Free The Bell Tolls for No One by Charles Bukowski Page A

something in the way. A batch of tin and on top of it a bottle of pills and under the bottle of pills a note scrawled on the back of an old envelope:
    Hank—
    I’m leaving this cooler
    For the fifteen collars
    I owe you—
    The pills for your tired
    Blood
    The panties to smell
    While you masturbate—
    Carol
    Hank hooked the back door, threw the latch on the porch door and walked out front.
    â€œLet’s go.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œYour place would be nice.”
    â€œSure, but don’t you want to wait for a phone call?”
    â€œThere won’t be a phone call.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œI told you: one loves, the other decides.”
    â€œDon’t be so dramatic.”
    They got into the car and drove off. She turned down Normandie.
    â€œWait,” said Hank, “I’ve got a pair of panties in my pocket. I wonder if they’d fit you?”
    â€œDon’t get vicious with me,” she said.
    â€œI’m not getting vicious.”
    â€œI know you’re not.”
    â€œLook, we’re not even shacked and we’re having our first argument,” Hank said.
    â€œLook,” she said, “it’s a beautiful evening.”
    â€œYes.”
    She took Franklin to Bronson, then up north on Bronson.
    â€œAnd look—there’s a Backyard Sale! Let’s go to the Backyard Sale. You buy me something and I’ll buy you something,” Vicki said.
    They got out and walked up the drive. There was a hippy-looking guy and a young girl sitting way up the drive. As they passed a row of shrubs he took the panties out of his pocket and threw them into the brush. They hooked on a lower branch. They were yellow and they swung slightly in the breeze.
    He took her hand. She looked handsome, like a woman who knew things, or a woman who wanted to. He supposed he’d find out.

J oe went in to take a shower and when he came out naked there was another guy on the bed and the guy had his clothes on and he was kissing with Julie. The guy looked at Joe and then kept on kissing. Julie had gotten dressed and so there they were both dressed and kissing while Joe stood there watching.
    The guy’s cock was hard and Julie reached for it, grabbed it. Then she pulled the zipper back and got it out and began tonguing it. Joe’s cock began to get hard. Then Julie had the guy’s penis in her mouth, working on it. The guy just groaned and stretched out there. The sunlight from the window glanced off and on of Julie’s head as it bobbed. Joe began masturbating. He stood right over them and began to masturbate. Then the guy came and Julie got it and then Joe pulled her head off of his tool and worked his penis into her mouth and then he came and Julie got that too.
    Julie went to the bathroom. When she came out the guy was zipped and sitting in a chair smoking a cigarette. Joe was dressed except for getting his shoes on.
    Julie said, “Joe, this is Artie. Artie, this is Joe.”
    They shook hands.
    â€œIt finally rained the other day,” said Joe. “It was good to get that rain. First in about a year.”
    â€œYeah,” said Artie, “we needed that rain.”
    â€œI’m hungry,” said Julie, “let’s go get something to eat.” Joe got his shoes on and they walked outside. They turned south and then right and they were on the boardwalk. There was a young black guy walking toward them. Julie drifted out as if she didn’t see him and she walked into him.
    Julie said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you.”
    â€œThat’s all right.” said the black guy.
    Julie put her face real close to his. As close as she could get without touching. Her body was the same way.
    â€œI should watch where I’m walking,” she laughed. She stood there and stared deeply into the black guy’s face.
    Neither of them said anything. They just stood there like that.
    When Julie walked back over to Artie