The Rabbit Factory: A Novel (26 page)

He leaned his lower back against the sink and sipped it. He set the glass down and pulled a cigarette from his shirt pocket and lit it. Then he picked up his glass again. Mister Arthur was snoring a little louder now. And Eric didn’t care if he watched the rest of the movie or not. He’d seen it so many times. He got to thinking about what Mister Arthur had said about Montana. He wouldn’t have guessed in his wildest dreams that Miss Helen was from Montana. But then, on the other hand, what was somebody from Montana supposed to look like? They had elk out there. Bighorns. You could do some serious hunting out there.

He crept past Mister Arthur’s feet and reached for the cereal bowl on the coffee table and took it back to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair and sat down. He looked at Mister Arthur. He looked really old in the light from the TV screen. He looked frail and almost helpless. Things must have been a lot different when they got married. Hell, how old was she? If he had to guess, he’d guess about forty. But it was hard for him to tell older women’s ages. So, if they’d been married twenty years, she must have been about twenty when she’d married him. Really young. About a year younger than him right now. And Mister Arthur had said something about oil wells. Eric looked around. It was a nice place, yeah, a real nice place, but it wasn’t any mansion. It was a hell of a lot nicer than anything he ever expected to live in, but it didn’t just shout RICH! from the rafters. But the shiny Jag out front did. He thought that sleek little black baby was about eighty-five thousand. Maybe Mister Arthur was rich and just didn’t flaunt it.

He sipped on his drink and smoked his cigarette. If he stayed here, he was going to have to go out and get another pack out of his car. But he didn’t want to wake Mister Arthur up opening and closing the door.

And he’d have to go sometime. He didn’t want to be here asleep when she came in. If she came in. He hoped to God she would. At least for Mister Arthur’s sake. At least before morning anyway. At least if she didn’t come in it wouldn’t be from anything he’d done to cause it. And what if she was mad at him and acted shitty to him now? He wouldn’t be hanging around over here anymore after all. Crap. Maybe he needed to just get up and go.

He watched Mister Arthur sleeping on the couch. The television flickered its colors and bounced them around the dark room. At his feet, Jada Pinkett whistled through his nose. He’d have another drink or two. See what happened. He didn’t have to be back at work until tomorrow afternoon. And it was warm in here and it was a home.

Even if it wasn’t his.

There was a pair of crutches that she’d stashed in a broom closet downstairs simply because she got tired of wearing the fake leg sometimes and she was trying to make her way down to them. She had a hard time getting up the hall since there wasn’t much to hold on to except for a table with some flowers on it and a bench that was too low to do her much good. She could hop about a foot at a time by holding on to the wall. Once she got to the stairs she’d be okay, could hold on to the banister all the way down. Then when she got the crutches she could get them under her arms and look for the leg.

She had to be pretty careful going down. She had to hold on with both hands and kind of turn sideways and hop down one riser at a time. It wasn’t a fun way to get around. Nobody understood what it was like to be disabled except somebody who was disabled. She was truly grateful for handicapped-parking spaces because they were always close to the buildings and that meant fewer steps. That mattered to somebody like her.

There was no telling what he’d done with it. He might have dragged it up under the couch. Or hidden it in the utility room. She’d probably have to look in every room in the house.

And when she got to the crutches, she went back upstairs not very easily or quickly and then bent painfully trying to look under beds, checked all closets that had halfway-open doors, and she couldn’t find her leg anywhere. Or the little dog, either. She wondered if he was out in the yard.

By then it was totally dark outside and she was ready for a bath and some supper. Maybe even a drink. That whole liquor cabinet downstairs hardly ever got used. And the things Scotty had made for her had sure given her a warm glow before they knocked her on her ass. Maybe she could find some stuff and make something kind of close to it, even though she didn’t know what he’d put in it. But the idea of a drink, sitting on the edge of the tub while she soaked in the hot water, started sounding pretty good. Maybe later she could try to call Nub. Maybe something would work out with him. Maybe they could try it again. She did remember vaguely that he was a great kisser. So she went into the guest bedroom’s bathroom and leaned one crutch against the wall while she bent carefully forward and put the drain plug in and opened the valves on the faucets. She let the water run awhile and then leaned back over and tested it with her fingers. It wasn’t nearly hot enough and she adjusted the left valve. She stood there watching it fill for a while. Then she turned and eased herself down on the edge of the tub and trailed her fingers in the water. It was pretty hot already, but she liked it so hot that her whole ass would be red when she got out of it. So she cut the cold water all the way off and let some pure hot water run in it for a few more minutes, then shut it off. There. By then it was smoking and looked hot enough to scald a hog. Now it would still be hot by the time she got her drink made and got back upstairs with it and got her clothes off and got in.

With practice she was getting better. It didn’t take her nearly as long to get back downstairs with the crutches. She went into the great room and behind the little bar and found a glass and got some ice cubes from trays in the small icebox that was there, and then she looked at the bottles. There was vodka, whiskey, rum, scotch, tonic water, gin, Bloody Mary mix, and there were some Cokes and 7-Ups in the little refrigerator, so she mixed herself a stiff bourbon and Coke and left one crutch there, and turned carefully and headed back toward the stairs. Once in a while, she stopped and took a sip. It was pretty good even if she had made it herself.

When she got to the foot of the stairs, she realized she was going to have to drop the other crutch as well since she had only two hands, and needed to hold on to the rail with one of them. She wished she’d thought to leave one of them upstairs. It was going to be hell to get up that way.

What she wound up doing was turning around, dropping the crutch, then sitting down on the second step, setting her drink down, and then scooting her butt up to the next step by pushing with both hands, then reaching down for the drink. Push with both hands, reach for the drink. Push, reach. That was a lot easier, and it wasn’t too long before she was halfway up, only thing was, her drink was about half empty by then.

She sat there on the steps, looking down, sipping. Crap. She was only halfway up. So she started scooting back down. That water was getting colder all the time. She got herself up and grabbed the crutch and went back over to the bar and got some more ice cubes and then filled her glass all the way back up with Coke and bourbon, and then she hit the stairs again. It only took her about five minutes to get to the top. And her drink was still almost full.

She hopped her way back along the wall, thinking of how good that hot water was going to feel all over her body. She could lie there and close her eyes and just soak for a while. Then, later, she could go out to the shed in the backyard and get something for supper from one of the coolers. There was probably some fresh hamburger in there since Mr. Hamburger had just been working out there right before he left for Chicago. There was always something to eat out there.

Finally she reached the bathroom and set the drink carefully on the edge of the tub, then put the lid down on the toilet and sat down on it to undress. She unbuttoned her dress and pulled it down off her arms, then raised up a little to slide it from beneath her, and sat there in her slip and panties and bra. She reached for the drink and took a sip. It was good. Maybe she needed to go out more. Maybe somewhere out there was a man who didn’t mind an older woman, getting slowly fat, who had a plastic leg. Maybe some widowed man who was lonely like her. She knew love was out there for everybody, if they could just find it. Some found it sooner than others. She hoped to find some herself one sweet day. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been looking her whole life already.

Hell. Close as they were going to be, they ought to go on down and see Evelyn. It wouldn’t be but a few more hours from Natchez. Well shit, it would be, too. You’d have to go down to the coast and cut across to Mobile, and he didn’t really want to be gone from Candy for an extra day. Which they’d sure have to stay if they went down there. Ruff would want to drink some beer with him and would wink and ask him if he had any left-handed cigarettes. They’d have to go out and eat oysters. And his mother would raise all kinds of hell with him if she found out that he’d been that close, in Natchez!, and hadn’t come to see her. He just wouldn’t tell her. He was going down on spring break anyway. That would be the best time to take Penelope. He looked at her.

She didn’t snore loudly, but she snored a little. But it was a comforting sound. It let him know gently that she was alive and breathing, next to him. He nuzzled closer to her and drew in a deep breath, held her wonderful essence in his nose for a moment, and then let it out. It was very quiet. It was peaceful. Then a duck quacked.

When he woke again, she was gone from the bed. He raised his head and stretched his arms and yawned hugely. He rolled over and wondered where she was and closed his eyes. He’d just had a dream about going out in some country with snow on the far mountains and on horseback in a golden meadow getting morel mushrooms, some really big fat ones you could ride the horse right up to that grew out of these giant fossilized cow turds from these giant cows that used to roam the earth thousands of years before and that kept a new crop of the mushrooms coming up every year like perennial grass. Then the dream changed as dreams will to him and Penelope in France, drinking Beaujolais wine in a shady garden bower, and then she started having a baby during her birthday party at the new museum and he had to catch it in his hands and it was bloody and slick and already wearing glasses like him and then the baby got sick when it got older and they were in the hospital with it for a while and Penelope had another baby in the waiting room while they were waiting for the first one to get well but everything got okay and then they were all in a car at the Memphis airport and the back seat was full of babies and dogs and Candy was back there playing with them and she was young and beautiful again, and she still had all her hair. And her teeth.

He opened his eyes and threw back the covers. He couldn’t hear her in the bathroom, couldn’t hear the water running. He got up and went into the bathroom and took a leak for a long time, his head fuzzy from the wine and brandy the night before. They could make it in to Natchez by this afternoon if they went ahead and got some breakfast and packed and got on out of here.

He took a quick shower and washed his hair with the shampoo that was in there, some essence of herbs, maybe, something that smelled like apples. He wondered where she was. He zipped open her bag to see if her gun was in there and it was, small, black, deadly. He didn’t like it. Why did she feel like she had to carry it around all the time? Just because she was a cop? He zipped it shut.

He shaved and got dressed and combed his hair and put all his things in his pockets and picked up his jacket in case she was outside.

He went downstairs to find a big kitchen with coffee ready in two pots and some doughnuts and stuff. He fixed himself a cup and saw her through the French doors, on the corner of a deck, sitting at a round table with a hole in it for the umbrella it held in summer. She was drinking coffee and looking out over the yard and the trees. She looked up and smiled when he opened the door.

“Hey, baby,” he said. He set his coffee on the table and pulled his jacket on.

“Hey.”

He leaned over and kissed her and she kissed him back, but not with much enthusiasm, he thought. Probably still thinking about that Perk guy.

He hoped the guy was all right. He really didn’t know how he was supposed to feel about somebody who might be dead who might have been her lover, who might have kissed her the way he did, did to her the things he so loved to do. He pulled out a chair and sat down. She was drinking from a cup of coffee but he couldn’t see any steam coming from it.

“How long you been out here?” he said.

She pulled her coat closer around her. She had one of the many mufflers Evelyn had made for him wrapped around her throat.

“Not long. I came down to the kitchen and got some coffee. I thought I’d come out here and look at the goldfish.”

“Oh yeah? What are they doing?”

“Nothing. Swimming around.”

He hugged his shoulders with his arms. There were a few leaves left hanging in the trees, but not many. Winter had robbed them of their clothes and the trunks of the trees stood in spots of snow. Patches of snow dotted the woods that ran up the hill behind the house.

“You sleep good?” he said.

“I did. I started having the best dreams.”

“Oh yeah? What did you dream?”

She picked up her cup and took another sip from it. She looked out over the woods. She had a look on her face he hadn’t seen before.

“I dreamed about being with my mamaw,” she said. “We were picking blackberries like we used to when I was a kid.”

Merlot leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers across his stomach.

“Is your grandmother still alive?”

She set the cup down and rubbed her hands together. It was very cold.

“Yeah. She’s ninety-three but she’s still going. Goes to church every Sunday. I need to go see her.”

“How long’s it been?”

“Aw, just a couple of weeks. But I’m always so busy. You know.”

“Yeah. I know.” Thinking about his mother. But hell, she was all right. Ruff, her second husband, was taking good care of her. She got to walk on the beach every day. He waited a second. “Well, what do you say we pack our stuff and take off? We can make it in plenty of time if we go ahead and get on the road.”

“That suits me,” she said. But she didn’t look happy when she said it.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.” She paused for a moment. “I was just wondering.”

“Yes?”

He knew the coffee had to be cold but she took another sip from it anyway. Stalling?

“Are you going to take me over to your place when we get back?”

He thought of Candy instantly and looked down at the table, then back up at her. Now was as good a time to tell her as any. And she had leveled with him about the cop. She’d been honest, and he knew he hadn’t. But she was
old,
damn it, she was
old,
and she’d lived a long time, and yeah, she was in bad shape, but he didn’t see some days how he could have her killed. Mainly because he knew she wouldn’t do it to him if the shoe was on the other foot. Like always, he waffled from day to day, back and forth on it. Some days it seemed like the sensible thing to do. Some days no way, Renee.

“Yeah.”

“I mean, you don’t have some woman you haven’t told me about or something, do you?”

He laughed then, even though he was uneasy with his secret. But he had lost his courage, too. What if he told her and she didn’t understand how things were?

“I do have a woman,” he said, and got up and reached for her hand. “But it’s not like you think. She’s about eighty years old and she’s got her own boyfriends. Now don’t worry about it. Let’s just have a good time. We’re on vacation.”

She smiled then, and was her old self again. She took his hand and got up. She leaned over and kissed him good on the mouth.

“Okay. I was just wondering.”

“Don’t worry,” he said.