The Motel Life by Willy Vlautin

Author:Willy Vlautin [Vlautin, Willy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780571250127
Google: FKhVD_rdc8sC
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2009-01-21T16:00:00+00:00

19

THE NEXT MORNING I wrapped the dog in my coat and carried him down to the street so no one would see him. It was going to snow again. The temperature was dropping. We went all the way down Virginia Street to Landrums, the old lunch counter which sat only eight people. I got bacon and eggs, saving the bacon for the dog, who waited outside underneath the bus bench. I got a coffee to go and drank it to keep warm as we walked towards Jerry Lee’s old room. I took side streets so the dog could walk on lawns.

When we made it back downtown I walked past the El Cortez Lounge, and as I did so, Al Casey came running out. I was across the street from him, and when the traffic cleared, he made his way over.

‘Jesus, Al, what happened to you?’

He was dressed in an orange jogging suit and his face was swollen with two black eyes, his nose was bent and bruised, there was dried blood around his nostrils, his lips were cracked and covered with Vaseline. There was a bandage on his head.

‘Damn, I’m out of shape.’ He bent over to catch his breath. ‘Where you going?’

‘To my brother’s place. What the hell happened to you?’

‘I was walking home the other night after I’d rented a movie and a couple of these redneck bastards were waiting outside that gay bar on Virginia. The one with numbers on the outside. Near the vegetarian joint. Anyway, they called me a queer, and pushed me down and kicked the shit out of me in that parking lot across the street. I don’t know why they did it. I thought I was gonna die. It was that bad. Finally I just curled up in a cannonball and tried to wait it out. All because I was wearing a light green suit and walking by that place. I didn’t even know who the fuck they were, I’d never seen them in my life. My question is, why would you want to beat up a guy just for walking down the street? It was just terrible, Frank. And guess what movie I was renting?’

I shook my head.

‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, for Christsakes. It was Saturday and I felt like being in a good mood. You know? And they stole the movie. I remember one of them picked it up and looked at it, then just took it.’

‘Jesus,’ I said. Al was drunk, and blood from his nose began to drip on his suit.

‘Your nose is starting up.’

‘I’m a fucking mess,’ he said. He took a napkin from his pocket, tore a small piece from it, rolled it with his fingers and stuck it in his nose. ‘Guess where I’m going?’

‘Where?’

‘You know Darren Hofchek?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘He’s a guy who used to work at the pawn shop with me. The tall son of a bitch. Got the overbite.’

‘I’ve seen him, I think,’ I said.

‘Well, somehow he got two weeks in a condo up at Heavenly.

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