Empty Pockets
Authors: Dale Herd
EMPTY POCKETS
COPYRIGHT
© 2015 Dale Herd
COVER AND BOOK DESIGN
by Linda Koutsky
AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH
© Sophie Calle
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CIP INFORMATION
Herd, Dale, 1940â
[Short stories. Selections]
Empty pockets : new and selected stories / by Dale Herd.
pages cm
ISBN
978-1-56689-382-4 (ebook)
1. Title.
PS
3558.
E
66
A
6 2014
813'.54â
DC
23
2014006996
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND PERMISSIONS
The author is indebted to the following publishers for permission to reprint copyrighted work: Donald Allen, Four Seasons Foundation, for
Early Morning Wind;
Lee Robert De Lapp, Richard Gates, and Terry Nemeth, Mudra, for
Diamonds;
and Michael Wolfe, Tombouctou Books, for
Wild Cherries.
The author would also like to thank the following poets for their support in bringing this book into existence: Bill Berkson, Michael Lally, Lewis Mac-Adams, Duncan McNaughton, Kevin Opstedal, and Michael Wolfe.
This book is for Deborah Beatriz Blum
EMPTY POCKETS AND OTHER STORIES
S
he had a kid asleep in the bedroom. I asked her if she wanted to ball and she said yes. She got her gun six times. I told her I was selling my car and all my belongings and buying a sailboat and sailing to Australia. I said she could go but she'd have to pay. How much she said. A dollar thirty-seven I said. She said not bad. Then she said how much for Eric. I said ten thousand dollars.
F
rank and Geno were new friends. Frank had just started in the office and Geno began taking him to lunch. They would eat in the University District to watch the girls walking to and from school. Watching the girls was much more fun than was eating, but each watched for a different reason.
Frank was newly married and he was shy about his wife. When he was alone with her he found it hard to approach her. Looking at other girls excited him, and if he became excited enough he could go home and forget his shyness. He felt guilty about it, but it worked.
Geno, however, had been married for five years and shyness was not his problem. He was seriously thinking of leaving his wife, and looking at new lovely girls encouraged his desire for freedom.
After a few lunch hours together, Geno began telling Frank some of his personal problems, problems that Frank didn't like.
Geno admitted to playing around. And while it made him seem wild and free, things Frank believed a man should be, he distrusted Geno for it and was more than a little frightened by him.
On their fourth noon hour together, Frank and Geno were inside a sandwich shop watching the girls walking by. It was a bright spring day and they were talking about getting free of their jobs.
Both agreed that life was too short to work for someone else. Geno said quitting might be the final straw for Julie. Frank said his worry was the other way around.
“If I quit, Betty might leave me.”
“Good,” Geno said. “Why not?”
“What do you mean?” Frank laughed.
“You'll be free then,” Geno said.
“Sure,” Frank said, yet he felt threatened. Recently there had been times when he found himself wondering if Betty ever thought sexually about Geno.
“I don't want other women,” Frank said.
“Maybe not,” Geno said. “You never know.”
“I don't,” Frank emphasized. “Why do you?”
“I really don't know what I want.”
“Maybe you're just looking for an escape.”
“Maybe,” Geno smiled. “It is funny, though. I never like the girls I get.”
“Really?” Frank said.
“They either kiss wrong or smell bad or something is wrong with them. I'll say that for Julie: she's certainly a clean girl.”
Frank laughed.
“But the real thing is,” Geno said, “is that I feel bad afterward and I start acting good to Julie and she responds and things go nicely for a time.”
“I see,” Frank said, sitting back. He had been listening intently. Two nights before he and Betty had eaten out with Geno and Julie for the first time. They had just met Julie, and while they were waiting for the meal Geno said, “Do you know what Julie was doing when I came home? She was talking to herself in the mirror.” Betty had laughed sympathetically, saying she often did the same thing. But Julie had flared, saying, “Do you know what Geno does? He poops in his shorts!” Frank had been startled. He had looked at Geno. Geno hadn't flinched. Geno gently explained that Julie had been rehearsing for a speech class. But Julie stayed angry throughout the meal. Talking afterward Frank and Betty agreed the outburst was unbelievable. Frank said he had been very impressed with Geno's calm. Betty said, “I don't see how they got married.” But now, Frank felt, Geno's calm wasn't impressive. It was based on deception. He saw that Julie wasn't entirely to blame.
“Your wife seems nice,” Geno said. “You've got a good thing there.”
“Thank you,” Frank said.
“I'd like to start a new thing,” said Geno. “I really would. I guess the only thing to do is break up. These other women aren't the thing. The real thing is my guilt. I get to feeling so bad I can't even function. I mean, after a while I get so bad I can't even make it with anybody!”
“No kidding!” Frank said. “Does Julie know you play around?”
“God, no!” Geno said. “Never arm a woman! But never!”
“No?”
“No!”
“Why not?” asked Frank.
“Because they'll use it against you,” Geno said. “Just like the other night when Julie came out with that shorts and shit thing.”