Smoke said. “I used the cell phone. Called her while you were loading up your stuff.”
“What am I suppose to do while you and Nadine are playing Monopoly? Sleep in the street?”
Smoke shook his head sadly.
“Oh ye of little faith,” he said. “You’re staying in Nadine’s friend’s bunk house out towards the SEWU labs.”
I considered this. “You mean that single story spread in the Cottonwoods?”
“The same. It’s the only ranch out there, Paul.”
I didn’t like the sound of this.
I decided to keep my mouth shut.
We drove in silence. Smoke seemed to be enjoying an interior world of great mirth and circumstance. On the other hand, I seemed to be enduring an interior world of misgivings and flight fantasies.
Wheatland came into view a bit after ten o’clock, A lonesome Last Picture Show sort of town with only one forlorn mercury lamp hanging its head sorrowfully over the two block street. The town was of old brick and, like Ryback, was mostly boarded up with the exception of an all-in-one hardware/post office/liquor/grocery/video store that was lit dimly by a single bulb over the checkout counter closed for the night. But there was also, on the far corner, Nadine’s cafe which sported a red and blue neon sign for Fat Tire beer set among congenial window plants.
Smoke took the alley to the back of Nadine’s and pulled to a stop under a porch light. The thunder of the Jimmy triggered an interior light, and Nadine came to the door with what looked like another head perched on her shoulder. I suspected, rightly, that the head was soon to be my evening’s landlady.
“This is where you get out, Pardner,” Smoke said.
“Where you going?”
“Inside. You and Ollie are going with Maggie, to get some sleep. Big day tomorrow.”
Ollie and I got out...Ollie with a great leap and dash to pee on a small sage.
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