Jess Walter - The Financial Lives Of the Poets

“How are you supposed to eat it?”

“You’re supposed to lick it. You gum it like an old man.”

“I’m using my lips. You can’t get enough with just your tongue. You just move the ice cream all around.”

“So I’m just supposed to settle for a dainty little lick while you get a big gummy mouthful? That’s not fair. I should get ten licks for every one of your old Abe Vigoda gums.”

“How about five licks for every Abe Vigoda?”

“Eight.”

I grab the ice cream from her, and hold it away, and she’s wrestling me for it and that’s when I look up to see my old pothead friends, Jamie and Skeet, coming out of the theater.

Skeet’s got my loafers on.

I ended up spending two nights in jail, booked on charges of possession with intent to deliver. I was arraigned, posted bond, and went home. As quickly as I could, I pled guilty; because of my cooperation, the prosecutor agreed to overlook the fact that I tried to buy two pounds and it’s only the three ounces I get credit for trying to sell. Because of my clean record, the fact that I have a job and am supporting two boys, and have a recommendation from Randy and Lt. Reese, I got into a deferral program; if I complete my drug classes and keep pissing clean urine, the charge could eventually disappear entirely from my record.

Monte has also pled guilty, to more serious charges; Lt. Reese tells me he’ll probably get a break in sentencing, too, since he is cooperating fully. Like Monte, I may be called to testify against Dave if his case goes to trial. I’m not looking forward to that, but

all I can do is tell the truth. Lt. Reese tells me not to worry. He thinks Dave will eventually plead out, too, and that he and Monte will end up doing no more than a couple of years each. In the end, I ended up liking Lt. Reese a lot. He’s…I don’t know…genuine. He laughed mercilessly at my story of selling pot to my old editor, speaking into my phony glowing watch. I suppose I originally thought his bad-cop thing was an act, but the guy really is a prick. Just like Randy really is a nice guy. Unfortunately, their task force did lose its funding and they’re back at their old jobs, Randy with the city, Lt. Reese doing school drug presentations for the state patrol (I like to imagine it: “Okay, listen up you little fuck-sticks.”). One day Randy called out of the blue to see if I wanted to go to his church. I thanked him but said no. He told me that Dave was close to accepting Jesus Christ as his personal savior. “That’s great, Randy!” I said. And I really was glad for him; I imagine that saving someone is an incredible feeling. But it was Dave I felt best for. I pictured his many failings going into that salvation garbage can and I was so happy for him I could barely stand it.

As for Jamie, as far as I know, he was never charged with anything. I recall what Randy said about professional CI’s and I wonder if maybe he isn’t doing that. He would be great; certainly the best I ever saw: smart, calm, quick on his feet. Funny how you fail to see people for what they really are-

In the mall now, Skeet doesn’t see me at all, but Jamie does, sees right into me, and knows. He gives a little smile, and then hesitates…I feel the same thing…but what would we say? Finally, Jamie gives me a short nod, looks down, and he and Skeet move on.

“Who was that?” Lisa grabs the ice cream back from me.

“My old weed dealer,” I say.

“Oh.”

And here we are.

Sitting in a mall where I am gently trying to win back my beautiful wife, while our boys see a movie on the twenty bucks it has taken me three months to save, and Lisa and I fight over a single ice cream cone. I think we are supposed to somehow be better off now, out from under all of those middle-class weights and obligations and debts, all the lies that we stacked above our heads like teetering lumber. As Lisa said, we’re trying.

But it’s not easy, realizing how we fucked it all up. And that turns out to be the hardest thing to live with, not the regret or the fear, but the realization that the edge is so close to where we live. We’re like children after a thunderstorm. It’s okay, I whisper to Lisa on those nights that I convince her to stay with me. It’s okay. Just keep moving forward. Don’t look back. It’s okay.

Maybe we will be happy again-maybe we’ll even come out of this happier. But I can’t help wondering if we couldn’t be happy in our big old house, with our old nice furniture, with our old second car, with enough money for four movie tickets.

For two ice cream cones.

No, we miss our things.

But we have pockets.

And Lisa and me-we’re okay.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to Sam Ligon, Jim Lynch, Dan Butterworth, Sherman Alexie, Dan Spalding and Eric Albrecht for various insights, inspirations and encouragements; to Cal Morgan and Warren Frazier; and most of all to Ralph Walter, Danny Westneat, Som Jordan and all of my dismayed and displaced newspaper friends, whose talent and commitment deserve a better world.

JESS WALTER is the author of The Zero, a finalist for the National Book Award; Citizen Vince, a winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel; Land of the Blind; and Over Tumbled Graves, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Also the author of the nonfiction book Ruby Ridge, Walter lives in Spokane, Washington, with his family.

www.jesswalter.com