Franz Neumann Moon Rock
K
at hitched with a pizzeria manager heading home from Reno. "Devon," he said. Her name was Katrina, but she no longer wanted the association of a hurricane. 'T m Kat," she said. Devon was too handsome to be a creep. His curly black hair hung weightless, like an astronaut's in zero G. Green eyes, heavy lips. He shifted with his left hand, his right encased in an unsigned cast. He talked about his ideas as he drove: a honeycomb cast that allows your body to be scratched; egg cartons with clear tops so you'll never forget to buy more; The Rhythm Wheel. "You plug it into the cigarette lighter and it wraps around the steering wheel," he said. "Touch sensitive." He tapped the steering wheel with his good hand and made a drum sound to demonstrate. "And this part here, this could be the bass drum. This, the hi-hat. "Tchhhhh." He asked about her. Her lies were like cactus blossoms, each one opening slowly, meant for only this night, fragile in the universe of dark that poured down over them. She gave up only two truths: first, that she was looking for work and a place to stay. 路 "Anything?" he asked. "Regular work," she said, thinking, "here it comes. The CTeep." "A place of my own," she added. "Done," he said. "You can work for me." "I have a felony," she said, the second truth. And though that weight was solely hers, she used it to pull down his confidence. Things were never that.easy. "You kill someone with pizza sauce?" "No., "Then it's no problem." And two hours later she was asleep in a clapboard house belonging to orie of Devon's employees who, along with her daughter, had moved out to work the ski season up in Mammoth. The next morning she filled out paperwork and by that afternoon she had a job. Everyone at the pizzeria liked working with her, but they would not become her friends. They were local kids and she was an outsider, not even a friend of their mothers. Most of them were her daughters' ages, though it was hard to picture their daughters with acned faces, too much eyeliner. Devon wanted to take her to a movie. He was too young for her, but she said 34
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