thinking about her parking at the A&P and crossing the parking lot, and . . . I don't know, what you said about Arnie leaving town didn't seem to matter. It still made sense, but it didn't seem to matter. Do you know what I'm talking about?'
'Yes,' I said, thinking about giving Ellie a lift down to Tom's the night before, even though my leg was aching like hell by then. 'I know exactly what you mean.'
'Dennis, it can't go on like this. I'll go crazy. Are we still going to try your idea?'
'Yes,' I said. 'Leave your mom a note, Leigh. Tell her you have to be gone for a little while. Don't say any more than that. When you're not home for supper, your folks will probably call mine. Maybe they'll decide we ran off and eloped.'
'Maybe that's not such a bad idea,' she said, and laughed in a way that gave me prickles. 'I'll see you.'
'Hey, one other thing. Is there any pain-killer in your house? Darvon? Anything like that?'
'There's some Darvon from the time Dad threw his back out,' she said. 'Is it your leg, Dennis?'
'It hurts a little.'
'How much is a little?'
'It's really okay.'
'No B.S.?'
'No B.S. And after tonight I'll give it a nice long rest, okay?'
'Okay.'
'Get here as quick as you can.'
She came in as I was ordering a second cup of coffee, wearing a fur-fringed parka and a pair of faded jeans. The jeans were tucked into battered Frye boots. She managed to look both sexy and practical. Heads turned.
'Looking good,' I said, and kissed her temple.
She passed me a bottle of grey and pink gel capsules.
'You don't look so hot, though, Dennis. Here.'
The waitress, a woman of about fifty with iron-grey hair, came over with my coffee. The cup sat placidly, an island in a small brown pond in the saucer. 'Why aren't you kids in school?' she asked.
'Special dispensation,' I said gravely. She stared at me.
'Coffee, please,' Leigh said, pulling off her gloves. As the waitress went back behind the counter with an audible sniff, she leaned toward me and said, 'It would be pretty funny if we got picked up by the truant officer, wouldn't it?'
'Hilarious,' I said, thinking that, in spite of the radiance the cold had given her, Leigh really wasn't looking all that good. I didn't think either of us really would be until this thing was over. There were small strain-lines around her eyes, as if she had slept poorly the night before.
'So what do we do?'
'We get rid of it,' I said. 'Wait until you see your chariot, madam.'
'My God!' Leigh said, staring at Petunia's hot-pink magnificence. It bulked silently in the Western Auto parking lot, dwarfing a Chevy van on one side and a Volkswagen on the other. 'What is it?'
'Kaka sucker,' I said with a straight face.
She looked at me, puzzled . . . and then she burst into hysterical gales of laughter. I wasn't sorry to see it happen. When I had told her about my confrontation with Arnie in the student parking lot that morning, those strain-lines on her face had grown deeper and deeper, her lips whitening as they pressed together.
'I know that it looks sort of ridiculous - ' I said now.
'That's putting it mildly,' she replied, still giggling and hiccupping.
' - but it'll do the job, if anything will.'
'Yes. Yes, I suppose it should. And . . . it's not exactly unfitting, is it?'
I nodded. 'I had that thought.'
'Well, let's get in,' she said. 'I'm cold.'
She climbed up into the cab ahead of me, her nose wrinkling. 'Ag,' she said.
I smiled. 'You get used to it.' I handed her my crutches and climbed laboriously up behind the wheel. The pain in my left leg had subsided from a series of sharp clawings to a dull throb again; I had taken two Darvon back in the restaurant.
'Dennis, is your leg going to be all right?'
'It'll have to be,' I said, and slammed the door.
PART III: CHRISTINE - TEENAGE DEATH-SONGS Chapter 51 CHRISTINE
As I sd to my
friend, because I am
always talking, - John I
sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what
can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddam big car,
drive, he sd, for
christ's sake, look
out where yr going.
- Robert Creeley
It was eleven-thirty or so when we pulled out of the Western Auto parking lot. The first spats of snow were coming down. I drove across town to the Sykes's house, changing gear more