Nobody's Fool

concept. Why didn’t he believe in it? Big Jim Sullivan again, no doubt. This would be his father’s money, a windfall from the one direction he couldn’t accept it.
    â€œThat’s the favor,” Wirf said. “When she tells you, be grateful. Thanks to that son of hers, she’s going to have a rough time for a while. Make her feel good.”
    â€œIt’s not that—” Sully started to explain.
    â€œI don’t give a shit what it is, Sully,” Wirf said. “You’re going to do this, or we’re through.”
    Neither man said anything for a moment. Sully could feel Jocko’s second pill kicking in, could feel himself going fuzzy about the edges. There was no place on the planet where he felt more comfortable than The Horse, than this particular stool, next to this particular man, and yet how strange it all seemed right then. The Christmas lights strung along the back wall, half of them flickering or dead out, Tiny seated on his invisible stool at the other end of the bar, magically supported on a cushion of air, even Wirf glaring at him so seriously. Even The Horse had taken on the quality of strangeness, and he felt the same panic that had come over him half an hour earlier when he’d gotten lost on a street he knew. He heard himself say okay, but it was almost another person speaking, someone far away. Then, just as suddenly, he was back again.
    â€œGood,” Wirf said, apparently satisfied. “Now tell me. What’d Barton want with you this morning?”
    Sully snorted. “He wanted to know about the day my old man spiked that kid on the fence.”
    Wirf nodded thoughtfully. “He must be preparing to die,” he said finally, as if he knew. “Tying up loose ends. What’d you tell him?”
    â€œNothing,” Sully said. “That it was an accident.”
    Wirf nodded.
    â€œWhich was a lie. He shook the fence until the kid lost his grip and fell.”
    â€œYou saw him?”
    â€œMy brother did,” Sully grinned. “All I saw was the kid hanging there by his jaw with the spike sticking out his mouth.”
    Wirf took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “It’s a wonder we aren’t all insane,” he said.
    â€œWe are,” Sully said, getting up from his stool. His conviction surprised him. “I believe that.”
    Sully glanced at the clock above the bar. In less than five hours he was going to have to meet Rub at the house on Bowdon. Which reminded him. “I’m going to feed my dog and then go home.”
    â€œWhen did you get a dog?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Sully said. “But I’m told I have one. By the way, did you know about my son and Carl’s wife?”
    â€œSure,” Wirf said.
    â€œHow come you never said anything?”
    â€œBecause I’m the only one in this town who doesn’t repeat gossip. Actually, I was surprised. I’d been hearing she had a girlfriend in Schuyler.”
    â€œI guess I’m the last to know about that too,” he said. “You think Carl is going to be okay?” Sully wondered, not even sure exactly what he meant by the question.
    â€œNo, I don’t,” Wirf said.
    â€œHe’s parked out front of Peter’s right now,” Sully said. “Toby’s up there with him.”
    â€œThat girl with the tits still with Carl?”
    Sully said she was.
    â€œAs long as she’s with him, he’ll be okay,” Wirf said.
    â€œThat was my thought, too,” Sully told him. “I just don’t want to be wrong.”
    â€œIt’s none of your business anyhow,” Wirf said.
    Words to live by, Sully had to admit. But he kept hearing Peter’s mockery. Not really his dog. Not really his house. Not really his business. And there were other not reallys as well. There was Vera, who was not really his wife anymore, gone round the bend today. And Ruth, who had broken things off with him, for good this time, he knew, and was not really his lover anymore. And there was Big Jim Sullivan, who was long dead, deader than a doornail, deader than a mackerel, deader than Kelsey’s nuts, dead as dead could be. Except, somehow, not really. It was Big Jim Sullivan, full of rage and pain and fear, who had lashed out at Carl Roebuck earlier in the afternoon before Sully could control him, just as it had been Big Jim who’d wiped the smirk off Officer Raymer’s face.
    At the