Nobody's Fool (71 page)

Sully saw Clive Jr. emerge from Alice Gruber's house down the street and head toward them on foot, looking small and incongruous beneath the rows of giant black elms. When he saw who was waiting for him, his gait altered imperceptibly, as if registering that a bad thing had Just gotten worse.

Which it had.

"Hi, dolly," Sully called to the woman.

In point of fact, she looked a lot older than the women Sully usually called "dolly," but she also looked like she could use some cheering up.

"Are you the tow truck?" the woman asked so miserably that Sully sensed melodrama.

"Am I a tow truck? No. Do I look like one?"

"My fiancee called ... a tow truck," she explained, her voice quavering.

Rub glared at her as he might have a mythical beast.

"Could you make that horrid man go away?" the woman begged, indicating Rub.

"Nope," Sully admitted.

"I've never been able to. You're welcome to try your luck, though." She looked away, up the street, hopelessly, in the direction of the Sans Souci.

"Hi, Clive," Sully grinned when Clive Jr.

arrived on the scene.

"Sully," Clive Jr. acknowledged. The woman on the steps had gotten to her feet when she saw Clive Jr. " but she stayed where she was by the porch. " I don't want to say anything," Sully told Clive Jr."

"but you appear to be up a stump." Clive Jr. looked at the deep tire tracks that began at the curb and stopped where the car perched. He sighed.

"It was an accident," he said.

"I figured you didn't park there on purpose," Sully said.

"It wasn't me," Clive Jr.

said.

"I was giving Joyce a driving lesson." Something like a sly smile played across Clive Jr. "s mouth. " I bet you were surprised to see her again. "

" Who? " Sully wondered. All three men turned to look at the grieving woman. " Joyce," Clive Jr. explained. " Joyce who? " Sully wanted to know. The smile, if it had been a smile, was gone now.

"My fiancee. You used to date her."

Sully took another, closer look at the woman on the porch steps.

"I've never seen her before in my life," he assured Clive Jr.

"She doesn't know me, either. She thought I was a tow truck, in fact."

"You went out with her in high school," Clive Jr. said. Sully was delighted to see that Clive Jr. was angry.

"Never," he said.

"Not a chance."

"Her name was Joyce Freeman."

"Never heard of her."

"How come she keeps crying?" Rub wondered.

Clive Jr. glared at Rub homicidally until Rub stared at his shoes and nudged Sully in an attempt at confidentiality.

"How come she keeps crying?" he asked Sully.

"She's probably thinking about her future," Sully told him.

"She's marrying Junior here.

Lighten up, Clive. That was a joke." Clive Jr. looked grateful to hear it and to Sully's surprise did lighten up a little, reluctantly explaining how the whole thing had come about. According to Clive Jr.

" Joyce had never learned to drive. For the last few weeks he had been instructing her.

Today, they'd been parallel parking along Upper Main, where there was plenty of room and almost no traffic.

Joyce was not a natural. Despite his patient instruction, she kept cutting the wheel too much and hitting the curb when she backed in.

When Clive Jr. saw that she was about to do the same thing again, he told her to start over again. She apparently had forgotten she was in reverse and was surprised when she let up on the brake and the car went backwards. She immediately leapt to the wrong conclusion, that she was rolling, and the solution that occurred to her at that moment was more gas.

"I told her there was nothing wrong with her logic," Clive Jr.

explained, "but she's inconsolable."

"You want me to try?" Sully offered.

"Since she used to be my girlfriend?" Clive Jr. "s eyes narrowed. " You were a senior. She was a junior. "

" Whatever you say, Clive. You want us to lift you off that stump? " Sully offered. " I told you," Clive Jr. said. " The tow truck's on its way. "

" I don't think they'll be able to just pull you off," Sully said. " Look where the rear axle is. "

" They'll know what to do," Clive Jr. maintained stubbornly, his face a storm cloud again.

Sully's solemn refusal to recognize his fiancee was the reason. Sully could tell. " Don't feel you have to hang around. "

NOBODY'S FOOL 367

At that moment the tow truck arrived, HCarld Proxmire of HCarld's Automotive World at the wheel, his red-haired teenager, Dwayne, seated beside him in the cab. Since Dwayne could not always be trusted to tow the correct vehicle, HCarld was apparently along to supervise. HCarld, dressed in gray and looking gray as usual, parked the tow truck on the other side of the street and climbed out wearily, shaking his head when he saw Sully.

"I might have known you'd be involved in this," he said, taking in the situation.

"That a tree stump you're sitting on, Mr.

Peoples?" Clive Jr. admitted it was, explained again how events had come to pass. In HCarld Proxmire, Clive Jr.

found a more sympathetic listener than he'd had in Sully. HCarld nodded soberly and when Clive Jr. was finished said, "Bad luck the stump had to be right there."

"Good luck, you mean," Sully said.

"If it hadn't been for the stump, she'd have kept going right into the living room, probably."

"I told him he could leave anytime he wanted," Clive Jr. told HCarld, who had gotten down on his knees to peer under the car.

"I'm glad he didn't," HCarld said.

"We're going to have to lift you off."

"You could hitch up to the car and pull the stump out too," Sully suggested.

"Save us some work later."

"Quit picking your nose and go lift that car, Dwayne," HCarld suggested. The boy had been engaged in this surreptitious activity, and he blushed the color of his hair. He, Sully and Rub took up posit ions behind the car while HCarld went around, opened the driver's side door and took hold of the steering wheel.

"Where do you want me?" Clive Jr. asked HCarld, noticing he'd been ignored in the matter of his own car.

Now there was no room at the rear bumper where Sully and Rub and the boy were preparing to lift.

"How about over there next to her?" Sully suggested.

"I think we got her covered, Mr. Peoples," HCarld said. He counted three and they lifted. The car rolled forward with surprising ease. The only casualty was Dwayne, who, stationed in the middle between Sully and Rub, stumbled over the tree stump as they went forward, fell and bloodied his lower lip.

"There you go, Mr. Peoples," HCarld said, putting the car into park.

"You're a free man."

Clive Jr. did not look like a free man. He looked like a man wearing an invisible yoke, pulling something he alone was aware of.

"What do I owe you?" he said.

"Just for the service call, I guess. We didn't have to hitch you up. If I was you I'd put it up on a rack someplace and let somebody have a good look. Make sure you didn't crack that axle." Clive Jr.

gave HCarld a twenty, then turned to Sully.

"Don't be silly, Clive," Sully told him. They were still standing around the newly freed car.

Five men, none of whom seemed to possess the authority to adjourn the meeting.

"Dwaync and I better get on back before the boss gets suspicious," HCarld finally said.

"Tell your lady friend these things happen, Mr. Peoples. She should see some of the fixes I pull people out of."

"And I'll have that stump out of there pretty soon," Sully said.

"In case you want to start up your lessons again."

"I don't suppose you found a new flat yet," Clive Jr. said.

"Not yet," Sully grinned.

"But thanks for asking." Sully and Rub followed HCarld and the boy over to where the tow truck was parked.

HCarld got in the passenger side, Dwayne the driver's.

"Take this before I do something foolish with it," Sully said, handing HCarld the two hundred dollars left from Carl Roebuck's six.

"You sure?" HCarld said. Sully said he was sure.

"You want a receipt?"

"Nope," Sully said.

"I want it to snow, is what I want."

"Well," HCarld said.

"Don't worry about me. I'm not going to repossess you."

"I know you wouldn't," Sully said.

"Esmerelda might, though."

"She is the meanest Christian woman in the county," HCarld admitted.

"Isn't she, Dwayne?"

Dwayne apparently didn't see much margin in responding to this query, because he just shrugged.

"Was that her I saw on the tube one night last week?"

Sully thought to ask. He'd been in The Horse and glanced up at the TV just in time to catch the last second or two of a piece on a group protesting The Ultimate Escape Fun Park. HCarld sighed, nodded.

"I

thought so," Sully said.

"I was watching on a small screen, though, and it didn't get all of her hair, so I couldn't be sure." HCarld ignored this.

"Our boy is in the cemetery out there," he explained to Sully, who'd half forgotten that the Proxmires had had a son killed in Vietnam.

"She don't want to see him disturbed."

"I can understand that," Sully admitted, sorry now that he'd joked about Mrs. HCarld.

"Funny time to protest," HCarld said, his eyes filling.

"She wouldn't during the war. Wouldn't let me either."

"We did fight ourselves, if I recall," Sully reminded HCarld, who had also served.

HCarld nodded.

"We did indeed. I thought we'd never stop." Neither man said anything for a moment.

"Did I hear your son's back in town?"

HCarld said. Sully nodded, feeling strange. Not many people remembered he had a son, and not many of those who did would have thought of Peter as Sully's. Having HCarld refer to him this way also reminded him of Vera's contention that Peter was his now, that he'd won their son.

"He's helping me out for a week or two," he explained, almost adding, until he goes back to teaching at the college. That, it occurred to him, would have been an unkind thing to say to a man whose own son lay buried a mile outside of town. It also would have been a boast. My son the professor. A boast Sully didn't feel he had any right to. HCarld nodded in the direction of Clive Jr. " who had finally coaxed his weeping fiancee off the porch steps and was leading her over to the car, which still sat in the middle of the lawn. He had her by the elbow and was leading her like a blind woman. " When I was a kid, I had an Trish setter like her. All nerves. " They watched Clive put the woman in the car on the passenger side, then go around and get in behind the wheel. The car started right up, and Clive drove off the lawn and gently over the curb. " He should get that axle checked," HCarld said.

"But I bet he won't."

"He'll be fine," Sully said.

"Bad things don't happen to bankers."

Though he thought about Carl Roebuck's misgivings concerning The Ultimate Escape and wondered if Clive Jr. might be in for trouble.

For Miss Beryl's sake, he hoped not.

"I don't think I'd give any more driving lessons if I was him.

That's how his old man got killed, wasn't it? "

" Some people never learn," he said. " Tell Esmerelda hello. " When the tow truck pulled away from the curb. Sully noticed that Rub was looking glum. " What's the matter with you? "

" I wisht you'd took it," Rub said.

368RICHARD RVSSO

an invisible yoke, pulling something he alone was aware of.

"What do I owe you?" he said.

"Just for the service call, I guess. We didn't have to hitch you up. If I was you I'd put it up on a rack someplace and let somebody have a good look. Make sure you didn't crack that axle." Clive Jr.

gave HCarld a twenty, then turned to Sully.

"Don't be silly, Clive," Sully told him. They were still standing around the newly freed car.

Five men, none of whom seemed to possess the authority to adjourn the meeting.

"Dwayne and I better get on back before the boss gets suspicious," HCarld finally said.

"Tell your lady friend these things happen, Mr. Peoples. She should see some of the fixes I pull people out of."

"And I'll have that stump out of there pretty soon," Sully said.

"In case you want to start up your lessons again."

"I don't suppose you found a new flat yet," Clive Jr. said.

"Not yet," Sully grinned.