A big hard hat swayed into the tiny box of a rest room, nodded to Paul, and began to urinate into the darkness below, trying to hit a moth that flew up from outside. From under the building came a roar of cursing, and Ray-Ray punched Paul lightly in the ribs. “Hey, T-Bub, I’m gonna get myself down the road in case John Wayne call the cops when he crawl out the shit pit.” Together they went into the parking lot, an oyster shell—covered, spinning moonscape.

“Ray-Ray,” Paul cried, “don’t go off. I got a truck here someplace.” He pulled his shirt on inside out. “You got to drive me.”

“Okay, man, but I ain’t had no license in two years, ten months.” He got under the steering wheel and gunned the engine. Not a mile from Scadlock’s, Paul began to dream with his eyes open and woke up when his head hit the dash. He figured he had to talk to keep from passing out.

“Ray-Ray neg, did you ever get married?”

“Man, what you mean?” Ray-Ray shook his head slowly. “That’s why I wound up in the pen. My old lady run off to Houma with a punk-rock motorcycle freak. I caught up with them and whipped his ass so bad, he couldn’t wipe hisself for a month.” A wheel dropped off into a muddy rut and they were quiet until the truck was going straight again. “But what they really got me for was cutting his ten-t’ousand-dollar motorcycle up with a blowtorch. Good thing they got to me before I shoved them pieces up his butt. Yeah, man, the women around here, they something else. All they want is your paycheck, and then it’s off to Wal-Mart to live high on the hog buying ceramic pussy cats and imitation-velvet shower curtains and shit like that.” The truck rolled over the center line a moment. Ray-Ray was apologetic. “I haven’t drove no car with power steering in a long time.” He ducked his head and looked ahead toward town. “You ever got married?”

“Yep, still am, until the divorce gets finalized.”

“Yeah, you used to go out with that white-skinned girl. What’s her name? Claudette? Her old man threw me out of high school.”

“Colette,” Paul said, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands.

“Yeah, man. She was drop-dead good-looking.” Ray-Ray looked over to the passenger side. “She married you? Man, I thought she’d a been married to a movie star by now, with her looks.”

Paul wondered if there was one person in the entire town who didn’t know who Colette was. “She wants to move away from here. She thinks the people around here are, uh…” He opened his hands, looking for a word. “Rough.” It wasn’t the right one, but it would have to do.

Ray-Ray laughed. “It don’t take no Elbert Einstein to see that.”

“Would you ever consider moving away?”

He shook his head and pushed back his cap. “I got my family to live off of here. You know, it’s like the little girl in the movie about the wizid says, ‘They ain’t no place like home.’ Stay in you own backyard, know what I mean?”