Lee Goldberg - King City

A waitress cowered in the far corner, holding a rag to her bloody nose. One of her eyes was already swelling shut. A fat cook stood protectively in front of her, holding a greasy frying pan up like a shield.

As Glenn came in, the man on the stool spun around to face him. It was clear that the guy was the group leader, or at least their spokesperson, by the way the others fell in behind him.

Glenn walked up slowly to the bar and addressed the man on the stool. “You want to tell me what happened here, son?”

“We’re just having a good time, that’s all,” said the man. “There a law against that?”

Glenn gestured to the waitress. “How did Phyllis get hurt?”

“She done that to herself,” the man said.

“Clete hit me!” she said. “Twice!”

“I put her in her place,” Clete said. “She ought to know better than to slap a man.”

“You grabbed my ass,” she said. “Nobody does that without an invitation.”

“Your ass is an invitation,” Clete said. “Ask anybody. Ain’t that so, Deputy?”

Glenn grabbed Clete’s head and slammed his face into the bar.

Wade heard Clete’s nose crack like a boot stomping on dry twigs, but it may just have been his imagination filling in the blanks. It was a startling sight. He’d never seen his father hurt anyone before. But what was more surprising to Wade was how fast and naturally his father lashed out.

Like he’d done it before.

Like he was comfortable with it.

Wade shivered, but it wasn’t just from the cold.

His father yanked Clete’s head off the bar, letting the blood, snot, and drool drip from his face. Clete gurgled and moaned.

“I’d say you and Phyllis are even now.” Glenn let go of Clete and stepped back to regard the three others. “But there’s still the matter of all this damage.”

One of the three men stepped forward. He was twice the width of his two buddies. He had arms like tree trunks and a chest carved in granite. At least that’s how he looked to Wade.

“The only damage is gonna be to you.” The huge man picked up a beer bottle by the neck and broke the end off against the edge of a table. He advanced on Glenn, holding the jagged end toward him. “We’re gonna fuck you up bad for what you done to Clete.”

The others picked up bottles and smashed them too, backing up their buddy as he advanced on Wade’s father. Wade’s heart was pounding so strong that it was almost all he could hear. His hand gripped his father’s gun. He wouldn’t just stand by and watch his father get beaten to death. His bladder suddenly felt like it might burst, and his whole body was shaking. He wasn’t sure if it was the cold or the fear.

But for all the terror that Wade felt, his father seemed totally at ease.

Glenn didn’t move or stiffen up. He just sighed and rested one hand on the top of his nightstick.

“Maybe so, but I won’t go down easy. You’ll be hurt. And come morning, when you’re puking into your toilet and squinting through your one good eye at your teeth floating around in the vomit, you’ll still have to answer for what was done here tonight. Are you ready for that?”

Glenn said it all casually, betraying not the slightest hint of anxiety or fear, as if he were discussing how the fish were biting on the lake rather than his own imminent, savage beating.

The huge man looked Glenn in the eye. Glenn looked right back at him.

The only sound in the room was Clete, making a wet gurgle as he breathed, holding his smashed nose in place with his hand, blood seeping between his fingers.

After a long moment, the huge man seemed to deflate like a punctured balloon, and so did the others, their shoulders sagging and their heads becoming too heavy for their necks.

Glenn nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

Wade let go of the gun and wiped his sweaty hands on his pants, his heart still thumping hard. He was astonished that he could sweat while still being so cold. The tension in his bladder was gone and he felt a new and different terror as he looked down to see if he’d wet himself. To his enormous relief, he hadn’t.

“You cashed your paychecks today,” Glenn said to the men. “I want to see what you’ve got left on the bar, right now.”

The men dug into their pockets and dumped crinkled bills and loose change on the bar, some of coins clattering onto the floor.

Glenn took a quick glance at the money. “That should cover the damage, Phyllis, don’t you think?”

She nodded vigorously. Wade thought she would have nodded whether it was enough money or not.

Glenn motioned to the door. “Good night, boys.”

The men shuffled to the door, Clete glaring at Glenn as he staggered past him.

Wade ducked under the window and flattened himself against the side of the building as they came out, piled into their pickups, and sped off, their tires kicking up dirt and gravel as they fishtailed onto the roadway. He peered over the edge of the windowsill and looked inside again.

His father turned to Phyllis. “He was right about your ass, Phyllis. Maybe if you kept it in jeans that didn’t hold it so tight, you wouldn’t get in so much trouble.”

Wade rushed back to the car, getting inside just as his father emerged from the roadhouse. That’s when he realized that in all the excitement he’d forgotten the gun. It was on the ground under the window. But it was too late to retrieve it now.

He looked back to see his dad lean under the window, pick up the gun, and put it in his holster as if he’d left it on the ground himself.

Glenn walked back to the car and got inside. His father never said a word about it.

Wade figured that his father’s advice, and the memory of that night, had saved his own life today. But this time, what Wade stood for wasn’t enough. He needed his gun.

His confrontation with the Indian did more than bring back old memories. It made Wade even hungrier than he was before. As he devoured his lukewarm pancakes and bacon, Mandy stood across from him, nursing an iced tea and keeping his mug filled with hot coffee.

“Was that legal?” she asked.

“I probably should have arrested them,” Wade said. “But it wasn’t practical.”

“I meant trashing Timo’s ride,” she said.

So that was the Indian’s name. Wade made a mental note of it.

“It isn’t a law on the books, but it’s a law that everyone understands.”

“An eye for an eye,” she said.

“Timo can file a grievance with the department if he wants,” Wade said. “He’ll probably prevail and get my badge.”

“That’s not how he expresses his grievances or how he prevails,” she said. “He’s maimed people for less. I’m surprised you’re sitting here instead of on your way to wherever you came from.”

“I didn’t finish eating,” he said. “These pancakes are too good to waste.”

“Aren’t you worried that he’ll come back?”

“I’m sure he will,” Wade said, removing his napkin and rising from his stool. “I’ll be back too, first thing tomorrow morning. But I’ve got a bunch of errands to do now, like dropping my car off at a body shop.”

“You’d be a fool to come back.”

“This is where I work,” he said.

“Work somewhere else. This isn’t someplace you want to be.”

“You came back,” he said.

“That’s different.” She glanced over at her father, who was facing a wall?mounted TV, watching one of the TV judges delivering daytime TV justice, then fixed her gaze back on Wade. “You’ll die here.”

“Here is as good a place as any.”

Wade left a few dollars on the counter as a tip and walked out, stopping for a moment outside the door to survey the street. There was nobody waiting for him.