(1984) God's Pocket by Pete Dexter

Author:Pete Dexter [Dexter, Pete]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-06-06T07:22:46+00:00

He took the truck around to half a dozen regular stops and only got rid of half of the meat that Bird's nephew had cut before the electricity went out. If he didn't find somebody with a restaurant, he was going to lose most of it. He'd have to get rid of it before it went bad, one way or the other. Anywhere meat went bad, it never smelled the same. He should of been pissed at Bird—anybody with eyes could see he couldn't handle that kind of a load—but when he thought about Bird, all he could see was the old woman leading him home. He'd keep the meat seven days if the truck stayed cold. Seven days; and then he'd take it over to the Women's S.P.C.A. Or maybe he'd find somebody in Jersey.

He made his stops and then he went to the bank, and began thinking about the horse. There was $868 in his account. He took it in fifties, all except what couldn't go into fifties. The teller's name was Miss Olby, and she was plainly inconvenienced. Back in the truck, he reached up under the seat and found McKenna's bag. He put the fifties on top of the money from the Hollywood and the Uptown, and it wouldn't fit into his pocket. He went back.

The bank had velvet ropes in the lobby, with the idea that you were supposed to stand in line between the ropes until it was your turn to see a teller. The way you knew when a teller was available was that she would turn on a light over her cage. Which is all to say it was not Mickey's idea to go back to Miss Olby to turn the rest of the money into fifties too. But when he got to the front of the line, her light went on and he put the stacked bills in front of her and asked for twenty-eight more fifty-dollar bills.

He had seen people take house floods better. She sighed, she checked her drawer, and then she had to get up off her stool, and go clear to the next cage for more fifties. "Usually we don't do this," she said.

He wondered if it was some kind of sign he should leave the money alone, that something would go wrong at Keystone. He decided it couldn't be, though. If you waited for a friendly bank teller to get your money out, the banks would have it forever.

He found Bird dressed in a suit with somebody else's shoulders, sitting behind the wheel of the yellow Cadillac in front of the flower shop. Mickey parked the truck inside and said hello to Aunt Sophie, who picked him a carnation off the counter and asked him to keep an eye on Bird.

Bird had the car running and the air conditioner on. The windows were open, the radio was playing, and he was sitting there in the middle of it, staring at the racing form. Mickey slid into the front seat and looked to see what keeping an eye on him was going to take.

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