“This is pretty good pot,” Shelton said. “It’s decent anyways.”
“I’m going to crack the window a smidge,” said Zeke. “But only because I can’t tell the smoke from the snow.”
“If you don’t mind,” Shelton said. “I could use a ride home.”
“Sure,” Zeke said. “What happened that you’re out walking in this mess anyway?”
“My sled run out of gas.”
“That sucks,” said Zeke.
Shelton shrugged.
“You know you could come up to the casino if you wanted,” Zeke said. “Sometimes there’s some women to be had. Divorcées mostly. If not, I know some of the waitresses. We could get a room and see if we can’t make a day of it. People up there like to party. I met a couple once and the husband wanted me to fuck his wife. It was like a Robert Redford situation.”
“Robert Redford?”
“From that movie. Where he wants to fuck Woody Harrelson’s wife. Except this was opposite because this guy wanted me to fuck his own wife. He was going to watch and requested I keep my wig on and there wasn’t no money involved. It was not a paying proposition.”
“Did you do it?”
“Hell no.”
“Too weird?”
“Too weird,” Zeke said. “But also ’cause the wife was ugly.”
“If she was hot, would you have?”
“I can’t say I wouldn’t have.”
“Yeah,” Shelton said. “That’s probably the deciding factor.”
“So what do you say? You want to come up and see if we can’t wreck some shit?”
“It sounds good,” Shelton said. “But I’ve got some things to do around the house.”
“Yeah,” said Zeke. “I know how that is.”
“How’s your old lady?”
“June?” Zeke said. “She’s mean as ever. I think she’s fucking somebody else. She’s always online hammering away at the keyboard, then when I come in the room she closes out the screen. Thinks I don’t notice.”
“That’s too bad.”
“She comes and goes. There’s whole days I don’t see her.”
“Does she go to your shows?”
“Hell no,” Zeke said. “She thinks the whole thing is childish. She can’t believe a grown man wants to spend all his time pretending to be someone else. That’s her word for it, ‘pretending.’”
“She don’t support you?”
“No,” Zeke said. “She doesn’t. Not anymore.”
“I had a girl like that once,” Shelton said.
“She’s got me trapped,” Zeke said. He gave his collar a gentle tug, adjusted the line of the flare in the rearview.
“Sometimes I feel like life don’t have no point to it,” Shelton said. “If you want to know the truth.”
“I feel like I’ve been living underwater,” Zeke said. “Like I can’t hardly breathe.”
“You’re drowning,” said Shelton.
“The saddest part is, I’ve started to question myself. That’s the real tragedy.”
“Sometimes when I’m happy,” said Shelton. “It don’t seem real. Sometimes the sadness is the only thing that feels true.”
“What’s true,” Zeke said. “Is that June left me a while ago. She left me without ever leaving the house. And I have no idea what I’m going to do about any of it.”
“Life ain’t what they made it out to be in school,” said Shelton.
“That’s a fact,” Zeke said.
“My girl will probably leave me soon,” said Shelton. “If I don’t find her baby.”
“Do what, now?”
“My girl, Kayla. Her baby went missing here last night. I was out on the sled looking for her when I run out of gas.”
“What do you mean, a baby?”
“A baby,” said Shelton. “In diapers.”
“Went missing?”
“I woke up and she was gone. Like she just up and flew away.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“Gone,” Shelton said. “She got took is what happened. That’s the only thing I can figure.”
“Shit,” said Zeke. “That’s fucked up. Wait. Are you being serious right now?”
“As serious as I can be.”
“I’m starting to feel a little stoned, so I’m trying to make sure I’m understanding all this correctly. You say your girl has a baby in diapers and that it has gone missing here this morning and that you think it has been abducted? Like somebody come and took it?”
“It happened last night sometime,” Shelton said. “But, yeah. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“And you’re not fucking with me?”
“I would not,” Shelton said. “Not about this.”
“Hell’s bells,” Zeke said. “I just seen a special on this. On television. There was a special investigative report. It had to do with the human slave trade.”
“Slave trade?”
“Sex slaves, man. Like these sick fucks steal babies and sell them down in Mexico. They raise them up to be prostitutes.”
“In Mexico?”
“It’s an international trade,” said Zeke. “But it’s big down there in Mexico. Mexico and Russia. Those are the main two on account of their economy and general lawlessness.”
“Motherfucker,” Shelton said.