Killing Time
Page 12
specified it had to be from a bourbon drinker to have any effect on me." Cecelia laughed loudly in the quiet room and Eloi, being a little slower, joined in when he caught Gaston's joke.
Cecelia filled a bucket about half full, added about a pint of the pure bleach, took the scrub broom and began at the foot of the stairs. She turned and ordered Gaston to go sit in the living room and wait. He turned the TV set on and watched an old John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara movie on the Movie channel while she and Eloi scrubbed and mopped the blood away. At twelve-twenty she stepped to the doorway and said, "Come look, Gaston"
He hobbled to the stairs and was amazed at the great job they had done at removing all evidence of the blood. He smiled, congratulated them and then said, "What's the charge to have you do the rest of the old floor to make it match the clean part." He laughed and said, "Just kidding. It looks great and I owe you more than just crawfish."
Cecelia stepped forward, picked up the empty bucket and said, "You don't even owe us that much, Gaston. What we did is what friends do for each other. Maybe one day you can repay it with something similar for us." Now go back to the movie while we finish."
They drove away after lunch. The doctor's office called at three and reminded him of the check-up the next day at ten. He showed a little early. The nurse put him in an examination room and removed the bandage. She ahhed and said, "It looks good. No infection, no swelling around the stitches. Doctor Landry will be here in a minute." She left him on the table with his foot sticking out the end of the table. Landry walked in, shook his hand and asked, "How's the pain now?" He lifted his leg and was closely eyeing the wound.
He shook his head and answered, "Very little. I didn't have to take a pain pill last night. Do you think I'll be able to go back to the rig come Sunday?"
Landry touched the wound with two fingers pushed down lightly and asked, "Any pain when I push?"
He shook no. He pushed harder; Gaston screwed his mouth up and said, "That did hurt a little." He dropped his foot and said, "Come in on Friday and we'll see if you can walk on it. What do you do on the rig, Gaston/"
"I'm maintenance. I don't do any drilling, pipe pulling or physical labor. I maintain the rotary engines, the umbilical cables and such." Landry nodded, turned and before he opened the door, said, "I'll see you Friday. Stay put. The nurse will redress the foot."
She came back in, began opening drawers and gathering the necessary materials. She took a swab, cleaned the wound, put a salve on it, a white gauze pad on it and taped it. She looked at her work, then at him and said, "Minimal coverage this time. Keep it clean. Don't walk on the foot until after you see the doctor on Friday." She handed him the crutches and left him to leave on his own.
Back in the truck, Gaston drove to the first grocery store he came across on Highway 90, and now with a smaller bandage, no pain and more experience with the crutches, went in the store, to the liquor department and asked the clerk for two 1.75 Liter bottles of Evan Williams bourbon. The clerk checked him out, bagged the bottles separately and then called for assistance. A young man, about seventeen or so came to assist with the bottles. He carried the two bags and walked beside Gaston and when Gaston opened the passenger side door, he carefully put the bags on the passenger side floor. Gaston tipped him two dollars, went around the truck where the young man had run to open the door for him, climbed in the seat and stowed the crutches behind him. The young man waved as Gaston, using his left foot, slowly drove away.
He pointed his truck north and drove to the truck stop in Beaux Bridge; He pulled sideways in front of the service bay, honked and yelled, "Tell Joe to come out. I need to see him." He moved up enough to clear the entrance and waited. Joe came to his side of the truck wiping his hands with a red towel. Gaston stuck his hand out to shake, but Joe held his greasy hands up and said, "You don't want this on your hands or steering wheel. What's up, Gaston?"
"I just left the doctor with good news about my foot, so I came to give you a little something for the cleaning you gave my floorboard. Come to the other side, Joe, and open the door."
Joe opened the door, Gaston said, "Take one of the bags. I know it'll please you."
Joe peeked inside, looked up and said, "You didn't have to do this, Gaston. We're friends and help each other out. Remember when you fixed my broken air- conditioner? You wouldn't let me pay you but now you pay me?"
"Joe, you didn't have stinky blood all over your air-conditioner like my floorboard did. It was a different kind of help you did. Just enjoy the bourbon."
"Oh, I will, believe me I will. Thanks Gaston." Joe backed away from the truck, shut the door and waited until Gaston was back on the street to Interstate 10. He went across the lot and locked the bottle inside his utility tool box attached to the bed of his pick-up. He smiled on the walk back to work.
Gaston drove to the rear of his house. He eased out of the truck, went to the back and opened the doors to the cap. He dropped the tailgate, backed his truck as near to the porch edge as he could, got out and eyed the height of the gate as compared to the edge of his porch. With just an eyeing, he decided the tailgate would not be more than two inches below the porch level. Nodding to himself, he put the tailgate up, closed the doors, locked the truck and went inside the house.
He had to assume that he would be cleared to go back to work which meant he had to order his supply delivery to be safe. He took his normal list, added the necessary changes in bandages, antiseptic, and tape. He used the house phone and called the grocer. He told him he wanted the same order as always, but he had to add a few items. Once that was done, he prepared his lunch. After eating, he took his two pills, stretched out on the daybed and drifted off to a more comfortable sleep because he could now turn on his side with no pain or concern over the foot.
He was awakened by bells. In his pill-induced sleep stupor it took a while for him to realize it was the phone ringing. It was a consistent non-stop ringing. When he picked up it was Eloi, so excited that Gaston could hardly understand the rapidly shouted Cajun words. Finally, he said, "Eloi, slow down and calmly tell me what you just tried to tell me."
It wasn't Eloi this time, it was Cecelia speaking. She calmly told him, "The police just left here Gaston. They told us that a driver hasn't moved the truck in nearly a week. The company hasn't heard from her and she can't be found. She and another driver named Mazie were in the cafe on Saturday night when you and Eloi were there. This is to warn you that you'll be questioned by the police about her. Everyone who was there is being asked what they know if anything." Gaston thanked her for the warning, put the phone down and scoured the house once more to be certain there was nothing that could connect him to Andy. He breathed a sigh of relief when he felt that he was clear.
The State troopers arrived just before six. Gaston let them in, acted as if he had no knowledge of why they might be there and sat in the living room facing the two of them. When they brought up Andrea Weatheral, Gaston looked blank and asked, "Who is Andrea Weatheral? I don't think I know anyone with that name."
The lead Trooper then said, "Gaston, she was known as Andy. We understand she asked you to dance Saturday night."
"Oh, yeah! Blue tee shirt. I didn't know her name. We danced to a couple of Cajun tunes; I bought her and her friend a beer afterwards. I was with Eloi Prevost. Have you talked to Eloi?"
They ignored his question and asked, "What happened after you danced with her?"
"Well, I bought the beers, she told me she had to go shower and get her required rest time in before she could continue her trip. She said that her friend was leaving at eleven because her rest time had ended. I went back to Eloi, told him I was heading home. He said that Cecilia wanted him home also, so we left at the same time. I was parked over by pump Ten, so I jumped in the truck and came here."
"What happened later?"
"Around midnight I'm guessing, I heard glass breaking and thought someone was trying to burglarize me. I jumped from bed and ran down the steps. When I hit the bottom I fell on my
ass because I had a severe pain in my right foot. I looked at the foot and saw a large shard of glass in the arch. I struggled back up the stairs to get dressed and saw what made the noise. My mama's old picture fell from the stairway wall and broke. I stepped on the glass. After I dressed, I finally made my way to the ER at the hospital."
He held his foot out for them to see the bandages on the foot. He said, "I saw doctor Landry this morning and they changed the dressing. He said I may be able to go back to my rig Sunday."
"Doctor Landry treated you at the hospital and has the records?"
"He was the first who saw me. He had to call a surgeon to remove the glass it was embedded so deep. All the way to the bone."
"Who was the surgeon, Gaston?"
"The new one, Remy Dufour. He's good."
They stood and the lead trooper calmly said, "Show us the stairwell."
Gaston grabbed his crutches, led them to the stairwell and pointed to the cleaner space on the wall where the nail was still hanging, slanted downward. They looked at the cleaner spots on the floor and stairs, turned and looked at the clean trail out the door. One trooper went up the stairs, eyed the nail closely, went to the top and followed the trail to the bedroom. He saw the bed made up, the room neat, decided the bed hadn't been slept