The women were still dancing, except that the junior high shift had come on. I was really starting to feel like a degenerate, and sick with what it all finally came down to. Getting robbed is kind of like getting your ass whipped, in that somebody else has beaten you. It doesn’t matter that he’s got a gun or a knife, you could have had a gun or a knife too and fought for your money. I decided to go armed from then on, just as soon as I could aflord a gun or a knife.

I was wobbling at my table a little. I knew people could probably see it. I hated that, sort of, didn’t want to be drunk in public, but didn’t know what to do about it right then. There wasn’t anything would fix it but another drink. I summoned somebody and somebody brought one. I was getting eyes from the bar again.

I didn’t want to mess with any more of those girls. I’d already seen the fine ones, up in Memphis, where they let them go naked in front of you and then expect you to behave yourself. I knew in some men that kind of stuff caused rapes, which is why it was dangerous to offer that kind of stuff to the general public, since a lot of times the general public had a hard dick and little conscience. I decided to just sit there and nurse my beer, lick my wounds, and see if the chick walked back in.

There were guys groping chicks in the corners. I didn’t know what the hour of night was. Late was all I knew. My friend wasn’t anywhere around. He knew the name of the boat and I didn’t. He knew the dock they docked at. But he’d probably already had his throat cut and was being eaten by fish, or the dogs and cats at the seafood plants. It didn’t make me just real happy or at ease sitting there waiting for him. Maybe he’d given up on ever finding me and had just gone back home. That’d be real hucky ducky if that was the case. If he’d taken my pickup that’d be real uncool and I’d have to catch the big Hound going north emptyhanded. Rich fuckers like they were, they could get things done. They might even hire my legs broken. I knew they knew plenty of people they could sub it out to.