Free Angels by Denis Johnson Page A

the hat tossed him three twenties, made his other payments and collections, and threw down another round of cards. “Limit’s fifteen,” he said blackly to Houston. “Okay, this go-round I’m handing everybody shit.” He gave them their upcards. Bill Houston took back his thirty dollars and laid out a ten and a five. He showed a queen, and there were chuckles. “It just all depends, don’t it?” the dealer said. He presented a jovial face, but it was clear he was deeply angry.
    Miranda was overjoyed to be sitting in the cab’s front seat. “Mama, what do these numbers say?” “Keep your hands off the meter, honey,” the driver told her. “I thought I died,” Jamie said, talking to Baby Ellen in her lap. Ned Higher-and-Higher kept reaching up under her skirt to squeeze her bare thigh. Jamie pushed her face against the freezing window, and that was as far away from him as she could go. “You know something?” Ned said to the cab driver, “I’ve seen you before. Where have I seen you?” “Just keep the kid in her seat,” the driver said, “what do you want to put a little kid up front for?” “Hey, if you don’t like it, we can stop right now,” Ned Higher-and-Higher said. “ Ma -ma, what do these num bers say? Is this a little TV scream?” Miranda said. Ned Higher-and-Higher started laughing. “Aaaaah, shit, ” the cab driver remarked to nobody. Jamie could not stop weeping and weeping. “Loosen up,” Ned Higher-and-Higher said. “It’s not like you’re a virgin, is it? I’m just a seducer, that’s all. I’m just a destroyer. You know something?” he said, pinching her thigh and then making his fingers walk around on Baby Ellen’s head, “I never met your boyfriend. I mean, every body has a tattoo, right? Every body drinks. Ha ha ha!” He leaned forward, arms draped over the front seat. “Was it in the Baghdad Lounge? Used to be the Thief of Baghdad? Do you ever go there?” When the driver failed to answer, he sat back. “I know I’ve seen you,” he said. To Jamie he said: “I really fooled you, didn’t I?” Out in the world, the streets whirled around them like the blades of a fan. “You have to admit,” he said, “I can really charm the ladies.”
    When the cab stopped, he took her chin in both his hands. “Now, we’re going to go in there and get you a room. You’re going to go in that room and stay there all night and don’t leave . You shut up!” he said suddenly to the driver. And to Jamie: “All right. Let’s go.”
    She stood in a hallway while he rang bells and talked to people she didn’t see. Miranda tried to put her arms around her mother’s legs and go to sleep standing up, but Jamie said, “Don’t touch me.”
    â€œThis way,” Ned Higher-and-Higher said.
    They were standing in front of a door. At the end of the hall another door stood open, and beyond, a greying bathtub with the paws of an animal. Then they were standing in a room, and Miranda was lying down on the bed. “Where’s the seat? The infant seat for Ellen?” Jamie said.
    â€œThe hell with it. Put her on the bed,” Ned Higher-and-Higher told her, and she put the baby on the bed immediately.
    He took hold of her right hand and wrapped her fingers around some money and stood looking intently into her eyes. She wondered what was going to happen. “Do not leave this room until morning,” he said, “do you understand? Do not leave.” She nodded. Part of the room was getting closer, and part was getting unimaginably far away. “Maybe we could get together again,” he said, “huh?”
    Jamie sat on the bed.
    â€œYou mad?” Ned Higher-and-Higher said. “Hey—you mad?”
    She studied her hand. Things were out of reach. Her