(1)
— Originally published in the Antietam Review (Spring, 1999)
That night in February, the night it all started, Kerney was whooping it up
with the usual crowd at the back of the San Diego, home of the shiniest
cockroaches, the biggest rats, and the raunchiest whores in Bien Hoa,
maybe all of Nam. In the dark of the long narrow barroom, Kerney couldn’t
tell if his glass had been washed before the girl poured ba-muoi-ba in it. He
didn’t care. He wasn’t there for beer. He could almost smell the sweat, piss,
and perfume of the cubicles out back where the girls would screw for six
hundred piasters if he didn’t take too long.
The girl was in his lap, his hand on her breast, when the little black guy,
Diver, walked in. “Hey, guys, we got ourselves a newbie. Name’s Griffin.
Griff, this is Hal Riley, the mail clerk. Good man to know. And the runt on the
make over there is Tom Kerney.”
Kerney looked up. He stopped breathing. Griffin was big and muscular
and tanned and blond. His smile was broad and even, his teeth straight and
white. His wide-set blue eyes glowed with wonder. Unfinished youth lay like
down against his skin.
“Tom?” Griffin put out his hand. Kerney’s skin prickled.
“Grab yourself a chair and a chick,” Riley said. Diver called to Mama-san
for two more beers and pulled up a chair, but Griffin went on standing,
suddenly awkward. Kerney gazed at him. He’s too big for the room.
“You wan’ mo’ girl?” Mama-san called back. She waved toward the front
of the bar. Four girls appeared, chattering. Kerney dumped the girl off his
lap, stood, and fought for breath. He sat again, afraid he was going to get
the shakes. He beckoned to one of the girls Mama-san had sent them. She
moved to his side. He didn’t know her. A new girl.
“Sit down, bitch.”
The girl glanced over her shoulder toward Mama-san, then up at Griffin.
Kerney slapped his knee. “Come on, baby. Let’s see how much you
weigh.”
She perched on his knee with a sad smile. “My name Rosie.” She held out
her hand. He took it. Bony and cold.
Griffin was close enough to Kerney and Rosie that either of them could
have touched him. The girl named Mary was trying to get Griffin to sit with
her.
TOM'S TALES