64
There are a few bikers back in Jimmy’s Place having a funny argument about the placement of their cue ball while a family of four some ten feet away enjoys peanuts. Ed Simpson has made an appearance and sits crooked at the bar. Ed is one of the janitors up at the high school, a well-meaning old cat. He’s joined by Jen Linsey and her husband Tom who both also work at the school, teaching freshman English and History respectively. Rose is working and chatting with them all, seamlessly making them feel important. They all enjoy a laugh and I notice the tiniest of flickers in the neon Budweiser sign on the wall near the entrance. It needs a new bulb. Prince sits across from me and says.
“Buddy. Remember that guy I mentioned out West?”
“Weed guy?”
“Yeah,” he laughs.
“I mean there’s more to him than that, but yeah that guy.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, he’s expanding man. It’s happening.”
“What’s that mean?”
“You should hear some of the numbers he’s pullin man, thousands and thousands. Not that it’s really even ’bout the money man but he needs someone who knows some ins and outs.”
“You know some ins and outs?”
“I know a few.”
“Doin what?”
“He can’t handle that kind of cash. He wants to invest, expand man, make it legitimate and shit. That’s the side we’ll be on, nothing illegal obviously.”
“Right.”
“It’s good man, it’s real good.”
“I believe you.”
“Doesn’t matter, even if it’s a bust, it will be an experience.”
“Yeah.”
“You wanna come with?”
“To Arizona?”
“Yeah man.”
“What about Rose?”
“Rose comes too.”
“Man, she ain’t gonna wanna go to Arizona.”
“How do you know?”
“She’s just got this thing rollin.”
“Have you asked?”
“No I haven’t asked, why would I have asked?”
“Exactly.”
“What the hell am I gonna do out in Arizona?”
“Anything man.”
“Shut the fuck up—”
“Nah really man, whatever. Same shit you do here, if you want. There’s a fuckin thousand things you could do out there.”
“Won’t be cheap.”
“Oh, fuck the money, look, if you come with me, I’ll cover it—”
“You ain’t paying for shit—”
“I’m serious, man. Not only that, first couple weeks I’ll give ya half of what I make—”
“Prince—”
“I’m serious, man. Like I said, it ain’t about the money, you know it isn’t. I just wanna do it. I wanna go. And I want my best friend with me, who also just so happens to wanna go.”
“How do you know I wanna go?”
“Cash. C’mon”
“Arizona.”
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
“I don’t know.”
“We go out there a couple months and come back? Your place is paid off, so is mine. They aren’t goin anywhere. We don’t gotta go forever. We can always come back, and knowing us, we will. But Arizona, man. Arizona.”
“Arizona.”
I watch Rose behind the bar. She serves Ed another cold one. Her eyes glance at mine for a moment and she smiles.
“Well, it wouldn’t hurt to ask her,” I admit.
Prince takes his glass, and he clanks it against mine. He downs the last of his beer.
“Hell yeah. That’s the spirit. No man, it would not. It definitely would not. I’m getting another round.”
After the place has cleared out for the night and Prince leaves me to it, Rose joins me at the booth. Behind her silhouette, the Budweiser sign flickers, and she leans on her right hand, looking up at me, blinking slowly.
“You look tired, baby,” I say.
“I am tired, baby.”
Saul shuffles his way towards the back door and gruffs.
“Night y’all.”
“Goodnight pal.”
And he’s gone.
“He looks more like your father by the day.”
“Doesn’t he?”
“Crazy.”
Saul sure said some solid and kind things to me in the days following my father’s funeral.
“There’s something biblical about it, Cash. Him coming back and seeing ya. Dying outside the bar.” It was the most romantic shit, I’d ever heard him say. After Saul slumps out that same back door like he had thousands of times before, Rose and I are alone.
“Freeze,” she whispers.
Every second of the past year flies through my mind like a firework memoir. I know that anything she wishes, I will follow.
“How would you feel about heading west for a while?”
She closes her eyes, and she smiles.