Roadside Bodhisattva by Paul Di Filippo Page A

the Li’l General store? I’ll be right out.
    “Lady with a flat,” Angie said after he hung up. “You guys wanna come?”
    “Sure,” said Sid.
    “All right,” I said.
    Angie flipped a cardboard sign in the office window to closed, but didn’t bother to lock up. We piled into the front seat of the Deer Park Filling Station tow truck, with me in the middle. Angie and Sid both smelled sweaty, but not gross. I figured I probably smelled worse than either of them. I’d have to try to take a shower before I hung out with Sue tonight. That is, if she even showed up.
    We had to wait for a break in the traffic to cut across all four lanes, but then we drove fast.
    While we drove, Angie and Sid talked about chess. Angie had learned to play at a Boy’s Club when he was a kid. Sid had learned in New York City, from people who played in some park somewhere. It was hard to imagine Angie as a kid. Sid in New York I could picture better, even though I had never been near that city myself.
    The woman was standing outside and behind her car in the breakdown lane. I had been kinda fantasizing about some real glamorous young babe in distress, maybe because of that calendar picture. But instead she turned out to be short and stocky and maybe thirty-five years old, wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants. But her face was kinda pretty, and she smiled real big when we pulled up.
    Between the two of them, Sid and Angie made short work of changing the tire. The spare was a doughnut, not good for much, and the woman agreed to follow us back to get the real tire patched up.
    Back at the station, I helped too. Angie showed me how to find the hole and plug it. That was cool. Pretty soon, we had the woman back on the road. She gave us a five-dollar tip to split between us. I told Angie to keep my share.
    “No way, boy. You earned it.”
    I stuck the dollar and change in my pocket. With what I made yesterday and today from Yasmine, I had over ten bucks. There was nothing to spend it on here at Deer Park, so I thought I’d keep saving whatever I earned, as a stake for once I hit the road again.
    “Well, Kid, guess we should get back to our scraping, at least for another hour or so.”
    Angie said, “Another game tomorrow?”
    “Sure, Ange. I gotta reclaim my goddamn honor somehow.”
    Sid and I headed back to the cabins. I wanted to ask if Sid had lost the game to Angie on purpose, but in the end I kept that question to myself.
    We went back to work until around five o’clock. Then Sid said, “Hellfire, that’s a long enough day for me. Ann’s paying us, but she’s not paying us time-and-a-half. Let’s call it a day, Kid.”
    “Fine by me.”
    We cleaned up our stuff. Sid said, “Race you for a shower.”
    “You’re on!”
    He beat me to the outer door to Ann and Sue’s rooms by about five seconds.
    While I waited outside for Sid to finish his shower, Sue strolled by. She looked more bored than tired.
    “Hey.”
    “Hey.”
    “Still think you wanna listen to some music with me?”
    “Okay. But just till nine or so.”
    “That’s cool I’ll meet you at the trailer. Bring some sweet stuff.”
    Sue grinned wickedly. “Oh, I always bring that.”
    I got flustered. “Well, all right then.”
    Sid came out. He had on clean clothes. “You the angel that washed these?”
    “That’s me,” Sue said.
    Sid took Sue’s hand, bowed down and kissed it. “You got a big heart, young lady.”
    Sue seemed to eat up this cornball shit, and I got a little angry. She smiled and said, “Oh, it was easy”
    “I’m gonna keep your aunt company. You guys have a ball.”
    “We’ll try,” Sue said.
    Sid went into the rental office, while I went to take my shower. My clothes from the road, all washed and folded, were waiting inside for me. When I came out, Sue was nowhere to be seen, so I headed back to the trailer.
    She was inside, sitting on my bed, already spinning the wheel on my iPod, which she had lifted from my pack. That burned me a