Page 33 - Demo

already settled in the swivel seat. She stopped mid- stride with one leg over Nancy. “Holy cow, would you look at that?”
“What is it? He got dead bodies stacked up back there?” I gave Shebby a little smile, but he was fo- cused on what was happening in the cab.
“I swanee. I never,” wailed Joyce.
“What?” cried Nancy, looking back into the wide open cab. “You’ve never seen a coffee maker and a micro- wave before?”
“Lord, this air conditioning feels like the breath of angels,” Nancy cooed.
“Why that’s sheer poetry,” said Shebby, casting a smile her way. Joyce and I rolled our eyes and I mouthed guess-you-lost-out to her.
“So you’re not married,” Nancy declared just as Shebby reached for the gear shift.
“Not anymore.”
“Divorced?” asked Nancy.
“Nope.”
“Widowed?” This time Nancy’s voice was a tad more desperate.
“Not that I know of.”
“Well, land sakes,” said Joyce. “What is the mystery?”
“She’s in a coma,” I shouted.
Shebby laughed, so I supposed that wasn’t the right answer.
“She had a sex change,” I offered. Shebby laughed harder, so I tried once more. “You killed her!”
“He said he wasn’t a widower,” Nancy squawked at me over the seat.
“Julia, will you knock it off and let him tell us,” said Joyce.
We were all quiet for several seconds while Shebby
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“Well, not in the back of a truck!”
“The hospital rose up gray and ominous, a
gigantic tombstone on the other side of the parking lot with Vince waiting inside.”
“This here’s a TelStar D90, customized,” said Shebby, sucking proudly on his remaining teeth.
“And there’s a tiny little fridge down underneath,” said Joyce, shaking her head in amazement.
“Got a color TV, closet, dinner table that flips down, a full size bed, and a magazine rack right next to it, but don’t you girls go looking at my magazines,” Shebby said, snickering.
The three of us were quiet a moment. Finally, Nancy shoved Joyce’s legs. “Go on and get a seat, you’re crushing me.”
“Obviously, this is our first time in a truck,” I ex- plained as I pulled myself up the two steps to get
to the cab and over Nancy who sat with her face pressed up about three inches from the air condition- ing vent.
“A man lives in his truck and it’s his home.” Shebby pulled himself up into his seat and began adjusting his sunglasses. “It’s been a lonely home for a long time.” He began checking his face in the mirror. I couldn’t imagine what he thought needed checking.
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