Free Go With Me by Castle Freeman Page B

Stu.
    “That’d be Delphine,” said Stu.
    “Can’t you shut her up?” he asked.
    “You know Delphine.”
    “ Yoo-ooo-woo-wooo-wooo. ”
    “I’ll get her,” said the man by the door. He left the room. Shortly the howling next door shot up into a little shriek and then fell quickly away to silence, as when you lift a whistling teakettle quickly off the fire.
    The man sitting at the credenza took a cigarette from a package at his elbow and put it in his mouth. Stu stepped forward and lit it for him with a metal lighter. The man puffed his cigarette, and Stu closed the lighter with a loud snap and stepped back to his place. “They’re looking for Blackway,” he told the seated man.
    The man at the credenza was middle-sized. He wore a brown leather jacket. He had a round, bewildered face, and he stared at them as though he weren’t fully awake and responded to what was said to him only after a certain delay, as though he had to wait for a translation. He smoked his cigarette.
    “They’re looking for Blackway,” Stu said again.
    “Blackway isn’t here,” said the seated man.
    “You know where we can find him?” Lester asked.
    The man who had gone next door to quiet the crazy woman came back into the room and took his place by the door.
    The sleepy man at the credenza gazed at Lester, but he didn’t reply.
    “You know where Blackway is?” Lester asked him again.
    The man shook his head slowly from side to side. “You know them, at all?” he asked Stu.
    “I know him,” said Stu, looking at Lester. “Sure.”
    “Her?” the man at the credenza asked.
    “No,” said Stu. “Could get to know her, though.”
    The man in the corner grinned. Nate turned to look at Stu, but Lester put a hand on his shoulder.
    “The thing is,” said Lester, “we need to see Blackway.”
    The man at the credenza turned to him. “Blackway isn’t here,” he said again.
    “You said.”
    The other let the ash on his cigarette drop onto the carpet.
    “Uh, what do you want with Blackway?” he asked.
    “Well, the thing is, he won,” Lester said. “Didn’t he?” he asked Nate.
    “He did,” said Nate.
    The man blinked. After a moment he said, “Won?”
    “He won the raffle,” said Lester.
    “Uh, raffle?”
    “That’s right,” said Lester.“The fire department raffle. You know.”
    “I do?”
    “Blackway won it,” said Nate.
    “He won part of it,” said Lester. “Didn’t he?” he asked Nate.
    “That’s right,” Nate said. “He won the VCR.”
    “He didn’t either win the VCR,” said Lester.“He won the gas grill.”
    “That was Denny won the grill,” said Nate. “Blackway won the VCR.”
    “You’re thinking of last year,” Lester said. “Denny won the grill last year.”
    The man at the credenza gazed from one to the other of them. “VCR?” he said.
    “That was the year before,” Nate said. “Denny won the cord of wood last year.”
    “Jesus fucking Christ!” said the man beside the bed. He hadn’t spoken before, but now he said, “Jesus fucking Christ! You fucking woodchucks got all the time in the world up here, don’t you? Are we going to do some business, here, today? This week? Is this some kind of a fucking party, here?”
    “No,” said the man at the credenza. “Okay, okay,” he said to Lester. “Blackway was here. He was going by the Fort. You know the Fort? He had to see a guy at the Fort. He might be there. Or he might have gone ahead up to his place, up the mountain. His camp. You want him, I’d go to the Fort, then if he isn’t there, I’d go to his place. You know where that is?”
    “We know,” Lester said.
    The man at the credenza blinked. “I don’t,” he said. “I don’t know where that is,” he said. “Uh, you know where that is?” he asked the man standing at the door.
    “All the time in the fucking world,” the man by the bed said. “Hey, why don’t we get a few more in here? You know? We could have a party. Why don’t we send out for