"When I was at DMV, the clerk recognized the name Les SaintPierre from a few weeks ago. It's an unusual name. He commented that Les must be in a lot of trouble."
"Why's that?"
"Seems I was the second person from the State Attorney that month looking through his records."
34
My mother was squatting in her neighbours’ back J￡\ yard, painting faux wisteria vines on a pine fence. ^^ To get to her I had to step carefully in my dress shoes through a minefield of pie tins filled with various colours.
She was wearing purple overalls and a fuchsia Night in Old San Antonio Tshirt, both speckled with acrylic. The air was warm and stagnate with fumes and Mother was sweating almost as much as the open Pecan Street Ale bottle on the steppingstone next to her.
She greeted me without looking up. She swirled her brush to form a cluster of pale purple petals. There was a fingerprint the exact same colour on the side of her nose.
"You know they sell plants now," I said. "You can just buy them in stores."
Mother suppressed a giggle. I think that was my first indication maybe she'd been sitting in the heat and the paint fumes too long.
"It's trompe l'oeil, Jackson." Then she lowered her voice. "The Endemens are paying me."
I looked back at the Endemens' house. Mr. Endemen, a scruffy retired newspaperman, was sitting at his typewriter at the diningroom table. He was trying hard to look busy, but he kept sneaking sideways glances at us through the picture window. He was frowning, like the view hadn't improved since I'd arrived.
"I won't tell," I promised.
Mother finished her petals and looked up at me. She did a double take.
"Well ..." She raised her eyebrows. "I'm sorry, I thought you were my son."
"Mother—"
"No, you look wonderful dear. What happened to your chin?"
"It's a bruise."
She hesitated. She had noticed something else too— that pheromonal afterglow that only mothers and girlfriends can detect, that aura which told her I had been Up To Something the night before.
Whatever conclusions she came to she kept to herself. She looked down at my ensemble while she stirred her brush through a pie tin. "I don't know if I'd've chosen the brown tie, but it's nice. I suppose conservative is best for an interview."
"A woman in purple overalls is giving me fashion tips."
She smiled. "I'm very proud of you. Would you like to take a medicine pouch for luck?"
"Actually I was hoping to borrow the Audi."
Mother tightened her lips.
She reached past me for her beer bottle. I stepped back so she wouldn't get paint on my black slacks. After she took a sip of Pecan Street Ale she looked up and down the fence at her work so far.
"Mr. Endemen wants grape vines along the top," she mused. "I think that's too much with the wisteria, don't you?"
I thought about it. "You get paid per plant?"
She sighed. "Artistic question. I shouldn't have asked you. I hope you want the Audi just to drive to UTSA?"
I gave her my best innocent look. "No ... I have some work to do afterward. It would be better if I didn't use my own car for it."
"Some work," she repeated. "Dear, the last time you borrowed my car for some work..."
"I know. I'll pay you back for any repairs."
"That's not really the point, Jackson."
"Can I trade cars with you or not, Mother?"
She put down her paintbrush, then wiped her hands on a rag. She pulled her key chain out of her bib pocket with two fingers. "My hands are sticky."
I took the key off the chain. "Thanks."
Mother leaned in close to the fence and traced out a new curl in her vine. Mr. Endemen kept typing in the dining room, looking out the window from time to time to see if I'd gone away yet.
"So," Mother said, "are you nervous?"
I refocused on her. "About the interview?"
She nodded.
"No sweat," I said. "Sitting around with a bunch of professors won't be the worst thing that's happened to me this week."
Mother smiled knowingly. "Don't worry. You'll do fine."
She looked at my face again. For a minute I thought she might bring out a Kleenex, dab it on her tongue, and wipe my cheeks like she used to do when I was five. "I hope we'll see you tomorrow."
"You having your traditional costume party?"
I thought, after all these years, that I could keep the resentment out