Chet The Dog

Posts Tagged ‘Ray’

Life

“Oh, no,” Tulip said. “My car won’t start and I have to get back to work.” She sat behind the wheel of a little car in the motel parking lot. The car made whirr-whirr noises. I knew those noises from adventures in the Porsche. Bernie got a look in his eye. I got the idea he was thinking of taking out the tools, a move I’d seen many times, never successful.

But Ray beat him to it. “Let me have a look,” he said. He popped the hood of Tulip’s car, huddled over the engine, and after what seemed like a very short time, said, “Try it again.”

Tulip tried it again. Hey! It started right up. Ray closed the hood.

“Thanks, Ray,” Tulip said. She gave him a sort of look, hard to describe. “But what if I break down on the way?”

“That won’t happen,” Ray said.

“But what if it does?”

“Uh,” Ray said, “I could go with you.”

“Would you really?” said Tulip. “That’s so nice.”

Ray turned to Bernie. “I’ll call you later,” Bernie said.

Ray got in the car with Tulip. They drove off. Bernie gave me a quick pat. “Life is full of surprises, Chet.”

And that was just one of the great things about it!

On The Job (Revised)

Tulip was staying at a dusty little motel that reminded me of the place where we first came across Marvin Winkleman’s wife. And the guy she was meeting out there, which turned out to be a big surprise. That’s in To Fetch A Thief, so forget it for now. The point is Bernie and I drove in the Porsche and Tulip drove Ray in her car.

“Wow,” Tulip said, when we were all together outside her door. “Astrid doesn’t look nearly old enough to have a full-grown kid like Ray. Full-grown man, I should say.”

Sometimes when humans get uncomfortable they shift from foot to foot, men more than women and young men like Ray the most. Ray was doing it now. “She was pretty young when she had me,” he said.

“And she’s such a good dancer, too,” said Tulip. She unlocked the door and we went inside. “Hey,” she said. “That’s funny.”

Clubbing (3)

“It’s about a dancer who used to work here,” Bernie said, “and maybe still does. In fact, I hope she does.”

The bouncer gazed down at Bernie. “Don’t hear so good, do you, bud?”

“That’s such a tough-guy cliche, that don’t-hear-so-good-thing,” Bernie said. “You need new material.”

The bouncer’s face – this was at Club Utopia, by the way, and we were hunting for Astrid Jason, whose son Ray was waiting in the car, on account of that was what Bernie told him to do – swelled up and got red. Always interesting when that happens, so I was ready when the bouncer put his huge hands on Bernie’s chest and gave him a push.

“Chet!” Bernie said, staggering back a bit but  not falling. “Stay!”

Stay? I know stay, of course, pretty basic, but was this a good moment for staying?

Spencer Quinn schedule, more to come:

Friday, July 30, 10-12 AM – Brewster Books, Brewster MA.

Saturday, August 21, 4:15 PM – BarkWorldExpo, Atlantic Station, Atlanta GA.

Sept. 3-5 – Decatur Book Festival, Decatur GA (exact time to come).

September 17-19 – Salem Book Festival, Salem MA (exact time to come).