An hour later, Butler almost carried Stony back to the car. "Butler, this tequila is makin' me sick. I can't explain to you about Cheri. I would come in her mouth, and she would make one little motion, wiping her lips with her pinky, and I would get a hard-on all over again right then and there, and later I would fall asleep and wake up thinkin' all my crotch hair was burned, and I would feel the crispy burnt stubble and fall back on the pillow sweatin' like I was gonna die, and you don't understand. I want to feel this ... this shit I'm goin' through now. Like all my skin is peeled and any way I turn it hurts. Don't you understand, you stupid prick, you motherfuckin' bastard with your goddamn thirty-dollar hand job. Chen, you cunt of a lifetime, I love her, I can't breathe. Butler, you bastard; you stupid ... let's go home. I saw her put her goddamn lips on that pig's mouth. Butler, do you love your prick? You should. I love my prick. It's like nobody else's. I don't understand how she could touch anybody else's when she got mine. Butler, open the goddamn windows, go faster. I need air. My dick is like my left hand. It got grace. Butler, open the goddamn window more. My hand can dance. Butler, you pinhead, I'm never alone. My hand is a goddamn ballerina. I'm never alone. When I was a kid I would lay in bed and my hand would dance for me in the dark. Butler, what's she doin' now? I want Chubby. Butler, be Chubby. Do you know how scared Albert is all the time? Do you know Mott, that motherless bastard, must got a prick like a dead twig? All fat guys except Chubby got small dicks. That's the law. Can you imagine what it must stink like when he takes a dump? She's a fuckin' hoowah, Butler. I wake up and my crotch is burnin'. I can smell the burnt hair an' she's sleepin' like nothin' happened. Butler, where we goin'? I don't wanna go home. There's nothin' there." Stony slid down in his seat, his cheek resting on the window.

"Stony, I just got one question." Butler removed a fleck of tobacco from his tongue. "If I came runnin' into your room at the motel there tonight an' told you I needed another twenny to get laid, would you've given it to me? Hah?"

Stony slept.

4

"YOU WANT SOME COFFEE, Tommy?" Phyllis stood before her husband and brother-in-law, almost kowtowing in her pale green housedress.

"No thanks, dear." Tommy dangled one leg over the arm of the Barcalounger.

"Chubby?"

"No thank you, sweetheart." Chubby sat on the edge of the couch, elbows on knees, biting his nails.

Phyllis smiled nervously. "I'm going to bed now."

"I'll be in later, sweets." He turned to Tommy. "Hey, Stony tell you what happened last night?"

"Yeah, I heard, yah beast!" Tommy smiled.