Rattlesnake by Kim Fielding

you scare him away….” He clamped his mouth shut, and for a second Jimmy thought Shane was going to cry.
    “Shane…,” Charlie said, sounding sad and slightly resigned.
    But Shane just gave a savage headshake before looking at Jimmy. “She’s going to tell you I’m all fucked up. I guess I should have told you myself before now. Maybe you guessed some of it already, the way I drag myself around like a goddamn walking corpse.”
    Jimmy reached over to cover Shane’s hand and give a quick squeeze. “I don’t think you’re fucked up at all.”
    “I am, though,” Shane whispered. “She’ll tell you.” He gently pulled his hand away and then limped to the far end of the room.
    Jimmy tried not to fidget under Charlie’s scrutiny. But when she didn’t say anything, he let out a long breath. “About a year ago, I was in Wyoming. Some town about the same size as Rattlesnake, I bet. I had about ten dollars in my pocket and that was it. A late storm hit. One of those bastards that starts out as a thunderstorm before changing its mind and turning into a blizzard. A man could die in conditions like that, easily. And I didn’t have a place to stay.”
    She still hadn’t said a word to him, but she was listening. He could tell. He chewed on a couple of pieces of popcorn and chased them with the coffee that had replaced his empty sarsaparilla bottle. She twitched a little, like she was dying to ask what happened next, and he had to suppress a grin.
    “I tried everywhere, but most of the businesses close early in a place like that, and pretty soon even the bars shut on account of the weather. Sometimes there’s a bus station for shelter, but not there. They had a single crappy old motel out by the highway, but they wouldn’t give me a room, not even when I promised to work real hard for them the next day. And I would’ve too. I tried to hitch a ride, but nobody was fool enough to drive in that snow, and the town didn’t even have a police station where I could beg a few hours of warmth. I got so desperate that I even knocked on a few doors, but not a single person would let me in. Not one. And I got so cold I got a little confused and I couldn’t walk right. When I fell, I couldn’t stand back up again.”
    Another sip of his cooling coffee. He glanced across the room, where Shane was pointedly ignoring them, repeatedly wiping a table that was perfectly clean.
    “When I woke up, I was in the hospital. I ended up spending a couple of days there, and the docs said I was lucky I didn’t get frostbite. I was also lucky some idiot went out in the storm and found me before I died of hypothermia.”
    After a long silence, she cracked. “What’s your point?”
    “My point is that I’m a lucky man. This morning my car quit on me. And even though I wasn’t in nearly such a bad situation as I was back in Wyoming, Shane stepped in and gave me a hand. Found me a job and a place to stay. Your brother is a good man.”
    “I know that,” she said. She played with her straw for a moment before looking at him again. “Why are you here?”
    “I was passing through. My car broke down. Shane offered to find me this gig.”
    “And how did you meet Shane?”
    He considered telling her it had been an online hookup, but thought better of it. She didn’t look in any mood to appreciate a joke. “I had some coffee here last night. This morning I was having breakfast at Mae’s and he shared my table. We got to talking.”
    “Where did you sleep last night?”
    Jimmy imagined that she was a tough teacher and that her students never got away with passing notes or cheating on tests. “In my car.”
    Her expression might have softened a tiny bit, but she didn’t relent. “And what do you want?”
    “That’s a pretty deep philosophical question, isn’t it? Right now, nothing much. A warm bed, a place to shower, a job to keep me busy.” And to fuck your brother , he didn’t add. “But if you don’t mind me asking, what