rather than egotism. âIf it were me Iâd go ahead and file with the insurance.â
âSo youâre saying basically no chance?â Marcus usually avoided the word âbasically,â which was both overused and obvious, but there was something basic about his situation that allowed him to make an exception.
âIâm saying if you need a ride somewhere, it would be best to get your insurance to pay for you a rental. Or go on ahead and buy you something new. If weâdâve found it, it would have been within a couple hours of you reporting it, and you didnât report it for at least a couple hours after it got jacked, am I correct?â
âWell, see, I had to walk up to the road. My phone was in the truck.â
âYou might better get yourself a new phone, too.â
âWouldnât it be better to wait a few days?â
âIf it were me I would not wait if it meant not having no truck and no phone.â
âWell, I guess if it turns up I can always get my money back for my new phone and my new ride.â
âI would not put too much into thinking what you are going to do when it turns up. Thatâs just me, though. You can do what you want.â
After Marcus thanked him and hung up, he had already decided he would like to be the man who answered the phone at the Border Patrol because the man had seemed so sure of what he would do if it were he. Marcus was never all that sure what to do in most circumstances, and he felt particularly anxious about what to do in his present circumstances. So he took another shower and sat naked on the couch making lists, the first of which was titled
All I Have in This World
⢠jeans 3 2
⢠shorts I never wear because I read somewhere men over forty ought not to wear shorts or sandals
⢠work boots (one pair) and running shoes (one pair)
⢠several faded pocket tees and one button-down, frayed collar
⢠socks and underwear for three days
⢠my health, praise be
⢠bottle of passable zinfandel
⢠toiletries (I hate that word)
⢠a not insubstantial roll of purloined cash
And then on a separate but equally yellow page of legal pad:
Most Pressing Needs
⢠transportation
⢠warmer threads for high desert nights
⢠cheaper and maybe longer-term digs
⢠gainful employment
⢠redemption
⢠breakfast
⢠flytrap seeds locked in the glove compartment
⢠that song âBadgeâ by Cream, so I can crank up the part that goes, âI told you not to wander around in the dark / I told you âbout the swans, that they live in the park / I told you âbout our kid, now heâs married to Mabelâ
⢠because I do not deserve native cuisine, having behaved unthinkingly, a greasy grilled cheese with chips and a Coke?
⢠call Annie?
Marcus got dressed and, in a diner down the street from the hotel, slightly revised his list by ticking off lunch first in the form of a BLT and cheddar, a tolerable substitute for grilled cheese, before moving on to âtransportation.â
W HEN M ARIA SAID SHE needed a car, her mother said, âYou can use the Cherokee.â When Maria said that she needed her own car, that she did not want to have to depend on her mother, that her mother had far too much to do to taxi her around town, her mother said she wished she would have known, she let one of the girls at the motel who wrecked her car have Rayâs truck.
âGood,â said Maria. âI know she appreciated it.â
âBut here I gave it away and now youâre needing it.â
âI have some money saved up,â said Maria, but she was wondering, again, was this the thing that would bring back the tensions of their past? That her mother had been so accommodating, in her terse way, about her plans for the restaurant only made Maria more anxious. More likely the falling-out would occur over something like a cereal bowl
âSo youâre saying basically no chance?â Marcus usually avoided the word âbasically,â which was both overused and obvious, but there was something basic about his situation that allowed him to make an exception.
âIâm saying if you need a ride somewhere, it would be best to get your insurance to pay for you a rental. Or go on ahead and buy you something new. If weâdâve found it, it would have been within a couple hours of you reporting it, and you didnât report it for at least a couple hours after it got jacked, am I correct?â
âWell, see, I had to walk up to the road. My phone was in the truck.â
âYou might better get yourself a new phone, too.â
âWouldnât it be better to wait a few days?â
âIf it were me I would not wait if it meant not having no truck and no phone.â
âWell, I guess if it turns up I can always get my money back for my new phone and my new ride.â
âI would not put too much into thinking what you are going to do when it turns up. Thatâs just me, though. You can do what you want.â
After Marcus thanked him and hung up, he had already decided he would like to be the man who answered the phone at the Border Patrol because the man had seemed so sure of what he would do if it were he. Marcus was never all that sure what to do in most circumstances, and he felt particularly anxious about what to do in his present circumstances. So he took another shower and sat naked on the couch making lists, the first of which was titled
All I Have in This World
⢠jeans 3 2
⢠shorts I never wear because I read somewhere men over forty ought not to wear shorts or sandals
⢠work boots (one pair) and running shoes (one pair)
⢠several faded pocket tees and one button-down, frayed collar
⢠socks and underwear for three days
⢠my health, praise be
⢠bottle of passable zinfandel
⢠toiletries (I hate that word)
⢠a not insubstantial roll of purloined cash
And then on a separate but equally yellow page of legal pad:
Most Pressing Needs
⢠transportation
⢠warmer threads for high desert nights
⢠cheaper and maybe longer-term digs
⢠gainful employment
⢠redemption
⢠breakfast
⢠flytrap seeds locked in the glove compartment
⢠that song âBadgeâ by Cream, so I can crank up the part that goes, âI told you not to wander around in the dark / I told you âbout the swans, that they live in the park / I told you âbout our kid, now heâs married to Mabelâ
⢠because I do not deserve native cuisine, having behaved unthinkingly, a greasy grilled cheese with chips and a Coke?
⢠call Annie?
Marcus got dressed and, in a diner down the street from the hotel, slightly revised his list by ticking off lunch first in the form of a BLT and cheddar, a tolerable substitute for grilled cheese, before moving on to âtransportation.â
W HEN M ARIA SAID SHE needed a car, her mother said, âYou can use the Cherokee.â When Maria said that she needed her own car, that she did not want to have to depend on her mother, that her mother had far too much to do to taxi her around town, her mother said she wished she would have known, she let one of the girls at the motel who wrecked her car have Rayâs truck.
âGood,â said Maria. âI know she appreciated it.â
âBut here I gave it away and now youâre needing it.â
âI have some money saved up,â said Maria, but she was wondering, again, was this the thing that would bring back the tensions of their past? That her mother had been so accommodating, in her terse way, about her plans for the restaurant only made Maria more anxious. More likely the falling-out would occur over something like a cereal bowl
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