Foodchain (11 page)

“If you don’t want to go on a ride, that’s okay. I understand if you don’t want to go with me.”

Frank suddenly remembered Annie. “Um, hell no. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Let’s go. Let’s go on a ride.” He found himself smiling back at her. He nodded at Sturm and the mothers as he slipped the plate onto the table, let Annie link her arm through his, and they slowly moved off towards the carnival. As they walked away, he heard one of the mothers say, “Now what’s all this we hear about all these new animals at that auction yard of yours?”

* * * * *

Annie leaned in close and said in a loud stage-whisper, “Sorry you had to eat that. Mom made it for Sturm special, if you know what I mean.”

Frank shrugged. “You didn’t make it?”

Annie shook her head. “No. Not sure exactly what all went in there, but I know for a fact that the main ingredient was a raw catfish that Ernie caught out of the ditch last week.” She thought that was funny. “Sturm and my moms got a little feud going. They’re unbelievable cooks, and Sturm knows it, but he’s scared to try anything they make, because he doesn’t know what they’ll put in it.”

“I don’t blame him.”

Frank and Annie took it slow, wandering through the carnival, through the garish lights, the shouts and screams, the smell of egg roll on a stick, dunked in sweet and sour sauce. Frank caught a quick glimpse of Theo a couple of times, dashing from one ride to another with a few of his buddies, but the Glouck boys were nowhere to be found.

“This one,” Annie said, and squeezed Frank’s arm.

“This one?”

“This one.”

It was called “WHEEL OF SCREAMS” and was just a large flat disc, about thirty feet across, with a six-foot wall around the outside. They went up the steps, walked out onto the disc, painted in a giant spiral circling out from the center, and found a couple of open spots on the wall. “Stand there, with your back up against the wall, and grab hold of those bars,” Annie instructed. There were no straps, no safety bars that went across your hips and held you in place. Just vertical bars along the wall, like playground bars. At the last minute, Theo and his followers jumped on and found places along the wall opposite of Frank and Annie. The operator said, “Y’all have fun,” and slammed a bar down, shutting the ride off from the outside world. Frank started to sweat, nervous, worried that he would puke up the potluck dish, the chicken, the potato salad, the corn dog.

The disc to spin, slowly. Frank swallowed and exhaled through his nose. Annie’s hand found his on the bar between them. The world revolved; Frank saw the carnival worker, rolling a smoke on the front steps, then the big bouncing balloon castle with its segmented floor and walls, always leaning slightly over, as if a corner had split open, the Corn Dog and Egg Roll trailers, the distant startling white lights of the shooting range, and the carnival worker again, but just the back of his head this time, as he walked down the steps.

Annie gripped his fingers tighter as the machine gained velocity. Frank felt himself slowly pressed back into the wall as the ride spun faster and faster. With a lurch that sent Franks’ stomach scrabbling queasily up onto the back of his tongue, the disk started to tilt. One edge rose and rose, until Frank realized the whole disc was on some kind of arm, resembling more of a wheel than a disc. It kept rising, until the wheel was almost completely sideways, holding its passengers in check through centrifugal force.

Something deep inside Frank relaxed its clenched fist just a bit, and he found himself grinning, almost enjoying the rush of wind, the powerless feeling of watching the pavement slide past, followed by the jet black darkness of the night sky, the ground again, giving way to the sky, the ground, the sky. He uncurled his fingers from the bars, letting the ride take him, giving up control. Annie whooped, raising her own arms, fingers spread wide. Frank closed his eyes, opening his palms to the stars and neon lights.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this good.

* * * * *

As they staggered slightly away from the Wheel of Screams, still feeling the effects, Frank wanted to ask Annie if she’d like to try another ride, but just as he was about to speak, they both watched Theo fling an empty beer bottle at Ernie Glouck’s head.

The bottle missed, and by the time it had shattered against the pavement, Ernie had launched himself at Theo. They went down, Theo tearing at the Ernie’s Laker jersey, Ernie slamming punches into Theo’s midsection. The rest of the Glouck boys swarmed the two fighters while Theo’s friends slipped through the crowd and ran.

For the third time that night, Frank wondered where the clowns were, but didn’t have time to wonder long because Annie was no longer standing next to him. She stormed into the circle of teenagers, grabbing her right fist in her left hand, twisting and turning like a pissed-off tornado, jabbing her elbows into anyone who came close. Her brothers, both by blood and by marriage, had enough experience with their oldest sister to get the hell out of the way. She came upon Ernie, hanging onto Theo’s hair and T-shirt, kneeing the bigger kid repeatedly in the left kidney while Theo kept slamming his bleeding knuckles into the back of Ernie’s head and getting nowhere.

Annie planted her back foot and kicked Ernie square in the small of his back. Her brother spasmed and released Theo before rolling over onto his side, flailing as if in the grip of an electric current. Theo backed off for a second, let his eyes wander over Annie, then turned back and punched Ernie in the face.

“Little boy, what is the matter with you?” Annie asked, walking toward Theo, slow, taking her time, rolling those formidable hips like an expensive, wide yacht in calm waters.

Theo started to yell something, but Annie kicked him in the balls before he got a breath. She turned to Ernie, cursing quick and quiet. “Stupid dickbrained motherfucking pieces of garbage…” She kicked him again, this time in the muscle of his thigh, enough to seriously hurt him, but nothing permanent, nowhere near a joint like the knee. “Get home. Now.” He broke off into a run. “You better pray I calm down before I get home!”

Theo had just about straightened from the kick when the little Glouck girl expertly flipped a rock the size of a cell phone at his head, not particularly fast or furious, just hard enough to smash his ear against his head, splitting the cartilage and skin. He went back to his knees, suddenly realizing that the entire Glouck family, except for the mothers, had surrounded him.

“Get on home to Daddy, little boy,” Annie told Theo. “It’s past your bedtime.” Theo didn’t run like Ernie, but he moved fast just the same, knees never straying far apart in an uncomfortable shuffling dance, back towards the shooting range. Annie shooed her family away. “Rest of you trigger-happy fucks get home too. Now.” They didn’t argue, just broke into a jog toward the parking lot.

She came back to Frank, shaking her head. “Boys, boys, boys,” she said with a grin. “I’d better go too.” She cocked her head. “Are you going to be in town long?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“Yeah.”

“Then maybe I’ll see you around.” She smiled at him again and Frank felt that warmth, as if everything inside of him, floating free after the ride, had settled down into a safe place for a comfortable nap. She turned and waved, just once, on her way to the parking lot. Frank wasn’t even aware he was waving back until he caught his hand in the air.

Frank was far from a virgin; the horse world was full of women that gladly rode any horses or men within reach. Still, when Annie had touched his hand on the ride a shockwave of lust had ricocheted through his chest and groin. It surprised him. He had no idea that he was even capable of a need that intense, especially after the events of the past week. Maybe facing death just added fuel to the fire.

* * * * *

Frank drove back to the auction yard, planning on sleeping in the house trailer with the rest of the clowns, but found the place empty. The animals were gone too. Frank hoped they hadn’t escaped. It didn’t look like it, though. Everything was locked down and clean. Just empty.

He walked back up the low hill, still lost in the rushing sensation of the Wheel of Screams and Annie in those shorts to worry about the animals or the clowns. At the trailer, Frank helped himself to a warm beer from the ice chest under the picnic table. He was considering taking a quick look through the trailer, rifling through the cupboards for a bottle of something stronger than beer when Chuck pulled up.

“Been looking for you. Heard you accepted the job.” Chuck jumped out of the truck and shook Frank’s hand vigorously. “Glad to fuckin’ hear it, believe me.”

Frank wasn’t sure what Chuck was talking about.

“’Bout time this town had itself a new veterinarian.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

“Hop in. We got it all set up.”

“Okay.” Frank climbed into the passenger side. “You got anything to drink?”

Chuck laughed, tossed Frank a bottle of Seagrams 7, and turned the truck towards town. “How was the barbeque?”

“Good, good.” Frank took a long pull off the bottle. “Cooked a hell of a lot of chicken on that coal bed you built. Ate ‘til I thought I might bust.” Frank took another long drink. “Lotta people there, even that crazy family, Glouck or something.”

“No shit? Those goddamn fucks had the balls to show themselves? They eat much?”

“Yeah, the boys did, all right.” Frank passed the bottle to Chuck and leaned back, feeling good, feeling like he was a part of something, like he belonged here. The air from the open windows felt cool, and looking out over the landscape, watching the moonlight reflected off the water in the rice fields, the atmosphere was almost tropical. “Went on a ride with the oldest girl,” Frank said. They passed a gas station, an abandoned burger joint, then into the heart of the dark town. “Pretty sure her name was Annie.”

“No! No! No shit?” Chuck shouted, gripping the steering wheel with both hands. “Holy fuck, that didn’t take long.” He laughed, grinned hugely at Frank. “So…how was it?”

“It was…good. Nice.”

“Nice. ‘Nice,’ he says.” Chuck shook his head. “Fuck man, she’s the best. The absolute champ. None better. None. ‘Nice.’ You fucking kill me, man. How much did she charge you?” Yard after yard was stuffed with overgrown dead grass.

“What?”

Chuck turned left at the end of the street, filled with more empty houses. An orange tree grew in the occasional yard. “How much money did you spend?”

“I dunno. Not much. Enough to get on the ride.”

Chuck giggled. “Enough to get on the ride. Classic. Fucking classic. Last time, I paid twenty bucks. Far as I know, that’s what everyone’s paying. So what did you pay? More or less?”

“What?”

“How much did you pay, man? I know she’ll blow your mind, but come on, spill. She give you any kind of discount?”

“Uh…we went on a ride. I didn’t pay her anything.”

Chuck’s face went slack. “Wait a minute. Wait. You’re telling me, you, you didn’t give her any money?”

“No.”

“Holy fucking Christ. She gave you one for free? Goddamn.”

“She didn’t give me anything for free. We went on a ride,” Frank said. “Then she, well, she kicked the shit out of Ernie and kicked Theo in the balls, and well, that was it.”

“Wait, hold on. She kicked Theo in the balls? That fucking bitch.”

“Well, he had it coming. See, he—“

“Wait, just fucking wait. You’re telling me she never, she didn’t…you didn’t get a blowjob?”

“A blow—what? No, no.” Frank shook his head hard. “No. Not at all. She…she gives blowjobs for money?” The muscles in the left side of his face twitched.

“Shit, where you been? Of course she gives head for cash. How the fuck you think she makes a living?” Chuck shook his head. “She’s sucked damn near everybody’s dick in town.”

* * * * *

Chuck pulled into a dark parking lot, a rippled sculpture of dry mud, all cracks and dips and curves, and killed the engine. They sat in the darkness for a moment. Frank got his first good look at the veterinary clinic. The building sat apart from the rest of the houses on the street, at the far end of an empty field full of star thistles and puncture vines. The clinic was roughly the same height as the rest of the ranch houses in town, but shaped like a large U, and swallowed by ivy. There was a small barn in the back. The grass looked well watered but hadn’t been mowed recently. A radio tower rose a good fifty feet, tucked into a corner of the building. It looked as if one good strong gust of wind would break it in half, send it toppling to the ground.

“If I was you, I wouldn’t mention Annie,” Chuck said and climbed out. “Jack and Pine…they don’t wanna hear about her.”

Frank followed him and crossed the yard, mindful of needles. He knew that vets worked on horses anywhere and dropped the syringes if the horse turned mean. He’d seen people forget this; they’d be walking and give a sudden, quick hop, clutching at their feet. Usually they just ended up with a needle in the bottom of their foot, but sometimes, the medicine inside would find its way into the blood stream. Sometimes, they’d end up with heavy-duty horse tranquilizer in their system, and spend the rest of the day sleeping comfortably, or worse, they’d yank the needle out of the wrinkled flesh where the big toe meets the rest of the foot and realized that the syringe contained some kind of steroid or stimulant. Some just rode it out until they crumbled after six hours into a fog of tequila, some curled up in the shower, shivering, puking, shit running out in thin streams. A couple of folks simply fell down, their heart clenching itself tight and refusing to let go.