Anthony, Piers The Gutbucket Quest

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no reason to be here at all."
They walked to the stage, thinking that's where they'd find Progress and their other friends. "You
ever get freaked out by the audiences?" Slim asked absently.
"No," Nadine replied. "About the worst I ever get is drunks trying to get into my pants or wanting
me to sing some horrible crying in your beer song. Why?"
"I don't know," Slim said uncertainly. "Just a feeling. I had some bad experiences in the old days.
There's always an endless supply of psychos and loonies and horny little girls that wanna go home
with the guitar player. I used to take advantage of that, before I learned better. I'd take two or three
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home with me at a time. Fuck one and watch the other two love on each other, and then fuck
them, too. Hey, I was young and stupid. It was fun and it make me feel good and they'd do anything
just for the chance to get their hands on someone that stood up there in the lights playing. That can
fuck your head up pretty good. It did mine, anyway, for a long while.
"But along with those you get the loonies. The boyfriends and fathers who wanted to kill you, or
at least beat hell out of you because you dared to give their little girl what she wanted. And the people
who didn't like rock and roll or blues or whatever you were playing. Now and then, though, you'd get
an honest to goodness crazy, a guy with a gun or a knife or a bomb, who didn't think there was
anything finer he could possibly do with his life than snuff some hardworking 'star.' No good reason,
no logic, no sense to it. Just headlines. That worries me here. It worries me that Pickens might have
loaded the crowd with crazies." Who might try to get rid of Slim by messing up those he loved. He
wished he could abolish that concern, but he couldn't, quite.
"I don't think so," Nadine said. "That's not his way. Crazies are too independent. T-Bone wants
his people to follow his orders and be good little slaves. Besides, he wants to humiliate us, break us,
take the music away. I don't think it would satisfy him for some crazy to just kill us. He wants to win,
to get control. And we're one of the things he wants to get control of. Then when he has us down, he
wants to gloat. He's a nasty man."
They walked up the steps to the stage. "I hate him," Slim said. "I really do."
"Why?"
"Because he wants you," Slim replied, blushing a little with the ardency of this feelings. "Ever
since we went to his office and he made it clear he wanted you. I've hated him since that moment. I
think you were what he wanted when he kidnapped you. I don' think he wanted to kill anyone the way
Progress says. I think he just didn't plan it very well, or he underestimated us. But whatever it is, I
think he wanted you." And that was nudging closer to the truth. T-Bone might want to have Nadine,
and make Slim watch. Then give him a chance to vacate this world.
"Maybe," Nadine said. She pointed to a crowd of men gathered around the sound board. "There's
Daddy," she said.
Progress turned as they approached. The side of his face was still bruised, but the gold-toothed
smile was back, and shining more broadly than ever. "Howdy, chillen," he said. He turned back to the
men at the board, muttered a few instructions and turned back to Slim and Nadine.
"You okay, Daddy?" Nadine asked.
"Sure I is," Progress replied. "A little worse for wear, but nothin' permanent. I been worse and
hurt more. How about you kids?"
"Shaky," Slim answered. "But so far, so good."
"I talked to Eli," Progress said. "I know what he told you. You okay with that? You livin' with
it?"
"Okay?" Slim shrugged. "Nah. Not really. I don't see that there's much choice, though, so I guess
I just get through it the best I can."
"Good for you," Progress said, slapping Slim on the back hard enough to nearly knock him over.
"How about you, Nadine?"
"I'm fine, Daddy. Just a little worried about Slim."
"Yep, I can see that. Anyhow, why don't we go have us a little bite and get set up. You're gonna
need some playin' time, Slim. I knows that amp you done got. It's fine, fine equipment, but you're
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gonna have to cozen it a bit. The man who built it, Dusty Hills was his name, he sorta
enchantivated it. He was lookin' for a way to amplify the power, you see. But the thing has its likes [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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