on Lou. Ruby asked for it. Tubby little dyke.
Ruby takes a fresh cigarette from her pack. Her face becomes suddenly stony as she says, “Seriously, though, Sammie, your mom’s got problems.” She lights the new smoke and thinks for a moment.
Still fiddling with her gold chain, Jill sets her elbows on the table, nudging the coffee cup with her boobs. “What did Dad say when she hit on him?”
“He said no!” Ruby eyeballs the ceiling and then looks back at me. “We did pick her up a few groceries. Milk and bread, cheese … Did you know your mom still holds a torch for your father?”
I huff through my nose. As if!
“Oh-ho, yes. She sure does.”
Ruby doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about. I am almost offended to think that Marlene is trying to find Fat Freddy’s number, though. Freddy is the last thing she needs.
He called our place a couple months ago to ask if we’d seen Sam. “He was in town,” Freddy said. “I thought sure he’d’ve called you!”
He knew damn well Sam never called us. He just wanted to rub it in, get even because Marlene had put him on the back burner again.
Now Marlene can’t find his number. She must be really out of it. I don’t want her calling Freddy. Is she planning to go work a few hustles with him? In the shape she’s in? Or does she just want him to bring her a bottle? That weasel would only show up for one reason. The thought of any quid pro quo with Freddy makes me want to spew.
FOUR
FAT FREDDY IS a fence who used to work with Marlene and my dad back when we were a family. After Sam was out of the picture, Fat Freddy weaseled in close to Marlene. I’m not crazy about Freddy. I was happier when he was out of our world, even though she and Freddy used to make pretty good coin together when they ran the Birthday Girl Scam.
It worked like this. Marlene would sit at the bar in a hotel lounge. She’d order herself a drink and ask the bartender his name. Flashing some cash around (“Can you break a hundred?”), she’d say that it was her birthday. Then she’d confide that her boyfriend let her pick out her own present and she’d hold out her arm to show off her new diamond bracelet. The bartender might say, “Whoa, what’d that run the poor bastard?” She would scrunch up her nose when she whispered, “Six thousand, two hundred, and twenty-five dollars!” Meanwhile, she’d actually bought it for six bucks off some street vendor.
When she finished her drink, she’d gather up her things and surreptitiously drop the bracelet under the bar stool. A few minutes later, Fat Freddy (it used to be my father) would walk in and take the seat Marlene had just left. Not long after that, Marlene would phone the bar, all frantic. The bartender would look for the bracelet. Freddy would move his foot—“You mean this?”
Freddy wouldn’t hand the bracelet over. He’d just eyeball it and maybe whistle. “Ask if there’s a reward,” he’d say to the bartender.
On the phone, Marlene would cry. I watched her do it, watched her cradle the receiver as she pushed out tears, even though no one could see her. “I have to get that bracelet back. Please,” she’d beg. “Tell him I’ll give him a thousand dollars. Cash.” Nearly every time, the bartender would hang up and haggle. He’d offer Freddy fifty bucks, imagining he’d pocket the difference when Marlene showed up with the thousand.
Freddy would laugh. “Forget it, man.” He’d pocket the bracelet. “I gotta get goin.’ ”
The bartender would get anxious then, and Freddy could usually get him to fork over anywhere from two hundred to four hundred bucks. One time, he got five hundred.
Marlene said there was nothing wrong with a hustle like that because if the bartender hadn’t been such a lying, cheating dirtbag in the first place, he’d never have given any money to Freddy. I always wondered about that reasoning, though. What if the bartender wasn’t looking to pocket the difference? What if he was trying to help Marlene, the damsel in distress—save her from having to pay so much to the creepy guy holding her bracelet hostage? How could she know for sure?
But Marlene and Freddy’s business partnership eventually soured. Fat Freddy had a major crush on Marlene. Something happened—I don’t know what, but she made it clear that