The Adventures of Slim & Howdy by Bill Fitzhugh, Kix Brooks, Ronnie Dunn Read Free Book Online

won’t quit his day job, won’t take that chance, won’t put himself on the line. Refuses to gamble with his life. Just gonna play it safe. I guess he expects somebody’s somehow gonna hear how good he is and come knockin’ on his front door, offerin’ him a record contract, I don’t know. But my point is, that’s why I was going to sell my truck instead of my guitar, same as you. Next thing, if I have to, I’ll sell that saddle of mine, but I’m keeping the Gibson. I’ll busk on the sidewalk for change until somebody hires me to play indoors, but at least I’m gonna get out there and see if I can’t make it happen. You know? Can’t be waitin’ for somebody to do it for you.”
    Slim stared at Howdy for a moment waiting to see if he was through talking. Then he said, “You ain’t got to the plan part yet, have you? Or did I miss it?”
    Howdy smiled and said, “I know a guy in Fort Worth. Heard he might be lookin’ for a singer or two.” He turned to head for the driver’s side.
    Slim stopped him, held out his hand for the keys. “My turn to drive.”
    10
    BRUSHFIRE BOONE TATE WAS PRESENTLY STEWING IN THE Beaumont city jail, a place that smells about how you think it would, maybe a little worse. By now Boone had been there long enough that he stopped noticing. Or if he noticed, he’d stopped caring, as he had more important things to think about.
    He was still waiting to hear back from his bail bondsman. There seemed to be a holdup. Something about credit problems. Something that might leave him in jail indefinitely.
    And all this thanks to those two cowboys. Shady Slim and his trigger-happy chum.
    What happened is that shortly after Slim and Howdy left the apartment, it had been Boone’s bad luck that the cops who responded to the shooting went to the trouble of running his name through their system. Not surprisingly, perhaps, there was a warrant for his arrest for having failed to appear in court the day he was supposed to answer a charge of simple assault stemming from an incident at a local strip joint six months earlier.
    As the cops led Boone away in handcuffs, he was heard saying, “You’re arresting
me
? What about those damn cowboys shot my fridge?”
    Adding insult to injury, Boone knew that even if he made bail, he wouldn’t have enough money left for so much as a bus ride home. And, topping it off, Boone knew from experience that he could stand by the side of the road with his thumb in the air all day long and no one was going to stop to pick up anybody as damaged looking as him. In other words, even if he got out, he was walking all the way home.
    All thanks to Slim and Howdy.
    For the past fourteen hours, Boone had been thinking hard about what he was going to do when he got out, if he got out. He wasn’t the kind of man to live and let live or turn the other cheek. He was more the eye-for-an-eye type. Didn’t care who got blinded, long as he wasn’t the only one. He wanted payback.
    Unfortunately Boone presently lacked the information, resources, and freedom necessary to set straight out after those two assholes that put him in jail.
    So he just sat there, stewing on it, hour after hour.
    11
    “WHERE’RE YOU GOING?” HOWDY ASKED, AS HE PULLED THE radar detector from the box. “I-10’s back that way.” He threw his thumb over his shoulder. “You just shoot down to Houston, then hop I-45 up toward the I-20 loop around Dallas, take that over to Fort Worth.” He clapped his hands once and pointed straight ahead like he’d sealed the deal.
    “That’s one way to do it,” Slim said, as he shook his head. “But we’re taking old 69 up to Lufkin and Athens and that route.”
    “You’re crazy. That’s two-lane the whole way. It’ll take twice as long.”
    “
I’m
crazy? You want me to go south so we can turn around and go north.”
    “Houston’s
west
of here,” Howdy said.
    “
South
west.”
    “Okay, fine, southwest, but at least you’re on the interstate doing