Welcome to Last Chance

by Cathleen Armstrong

  Ray returned to Lainie. “Yeah, well, let me explain . . .”

  “Don’t bother.” Lainie’s voice shook. “But let me explain a thing or two to you. All I was looking for was someplace to sleep. Period. And if that didn’t suit you, all you had to do was say so. You didn’t have to come up with some stupid story. As hard as it may be for you to believe, I probably would have managed to control myself.”

  She pushed Manny aside and strode to the door. Just before she slammed it she turned for one last shot. “’Cause darlin’, believe me, you’re just not that big a deal.”

  4

  Lainie was tossing the contents of her trunk onto the gravel next to her car when she heard Ray crunching across the parking lot. She didn’t look up, although she did consider heaving something heavy at his head.

  “Look, about last night . . .” His words faded into silence.

  Lainie leaned against the car, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow. “Yes? About last night?” She waited. “Well?”

  “Yeah. It’s just that . . .” While Ray struggled for words, Manny strolled up, still grinning. Ray turned on him. “You got one big mouth on you, you know that, Baca?”

  Manny threw his hands up in mock surrender. “Hey, man, don’t count on me to keep your women sorted out for you. I got three of my own to worry about.”

  “Forget it.” Lainie jerked open the car door. She swept everything from the seats and floors out into the parking lot.

  Ray backed out of her way. “Look. I have nothing to say for myself. I was a jerk.”

  “You got that right.” Lainie pulled the case off her pillow and dumped the contents of the glove compartment into it.

  Ray stood looking at the growing piles of debris in his parking lot. “What are you doing?”

  Lainie shoved him aside. “I’m getting my stuff out of my car. Manny’s going to buy it from me.”

  “But why here? What are you going to do with it?”

  “I’m taking it to Elizabeth Cooley’s. She has a big family too, but she found room for me anyway.”

  If Ray caught the “big family” barb, he gave no sign. He nudged an empty soft drink cup, straw still poking through the lid, with his toe. “Manny could have taken you by in the tow truck. How’re you going to move all this stuff?”

  That was it. The snap was almost audible as all the frustration she had been dealing with since she left Long Beach gathered itself together and blew.

  Ray fell back a few steps and stared. All he had done was to ask a simple, logical question, and now here this woman was storming around his parking lot kicking her stuff all over creation, screaming like a banshee and cussing like a sailor. He shot a nervous look at Manny, but Manny had fled to his truck and was messing with the winch. Ray began easing toward the door of the tavern but hesitated. It just didn’t seem right leaving her out here having a fit all by herself, especially after he made her sleep in her car. He looked up and blew out a gust of relief. The cavalry, in the form of Fayette, was on the way. She stopped to let a Ford 4x4 go by, waved at the driver, and ran across the road.

  “What are you big bullies doing to this poor thing? It seems to me, after all she’s been through, you’d be trying to help instead of causing her even more grief.” She put her arm around Lainie’s shoulders. Lainie tried to twist away, but Fayette was stronger than she looked and held firm. Lainie drew a ragged breath. She wiped her cheeks with the heel of her hand and sniffled.

  “I swear, Fayette, I didn’t do a thing. I just asked how she was going to move her stuff and she went nuts.” Ray rubbed his shin where a low-flying flashlight had caught him.

  Fayette looked at Lainie’s belongings strewn around the parking lot. “What did you think she was going to do, Ray? Put everything in her purse? Someone’s going to have to run her things over to Elizabeth’s, and I think it would be real gentlemanly if you’d do that for her. I’ll just take Lainie over to the Dip ’n’ Dine with me while you put everything in your truck. I’ll let Elizabeth know.”

  Before Ray could respond, Fayette turned Lainie around and guided her toward the road. She smiled over her shoulder at Ray and called out to Manny, who had begun hooking Lainie’s car to the tow truck, “Better leave that for later, Manny, and go get Patsy. She called again.”

  There were people sitting in a couple of the booths when Fayette steered Lainie through the door. They had doubtlessly watched the entire incident in the parking lot of the High Lonesome Saloon, and they regarded Lainie with solemn alarm.

  “Why don’t you splash some cold water on your face while I pour you some iced tea?” Fayette gave Lainie a little push toward the restroom before she walked back behind the counter.

  Lainie locked herself in the small room and turned the cold tap on full force. She cupped her hands under the gushing water and looked in the mirror at her blotchy red face and swollen eyes. “I just know I’m going to go out there and have a big old butterfly net dropped on me. And truthfully? If it will just keep the world out, a nice padded cell sounds pretty good.” She bent over the sink and bathed her face and neck with the cool water.

  When she gathered enough of what remained of her dignity, she walked back into the diner. One of the booths had emptied, but the people in the other looked much less troubled, almost friendly. Fayette must have eased their minds.

  “Here’s your tea. And here’s someone I want you to meet.” Fayette leaned across the counter and tried to tousle the dark hair of a tall, skinny kid of about sixteen. He leaned out of her reach and jerked his chin at Lainie in a gesture of silent greeting before returning his attention to the plate mounded with food in front of him.

  “This is my son, Matthew, who seems to have forgotten his manners. Can you say, ‘Good morning,’ Matthew?”

  The silence grew while Fayette waited. Finally, without swallowing his mouthful of food, Matthew mumbled a greeting. Fayette looked as if she had more to say but shook her head instead. Her cheer sounded forced.

  “Matthew’s going with the youth group from church today. They won’t be back until supper, and who knows what they’ll find for lunch, so he’s stocking up before he goes.”

  Matthew had been sneaking glances at Lainie as he ate. She had nearly finished her tea before he spoke. “That’s a cool tattoo.”

  Lainie glanced over her shoulder at the hummingbird caught there in midflight. “Thanks.”

  Matthew leaned back for a better look. “Got any others?”

  “Matthew! That’s none of your business.” Fayette sounded shocked, but her son ignored her.

  “I’m gonna get a tattoo as soon as I’m eighteen. Gonna start with a piece of barbwire around my bicep. I’ve got some other really cool ideas too.”

  “I’ve told you that you could get one now if it said ‘Mom.’” Fayette brought another glass of milk. “A nice big heart with ‘Mom’ on it, and maybe some little cupids flying around? I’d even help you pay for that one.”

  Matthew rolled his eyes, drained his milk in one swallow, and stood up. He was even taller than Lainie thought, well over six feet, and after a big meal, he probably managed to tip the scale at 150. “I gotta go. Can I have some money for lunch?”

  “Give me a kiss first.”

  “Mom, come on. I gotta leave.”

  “No kiss, no money.”

  Matthew rolled his eyes again and leaned over and kissed the air somewhere in the vicinity of Fayette’s head.

  “Nope, that’s not going to do it.” She tapped her cheek. “You want to eat before the sun goes down, you plant a kiss right here.”

  “Mom!”

  Fayette just stood tapping her cheek. Matthew sighed, rolled his eyes yet again, and leaned down. Due to some quick maneuvering by Fayette, he actually made contact this time.

  “There now, that didn’t kill you, did it?” Fayette dug into her apron pocket for tip money. “Have a good time, sweetie. See you at supper.”

  Matthew didn’t duck this time when Fayette reached up
and brushed his hair out of his eyes, but he didn’t look back when he left either.

  “Nice kid.” Lainie turned back to the counter.

  “Yeah, he’s a good boy at heart. But I worry about him. He’s just busting to get out of this little town. There’s not that much to keep a boy out of trouble, especially in summer. The youth group is taking a trip out to the desert today to look at a bunch of petroglyphs they’ve all seen a hundred times. But pull that old church bus around to the front of the building, and everybody just piles on. They’d go on a field trip to the dump, just to get out of town for a while.”

  Lainie had no idea what she was supposed to say. She didn’t know anything about kids, and furthermore, she didn’t blame them for wanting out. She grabbed at the first thought that went through her head. “Oh, he’ll be okay.”

  Fayette sighed. “I know. I guess moms just worry.” She gestured at the window behind Lainie. “Looks like Manny’s back. Do you need to talk to him?”

  Lainie swung around and looked out the window. Her belongings were no longer spread over the tavern parking lot, and Ray’s truck was gone. Manny had backed the tow truck to the rear of Lainie’s car and was hooking it up. She had no desire to talk to him or to Ray for a long, long time. “He’s buying my car from me, so I guess I’ll have to settle that sometime, but I don’t think I can deal with it today.”

  “You’ve had a day of it, haven’t you? And it’s not even noon. I think you should just go over to Elizabeth’s and take a good long rest. There’s all the time in the world to get everything else taken care of.”

  As Lainie watched, Ray pulled into the parking lot across the street and got out of his truck. He stopped to talk to Manny, and Manny was still laughing when Ray slapped him on the shoulder and went back into his bar. Lainie hoisted her backpack to her shoulder. “Sounds like a plan.”

  Heat pushed against the door of the Dip ’n’ Dine and wrapped around Lainie like a blanket when she walked outside. The white sun had sucked all the color from the sky and the town. Even the single strip of blacktop that ran through was gray.

  Manny, with her car in tow, pulled out onto the road. He rolled down the window and leaned out. “Want to ride with me down to the station and take care of all the paperwork?”

  Lainie shook her head. She knew she should probably get that check before Patsy got wind of the sale, but she just couldn’t. Not right now. “Think we could do it later? Maybe even tomorrow? I’d like to go get settled.”

  “Suit yourself.” He waved and drove on. Lainie couldn’t decide if his wide smile was because he wouldn’t have a crazy lady riding in his truck with him after all, or if he was still thinking about the spectacle she had made of herself earlier. Either way, he was far too cheerful.

  An old school bus with “Church of Last Chance” painted on the side rumbled by on its way out of town. A couple of young guys in the back hooted and waved their arms out the window to get her attention.

  Lainie found herself wondering how serious Elizabeth was about making her go to church. She still hadn’t decided if she would go, although she was leaning toward no. After all, what could Elizabeth do? Call the cops? Did Last Chance have church ordinances the way they had vagrancy ordinances? She wouldn’t be surprised. Well, she’d give it till Sunday, then decide. If her luck changed, she might even be hundreds of miles away by then. Shifting her backpack to the other shoulder, she turned down Elizabeth’s street.

  A hot wind had begun to blow by the time she walked up the front steps. The row of trees to the side of the house danced in toward the roof and added a shushing whisper to the sound of the television gunfire pouring from the front door. Elizabeth looked up from the afghan she was crocheting when Lainie came in.

  “Here you are! Get everything taken care of?” She started to struggle out of her recliner, but when Lainie waved her back, she returned to her crocheting. “I had Ray put everything back in your room. He sure was in some kind of mood, though. He wanted to dump every blessed thing you had in your car on the floor of your room, trash and all.”

  Lainie headed back to her room. As she passed the sofa, an enormous gray-and-white tabby jumped off with a thud and padded behind her.

  “That’s Sam,” Elizabeth called after her. “He thinks he owns the place. If you don’t want him in there with you, just shove him on out. He’s not the big shot he thinks he is.”

  Sam trotted past Lainie and led the way into her room. He rubbed his whiskers and chin against the two cardboard boxes and the suitcase that held all her belongings before he jumped up on the bed, stretched, and curled up in a patch of sunshine. Lainie could hear the deep rumble of his purr from where she stood in the doorway.

  “This your space? Well, get used to sharing it.”

  It didn’t take her long to unpack. She shook out the clothes in her suitcase and folded them away in the lined dresser drawers. She didn’t have much else, just a few things that she carefully arranged and rearranged on the dresser—a snow globe with Mickey Mouse in a wizard’s hat and robe that her father had given her for her eighth birthday, some makeup, a brush. When she finished, she clutched her backpack to her chest for a moment before crawling to the back of the closet, where she pushed aside the zippered garment bags hanging there and tucked her backpack into the corner. It disappeared into the darkness as the garment bags fell back into place.

  Outside, the white clouds that had been boiling up took on a gray tinge, and the white curtains danced at the window. A sudden gust blew the door shut with a slam, and Sam jumped to his feet, blinked, and lay back down. Lainie opened the door.

  “You want out? You better go while you can.” Sam looked at her with half-open eyes and twisted to wash his stomach.

  “This is your last chance.” Sam closed his eyes and purred louder.

  “Okay, cat, but don’t think I’m getting up to let you out.”

  Sam offered the resistance of a fifteen-pound beanbag when Lainie pushed him to one side and lay down next to him. The pillowcase was cool and crisp against her cheek and smelled fresh, like rain. Lainie closed her eyes. Sam oozed over until he was lying against her, but she was barely aware that the steady pressure down her side from hip to knee was him or that the soft rumble that lifted her into unconsciousness was the tremor of his purr.

  5

  Ray was squatting on his heels behind the bar the next morning checking his supplies when he heard the door open and someone step in. He waited for a voice, but there was only silence.

  “Not open yet. Come back in an hour or so.”

  His hand closed around the baseball bat he kept under the bar and he stood up, keeping the bat out of sight under the counter. It was only that crazy California girl. He slid it back on its shelf.

  “What can I do for you?”

  “First of all, I want to say I’m sorry about yesterday.” The girl smiled, and he noticed that when she wasn’t screaming her head off, she wasn’t bad looking. “I sort of lost it.”

  Ray shrugged. He sure wasn’t going to argue with that.

  “Anyway, can we start over?”

  She was all over sugar, but that made Ray even more uncomfortable. He had heard about those split-personality people, and he was sure that if ever there was one, she was standing in his bar this minute. He had seen her all of three times and she had been a completely different person every time.

  “I was hoping I could use your phone. I need to make some calls, and I don’t need Elizabeth or Fayette hanging over my shoulder listening in.”

  “There’s a pay phone in the hall there by the restrooms. Help yourself.”

  “Well, the thing is, my calling card is about out of minutes, and I’m about out of cash. Do you have a phone that isn’t pay? I promise I’ll keep it short.”

  Ray noticed she had a dimple when she smiled. He crossed the bar and opened the door to the storeroom that doubled as his office. “The phone’s there on the desk. I’ll ask you to keep the door open, though, if you don’t min
d.”

  Lainie sat on the desk with her back to the door. She kept her voice low and Ray couldn’t hear what she said, even if he were interested, which he wasn’t. But he could hear her tone, and Miss Sugar was giving way to Miss Ticked-off. Finally she yelled, “All right! Just forget I called!” and slammed down the phone.

  He was actually kind of curious about which personality she would have when she came back in the room, although he made sure the bar was between them, just in case. But when she came in, climbed on a stool, and asked for a beer, she just looked scared. Ray found himself wondering if he could get that dimple back.

  “Can’t give you a beer. We’re not open yet. But how about a soda? On the house.”

  She closed both hands around the soft drink Ray put in front of her but didn’t drink it or even look up. She looked a lot smaller sitting huddled on that bar stool than she had looked in the parking lot yesterday.

  “Everything okay?” Ray poured a bowl of peanuts and set it next to her.

  She didn’t look at him or at the peanuts, and when she spoke, it was more to herself than to him. “I am so stuck here.”

  Ray was good at assessing his patrons’ moods, and usually when they didn’t feel like talking he just left them alone, but something about the way she was hanging on to that soda like it was the only thing keeping her from falling off the stool made him stick his neck out even though he knew better.

  “Nobody could help you out, huh? Well, there’s worse places you could have wound up. And you’re bound to figure something out eventually.” He knew he had made a mistake as soon as the words left his mouth.

  Lainie shoved her untouched soft drink at him, leaving it rocking in a pool of sloshed fizz. Her feet hit the floor with a thump. “Really? Do you even know what you’re talking about? You may think there’s worse places, but let me tell you, I have actually been out there, and there aren’t. Not anywhere. And I am stuck here. Stuck with a bunch of nosy religious nuts and one bartender with an imaginary family.”