When Paul broke through the door and stood before them in a sopping mess, everyone stared at him in silence. He had a paper sack clutched to his chest.
“Some storm,” he said.
“Where in the hell you been?” Arlen said.
“Went up to the store, if it’s any of your business. Which it isn’t.”
“That store’s every bit of five miles away.”
“Felt about like that,” Paul said, flip and indifferent. “Once it commenced to storming, Mr. Barrett said he’d give me a ride back or I’d be waiting till morning. He thinks this one isn’t blowing off quick.”
“Come on over here and get dried off,” Rebecca said, rising and pulling a towel off the bar. “Maybe we should start a fire. It’s warm, but on a night like this it just might be—”
Paul had been crossing to her, and everyone stopped short when Arlen reached out and grabbed the paper sack from his hands.
“Hey!” Paul cried, and reached for it, but Arlen turned his shoulder and blocked the grab long enough to open the sack and see the contents. There were some penny candies and a few packs of cigarettes.
“Give me that,” Paul said, and this time Arlen let him take it. “What’s the matter with you? Got to steal everything from me, is that it?”
“I haven’t stolen a thing from you in the past,” Arlen said. “Never took a damn thing that was yours.”
Paul gave him cold eyes and didn’t answer.
“You don’t smoke cigarettes,” Arlen said.
“What?”
“You got cigarettes in that sack, smart guy. Why?”
“Because I wanted a few, that’s why.”
“I’ll say it again,” Arlen said, “you don’t smoke.”
Paul drew his shoulders back and looked Arlen in the eye. “They’re for Owen. I figured he’d appreciate them. You probably would have, too, but I’m not of a mind to give you anything.”
“Hey, thanks,” Owen said, and Arlen wanted to backhand the fool right through the window.
“So all you got is candy,” Arlen said. “You walked five miles up the road to fetch yourself some candy?”
“That’s right.”
“Arlen, what does it matter?” Rebecca asked softly, passing Paul the towel. He took to drying his face and neck, and Arlen looked at Rebecca in silence. He didn’t have an answer, really. All he knew was that he didn’t like this. It didn’t feel right, Paul taking a walk that long in this kind of heat just to get some damn candy.
“You happen across Solomon Wade in your travels?” he said.
“No. Didn’t happen across a soul but Mr. Barrett and his wife. What it matters to you, I have no idea. It’s none of your concern what I do.”
“How’d you pay for it?”
Paul stopped with the towel over one side of his face. “What?”
“This shit you went hiking for. Cigarettes and candy. How’d you pay for it? I was under the impression you were busted-ass broke.”
Paul switched the towel to the other side of his face and dried it slowly. He seemed to be thinking.
“Mr. Barrett let me have it on credit,” he said.
“Credit,” Arlen echoed. “Son, this is a Depression. That man don’t know you from Adam. Why in the hell’s he giving you anything on credit?”
“I told him I’d be coming into some money shortly,” Paul said. “Owen here set me up with a bit of work.”
“Let me fix us something to eat,” Rebecca said, nervous, bothered by the tension in the air. “We’ll all sit in here where it’s dry and have some food.”
Arlen and Paul held a long stare, and then Paul turned away and tossed the cigarettes to Owen.
“There.”
“Thanks.”
“Sure. We still got our job tomorrow night?”
Owen looked at Arlen, uneasy, but nodded. “Yeah. We got our job.”
“Good,” Paul said. “I could use the money. No offense to you, Owen, but I’ve had my fill of this place.”
Arlen went to the bar and poured a drink but didn’t take a sip of it. He was watching Paul and remembering him the way he’d looked that day when he corrected Arlen’s mistake on the pitch of the roof at Flagg Mountain, the good-natured, deep-rooted interest he took in every joint and every hinge. The way he’d taken that generator apart and scattered its pieces over the porch and set to work putting it back together again without a doubt in his head, sure it could be done. He remembered those times, and the night they’d taken the boat out, and he looked at this thin young man with the permanent scowl who stood before him now and thought, I did this. I was only trying to help, but I did this.