disgusted.
'I tell you something else that bothers me,' he said. 'I must see a hundred thousand cars a year in this place well, not that many, but you know what I mean - and I got an eye for em. You know, I could swear I've seen that one before. When it wasn't such a dog. Where did he get it?'
'From a man named Roland LeBay,' I said, thinking of LeBay's brother telling me that LeBay did all the maintenance himself at some do-it-yourself garage. 'He's dead now.'
Darnell stopped cold. 'LeBay? Rollie LeBay?'
'Yes, that's right.'
'Army? Retired?'
'Yes.'
'Holy Christ, sure! He brought it in Here just as regular as clockwork for six maybe eight years, then he stopped coming. A long time ago. What a bastard that man was. If you poured boiling water down that whoremaster's throat, he would have peed ice cubes. He couldn't get along with a living soul.' He gripped my shoulder harder. 'Does your friend Cunningham know LeBay's wife committed suicide in that car?'
'What?' I said, acting surprised - I didn't want him to know I'd been interested enough to talk to LeBay's brother after the funeral. I was afraid Darnell might repeat the information to Arnie - complete with his source.
Darnell told me the whole story. First the daughter, then the mother.
'No,' I said when he was done. 'I'm pretty sure Arnie doesn't know that. Are you going to tell him?' The eyes, appraising again. 'Are you?'
'No,' I said. 'I don't see any reason to.
'Then neither do I.' He opened the door, and the greasy air of the garage smelled almost sweet after the cigar smoke in the office. 'That sonofabitch LeBay, I'll be damned. I hope he's doing right-face-left-face and to-the-rear-march down in hell.' His mouth turned down viciously for just a moment, and then he glanced over at where Christine sat in stall twenty with her old, rusting paint and her new radio aerial and half a grille. 'That bitch back again,' he said, and then he glanced at me. 'Well, they say bad pennies always turn up, huh?'
'Yes,' I said. 'I guess they do.'
'So long, kid,' he said, sticking a fresh cigar in his mouth. 'Say hi to your dad for me.'
'I will.'
'And tell Cunningham to keep an eye out for that punk Repperton. I got an idea he might be the sort who'd hold a grudge.'
'Me too,' I said.
I walked out of the garage, pausing once to glance back but looking in from the glare, Christine was little more than a shadow among shadows. Bad pennies always turn up, Darnell said. It was a phrase that followed me home.
PART I: DENNIS - TEENAGE CAR-SONG Chapter 15 FOOTBALL WOES
Learn to work the saxophone,
I play just what I feel,
Drink Scotch whisky
All night long,
And die behind the wheel . . .
- Steely Dan
School started, and nothing much happened for a week or two. Arnie didn't find out I'd been down to the garage, and I was glad. I don't think he would have taken kindly to the news. Darnell kept his mouth shut as he had promised (probably for his own reasons). I called Michael one afternoon after school when I knew Arnie would be down at the garage. I told him Arnie had done some stuff to the car, but it was nowhere near street-legal. I told him my impression was that Arnie was mostly farting around. Michael greeted this news with a mixture of relief and surprise, but that ended it . . . for a while.
Arnie himself flickered in and out of my view, like something you see from the corner of your eye. He was around the halls, and we had three classes together, and he sometimes came over after school or on weekends. There were times when it really seemed as if nothing had changed. But he was at Darnell's a lot more than he was at my house, and on Friday nights he went out to Philly Plains - the stock-car track - with Darnell's half-bright handyman, Jimmy Sykcs. They ran out sportsters and charger-class racers, mostly Camaros and Mustangs with all their glass knocked out and roll bars installed. They took them out on Darnell's flatbed and came back with fresh junk for the automobile graveyard.
It was around that time that Arnie hurt his back. It wasn't a serious injury - or so he claimed - but my mother noticed that something was wrong with him almost right away. He came over one Sunday to watch the