She rolled over and stuck her head under the pillow. “Oh, no.”
One of her top ten hangovers. She remembered all of them. Her brain throbbed, her mouth felt like something had molted in it. Somehow she found the strength to raise her head. “Hey, this isn’t my room. Where am I?”
Her head fell back on the pillow and her eyes closed. It gradually came to her. Coleman’s trailer. Then another delayed response. Something she’d just seen.
She opened her eyes again. Over on the other bed. What the hell is that sticking out from under the blanket? Looks like a deer head.
It
“Jesus! That’s some seriously sick shit.” She laid her head back down and closed her eyes again.
After a moment, she realized her arm was resting against something. Her hand felt along a large form in the bed next to her.
Brenda’s eyes sprang open.
JUST AFTER DAYBREAK, a Buick Riviera sped west on U.S. 1. Serge had already been up for two hours, reading the paper, watching early news on TV, anxiously checking out the windows to see when night would end, standing over Coleman and Brenda in bed, waiting for them to wake up so he’d have someone to talk to, but they never did. He finally gave up and hopped in the Buick for a solo breakfast run.
Serge cleared the bridge on the return trip to Ramrod Key. He sipped orange juice and peeked inside the warm brown sack in his lap, taking a deep breath of McMuffin magic. The Buick made a left after the Chevron station.
Serge pulled up to the trailer in a super mood. He got out of the car with a sack of fast food and thoughts of Molly.
Brenda flew out the front door.
Serge smiled and tipped an invisible hat as she ran by. “Good morning.”
Coleman was sitting up in bed with clumped hair when Serge entered the room. JoJo looked around from the other bed. Serge held out the bag and smiled. “McMuffins.”
Coleman grabbed an ashtray off the nightstand and excavated for roaches. “Where’s Brenda?”
“Out in the yard.” Serge sat on the foot of the bed and passed a sandwich.
“Thanks.” Coleman took a giant bite, chewing with open mouth. “Maybe I should get married, too. What do you think?”
“Absolutely,” said Serge. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “If you hurry, you can propose right now before she leaves. That way, last night’s memory is still fresh.”
“I think you’ve got something.” Coleman stuffed another bite in his mouth and threw the blanket off his legs.
Serge set his own sandwich on the bed and savored the unwrapping process. He heard the front door creak as Coleman went outside. He took a bite and closed his eyes. “Mmmmmm. Unbelievable! Never ate anything so good in all my life!” He opened his eyes and looked at JoJo. “That’s because I’m in love. Everything they say about it is absolutely true. Food tastes better. Colors are more vivid. The air is like candy gas….”
Serge and JoJo turned toward the racket coming through the front wall of the trailer.
Serge and JoJo went to the door. People were now on the front steps of trailers along both sides of the road. Brenda stood several feet in front of Coleman. She had stopped yelling and was now repeatedly spitting at him as fast as she could work up saliva. Of course she was too far away, so she dropped to the ground and began packing dirt balls with shaking hands.
Serge and JoJo walked up next to Coleman. “What’s going on?”
A dirt ball hit Coleman in the chest. “I think she needs more time.”
Brenda collapsed facedown in the yard and kicked her legs.
The neighborhood watched as Brenda eventually got up and staggered off down the street.
“You know, I have this weird sensation,” said Serge. “Like we’re forgetting something.”
Brenda stopped in the middle of the road and spread her arms wide in front of a dump truck. The truck hit the brakes and drove around her. She stumbled away crying.
“I know what you mean,” said Coleman. “I have the same feeling. But what can it be?”
“I’m not sure. It’s been bothering me all morning.”
