King Perry by Edmond Manning

Author:Edmond Manning [Manning, Edmond]
Language: eng
Format: epub

Twelve

THINGS are on track. This is good.

But it’s not an accident that I keep seeing Billy and hearing that name. It’s because I told Perry that secret of mine, that’s how this started. You damn kings gotta give me some room to breathe. I mean, I know sometimes my own shit comes up when I work with another man’s deepest betrayals, but distract me with Billy shit next week when I am lonely for Perry. Hit me with this then. I’ll be miserable anyway.

In front of the blue gift store, he says, “We’re going in here.”

This is a statement, not a question, and I snap to attention. The smile on his face seems friendly, but I catch a hardness in his eyes. He’s letting me know that I will now submit to him. He submitted to me in all things, beyond what is reasonable, and he will continue to do so. But he wants to know if I myself can surrender. We’re in a “gentlemen’s rules” moment to see what happens if he puts his foot down on this one unimportant thing.

He says, “I’m buying each of us a snow globe of San Francisco. Since we’re tourists, right? My latest theory is that you work for an animals’ rights activist smuggling ring. You’re not a garage mechanic, I bet. You don’t even talk like a garage mechanic.”

“You’d be surprised how often I hear that. I don’t know what everyone thinks we’re supposed to talk like. Monosyllabic, I guess. But go ahead and ask me a question about cars.”

“What’s a carburetor?”

“1886.”

Perry frowns.

“Carburetor patent date, filed by Karl Benz, later of Mercedes Benz. He’s got an interesting life story. Invented the carburetor and also wrote a little poetry on the side. Or did you want to talk about where and how our friend, the gentle carburetor, works on foreign or domestic cars, at least in those older models that still require aerated gasoline?”

“So, you’re really a mechanic?”

“Yes.”

“You’re on vacation from Minnesota?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re leaving town tomorrow, and I’m not getting chopped up in a box somewhere?”

“Yes on leaving town, and gross. Don’t say shit like that. It’s very vivid inside me, Perry.”

“Yeah, I figured that out.”

Perry watches me carefully for a moment before saying, “Are you going to let me buy us both a snow globe of San Francisco?”

“Yes.”

Perry nods and opens the blue and gold door.

Inside, I fret about timing because we’re still on a schedule, and I hope this side purchase doesn’t take terribly long. But I must relax because this is one of those open parts of the day, and we can always skip the next part, I guess. Hate to miss out on pineapple, but whatever. Mice and men, Vin. Mice and men. I could talk about King Aabee’s California life over dinner instead. Clock on the wall confirms I have scheduled another hour and a half for us to be here. Good lord, plenty of time.

Relaaaaaaaaaax. Stay in the moment.

Perry seems intent on browsing only snow globes. He picks up the two biggest ones, and I follow him to the counter.

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