PIGGS - A Novel with Bonus Screenplay by Neal Barrett Jr Page A

he's calling on the phone."
    "What the fuck I tell you, Grape?   I say the kid, he's calling on the phone.   He's all upset, he's whining, you know, he's whining like a kid."
    "Fucking little kid."
    "That's what I'm saying.   Fucking little kid.   He's telling me the cops got Kenny Hutt.   Kenny's in serious shit, they got him in Liberty County, they got him in the lockup there, they're finding some stiffs in his trunk, the guy's are in a fucking rental car.   This is all my fault, the kid's saying, I gotta do something, I got to get him out."
    "Hutt Kenny, that's who we're talking 'bout here."
    "What did I say?"
    "Nothing, it's Hutt Kenny is all, it's not Kenny Hutt."
    "I give a fuck? I give a fuck, some asshole from Maine or Vermont, he's got a Kenny and a Hutt?"
    "This has got to do with Cat.   I'm thinking it's got to do with Cat."
    "It's got to do with Cat.   Why am I telling you this, you know what it's all about?   I'm putting this kid on hold, I'm looking for Cat, Cat's jackin' off somewhere.   I'm saying, 'Cat, who's the other dude in the trunk, what the fuck's he doing in there?'   'Guy was pissin' onna wall,' Cat says, 'he shouldn't oughta do that.'"
    "I hear him say that, I think I'm going to piss on myself.   I'm trying not to laugh, I don't like to laugh, anything's got to do with Cat."
    "You want to laugh, Grape, go ahead and laugh.   Cat breaks your legs, I'm going to stand and watch."
    "I told you, I'm not going to laugh.   Not if it's got to do with Cat."
    "I wouldn't, I was you."
    "So you get back on the phone, you're talking to the kid."
    "I get back on the phone, I'm telling the kid I don't know what he's talking about, I got nothing to do with what his guy's got in his trunk, and you shouldn't be telling me shit like this you're talking onna phone.   I'm hanging up, he's calling back."
    "I heard him calling back."
    "He's saying, the phone's okay, I don't got to worry 'bout that.   I'm saying, I'm glad to hear this, I'm worried anyway, I'm talking to a klutz like him.   I tell him, fuck Kenny Hutt, fuck a guy wears a collar don't match his shirt.   I'm saying, you want to sell your product, send me up a guy don't got any tassels on his shoes. Send me a guy, he's got a little respect."
    "Hutt Kenny, that fuck, he don't know about respect."
    "That's what I'm saying, that's what I'm telling fucking Ambrose Junior, Junior says wait a minute, I know he's talking to somebody else."
    "He don't know what he's doing, he's talking to somebody else."
    "That's what he's doing, it's not his old man, his old man's got troubles with his dick.   He's coming back, then, he's saying, 'I'm sending a guy.   He'll look okay, he won't be dressing like Hutt.   But we still got to do a partial, Mr. Dupree, and don't take offense at that.'
    "I tell him fuck the partial, you little prick.   You want all the pay, you bring all the shit.   Keep it, you don't want to do that."
    "You're hanging up on the kid."
    "I'm hanging up, the kid isn't calling back."
    "He'll send a guy, he's not backing out."
    "Fucking guy's in his car right now, Grape, you can bet on that.   Junior's a prick, but he's his old man's kid.   He ain't about to back up."
    "Fucking guy's on his way.   The kid wants the deal, he isn't backing out."
    "What did I say?   What did I fucking say just now?   Get me somethin' to eat, I don't want nothing Chink, get me something else.   And get that fucker Jack.   You find him, I don't care where the fuck he is, I want him here, I want him now, you get that little shit back to Piggs..."

Chapter Seventeen
     
    "E ver'body they lookin' for you, mahn.   Grape he coming here talking to me.   Where the fock   Jhack is?   I am saying, how the fock I know, Grape he hitting me beside the head, you see?   I getting hitted for you, Jhack.   Don' be coming here, dey hitting me some more, I don' liking dat."
    Jack didn't listen.   He sat on the floor, hunched in the corner, scrooched in the corner in