Page 68 of Going Home in the Dark

Rebecca watched with interest as Spencer avoided going near the bed where a man had died, which he’d claimed that his faithrequired of him. He perched on the second stool, however, which was intended for a visitor to Butch’s former roommate. He and Rebecca were at eye level with Butch, but on different sides of his bed. She wondered what Spencer would say if Butch asked why he was permitted to sit on the dead man’s stool but not on the edge of the dead man’s bed.

Spencer said, “There seems to be at least a mini epidemic of toe disease. I just met a fellow in your condition.”

Butch took mild offense. “I don’t have a disease. What I have is a condition.”

“A toe condition,” Spencer said.

“That’s right.”

“What did you do?”

“There’s nothing you do that causes such a condition. It just happens to you. Like a meteor slams into you or a python falls onto you from out of a tree and strangles you. You didn’t go asking for it to happen to you.”

“What are the symptoms?” Spencer asked.

“You’ll know what the symptoms are if it happens to you. God forbid. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Of course. Thoughtless of me. What shall we talk about?”

He looked at Rebecca, but she only shrugged.

Butch said, “What if you’re where there’s only one bathroom, they hauled a dead guy out an hour ago, and you’ve got to pee bad?”

“I’d leave that place and go somewhere else.”

“What if you couldn’t hold it, you had to goright now?”

“Well ... I guess I’d pee out the window.”

“We’re on the third floor. What if there were a lot of people below, having dinner?”

“Why would there be people having dinner?”

“Maybe it’s a restaurant patio.”

“Then I’d pee in a bottle.”

“Where are you gonna get a bottle so quick?”

“There are bottles everywhere.”

“There’s not one in this room,” Butch observed.

“There’s the water carafe on your nightstand.”

“What’re you going to do with the water in it?”

“I guess I’d have to pour it on the folks having dinner below.”

“They’ll be happy it wasn’t pee.”

“Exactly.”

To Rebecca, Butch said, “Do you go to the same church he does?”

“No.”

Butch nodded with what seemed like approval. “I keep thinking I know you from someplace.”

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