Abel pivoted and started hobbling away as fast as he could.

“I fucking can’t—” Decker picked up the envelope and ran after Abel. He grabbed his shoulder. “Hey, just stop for a moment, huh?”

“Get your hands off of me,” Abel said.

“Just cool off—”

“I said, get your hands off of me.”

“I will as soon as you calm down.”

Abel whacked Decker’s arm off his shoulder. Then sudden force and change of equilibrium threw Decker off balance. Abel backed up two feet and arched like a threatened feline. “When I say take your fucking hands off me, I mean now, pal. I may be a gimp, but I’m still your peer.”

Decker turned red. “I just meant—-”

“You just meant, you just meant,” Abel mocked him.

“Oh, fuck off,” Decker said. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to defend my intentions. Yeah, you’re a gimp, Abe. But worse than being a physical gimp, you’re an emotional gimp—”

“Oh my God!” Abel waved his hands into the air. “You’ve given me sudden insight!”

Decker felt his body about to explode. Quietly, he said, “I’m sick of you, I’m sick of your mouth, I’m sick of your problems. Get some other sucker to bail you out. Just get out of my life.” He slung the envelope against Abel’s chest. “I don’t need the bread. Go spend it on your goddam whores.”

Abel let the money fall to the ground, stroked his beard, and let out a strange smile. He cocked his hip and said, “Now ain’t that the pot calling the kettle black. Way I remember it, I was always the one draggin’ your ass out of the hooches.”

“That’s because you were the one draggin’ my ass into the hooches.”

“I never heard you complain any, Decker.”

“You were too busy sniffing for poontang to hear.”

“Jealous of my rate of success?”

“Fuck off, Atwater,” Decker said. “Just ’cause we toured together, don’t start painting me with your brush.”

“Hey, Decker, your memory gears need some oiling. I recall you having a right fine time in Bangkok—”

“Man, I didn’t want to go to Bangkok. You wanted to go to Bangkok!” Decker was shouting now. “I wanted to go to Hawaii! All I wanted to do was sit on a beach without getting my ass blown off. Nuh-huh, that’s not good enough for PFC Atwater. Honest Abe wants excitement. Nam’s not exciting enough, mind you, he’s got to have more. No fucking way was Bangkok my idea. Bangkok was your idea!”

“So if you wanted to go to Hawaii, why didn’t you fucking well go to Hawaii?”

“You want me to tell you why?” Decker screamed.

“Yeah, tell me why!” Abel screamed back.

“I’ll tell you why!”

“Fucking tell me why!”

“I went to Bangkok ’cause you wanted gash, and gash was cheaper in Bangkok!”