Roadside Bodhisattva Part 9

Sonny sounded like he was going to bust out crying. His eyes were all watery. I got kinda disgusted with everyone then. Sonny, Yasmine, Sue, Angie, even Ann. What a bunch of emotional basket-cases! About the only ones who seemed to have their s.h.i.t together were me and Sid. What the h.e.l.l were we doing chilling here? Maybe last night marked the beginning of the end of our stay at Deer Park. Maybe now Sid would want to get back on the road.

I dropped down onto a counter stool. Sonny was busy sponging up the spilled b.u.t.ter. The quick breakfast I had counted on looked like it was going to be delayed.

Yasmine wasnt satisfied with the damage she had done. She kept on teasing the cook.

"Oh, you had a little accident! Its hard for a guy not to spill things around me. I bet you dream about me at night, Sonny, dont you? Do you spill anything then? Does your sister have to change your sheets a lot?"

Sonny swung around then, no warning, and smacked Yasmine in the face with his hand holding the big blue sponge.

"Duh-dont tuh-talk about my suh-sister!"

Yasmine reeled back. She looked more surprised than hurt. A big smear of dirty liquid b.u.t.ter glopped up one side of her face. I didnt know whether to laugh or not. All the customers who had been eavesdropping looked as shocked as Yasmine.

Ann came out of the back room. She sized up the situation in about half a second.

"Whats going on here? Yasmine, have you been teasing Sonny again? Get over to the apartment and clean yourself up! Then get right back here."

I expected Yasmine to pitch some kind of hissy fit, maybe even quit and stalk out. She could be that b.i.t.c.hy, no question. But the blow that Sonny had given her seemed to have thrown her into some kinda funk. I figured maybe things had never reached this point before. Whatever the reason, Yasmine got up all meek, grabbed her purse from underneath the counter, and left the diner.

The customers were still gawping. Ann turned to them. "Okay, shows over, folks. Sorry for the ruckus. Your breakfasts are on the house today. Be sure to come back tomorrow, when all of this nonsense will be ancient history."

Everyone returned to their meals. Ann went behind the counter and confronted Sonny. His face was still flushed, but he didnt look angry anymore. More like ashamed and afraid, like a dog thats taken too many kicks.

"Sonny, I know Yasmines kinda hard to take sometimes. But if you make it easy for her push your b.u.t.tons, sh.e.l.l never stop. Next time, just ignore her, okay?"

"I wuh-was trying! But she suh-said something about Evelyn!"

"Evelyns a big girl, she can take care of herself. You just concentrate on managing Sonny."

Sonny hung his head. "Okay, Ann."

Ann clapped the cook on the shoulder. Then she spotted me and smiled.

"Looks like we got a hungry employee here, Sonny. Whatre you gonna have, Kid?"

It seemed like Ann hadnt heard anything from Angie about me and Sid poking into her past. Or if she had, it didnt matter. I felt relieved. "Uh, Ill have a grilled cheese, please, with a side of home-fries."

"Cuh-coming right up!"

Sue walked in before I even got my sandwich.

"Whats up with California Girl? She ran past me with a greasy face. Looked like maybe she was crying too. Did she put on the wrong kind of tanning b.u.t.ter?"

Ann and Sonny started laughing. Me too. Sue kept saying, "What? What? Whats so funny? Tell me!" But that only made us laugh all the harder. It took us a while to stop and fill Sue in. Then she started snorting, and we all got going again.

When Sid came in, the whole process started for the second time.

Finally we got ourselves under control. "Okay," Ann said, "thats the end of that. When Yasmine walks back in, I want everything normal. Or as close to normal as this zoo ever gets."

Sid and I turned to our breakfasts, while Ann began to wait on new customers, with Sue helping. After about twenty more minutes, Yasmine returned. She had fixed her makeup and looked pretty much self-composed. Sonny was putting up several full plates, ready to go. Sue was reaching for them when Yasmine more or less pushed her aside.

"Thats my job, little girl. Sonny, who are these for?"

"Buh-booth eight."

Yasmine took the meals over to booth eight, and the morning routine at the Deer Park Diner was restored. Sid went to paint some more, and Sue took off the clean the cabins. I got up off my stool and went back to my sinks and dishwasher.

Before I knew it, it was lunchtime. Not quite yet for me, since I couldnt quit until three. But I expected Sid to show up soon.

Sid came in the back door. He smelled like turpentine, and his hands were a little raw from scrubbing the paint off. It was just him and me in the back, so I said, "What now? Are you bringing Angie his lunch like regular?"

"Seems to me like I got no choice, Kid. I dont turn my back on anyone until they actually bar the door on me."

Sid went out front and in a little while came back with two bag lunches.

"Wish me luck."

He was only gone about ninety seconds. When he came back in, he was still holding both lunches.

"He told you to f.u.c.k off, right?"

Sid looked stunned. "No. He said he was coming over when the diner closed to eat with the rest of us."

Sid went to give the lunches back to Sonny. Sid mustve told Ann too, because for the rest of the lunch shift she looked kinda confused and even a little worried.

Finally the last customer was booted out, and Sonny got busy with our lunch orders. The five of us-Sue, Sid, Ann, Yasmine and me-were all served before Angie showed up.

He wasnt wearing his mechanics clothes. He had changed into clean pants and shirt, a checked shirt b.u.t.toned to the top and a pair of Dockers. That mustve been what delayed him. He looked as uncomfortable as a kid on his first day at a new school. His face seemed like it was the thick ice on a pond where a million hot springs had suddenly erupted, all ready to dissolve in a million separate places.

"Meatball sandwich," Angie called out to Sonny. His voice was kinda low but squeaky somehow.

For lunch we usually pushed two tables up against each other and all sat together. That arrangment was good for six seats. Five of us were already sitting, and Sonny was gonna be the sixth. Angie made seven. Sizing up the seating arrangment, Angie took a chair at a third table right next to our setup.

Sid immediately said, "Room here at the end, Ange."

Angie didnt move or say anything. He looked frozen. But when his meatball sandwich was ready in the next minute, Sonny came out and set it at the end of the twin tables. Angie got up like his legs were wood and pulled his chair over.

Ann seemed caught between a smile and tears. Sue had her eyes fixed on her aunt. Yasmine was staring at the ceiling, bored. Sid was grinning like an idiot. Sonny wore a smile like Christmas morning. I was devoting a lot of attention to my cole slaw. n.o.body said anything until Ann spoke.

"Good to have you with us, Angie."

It was like someone cut a puppets strings, or like somebody shined a heat lamp on a candle. All the stiffness went out of Angie, and he almost smiled.

"Good to be here," he said.

Sid said, "All this talk, and our meals are going cold! Thats a G.o.dd.a.m.n insult to the chef. Lets eat!

Since the day almost a week ago, when Sonny socked Yasmine with the sponge, she had been on her best behavior with the Deer Parks cook. She was chilly toward him, sure, but not insulting. No more c.r.a.p about his sister, Evelyn. I pictured Evelyn, by the way, as Sonny in drag.

But that didnt mean Yasmine wasnt still a b.i.t.c.h with the rest of us, from time to time. I tried to cut her some slack, figuring that she was stressed out about her mother and all. I could imagine how crummy Id feel if my s.p.a.cey zen-head mother was sick with aids. But knowing all about Yasmines troubles didnt make it any easier to take her sa.s.smouth.

And it turned out that the favorite thing Yasmine liked to harp on was "wasteful behavior." She had been brought up in California, she kept reminding us, where people had real respect for nature and the land and society and knew their responsibilities to the earth and how to conserve resources, and all that other s.h.i.t. For every activity a human being could possibly do, especially the fun ones, Yasmine had some advice on how to do it better and less "wastefully." I shouldve known she was gonna be a jerk about this kind of thing from the very first day she warned me to compost and not to run the dishwasher with a partial load. But until you had endured one of Yasmines constant lectures on the benefits of recycling and the horrors of pollution, you couldnt really antic.i.p.ate how boring and annoying this kind of talk could be.

Mostly I learned to tune her out, just like Ann and Sue mostly did. And I figured that if she was bothering Sid with her "environment" talk, he was ignoring her the same way. After all, he was even more "mature" than me, right?

Apparently not.

Sid and I had finished painting the cabins. They looked a thousand times better than before. The lawn had gotten its second mowing since we had arrived at the Park, and we had spread seed over the bare patches. On deck were some repairs to the office-slash-apartment building, reshingling the roof and such. But as his very next improvement, Sid had planted flowers everywhere. Sue and Sid had taken Anns car to a nursery out on Route 1 and returned with dozens of plastic flats full of plants. Baby geraniums and petunias and other stuff I didnt recognize. Sid set these baby plants with lots of care into the prepared ground around the cabins, around the office, around the diner, around our trailer. Even the garage now featured some flowers in pots between the pumps and on either side of the bay door. Naturally, all these plants needed watering, especially when it hadnt rained in several days, which it hadnt.

It was four in the afternoon. Everyone was heading out the door of the diner, except Sid. He was already gone. He had excused himself a little earlier, saying he wanted to tend to his flowers.

Sonny pedaled off on his clunky bike. Sue followed Ann back to the rental office. Ann was trying to convince Sue to get back into school for about the hundredth time, but Sue wasnt any more agreeable to the idea than ever. Angie headed off to the garage. He was still dressing special for lunch, changing back to his work clothes for the rest of his afternoon duties. He never said much while we ate, but I could tell that he was happy to be there with us. Ann seemed pleased too, to have her ex-brother-in-law acting halfway normal again.

Yasmine and I were standing next to her car, while she counted out my share of her tips for the day. Sid came around from behind the diner.

He was trailing a hose, hooked up to the spigot near the back door of the diner. He was obviously aiming to water the flowers in front of the diner. But he hadnt bothered to shut off the hose at the nozzle. So while he walked across the lawn and the gravel, his hose was spraying water uselessly everywhere.

Yasmine freaked. "What the h.e.l.l are you doing, you moron! Youre killing the planet!"

Sid stopped. But he didnt make any move to twist the nozzle to stop the undirected flow of water that was p.i.s.sing Yasmine off. He got a grim look on his face, and I flinched. Yasmine didnt know about Sids t.i.t-for-tat philosophy.

"Im a moron killing the planet, huh? How do you figure that?"

Yasmine pointed at the gushing hose. "All that water! Its being wasted!"

Sid looked down at the hose like he had forgotten he was carrying it. "Oh, you mean this water thats going back into the soil and on down to the water table?"

"It doesnt matter where its going! Youre still drawing down the reservoir for nothing. What if we have a drought later this summer?"

"A drought? Yasmine, this state just had one of its snowiest winters in history. The reservoirs are full."

"Thats all besides the point. Back in California-"

"Forget your f.u.c.king California! Californias a f.u.c.king desert! People couldnt even live there until they stole all the water of their neighbors. And even now they dont have enough. Thats why you all have to walk around unwashed and stinking, with corks up your a.s.ses. But this is the f.u.c.king Northeast! Weve got more water than we know what to do with. Well wash our cars twice a day if we want to. Well change the water in our swimming pools every f.u.c.king week. Well have water-balloon fights as big as the G.o.dd.a.m.n Gulf War and more wet t-shirt contests than a million spring breaks. And if anyone starts to worry, well just point up to the skies. You know whats happening up there in the stratosphere? A regular G.o.dd.a.m.n rain of icy micrometeorites is bringing fresh water to the whole planet every minute of every G.o.dd.a.m.n day."

Yasmine just stood there with her jaw hanging down, until Sid flicked the hose at her, nailing her with a few drops. Her pretty face got all bug-eyed. She shrieked in frustration, dove into her car and peeled out.

Sid yelled out one parting shot. "And that heap you drive pollutes the air more than your mouth!"

I looked away from the speeding car and back to Sid. He was grinning like a happy fool. I felt irritated with him, and kinda sad for Yasmine.

"Did you have to come down so hard on her?"

Now that Yasmine was gone, Sid twisted off the flow of water from the hose. "Listen, Kid, I dont have anything against Yasmine. Shes got a tough row to hoe, what with getting jerked up by her roots out west, dragged back east, then getting stuck with all the responsibility for her sick mother. But I hate being preached at, especially by someone who doesnt have their own act together. That girl is too used to getting by on her looks. And shes got an inflated notion of her own opinions. Shes grown up smug and superior, with n.o.body daring to contradict her. Shes got to get down off her high horse and realize that she doesnt have all the answers, and that other people deserve some respect."

I didnt say anything right away. I thought about how maybe what seemed like cruelty on Sids part might be something like the hit with the stick that the Roshi would deliver when you were sitting in meditation. Maybe he knew what he was doing with Yasmine. He had been right about Angie, hadnt he?

"Is that stuff about the micrometeorites true?" I asked.

Sid shrugged. "Its one theory." Then he turned to water his flowers.

For a while I watched the bright beads of moisture splatter on the plant leaves, collecting together and running off in little waterfalls. Finally I said, "Sid, you remember that advice you gave me about Sue?"

"Yeah."

"Well, tonight Im gonna do it. Ill ask to go with her into Lumberton."

"Good. Let me know how it goes."

"I didnt do it before now, because she didnt go into town since you and me discussed things. Well, maybe once, but she took me by surprise-"

"Listen, Kid, Im not riding your shoulders like some old man of the sea. You do it when you do it. No need to apologize, or to explain anything to me."

"Okay. Thats cool then." As long as Sid and I were talking about women, I figured Id ask him about Ann. Maybe Sid had made some progress with her. "Uh, how are you and Ann getting along?"

Sid fixed me with a stare I couldnt really interpret. "Me and Ann are not an item, buddy. I just like her company. We spend most of the time together talking about this joint, how to get it running in the black"

"Well, thats cool. Got any good ideas yet?"

"Were working on a few. Now, how about mixing me up some of that fertilizer in the shed? You know the blue crystal stuff? You use a quarter cup per watering can. Do me up three of em, if you would."

"Sure, Sid."

Sid and I made the best use of the afternoon light, working outdoors till about seven, when the sun was finally starting to look weaker, although we had an hour or more before it got really dark. We didnt have to work these long hours, from early in the morning till almost night time. Ann didnt demand it. But we wanted to. At least I did. Deer Park had gotten to be more than a job. I had a stake in the place now, and it seemed like Sid did too. Since we hadnt screwed up with Angie, I had felt more at ease. Anyhow, the work wasnt really that hard, and we were always taking breaks during the day and goofing around, so it never seemed like a grind.

Sid coiled up the hose and I stored away the watering cans and other tools we had been using. A car pulled into the lot in front of the rental office and a man got out, how old I couldnt really say. He left a young girl in the car. She looked about Sues age, with long blonde hair. When the guy came out, he moved the car to near one of the cabins, and him and the girl went inside. I felt weird. I looked to Sid, to see if he had spotted the action, and maybe had something to say about it. But he hadnt, or didnt.

We split up then, Sid going to see Ann and me heading to the apartments kitchen.

Sue was nuking some of the food Ann had stocked for me. It smelled good, and I realized I was starving again.

"Hey, Kid. Grab a seat Grub in thirty."

Sue opened the fridge, got out a liter of Dew and poured two, gla.s.ses. The microwave chimed, and she pulled out some Hot Pockets. She slid them onto a plate and set the plate on the table in front of me.

"Thanks, Sue."

Sue sat down on the other side of the table and lit up a cigarette.

"Arent you gonna eat something with me?"

She grabbed a roll of fat through her shirt where her farmer jeans gapped above her waist. "Gotta watch the calories, Kid. Ive been packing it on since I came to live with Aunt Ann. You might not believe it, but back home I was a size ten. Now my frigging bra straps cut into me like Lil Kims thong in her a.s.s crack. Here, take a look."

Sue pivoted on her chair and lifted up the side of her shirt. I got a good look at the side strap of her bra and part of the right cup, straining across her flesh. Then she dropped her shirt back and stuffed it into her pants. She grinned at me and exhaled some smoke.

It took me a while to get my thoughts together and say something. "I, ah, jeez, Sue, I think you look great just the way you are."