is.
“That all happened a few weeks back,” Glenn went on. “Now you know the reason old John’s so sad. He’s kind of ignoring you because his heart is still with her.”
Terrie must have felt sorry for John. As she looked at her pair of jacks, she asked, “Were you in Vietnam?”
“Close by,” Jimmy said. “It was on a boat. We were right offshore.”
What was Jay talking about? He really was nuts.
Terrie won the hand with her pair of jacks. Beer cans and an empty wine bottle were tossed out of the car. The doors were open and the dome light was on. While Jay was shuffling, she studied both men. Although Jay had explained why John had not made a pass at her, the older man was doing just that. Well, Jimmy thought, she could take care of herself.
“Are you part Indian?” she asked Jimmy.
“I’m a full blood Cherokee,” he said. Now why had he told her that? He wasn’t full blood. Less than half.
Jay was old. Not as old as the pervert who’d propositioned Terrie earlier in the day, but he had to be past forty. His brown hair was thin and receding; he combed it straight back. His small nose had a pronounced hook and he wore false teeth.
Glenn said, “Yeah, old John’s still in mourning but I ain’t. Just look at me. I ain’t in bad shape for already being thirty-one, am I?”
Instead of answering, Terrie asked Jimmy, “How old are you?”
“How old do you think I am?”
“Oh, I’d say nineteen.”
Jimmy nodded. He figured that was close enough. He didn’t tell her he was twenty-one. What was the point?
“He ain’t even dry behind the ears,” Glenn said. “Me, I got experience. That’s what women like, a man who knows how to satisfy ‘em. Ain’t that what women like?”
Terrie didn’t answer. “Let me out,” she said to Jimmy. “I need to go to the bathroom again.”
By now it was well past sundown. It was near enough to the darkness Glenn had been waiting for. “We’ll all go,” he said. “Then we’ll drive down to the store for more refreshments before we head up to Slim and Virginia’s. You can sit up front here with us any time you want,” he said to Terrie.
While Glenn was in the store, Terrie took him up on the invitation. She slipped her shoes off, stuffed them into a suitcase, then climbed over into the front seat. “Hi,” she said to Jimmy.
“Hi.”
“I was getting lonesome back there.”
“Okay, now you’re up here. No more need to feel lonesome.”
Glenn came out of the store with another bottle of wine and two more six-packs. When he saw that Terrie had moved up front, he grinned. The girl was ripe for picking. Ready to satisfy old Jay.
They headed up Dead Indian Mountain, all three riding in the front seat and drinking beer and wine. The night was black. Glenn followed his headlights around sharp curves, driving too fast, causing them to lean hard first one way and then the other.
“Man, slow this mother down,” Jimmy said. “You’re scaring Terrie.”
Glenn laughed and pressed the accelerator. They looked for the wayside park but somehow missed it. Once more he pushed the car too fast on sharp turns.
“Man, you’re gonna wreck this mother,” Jimmy said.
“Piss on you,” Glenn growled.
“Man, don’t talk like that around Terrie.”
“Piss on you, I said, and I’ll say it again. You or nobody else will ever tell me how to drive. Tell you what, I put one dent on this car, I’ll bang my head against a rock. Hand me a beer. Don’t try keepin’ it all to yourself.”
They popped the top on three more cans. Terrie looked frightened by Jay’s antics. “When are we going to get to the ranch?”
Glenn took several side roads, but always came back to Dead Indian Road. Terrie looked so tired she couldn’t keep her eyes open. She lay her head on Jimmy’s shoulder and went to sleep. She looked content. Safe. Secure. When she awoke, her personal hell would begin.
Even in late August, the nights can get bone-chilling cold in the mountains of Oregon. So cold that before morning your teeth chatter and you shiver and dream of ways to find warmth. Enough wine and beer consumed could make you feel comfortable, deceptive though the feeling might be.
A crackling fire can offer comfort although you might have to turn yourself like a rotisserie, cooking one side at a time, feeling overdone in some spots and somewhat raw in others. Even so, a fire on a mountain clearing can certainly offer one the illusion of warmth.
The driver favored the comfort promised by liquor over that of a fire. That and the heat from a young woman would be enough to satisfy his needs. The night was young enough so it was only chilly, not cold. That would come later.
Yes, Glenn True Clark had his own idea concerning the best way to stay warm. As he turned off Dead Indian Highway onto Shell Peak Road, she was sitting right next to him. Breathing the deep even breaths of one who feels secure in a peaceful sleep.
Sure her head was on John’s shoulder, not his, but what the hell? When you’re asleep, your head might go any which way. And that damned John wasn’t paying the least bit of attention to her. He acted as though Terrie was inferior to the girls in Seattle. Like maybe them broads up there were really something special.
So far as Glenn was concerned all women were the same. This one was put together plenty good enough for him. And one thing for damn sure, she was here, and they were still hundreds of miles from Seattle and John’s fantasies where he and his driving buddy might find something they could bed and they might not.
Take what you can get when you can get it was Glenn’s motto. And there was no doubt in his mind that, if he could get it, one way or another he damned sure would.
Now, he’d started to think that when he stopped for Terrie he should have kicked John out. Let the son of a bitch hitchhike to Seattle if that’s what he wanted. Yeah, John for Terrie would have been a good trade. Except he might need a man’s help before long. Terrie probably wouldn’t be worth a damn at robbing banks.
Speaking low so as not to disturb Terrie, Jimmy said, “Where are we going now?”
Glenn knew where he was and where he was going. He had lived at Central Point, near the Dead Indian Mountain, long enough to be familiar with the countryside. He’d even brought a girl or two up this same road or one similar. Not one had complained. Neither would Terrie. Once he got her warmed up, she would beg for more.
“You gotta take a leak again, don’t you?”
