Tom Piccirilli - The Last Kind Words

Chub gave a very tentative “Hello.”

He saw that he was being called by his own garage, after hours. I thought perhaps I should say my name at least, tell him to meet me. But I didn’t. I felt safer in my anonymity. I was afraid of my own best friend. I was a cowardly fuck. I hung up.

It took him fifteen minutes to tear ass over from his house. He was driving a ’64 Shelby Cobra 289 Roadster, another classic muscle car he must’ve restored himself. Some he sold, some he kept.

He was a disciplined planner when it came to getaways, but he didn’t know what to do when entering his own garage that had mysteriously called him and hung up in his face. I watched him standing out there in the dark, wondering which way he should play it. Whether he should come in the back or through one of the bays or just unlock the front door. He finally decided to try the front. He didn’t even bother calling out a hello. He checked his desk, picked up the phone, listened to the dial tone, kept looking around.

“Chub.”

He spun, his left hand going for his back pocket. There was no bulge of a pistol, so he must’ve been packing a blade.

It was stupid of him to carry anything except an automatic with a hair trigger. The only bastards who were likely to come after him were the crews he was working with. Some paranoid mook who wanted to take care of all witnesses, anybody in the know. As soon as Chub laid out the plans, the mook would lever up something small, probably a popgun.22, and go for the head shot. Even if Chub saw it coming, what the hell was he going to do to stop it with just a blade in his hand?

I snapped the lights on.

When he saw it was me he cocked his head, drew a deep breath, and took his hand out of his pocket. A sad grin played across his lips but never fully settled there. He wore an expression that said he should’ve known it was me. He’d been waiting for this. I suppose I was predictable. I was the guy who didn’t have whatever it took to face up to people the normal way. I couldn’t knock on a door. I couldn’t stand by my girl. I couldn’t save my brother. He eyed me but didn’t approach.

“Terry.”

All of the jealousy and anger I felt moved through me second by second like a storm on the open water. It bobbed to the surface and then fell away. A thousand good memories all scrambled through my head. I thought we would have to shake hands. We would have to do that much. I put out my hand and he took it. I moved in a little closer and could feel his heart hammer against my own. He took a step away. As I waited for my anger to return, I realized it was already there.

“How long have you been home?” he asked.

“A few days.”

“Heard on the news about the girl. The sister of the one that-”

“I didn’t do it,” I said.

He gave a puzzled expression. “I never thought you did.”

He was too skilled to let his eyes shift toward the safe. He walked to the front of the desk and leaned against it, facing me, blocking me from the safe. I heard his folded knife thunk against the thick wood. He crossed his arms.

I remembered how he’d walked with a ="1xlight step, almost skipping out of the car and rushing after Scooter, who squealed and playfully tried to run from him. How he’d swept her into his arms and set her on his shoulder and twirled and whirled across the lawn while her fingers brushed the buds of tree branches. The way he had kissed Kimmy and pressed his forehead to hers.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

“Collie asked me to come back and I did.”

“Was that all it took? Someone asking?”

“It was more than that,” I admitted.

He nodded, but the tension between us grew. He looked into my face until I turned away. “You ready to talk about it?”

I said nothing.

“You don’t think you owe me that much, Terry?”

There was too much clawing around inside me, like a wild animal wanting out. He shifted and the blade clunked again.

I said, “You once told me that Kimmy… she’d send me up or set me straight. Which is she going to do for you?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

His face was blank. He swallowed thickly. His throat was dry. He knew.

“Give it up, Chub. She deserves better than to watch you get taken down by the cops. Your daughter needs her father.”

He stood and took two steps forward and got nose-to-nose. “This is the first thing you say to me in five years? Out of everything, that’s what you choose to say?”

“It’s the most important thing I can think of.”

His mouth folded into a sneer. “That’s sad, then.”

“Maybe it is.”

“You don’t know shit, Terry.”

“I know they’re doing roadwork out on Vets Highway, and if you send a crew down there they’ll get snagged in traffic and get scooped up.”

He gave a disgusted laugh. “You went through my stuff. I should’ve known. If anyone could find a second safe, it would be you. That’s why you’re in the garage. That’s why you decided to play it this way. You thieves, you think you’ve got a God-given right to stick your nose up everyone’s ass.”

“You’re a thief too, Chub.”

“No, I’m not.”

Maybe he was right. You could look at it that he was just a guy who aided others in pulling their scores, without really getting his hands too dirty. The cops would still give him at least a nickel upstate.

“You’ve got no reason to keep playing the game, Chub.”

“Who the hell do you think you are? What I do is my business.”

“You don’t need the extra cash.”

“You don’t know anything, Terrier. I have my reasons.”

“Unless you’re going to tell me that your little girl has a rare blood disease, then you don’t.”

Chub was on me in a second. He shoved me hard against the wall. He pinned me there with one hand locked on my throat and the other on my right wrist. I didn’t struggle. Sweat dappled his balcidd head.

He said, “You know where I work. You must know where I live. You’ve seen my daughter. You’ve been watching us, haven’t you?” I didn’t confirm or deny. He paused, his face mottled with rage. “Did you know your old man cased my house a few months ago? I woke up and found him talking with Kimmy. Said he was checking up on her. At three in the morning. After breaking in to my house. I should’ve pressed charges and sent him to the joint, but I felt sorry for him. He looked lost.” Chub tightened his grip on me. I started to gag but I still didn’t fight him. “So what happens? You do the same thing to me. Just where the fuck do you people get off?”

I choked out, “It’s time to change.”

It sounded stupid and overwrought even to me. It got another ugly laugh out of him. “You’re telling me that? You? First thing you do when you get back home is fall to type. Just like your brother and uncles and father. You couldn’t wait to break in here, could you? I bet this isn’t even the first time. You’ve been here before, haven’t you?”

“Chub, I-”

He didn’t let it go, his voice tight and hard. “Haven’t you?”

“Listen to me.”

“Haven’t you, Terrier?”

“Yes.”

He backed away from me and wrapped his arms around his chest as if to hold in his frustration and hate. “Jesus fucking Christ!”

“Listen to me,” I said. “Forget about that.”

“Forget about that?”

“You have a kid. I don’t. Think about Scooter.”

“Scooter?” He was practically screaming. “Who the hell is Scooter?”

“Your girls. Think about your girls. Chub, don’t wreck your life. Don’t you know how easy it is to lose everything? Take it from me.”

His eyes were full of rage and disappointment. He was so hurt and appalled that he couldn’t even look at me anymore.