Page 169 - Rainbow County and Other Stories

Rainbow County 157

lunch as much as he missed lunching on Robert. “I have low
blood sugar.”
“Read it, please. No one else has ever seen it. I wrote it on my
way out here. To send back home. To everyone back home.”
“‘Postmark,’” Lloyd read. “‘Dear God: You created me, then
you hated me....Dear Folks: You conceived me, then deceived
me....Dear Teacher: You taught me, then you fought me....Dear
Boss: You hired me, then you fired me....Dear Lover: You painted
me, then you tainted me....Dear Death: You embraced me, then
erased me.’”
“Well?” Robert asked.
“It’s not...bad.”
“Not bad?”
“It’s pretty good.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah,” Lloyd said. “I like it like really a whole lot.”
“Good,” Robert said. “We just made a trade. My poem for
your photograph. Strange, isn’t it? I came in here not knowing
why I came in here. I didn’t want a haircut and you cut my hair.
I got a parking ticket. You handed me a magazine and I found a
picture of the face that’s always been in the back of my head.”
“What’s that?” Lloyd said.
“Never you mind. You wouldn’t understand.”
“That’s three bucks for the trim,” Lloyd said.
“Here’s four,” Robert said. “Keep the change.”
“Don’t insult me,” Lloyd said. “You never tip the owner.”
“I do.”
“Suit yourself.”
“I’m leaving,” Robert said. “It’s been real.”
Lloyd slipped full into his W. C. Fields routine. “Never give a
sucker an even break. Here’s your hat. What’s your hurry? Don’t
let the door hit you on your way out.”
“You calling me a sucker?”
“No,” Lloyd said. “Take it easy. Where you headed?”
“To the beach,” Robert said. “Land’s end at Land’s End.” He
walked to Lloyd’s cash register counter.
“It’s been a slow day moneywise,” Lloyd said nervous ly.

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