Page 20 of Liquids

“When you went out to the rigs, I asked Mike where you’d gone. He might guess you’re here.”

He wraps a hand around my neck. “Mike’ll keep quiet if I tell him to. I’m sorry I bailed on you.” He kisses my forehead. “Now get out there and see to your old ladies.”

Stop being nice. Just dump me like everyone fucking else. But he’s being nice for a reason. My thoughts flit back through this morning as I take a sip of coffee and head down the stairs to my car. Kicking Dave out, snuggling, and encouraging me to have a dream, something anyway, to get through. Making me breakfast to go. For some reason, I don’t mind him taking advantage, I don’t mind it at all.

6

RISING TIDES

Ialways aim to hit Marge at lunchtime, because she’s a feeder and because most of the time I skip breakfast and it means I can eat whatever she makes for me. But on the way to my first appointment, the strange cheese-and-squashed-chips sandwich that Rig made for me tastes like the best thing in the world, and my whole morning takes on a brighter hue. I’m making myself this sandwich every day, even when Rig has gone on his merry way.

Coffee and cake are sitting on Marge’s kitchen counter when I arrive at midday.

“You’re a lifesaver,” I say as she totters around, finding me a plate and a cup, her small dachshund, Dolly, waddling behind her. Dolly is as old in dog years as Marge is in human years. She has one of those whiskery dog faces that you could draw for hours. “How is that last set of meds the doctor gave you working?”

“I’ve been a bit sleepy, dear. Once the television is on in the afternoon, I can’t seem to keep my eyes open. I keep dozing off in my chair.”

I frown at her. “Really?” I dive into the pantry to find her medicine and examine the packet.

“Has Jeffrey been by?” I ask. Jeffrey’s her son and a good-for-nothing. He doesn’t visit his mom much and has an opinion on everything.

“Oh, that boy! He showed up asking for money like he always does.” Her eyes twinkle at me underneath her gray curls. “He did tell me about the fight last night, though. He said you were there.”

I laugh at this. “I was. Come on, you old gossip, we have to get you into the shower for a wash.”

“I used to love going to those fights,” she says as she makes her way slowly toward the bathroom with her hand on the wall. Is she less steady than the last time I saw her? Maybe that is her new tablets. I need to have a word with her doctor.

“I was treating the guys that were injured,” I say.

When we reach the bathroom, I start helping her undress. “Dr. Moreno was there. He had to take someone to the hospital and asked me to step in.”

“You’d be good at that,” she says.

Gah, that’s a kind thing to say. I don’t know why these old ladies are always so nice to me.

“Was it a good fight?” she adds, and the relish in her voice makes me laugh.

“The best. No holds barred.”

“I hear the Bear was down from Chicago, that they were fighting for big money.”

“Did Jeffrey tell you all this, Mrs. McKinnon?”

“Call me Marge, dear. I keep telling you that. And no, I found that out from the man who cleans the streets for the county. He does a bit of fighting in his spare time.”

Someone else who fights in their spare time? Is this town full of guys who fight? But fair enough—this place would drive you to violence. Or maybe it’s simply that in a town where there are fighters, other people become fighters, too. Like for self-protection or even because it’s what everyone does. In a weird way, it brings people together. There’s money in it, too, obviously.

“He makes some extra cash doing that, I think. But he told me that they ask him to throw games a lot, and that Rigger was up against the Bear. Tough as old boots Rigger was as a kid. I knew his father, Jeremiah.”

“Oh, really?” Finally, some information. I don’t remember Rig from when I was younger.

“Jeremiah owned that farm out on Patterson Way, at least he did until he gambled it away to Tom and Jim Clancy.”

“He lost it gambling? I thought that kind of thing only happened in Westerns or something where the hero goes all out for revenge.” God, imagine losing your home suddenly like that as a kid.

“Oh, there was revenge all right. Jeremiah didn’t take it seriously, and they had to drive him off the land with guns. Of course, it all went to court, but the judge ruled that it was lawful. Then Jeremiah went after the Clancy boys, started killing their livestock, and terrorized the families that were living on the farm. He ended up in jail and was killed in a fight with another man he’d been gambling with inside. Then one of the cowhands on his old farm turned up dead, and to this day that murder has never been solved.”

Jesus. “Who lives on the land now?”