Peckerwood by Jedidiah Ayres Read Free Book Online Page A

out to their wooden porch and stood looking at Terry who lit a cigarette and winked at him. The boy looked at his father lying on the lawn and back at Terry who raised his eyebrows.
    “You gonna do something about it?” he said under his breath from behind the glass.
    The boy searched the lawn carefully to take in the whole story before making any rash decisions. His eyes lingered on the rake beside the prone figure of his father. Terry smiled. Go for it. But the kid was smarter than that.
    Cal came back out wearing a collared shirt only slightly too small for him and ignoring the objections his great aunt was dishing out while locking up the house. He did pause in front of the car though.
    “What?” said Terry.
    “Help me out.” He was stooping to grab his neighbor under the arms to support him. “C’mon, Jeanette’ll think it’s me and call an ambulance or something.”
    “Oh for fuck’s sake.” But he got out and helped.
    Cal continued. “One time she called information for the number of some emergency room rummy who’d glued her skin back together. Remember when she slipped off the toilet and sliced her shin on that metal magazine rack she kept in there? Her skin was so thin, the doc said he couldn’t stitch it, so he glued it shut?”
    Terry didn’t remember, but helped Cal drag the man back to his porch where he mussed the little boy’s hair. “Yeah, she ran that phone bill way the fuck up explaining to the Indian lady on the other end that her skin was like tissue paper. So, yeah, that’s when I took the batteries out of the mobile and re-installed that rotary in her room. She can’t keep a train of thought long enough to dial a number with that thing, but I’ll tell you what, that doctor’s saved me a whole lotta bill dodging. I ain’t been to the emergency room with her since. You gotta look for the stuff that says ‘non-toxic’ which means it’s no good for anything else, but it holds old ladies together okay. I bet if you was to make all the glue and duct tape on that old bat suddenly disappear, she’d fall apart a second later.”
    The kid glared at Terry after helping his father lower himself gently to a seated position. Terry winked.
     

    When they were on the road, Cal said, “Where the shit you been? You know I nearly got took last week at this mom n pop I hit in Neosho. Son of a bitch come at me with a knife. Surprised the shit outta me. Lookidit.” Cal pulled up his shirt revealing three angry red marks pocking the otherwise immaculate pale, doughy expanse of his torso. Sure enough, there was a clear gel crust covering all three and flaking at the edges. “Stabbed me.”
    Terry squinted at his glue-lacquered wounds. “Over a couple hundred bucks? The fuck out.”
    I’m telling you, man, I needed my partner. Watch my back.” Cal scratched at some of the flaking glue on his belly. “Yeah, everybody’s getting touchy about their money.”
    “Well, I’m back.”
    “Fuckin A. From where though?”
    “I been around.”
    Cal pulled his shirt down. “Doin what? Nobody’s seen you since spring break.”
    “Affairs of the heart.”
    “You sly dog. Who is it been squeezing your lemon?”
    Terry leaned over and whispered salaciously, “Just take a wild guess.”
     
     
    When they pulled into the lot, both were grinning stupidly and Cal was shaking his head. Terry’d been telling the tale of his time with the sheriff’s daughter and his decision to chronicle it with an eye toward publication.
    “You wrote it all down? What if the sheriff has a gander at that?”
    “I hope he does and everybody else too.”
    “You’re my hero, man.”
    “You heard about Earl Sutter, right?”
    Cal nodded solemnly. “Took his house. He’s going away for a long time.”
    “And over what? Chickenshit cook charge.”
    “Intent.”
    “Fuckin A, man. He was my sometime hookup, too.”
    “Didn’t make him rich, did it?”
    “Fuckin movies got it wrong. So fuck the po-lice.”
    Cal