Page 112 of Rigid

“They wouldn’t let me up here for three days. Fellas downstairs said she woke up, so I went and bought these. Had to do something.”

“You crazy prick.” Smokey looked him up and down, and then shook his head. “What’s covering your tattoos?”

I hadn’t noticed until Smokey said so, but the tattoos that covered P-Nut’s forearms were gone.

He peeled a flesh-colored sleeve up his arm and exposed the tattoos. “TatJacket. Got it at the same place.”

Smokey shook his head and laughed, honestly out and out laughed, for the first time in days.

P-Nut wedged his way between me and the bed. “What’s up, Ed?”

“Just chillin’,” she whispered. “You?”

“Same. You’ve got a pretty big fan group downstairs, kid.”

“Do I?”

He nodded. “I don’t know. Maybe twenty or thirty. Sometimes more, sometimes less.”

She looked at Smokey.

“Don’t look at me,” he said. “I haven’t so much as left this room.”

She looked at P-Nut. “Who?”

“Most of the time, Richard’s down there. His parents came a few times. Some of Red and White’s best. The FFMC. Their Ol’ Ladies.”

He looked at Smokey. “And, that piece of shit Tank kept comin’ by and askin’ questions. I told him to kick rocks, and he hasn’t been back since.”

“Red and White?” she asked.

“Hells Angels.”

She nodded.

He looked at Smokey. “That Bama fucker’s been here three days.”

“He’s good people,” Smokey said.

“Don’t know about that. The fucker kept tryin’ to talk to me, so I went and sat by some family that was waiting on grandma to get out of hip surgery for a while. Then, I sat with some sexy bitch while she waited for her husband to get out of heart surgery. Bitch was a MILF, I’m tellin’ ya. Pretty much been bored to death waitin’.”

P-Nut was weird, but I really liked him. Having everyone together, as strange as it seemed to admit, made me feel like we were a family. The thought of a room filled with people who cared enough about Eddie’s welfare to stay and wait for the three days was comforting. It proved just how sincere Smokey’s friends were. They were an extension, so to speak, of our immediate family.

While P-Nut talked to Eddie, I held her hand in mine. Within no time, I was daydreaming about living a life that also included the child Smokey and I shared. After getting through the situation we were in, we’d undoubtedly be able to handle anything that life tossed our way.

Anything at all.

THIRTY-SIX

Smokey

Eddie was finally home, and short of a few stiches and a cast on her arm, she appeared unchanged. I couldn’t help but wonder how the trauma she had been through might affect her, but as she had yet to discuss the events of that night, I had no idea what to expect.

It seemed all she remembered was a man trying to take her ring, and short of asking about it once, that night was never spoken of again.

While Sandy worked her shift at the seafood restaurant, Eddie and I sat at the kitchen table and ate apple pie.

She took a bite of the pie, and then a drink of milk. “It feels good to be home.”