Shade
get in. He let Farquhar's phone ring. Three, four rings. Maybe he wouldn't answer and they could go back home. They were starting to feel ridiculous and out of place. At home there were no gate codes, no rivers, no foreigners, no coffee shops, and one post office. A woman in a Steelers coat, gloves, scarf, and hat leaned outside her car window, poking in a code. "You have to hit star first," she said. "Do you even live here?" Paxson looked up at the woman. The phone rang still. Paxson waited. Seven rings. "I daresay I would shag her," Gus said. "In spite of her fastidiousness concerning the preliminary star. Shit. Bitch. She can take that thing and pound it up her ass. Oh, it's a kind of utensil." Paxson drove on through; Farquhar picked up his end. "That was quick," Farquhar said. He must have been getting a manicure again; he sounded distracted by the attention paid by a stranger to his nails. "No, no, boss," Paxson said. "Just wanted to let you know we're on our way." Paxson thought to mention that Farquhar hadn't told them to hit star first, but was afraid that he would laugh and say everybody knows that, and at any rate Farquhar had already hung up. They parked. It was dark now, nearing six P.M. "I can't do it," Gus said. His cheeks were red. He looked into his lap. "I can't do it. 1want to go back home. I want to go home and watch Animal Rescue." "Gus," Paxson said, gripping the steering wheel. "Don't think." "Call Farquhar. Tell him we're lost." "He already knows we're here." "Well then." "What," Paxson said. Gus pinched at the upholstery. "You take the money. But I can't do it." Paxson tried to reason with Gus the way he had tried to reason with himself. The man owes money. If he doesn't want to lose money, he shouldn't gamble. And if he's not punished for not paying, then everybody will stop paying. If everybody bet and didn't pay, there'd be chaos; winners wouldn't get their money. That was how the world worked. "He has to know how it works," Paxson said. "And we have an obligation. We have our word at stake. Plus Farquhar will kill us if-" Gus shook his head. "What have I ever learned from any of this bullshit." "So you'll let me keep all the money," Paxson said. "The whole sixthousand. And you'll drive all the way back tonight so I can sleep?" Gus nodded and turned the stereo up. We just sitting here trying to win, trying not to sin, high off weed and lots of gin, so much smoke need oxygen, steadily counting those Benjamins. 16
FUGUE#3l