Taken By A Texan

Andrew’s sister guessed, “He was where he wasn’t supposed to be?”

“Exactly.” Then without his permission, Rip’s tongue just went on, “He could have gone to any highway rest stop and inquired as to how he might go anywhere. There are state cops at almost all the rest stops. They give information. Nobody intrudes on private lands. And to go over a fence and out on the lands and get lost is a great nuisance for the owners and crews on the places. It takes our time and concern. We are busy people.”

“How are you managing?” She gestured. Then, realizing that wasn’t enough, she added, “Coming here and taking care of Buddy?”

Rip looked at Andrew’s sister and thought it was probably a good thing he didn’t know her name. She lured him. He didn’t want that kind of serious, unknowing lure. He sighed and said, “I manage. He’s a good dog. My boss gives me the time to bring him to see the pilgrim.” He almost instantly bit his lip.

“Pilgrim?”

It was not a kind name. Rip had used it to mean a person who’d landed where nobody wanted him. So Rip said, “Uhhh. Well, he was new to us.”

Andrew’s sister nodded. Then she said, “If anything... changes...I could call you and save you the time coming into town. Is there a phone number where I can reach you?”

He asked, “What’s your name?”

“Lu.”

Thoughtfully tilting his head back, Rip questioned, “Wasn’t there a song about a lady named Lu?”

“Probably. My dad named me. He’s a...different person. He baffles my mother.”

Without any warning, Rip found himself blurting, “I never knew my parents.” His teeth went back into his lower lip. They should have stayed there.

Lu guessed. “You left home as soon as you could.”

“Yeah.” They’d left him. He watched her a minute with his eyes slitted. He’d never given his phone number to any woman. “Don’t you give my number to anybody, do you hear me?”

She began to smile. “Women throw themselves in front of your car?”

“Any man gets tired of being hounded.”

“Hounded.” She tasted the word. Then she inquired with the slightest smile, “You’re implying women are...hounds?”

Rip slowly shook his head, as he said very seriously, “Not all of them. Some really good women live in this world.”

She was curious about his replies so she asked, “But there are...females who...hound you?”

Rip shrugged logically. “—and there’re the male variety of—hounds,” he admitted. “I’m one every now and again.” He watched her. He became aware that she was tired and had been concerned and worried about that stupid brother of hers. “You got a place here to stay that’s convenient?”

“Yes. Just down the block, there’s a hospice. This hospital services a large area.”

“Yeah. People like Chuck who come a long way.”

“He’s a nice little boy. I met his mother.”

“How’d you do that?”

“I can’t just sit in Andrew’s room. So these last few days, I’ve helped out... distributed books, that sort of thing.”

Rip didn’t verbally praise her but his smile was a benediction. He gave her his phone number. Just doing that, wobbled him. He told her, “Remember, you don’t give that to anybody, do you hear me?”

Very seriously she replied, “I’ll have a blind tattooer put it on my body in a discreet place.”

Rip groused, “And you’ll tell him what to tattoo. He’ll know the number.”

She licked her smile. “I’ll do the tattooing. He won’t have a clue.”

Rip tilted his head back and squinted his eyes. “Where you gonna put my number?”

“No one will ever know.”

“Remember to burn the paper.”

“Of course.”

Again Rip squinted his eyes at her and asked softly, “How you gonna see the number if you’re in public?”

She considered. “Be sure the telephone booth door is closed?”

“That’s when the light goes on. When the door’s closed.” He watched her more closely.

“I’ll find a private phone, if it’s important to call you.”

“Oh.” He studied her with a serious face. “I thought you just meant that you’d want to talk to me.”

“No,” she reminded him. “The phone number is because I might need to cancel you coming here if Andrew is out of it or something like that.”

“Well.” He hesitated and looked around rather stubbornly. “I thought you were interested in... uh...the boy.”

“Chuck.”

“Yeah. Him. Don’t you think it’s important for Buddy to come visit the kid? Even if your brother’s out, the kid might like to see Buddy.”

She considered that quite seriously and finally nodded just a tad. “You could be right.”

“So we’ll see you this afternoon. Uh. You wanna go out for lunch?”

“With the dog?”

“We can go to a drive-in.”

“I don’t think I can even look at another hamburger”

“There’re drive-ins that have Mexican food.”

“Anything else?”

“Soup?”