Beam behind the bar. He had the gun out now, saw Newton swinging the twin barrels at him and Dennis shot him, knew he'd shot the man even as the shotgun went off and he heard glass shattering and heard Robert yelling to shoot him again, but saw the blood on Newton's shirt, high on his chest, Newton's face blank as he dropped the shotgun and went to his knees, something brown coming out of his mouth, and fell to the floor on his face. Dennis laid the gun on the bar and tried not to look at Newton.

Dennis watched Robert in action now, taking over, Robert the first one to speak, Robert looking at Dennis to say, "You my hero. You got nothing to worry about." Looking at Traci then. "Honey, you saw what happened, didn't you?"

She said, "Yeah, he shot Newton."

" 'Cause Newton shot at him."

She said, "Yeah, I guess."

"We have the broken bottles," Robert said, "to prove it," and looked at Walter. "Walter, you didn't see nothing, 'cause you aren't here. You understand? You don't frequent this kind of place." He said, "See how good I am to you?" and turned to Wesley. "What happened, Wes?"

"What she said. Newton tried to shoot us."

"Trying for you as well as Dennis."

"I was standing right here."

"And the gun was on the bar, huh?"

Dennis watched Robert getting into it.

"The one you keep back there, Arlen's gun. You were showing it to Dennis. Newton shot at you. You picked up Arlen's gun and plugged him."

Dennis stopped him at that point. He said, "Robert, if you want it to be Arlen's gun, that's okay with me. But I shot him."

"You want the credit for it."

"No, I want to keep it simple."

Robert looked at Wesley again. "You know it was Arlen's gun, 'cause he put it there. The sheriff's people, whoever, they'll look at it good and give it back to you and then it's yours. Wesley. You can keep it behind the bar where you had it." Robert said, "Hey, and I can give you some more T-shirts. `Let's see your arm' means you'll arm-wrestle anybody wants to try you. They win they get a free T-shirt."

Dennis watched him looking at Wesley's stringy, tattooed arms, Robert saying then, "You don't have to-it's something we can talk about. I'm getting ahead of myself here." He said to Dennis, "There's always something, isn't there?" and kept looking at him and said, "Man, you saved my life," sounding surprised now to realize it. "You know that?"

Dennis said, "Yeah, I know it."

Robert said, "Man, I owe you, don't l?"

Dennis said, "Yes, you do."

Robert said, "Tell me what you want."

Dennis said, "Let me think about it," and paused and asked Robert, "You know anybody in Orlando?"