Free Dirty Rice by Gerald Duff Page B

early.”
    â€œY’all got to line up to get your money?” Mike Gonzales said.
    â€œNaw, I don’t mean getting into an actual line,” Dynamite said. “I just mean she lets me know when to start asking folks early about the payday that’s coming up. You know, just letting them know I want my money as soon as I can get my hands on it.”
    â€œThat situation sounds pretty weak to me,” Mike said.
    â€œIt’s as weak as maiden’s piss, boys,” Dynamite said. “I got to admit, but this’un here is the only game in town. He will tell you that whenever the subject comes up, too. Check me on this after y’all been here awhile. See if I’m lying.”
    â€œDutch Bernson?” I said. “That’s who you talking about?”
    â€œNo, not Dutch. Hell, no. Tony Guidry’s who I mean.”
    I asked Dynamite if Tony Guidry was a coach I hadn’t met yet.
    â€œTony is not a coach of no sort,” Dynamite said. “He got too much sense for that. He has what you might call a financial interest in the Rayne Rice Birds, Gemar. He is the man who calls the shots around here. Complain about something to him, and he will listen to you as long as you want to talk, smiling just as sweet as a coconut pie, and he’ll let you go on talking until you run down. And then you know what Tony’ll say?”
    â€œWhat?” Mike Gonzales said.
    â€œHe’ll say something like this. Son, times is hard. It is a shame. It’s what they call a depression going on, and it’s got this country by the short hairs. The Rice Birds is not immune to what’s going on everywhere around us in the economy. It breaks my heart to say it, but this is the only game in town. Son, if you want to make a living playing baseball, here it is. Do you, son, want to play baseball and get paid for it?”
    â€œDamn,” Mike Gonzales said.
    â€œYeah,” Dynamite said. “Discussion closed, boys, and the matter’s done been covered. Let’s don’t think about that, but do keep yourselves close and available when payday rolls by and the eagle tries to work that scream out of his big old yellow beak.”
    By that time, everybody that was going to come out of the clubhouse had come out, I reckoned, so I asked Mike Gonzales if he was ready for me to show him where we’d be rooming together in Miz Doucette’s place on Serenity Street.
    â€œYeah,” Dynamite said, breaking in before Mike could even say yes he was ready for me to show him our way home, “y’all go over there to Velma’s, eat your supper, and then meet me at the Green Frog right up yonder on the road the other side of the courthouse. You can’t miss it. Just keep walking until you see the picture of the big old frog about to eat a fly that’s landed on his tongue.”
    â€œI still ain’t got no money,” I said. “Will they just let you sit and look?”
    â€œFunny you ask that,” he said and laughed. “It’s things to look at, all right. You are for sure going to see that. I’ll stand your drinks tonight and you can pay me back.”
    â€œWhen the eagle screams,” Mike Gonzales said, and we started up Serenity Street.

7

    I had the key that Miz Doucette gave me to let myself in when she wasn’t around, but I figured I ought to knock on the door since it was still good daylight. Mike Gonzales was standing close behind me, kind of jiggling up and down. I looked over at him to see what he was doing.
    â€œMy nerves is always on edge when I meet new people,” he said. I didn’t say anything back and I turned back to look at the screen when I heard it rattle from somebody lifting up the latch. I was expecting Miz Velma Doucette, but it wasn’t her. Not by a long shot.
    It was a woman all right, and I could tell her last name was probably Doucette since she had something in her coloring and the way her