I had just settled into a chair at a table where I could see everything that was going on in the bar, when Maggie walked through the front door. She looked around, trying to see who was in the bar and I lifted my hand to get her attention. She looked as sweet as always, her hair not quite combed and her clothes maybe a little tight on her, and she smiled when she saw me. “Hey, Petey”, she said as she walked up and bent down to give me a kiss. “Hi babe”. I gave her a squeeze and she walked over to Ray, the bartender, to get a brew to match mine. Her shift at Walmart had just ended and she had made it to the Buzzard with time to spare. Maggie made me feel good inside. Just seeing her always made me feel good. We had been together for almost eleven months now and we got along great. At the same time though, I always had the feeling that it might not be permanent. Maybe it was because she’d had so many relationships and a few one night stands over the years with so many of the men in town and in the surrounding towns. I always felt that if they’d all come and gone, maybe I was just the most recent in a long chain. What the hell though. What’s good is good while it’s good, so there’s no use in worrying about it. She stopped and talked to Jesus a minute, putting her arm around him while they talked and then sat down next to me and started telling me about her day. Thankfully she wasn’t the type who disgorged every detail of every little thing that had happened during her shift. She had good judgment about what to share and kept me laughing with some of the oddball things that she had experienced that day. I gave her the little neck rub I knew she wanted after a day of work and we drank our beers. Johnny Ace’s girlfriend came over and sat down and she and Maggie started chatting about this and that.
Eleven of us had arrived by that time but Simon and Jimmy hadn’t shown up yet. While seven or eight of us had known each other since elementary school, Jesus had added the rest over the years. There had been a few others as well whom Jesus had brought into the fold, but they had gradually moved on. The thirteen of us that were left were a solid group. The only one I had any misgivings about at all was Judas. Jesus had met Judas while in his early twenties and they got work together sometimes. He had always seemed like a pretty good guy, but recently I had heard that his brother was cooking meth in his home a couple of counties south and worse, I heard that Judas was involved in the family business. I had sat with Jesus over a beer a few months earlier and told him what I knew. Jesus looked down at his glass a long while after hearing what I had said. Finally he sat back, cocked his head to one side, and lit a cigarette and looked at me. “Judas has his temptations, Pete”. He looked directly into my eyes for a few long moments and then added “We all do, don’t we?” I got the distinct impression that he knew something about me that I hadn’t realized he was aware of. We never spoke of Judas’ problems again.
As I sat next to Maggie and thought of that conversation, the front door opened again. Two men walked in but it wasn’t our late buddies. I saw that it was Jody Wayne Kayrood and his cretin cousin Monk. Jody Wayne spotted Bart at a table and walked directly up to him before even looking around the room. Bart stood up when he saw JW approaching. Jody Wayne had been trouble for as long as I could remember. He had a quick mind, a quick mouth, and a quick temper. He liked to fight and didn’t need much of an excuse to get started. Monk was a giant of a man and was as slow witted as JW was sharp, but he would do whatever Jody Wayne told him to do and he liked to break people up. Apparently they had spotted Bart’s pickup out front and come charging in. “Where’s my money, bitch?” Jody Wayne spoke directly to Bart. “Where’s the 200 dollars?” Bart shook his head and held his hands out, “Shit, JW, I don’t have it yet, OK? I told you, I don’t have it yet. But I’ll get it.” Andy and Luke stopped playing and drifted over near the table, holding their cue sticks. Some of the other guys walked over near the table too.
The two fools hadn’t realized the bar was full of Bart’s friends, probably because some of the other boys had parked their trucks at the side too. But it was too late now. Jody Wayne and Bart faced each other, and Monk hunkered nearby. Quiet came over the room as the two men stared at each other. The only movement came from Ray who was slowly reaching under the towels behind the counter to get the Glock. I knew Ray didn’t want to shoot anybody and probably wouldn’t but he didn’t want his place busted up either. He knew that nobody in the room would be able to pay for it or willing to pay either. We all waited for the inevitable.
Out of the stillness we heard two words. The words were spoken so quietly that they were almost inaudible. “Jody Wayne”. It was Jesus.
We all looked his way. He was leaned back against the bar, twisting and untwisting a straw and looking down at his hands. He looked up as he spoke again. “Jody Wayne, Bart talked to me last night. He knows he owes you the money and he plans to get it. He doesn’t have it right now but he’ll come up with it.”
Before Jesus spoke up, Jody Wayne had had two choices. He could forget the whole thing for now and walk out with Monk. But there was no way he would do that. That would be running. Or he could go ahead and poke Bart in the chest and then start eating cue sticks. But now Jesus offered him a way out.
He turned to Jesus. As he did so, he saw Maggie sitting at our table and gave her a wink and a smile. Black blood anger rose in my head and for the first time that day, like the rest of the guys, I felt like jumping this shithead. I knew Jody Wayne had seen Maggie’s feet up in the air a few times and his wink was in my face. I glanced at Maggie and was grateful that she didn’t embarrass me by responding in any way.