Generations in Agony...Texas: Chapter Twenty-one

21) In the heat of the day...

Milo thought he was going to have a good day. But that idea was squelched as soon as Entwhistle walked in with a red face and a worried look. Every time anything out of the norm happened, which was not all that often in Agony, he came running into the Mayor’s office. Milo hardly spent any time in there, since most of the Mayoral duties could be taken care of in a half a day a week.

“Another body turned up, Milo.”

“Another?”

Entwhistle nodded. “This one’s been shot, couple times from the looks of it.”

“Aw, hell…is there any evidence?”

“Can’t say, for sure. Mr. Speck brought this one in as well. Found it up near the Big Nothing, on the northwest end of Onyx’ spread. Said we need to get busy, he ain’t got time to keep bringing in dead men.”

“Well, what did Carl say about it? Did he offer any sort of reason behind it?”

Entwhistle’s head shook ‘no’; his forehead was drawn tight. Milo knew the constable would be going home early with a migraine again. “He said he had to get on back out there and mend the fence before the rest of the herd gets loose. He whatn’t very happy about it all—tell you what.”

“Guess not.”

“What should I do, Milo?”

“Well, Henry. You are the lawman around these parts. I’d say you need to get busy doing what a lawman does in a case like this. Make an investigation.”

Henry looked worried. He hated being put on the spot this way, especially when it might tend to expose his general lack of ability, when it came to doing his job. Most of the time he could just wear the badge and go about town, making his presence known. This did not tend to stop crime or anything. A few weeks ago he had dealt with the biggest case of his short career, when Jesus had been hung and the body had gotten lost. Henry had worried so over the whole thing that he suspected his cousins Milo and Kick would have no choice but to relieve him of his office, for being a complete failure as a lawman.

Now, he had two bodies, found out on, or near the Big Nothing, and no clue as to why. He nodded, looking at the stained linoleum squares on Milo’s floor. “I guess I need to get out yonder and look around.”

“There ya go, Henry. If it looks like more than you can handle, we’ll call in the state. The Rangers can take care of it. But, I’d like to avoid having them fellas down here, if we can. Town don’t need that sorta disruption, if you know what I mean.”

*

When Carl Speck Sr. pulled into the Esso station he was not in good temper. He parked at the pumps, almost out of gas. That his grandson would be the one to come out and pump he had not thought about, until Charlie popped his head in front of Carl’s driver’s side window. “Hi, want I should fill it up?”

Carl nodded, trying to pull back the scowl that had formed like a crust on his face. He was a man with things to do, and it seemed that bad luck was getting in his way.

Once Charlie had the pump going, he came around and started to clean the windshield. “I heard you brought in another body this morning.”

“Found it up on the Big Nothing again.” Carl said, trying to be civil. After all, the boy had not been responsible for any of what was bothering him, other than the fact that they were related, and Carl was still not quite comfortable about dealing with the situation. “Now I’m behind on my work.”

“Want I should check the oil?” Charlie beamed a smile.

“No, son, that’s okay. I really gotta get moving.” He was tapping his fingers on the wheel, feeling an antsy sort of distemper. It made him want to bark at people, but he did not want to vent at the boy.

“Six dollars and seventy three cents for the fuel, sir.” Charlie told him as he hung up the pump nozzle.

Carl pulled his wallet out and lifted a five and a one from it. Then he dug into his Wranglers and removed a handful of coins, which he meticulously counted the change from and dropped it into his grandson’s palm. “See ya round…”

“Yes, sir, have a good one…”

*

Charlie watched as the rig rolled by him. The pretty palomino cutter had her head sticking out of the trailer window. She nodded at him. Charlie could almost swear that she was smiling at him too.

As he watched his grandfather’s rig drive off down the dusty road, he wished that he could spend his Saturday doing something else. He was bored, when he got right down to it. He had read, and re-read all the books in the house, going through fifty to sixty pages a night, before he could drop off to sleep.

Business had slowed down considerably. His grandfather was the first of the day to pull up to the pumps, and it was almost time for lunch. Caleb was busy in the garage working on the constant flow of truck repairs for the Oil Patch, but not much else was happening. He shuffled into the garage and watched Caleb a while.

“You look mighty hang-dogged there, Charlie,” Caleb said. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing…”

“Well, it’s pretty slow today. Wanna take the rest of the day off?”

Charlie’s posture changed from the miserable slouch he had been in, to a smile and raised eyebrows. “Really?”

“Sure, pal. You already have me in all the parts I need. I can handle a couple of fill-ups, if any come in. Go on…be a kid and enjoy the day.” Caleb smiled and reached out to pat the kid, but saw how greasy his hands were at the moment.

Charlie stood there a moment and considered it. A hot breeze blew in behind him as he nodded. “Okay, then. I guess I’ll go ahead and do that. Thanks, Caleb.”

“You’re welcome, Charlie. Would you hand me that nine-sixteenths wrench?”

*

He saw Sam out in the small spit of yard behind the AirStream. She was working on setting up a pool, but seemed to be loosing the battle. “Hi, Sam,” Charlie called as he rolled to a stop in the driveway.

“Oh, hi, Charlie.” She had looked up to see him, then her eyes went back down to the mass of vinyl lining and aluminum. “I’m trying to put this pool together.”

“Pool, huh?” Charlie inspected it as he walked up. “Have you ever put one together before?”

Sam shook her head. “I talked daddy into getting it last time we went up to Sonora and went to the Woolworth’s. I didn’t think it would be this hard.”

“Are there any instructions?”

Sam held out the wind-rumpled pages she had in her hands. “I can’t make heads or tails with these.”

“Let me give it a try…”

Thirty minutes later, Charlie had it all together and Sam was dragging a hose around. “It’s just a kid’s pool, but I figured it was better than nothing. Our old neighborhood in Houston had a community pool. I used to go all the time.”

As the water filled into the blue liner, Charlie began to see why Sam had talked her father into getting the little, nine foot round, three-foot deep pool. It looked inviting, to say the least.

“We can’t really do much swimming in this, but it should cool us off, don’t you think?”

His heart thumped when she used the word ‘us’. He nodded and gulped. “I need to go get my swimsuit.”

“I have some scissors, inside. You could just cut off your jeans. All the guys in Houston do that.”

“Really?” Charlie had no idea. He still had the same tight-fitting red swimsuit that mom had gotten him two summers ago. For all he knew, it no longer fit anyhow. “That sounds like it would work.”

“Aren’t you working today?”

Charlie nodded. “I got off early.”

“And you came to see me?”

He nodded again, not looking up at Sam, his eyes stayed glued to the pool. But, he had noticed that she was in her bathing suit already; her long legs were tanned and her pretty feet sported a pair of thongs—Charlie had already come to know them by the name flip-flops, as the locals called them. She even had her toenails painted purple. He watched her go inside and then come back again with a pair of scissors and a towel, which she tossed to him. “Let me have your jeans, Charlie. I’ll cut them for you.”

The idea of taking off his pants, outside and in front of a girl caused him to blanch.

Sam giggled. “That’s why I brought the towel, Charlie. Wrap that around and just shove them down. I won’t look.”

He felt himself in a very strange place as he did as she instructed. He handed over his jeans and stood in his socks, shirt, and a towel, feeling pretty stupid. Sam simply sat down on a lawn chair and began to cut the legs out for him.

*

The heat of the day pressed down over Agony. Charlie stood there with Sam as they watched the pool fill slowly. “Want some Coppertone?” Sam held up a bottle of lotion. Charlie had seen the commercials for it, but never used it before.

“Sure, I guess so.”

“Pull off your shirt and turn around, Charlie, I’ll rub some on your back.”

The very idea of Sam’s little hands on his skin caused a small shock to ripple through him. Charlie obeyed, slowly pulling off his sweaty shirt and turning around; he was suddenly painfully aware of how white he was where the shirt had been, and how dark his arms and neckline were. Since he had gotten back his pants—now shorts—he had already become self-conscious of how very white his feet and legs were, especially compared to Sam’s. She was a golden brown.

The blue of the pool reflected into her green eyes and Charlie was at a complete loss as to how he was supposed to act in this situation. It just was not one he had ever thought to find himself in, at least not one he had considered as something he needed to think about at age twelve-going-on-thirteen. Yet, the more he looked over at Sam, the more his crotch acted up; it was moving around down there with a mind of its own, and that mortified him. Just as he was about to think up an excuse for leaving before embarrassment took his very life, Sam nodded.

“I think we can get in now. We’ll let it finish filling up while we’re in. Did you bring a book, Charlie?”

“Ah…” he already had one foot in the pool. The water felt cool and the flame in his crotch subsided, thankfully. “…no, I didn’t think to.”

“Hang on a second then, I’ll find you something…” She ran back inside the trailer and Charlie climbed the rest of the way into the pool, sitting down easily, careful of the wobbly aluminum sides. Just as he got situated, Sam ran back outside and shoved a book in his face. “Here ya go, I bet you like that one.”

Charlie stared at the title, and the picture on the front cover. “Paper Lion…”

“It’s by this journalist named George Plimpton. He tried out for the Detroit Lions just so he could write about the experience. It’s pretty good, for a sports book.”

Charlie read the synopsis and nodded. “It sounds good.”

“Well…” Sam was now in the pool. She propped her feet on top of Charlie’s without saying a word. “…I’m almost done with ‘Picture Show’. I’m not sure what I’ll read next.”

Charlie smiled as he opened the book.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing…I guess I never figured I’d ever meet anyone down here that enjoyed reading the way I do. It’s nice, really.”

“Have you ever had a girl friend?”

“Um…no.”

“I’ve never had a boyfriend either…”

He was not sure what to say at the moment. Every time Sam wiggled her feet on his little jolts of electricity shot through him, running up and down his spine like gerbils in a wheel cage.

“I think you’d make a really great boyfriend, though.”

“Thanks…I don’t know what a boyfriend is supposed to do, though.”

Sam smiled shyly at him. “He just has to grow up enough to act nice to a girl. Get over all that silly boy, frog down your shirt sort of stuff. Holding hands is nice, too.”

“Do feet qualify?”

She giggled and wiggled her toes around his. Even under water, his crotch was exploding again. He was just glad she could not tell, at least he hoped she could not tell what discomfort he had down there.

Hating the uncertainty of the conversation, Charlie stuck his nose in the book and began to read the forward by Plimpton. Glancing up, now and then, he saw that Sam had become engrossed in hers as well; he could see that she had less than a fifth of it left. Even though the story line of Paper Lion was one he would certainly enjoy, he was having a time of it getting started. He could not relax. Sam kept moving her toes, rubbing her feet along his shins. Despite the cool of the water, he was sweating.

Forcing himself to dive deeper into the text, Charlie managed to get into the first chapter, where Plimpton was checking in with the equipment manager of the Detroit Franchise. Evidently, the guy was such a nerd that he had no idea what most of the equipment was for, much less how to put it on.

“Would you want to be my boy friend, Charlie?”

Well, there it was… He had no idea what to say. It sure sounded like a great idea. Anything that would keep him around this enticing girl was worth it, he figured. All of his nerve endings were screaming at him to do something, but what, exactly, he had no idea. “Sure, what do I need to do?”

She giggled again. “You’ll figure it out. We’re just kids, but we gotta start some time, right?”

“I guess…”

“I really like you, Charlie. That’s the important part.”

“Well, I really like you, Sam. A lot, I guess.”

“I could tell, sorta.”

Charlie sighed with relief. He had no idea why he felt that way. “I don’t know much about…you know…girls and stuff.”

“I’ll help you figure it out.”

“Thanks,” he told her, grinning sheepishly. “I need all the help I can get.”

*