Educational Experience

Chapter Twenty-Three

Yep, it's the "kitchen sink" draft for sure, but I'm getting closer to the big climax. I deliberately included the little minutia of Wyatt cooking and Colt taking Maddie to get ornaments for her little tree and all--I think you'll understand why. And Officer Friendly's back and crazier than ever--that'll get us where we need to go later, so just enjoy the ride! The end is near...or nearer!

23.

           

“This isn’t bad,” I said, after I’d walked through the little apartment Maddie and Yuri already had.

It was a nice size for two. Nice neighborhood, also—I wasn’t expecting that.

But it was almost completely empty, unfortunately. Just a mattress in the bedroom, a TV, computer and futon couch in the living room on the floor and two stools next to the little breakfast nook thing in the wall between the living room and kitchen. Bare white walls. Clean, for sure. No junk laying around anywhere—a couple of empty Stoli bottles on the floor by the TV, but that was it.

 “You’re not sellin’ to pay for this, are you?” I asked Maddie.

She got sort of fidgety when I asked that. And after she glanced at Wyatt, she quit making eye contact with either of us.

“I’m just…it’s a favor for somebody,” she said. “I’m not, like…into it, or anything. Not long term.”

“Anyone I know?”

She ran her hands through her hair, hugged herself and said, “C’mon! I told you it’s not something—I don’t wanna talk about it, okay? It’s…I just needed a little help the one time. To get by, you know? To get…what I need.”

I walked over to her and she tensed up like she thought I was going to slap her or something. Which told me something I didn’t like about Yuri.

But I let that go and just hugged her, even though she tensed up a lot at first. And I held on until she relaxed into it. She smelled like those Corn Nuts things—silly thing to notice, but you know me. I’m always noticing weird things like that.

Maybe it was because Wyatt smelled like fancy soap. You know, the stuff made out of all kinds of fruits and oils that look like somebody cut it up into big, clunky looking bars with a meat cleaver. They look all wonky, but they cost a fortune.

The girls buy them from this mall store that looks like an old timey general store with the big wooden barrels and whatnot. They’re just dumped into these wooden basket things like they were apples or something. You get a little shopping basket to dump things in, like at the grocery store, too. I think you even pay by the pound, because the bars aren’t all the same size.

But I guess they’re supposed to be more “natural” than the name brands you buy at Safeway or something. And it sort of figured that Wyatt would be into that kind of thing. Natural things, I mean—natural scents. I couldn’t see her at one of those rich bitch perfume counters, Wyatt. That wouldn’t be her speed at all.

I gave Maddie’s bony back a good rub, and she leaned into it like a cat—I was almost waiting for her to purr. Over her shoulder, I could see Wyatt watching with that “Awwwwww” face women get when you do something they think is really sweet or cute or something. I gave her a little wink, and she smiled and headed for the kitchen to give us a little private time.

So when we finally let go of each other, Maddie wiped her eyes and shrugged and said, “That rehab place is expensive. That Sierra Tucson.”