by Micki L. Bailey

The remainder of the day’s journey progressed along in silence, allowing the atmosphere inside the Explorer to simmer down and eventually cool off. Maggie had managed to master her feelings and collect herself once again by gazing out the window at the view. Earl Ray remained quiet as he drove on.

Just after dark, they stopped in a small town in the middle of California and ate dinner in a surprisingly good little café. Conversation between them was light and hesitant.

Then they found a decent-looking motor lodge and got side-by-side rooms. After deciding to leave out early the next morning, they said “goodnight” and parted company.

Maggie took a steamy, relaxing shower and then stretched out across the bed to phone Roger as she had promised. She carefully omitted the unpleasant fight with Earl Ray because 1) she didn’t want to cause Roger any unnecessary concern, and 2) she didn’t want to rehash it all over again in her own mind. Hearing his soothing voice was doing wonders for her stressed psyche.

Not long after that tranquilizing and restorative phone call, Maggie heard the knocking on her door. Knowing it was Earl Ray, she threw on her robe and opened the door.

“Hey, Maggie. You got a minute? I need to talk to ya.” His expression and tone both told her that he was troubled.

“Sure. C’mon in.” She stepped aside, but he didn’t move.

“Naw, I’m not coming in there…….Let’s take a walk. It’s nice out here.”

“Well……give me a minute to jump back into my jeans. Okay?”

“I’ll wait out here,” he said.

Once outside, they strolled over to the motel’s now empty playground. Maggie patiently waited for him to begin speaking. Finally, he did.

“You were right, Mags.”

“About what? That you’re an asshole, Earl Ray?”

“All right. I deserve that. I am an asshole……But I meant that you were dead-on when you said I needed to vent some anger on you……for everything that went on three years ago.”

“You never got pissed at me, not even once. Remember? You were always just broken-hearted and sad. I expected you to scream and yell at me then…….even wished you would after what I did to you…….but you didn’t,” she said, looking down at the ground.

“Not ‘til now……I guess it all just built up like a pressure cooker. Just like you said. And I was a real dick this afternoon.”

“It needed to come out, Earl Ray. You know that.”

“Not like it did, Maggie. Not to hurt you…….I’m sorry. I shoulda blown off the steam some other fucking way.”

She giggled. “There’s your answer…….fucking.”

“Is that an invitation?”

She stopped and looked at him sharply. “You’re STILL an asshole.”

“Just joking, babe………Hey, do ya havta tell Roger ‘bout our little spat today? I’m guessing he wouldn’t like it too damn much.”

“I already told him. When I called him tonight,” she said, solemnly.

“Aw, hell, Maggie. Why? He’ll kill me in my sleep.”

“No, he’ll want you to know it’s him.” She giggled again.

“Great. Really damn great.” He sounded resigned to a horrible fate.

“Just joking, babe.” And now she laughed out loud.

He turned and stared at her. “Very fucking funny, Maggie. I’m glad it’s Lococco who has to put up with your smartass now.”

Back at her room door, Earl Ray apologized again and promised that he’d pull no more surprise rants on her. Then he kissed her lightly on her cheek and went into his own room quickly.

Maggie felt tension coming from him and sensed his determination to not touch her any more than necessary. And she wondered if his will power and self-control were really that fragile. Was being alone with her that much of a temptation for him? Was she making him that uncomfortable? She fell asleep pondering whether or not this trip had been a good idea.

* * *

They “swung through” Pasadena the following day to check out the ’64 Mustang. Knowing very little and caring even less about such matters, Maggie smiled politely and bided her time as Earl Ray conducted business with the car’s owner. He was more of his old self today. Gone were the anxiousness and insecurity.

“Roger’s gonna love this baby, Maggie. She’s everything he’s been wanting and more,” he said once they were on their way again.

Maggie suddenly found two items about what he’d just said very interesting. One: that Earl Ray had adopted a feminine pronoun for the car now that he’d gone over it. And two: how ironic it was that he knew more about something Roger “wanted” than she did.

He called Roger then, using the cell phone that Roger had bought for him and insisted he use while they were working together. (Earl Ray still shunned most modern technology gadgets.) He described the car to Roger in great detail and relayed to him everything the owner had said.

It was decided that Roger would contact the owner and work things out from there. It was also decided that Maggie would not be driving the car back to Portland for insurance and safety purposes.

“You didn’t care much about it anyway, didya, baby?” he’d said to her on the cell phone.

How had he known? How did he always know what she was thinking? She smiled and handed the phone back to Earl Ray.

Then, later in the day, they arrived at their final destination: Tucson, Arizona. Well, it was actually a bustling little community just west of Tucson, just far enough from the madding crowd of the big city. Earl Ray drove around and showed Maggie what he knew of the town.

After the brief tour, he took her to the house he’d rented and lived in during his months in Arizona. It was a small, A-frame wooden house, quaint and neat. Maggie saw it as a reflection of him – sturdy and efficient, but also very pleasant to look at.

“Ah, it ain’t much, but I liked it,” he said as they walked inside.

The house had come moderately furnished, and Maggie could see that Earl Ray had done very little to enhance the surroundings with any personal touches of his own. She guessed that he hadn’t felt much like homemaking when he’d landed in Tucson.

She was in the bedroom filling up boxes they’d brought with items he had specified when she heard a woman’s voice, calling out Earl Ray’s name, coming from the front of the house. Then she heard Earl Ray come out of the kitchen to greet the voice’s owner. When she couldn’t make out what they were saying, she nonchalantly wandered up the hallway and into the room where they were.

The visitor was a petite and pretty woman, maybe thirty years old, with hair the shade of blonde that borders on white. She was no stranger to Earl Ray – Maggie entered the room just as they were finishing up a close embrace. To her amazement, Maggie felt a tiny stab of jealousy. Earl Ray saw her, and she hoped he hadn’t noticed her silent reaction.

“Sweetie, come in here and meet Audrey. Audrey, this is my ex-wife and traveling companion—”

“Maggie! I’ve heard so much about you that I feel like I know you already!” She smiled largely and held out her hand to Maggie.

Maggie took the hand and spoke politely, but she was slightly confused. Had Earl Ray failed to mention to this woman his more recent ex-wife? Apparently, he had. For whatever reason.

“Honey, Audrey has been very kind to me here in Arizona.” Yeah, I’ll bet, she thought, surprising herself with her own pettiness.

After a few minutes of idle chit-chat, Maggie excused herself and went back to packing, leaving Earl Ray and Audrey to their personal conversation. Strangely, she’d felt unnecessary there with them, like an intruder.

After Audrey had left, Earl Ray walked back to the bedroom where Maggie was sitting on the bed folding some clothes. He watched her until she looked up at him in the doorway.

“Ya didn’t like her, didya?”

She attempted a shocked expression. “Who cares if I liked her or not? I’ll probably never see her again in my life! What does it matter?”

“C’mon, Maggie. I saw the way you looked at her.”

“Give me a break, Earl Ray. Who the hell was she anyway?”

“Just somebody I was………seeing………while I was here,” he said.

Maggie looked back down at her task. She’d developed a lump in her throat. “Seeing?”

“C’mon, Maggie. A man gets…….urges. He has needs.”

“That’s enough, Earl Ray. You don’t havta explain to me. Besides, she’s cute………so blonde………and so small!”

He laughed. “Yeah, and she’s QUIET too! What a change for me, huh?”

“She was up to par for you. I approve,” she said.

“No, you don’t. That’s bullshit, baby. You wanna keep me around, stringing me along just for your own purposes……..for the rest of our lives…….even if I’m NOT your choice golden boy anymore. That’s why you called me from Portland, isn’t it, angel? ‘Cause one man worshipping at your feet ain’t enough, is it, Maggie? And you knew I’d high-tail it back to you as soon as you peeped.”

He spoke softly, but the words hit Maggie like bullets. She didn’t want to get angry and fight again. She couldn’t take any more of his cruelty. So she jumped up off the bed and tried to rush past him out the door. But he caught her, grabbing her shoulders with both of his strong hands, and forcefully pushed her back against the door’s frame.

They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, both of them breathing heavily. Maggie felt like a small, defenseless animal trapped in a hunter’s cage. When Earl Ray moved closer to her, pressing his body against hers, she could smell him. She knew better than to struggle, he was holding her upper arms so tightly. She felt perspiration break out on her forehead and between her breasts. Her knees trembled a little.

He bent forward with a wild look in his eyes. He was different somehow, scary. Maggie felt his breath on her face. She whispered, “Please don’t do this, Earl Ray. You’ll regret—”

But she couldn’t get anything else out because he had covered her mouth with his own, kissing her deeply and fervently. A long, slow, sweet, wet, lingering kiss. Like in the movies. And his body rubbed against hers.

She didn’t fight him. She kissed him back. Either out of fear or something she couldn’t identify. Maybe because it felt natural, familiar.

The single kiss was the extent of the passion. He raised his head up and let go of her arms. But he continued to stare at her, the wild expression gone from his eyes now. She held his gaze, still slightly afraid.

“I couldn’t help myself, baby. Just wanted to see if you still felt and tasted the same……….and you do,” he whispered to her and smiled.

She swallowed a huge gulp of air. “Is that it, or are you planning to go further?”

“Ah, I’d love to go further, Mags…….but I don’t think you want to. And I’d never force you.”

“I shouldn’t have come on this trip. It was a mistake. I’m sorry I’ve caused problems for you,” she said. She had looked down but not moved away from the door.

Earl Ray raised her face back up with his index finger. “This wasn’t a mistake, sweetheart……..Now let’s finish packing this shit up and get the hell outta here.”

The tense air returned to normal. Their small moment of passion was not mentioned again. They resumed their previous roles with each other and went about the business at hand.

Maggie was rolling the whole thing over in her mind – her own jealous reactions, his hateful words to her, and the kiss itself – and she was sure he was doing the same. But neither brought the subject out into the open again.

She waited in the Explorer while Earl Ray made one more stop in town. Then they started the long trek northward, back to Portland. Back to Roger, Maggie was thinking.

They ate and lodged at another small town somewhere in the mid-section of California. But they both stayed in their respective rooms this time, no walks on the playground after dark.

Maggie lay on the bed and phoned Roger again. Not because she had said she would, but because she wanted to hear his reassuring voice again. Guilt was washing over her soul like high tide, and she struggled to keep it out of her voice. He gave no sign of noticing anything odd, and told her that he had a surprise waiting for her. She felt better, of course, after talking to him.

Just before they hit the greater metropolitan Portland area the next day, Earl Ray stunned Maggie, who had been staring silently out the window. His question came right out of the blue.

“You really didn't like Audrey, did you, Maggie?”

She caught her breath and looked down. “No, I didn’t. You satisfied?”

“And the kiss……….It was nice, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah……It was nice.” Her voice was barely audible.

“Now I’m satisfied.”

Roger was waiting, as he’d promised, at Earl Ray’s apartment when they pulled in. He was sporting all black, even his black leather jacket. And Maggie swooned. She grabbed him and hugged him close to her, soaking in his warmth. She was also thankful that his presence had thwarted any final heart-felt conversation she might have had with Earl Ray.

Earl Ray hardly looked at her as they said “good-bye” and went their separate ways. She was already wondering how their day-to-day relations might be affected by the events of this trip.

As they drove home, Roger reached over and took a small box out of the Benz’s glove compartment in front of her. “Here you go, sweets. Welcome back.”

Inside the box she found a thick, 22-inch gold necklace with a larger-than-average diamond solitaire hanging on it. She gasped. “God, Roger, this is gorgeous.”

“Just a little something for you, baby.”

“What’s it for? What’s the occasion?”

“Oh, I just took all the money we might have spent on baby bottles, diapers, stollers,……..a college education, and all the rest of that shit and spent it on this instead.”

Maggie laughed. “Thank you, honey.”

“You can thank me later.” He winked at her.

When they were home, she had headed off to their bedroom to take an endless shower. But Roger stopped her. “Oh, yeah, Maggie……..There’s someone here to see you.”

For one split second, she had a bright vision of Scottie walking into the room with his evil, mocking smile and his dancing, devilish eyes. Her heart turned over. No, that couldn’t happen, she remembered quickly. Scottie’s…….gone.

“Hello, beautiful,” she heard.

She followed the voice, recognizing it already. Vinnie Terranova was strutting into the room from the study with his Elvis grin and his deep, dark eyes.

“Where’ve you been all my life?”

She returned his grin as he hugged her. It was good to see him. “I’ve been on a long road trip to Tucson, Vinnie. And I don’t ever want to go back.”