All the meat put away, everything done, Bill went out into the hall and sat down on his milk cases. He was tired. He was weary too. He knew that in a few moments he would head down the stairs to his locker to grab himself a couple of black beauties. Those would certainly wake him up. He knew he had enough to at least get through the next few days but he was already thinking about his supply. He was thinking about a visit to Doc, his dealer, to replenish his stores. He was wondering what goodies Doc would have for him.
Paulie had shoveled the snow. It wasn’t all that much to shovel, and like a true ADHD kid, he did it in a frenzy and finished it quickly. To his credit, much to his credit, he was able to keep the focus and finish the job at hand.
While he was outside shoveling, Jim and Mickey got into it. This was because they had to compensate for Paulie not being there and neither of them wanted to do Paulie’s work. Bill was only sitting a moment when he heard the scuffle and had to get up and go back into the kitchen.
He took a moment to size up the situation. Standing there, them seeing him standing there, they kind of took hold of their situation, took control of themselves and hesitated to continue the scuffle. By this time Mary had come over and Bea, who was already on her way over, was there.
“I need to say anything?” Bea stood there scowling at them.
Bill didn’t have to do anything. He returned to his milk cases. Mary, finished her work, walked out of the kitchen after him. From out in the hall they both heard Bea tell them that she didn’t expect to hear anything more or to have to come back into the kitchen.
Bill sat down again and Mary stood next to him. Bea, unbeknownst to them, went back across the kitchen and got her things before coming out into the hall.
“Damn shit,” Bea said. “We need to get rid of that Jim.”
“That would be a good idea,” said Mary.
“I hate to take a job from anyone,” said Bill. But he could no longer count on the fingers of one hand the times that he’d seen Jim hanging around the knife sheath, his eyes somewhat glazed, staring at Bill who was drinking a beer. He couldn’t count anymore the times Jim had said something about wanting a beer or about Bill thinking he was something. So even though he didn’t want to take someone’s job away, Bill knew that some time sooner or later Jim would step over the line. At different times, just looking at Jim, his waxen complexion and his long lanky body, Bill pondered things he could do to intervene to prevent that from happening.
“What you doing after work?” Mary asked.
“I might sleep over at Lorraine’s,” said Bill. “My fiancé is staying over with a friend, Tim, who’s really depressed. So I got no real reason to go all the way home. Lorraine has a good couch and it’s only minutes from here.”
“Boy, you getting married in a few months aren’t you? What the hell you doing? With Lorraine? With everyone else? Especially with me?”
Mary was looking down at Bill as she said this. Bill looked up at her. He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he reached the hand closest to her legs up under her kitchen dress. Softly, tenderly, he fondled her thigh then slipped the hand further and further up the thigh. Mary made no attempt to stop him. In fact, she moved even closer to him.
