Ben did not hesitate, for he felt the request and the offer a test. He put the SMG on safety and slung it, then handed the man his pillows. "You"re familiar with the Thompson?"
"Oh, yes. Carried one in Vietnam. Green Beret. You?"
"h.e.l.l Hound."
"Ah! The real bad boys. Colonel Dean"s bunch. You fellows were head-hunters."
"We took a few ears."
They walked shoulder to shoulder down the walkway. Cecil"s friends coming up in the rear. Ben resisted a very strong impulse to look behind him.
Cecil smiled. "Go ahead and look around if it will make you feel better."
"You a mind reader?" Ben laughed.
"No, just knowledgeable of whites, that"s all."
"As you see us," Ben countered.
"Good point. We"ll have a fine time debating, I see that."
They came to Ben"s room.
"We"ll see you in the dining room, Ben Raines. I have to warn you though..."
Ben tensed; he was boxed in, no way to make a move.
"...The water is ice cold. Bathe very quickly."
Ben didn"t trust black people. He didn"t know why he didn"t trust them. He just didn"t. He despised the KKK, the n.a.z.i Party ... groups of that ilk. And he asked himself, as he bathed-very quickly-have you ever tried to know or like a black person?
No, he concluded.
Well, you"re about to do just that.
As he walked to the dining area, the smell of death hung in the damp air. But it was an odor that Ben scarcely noticed anymore.
The dining area was candlelit. Cecil smiled as Ben entered and offered him a martini.
"Great," Ben said. A martini-drinking black? He thought most blacks drank Ripple or Thunderbird.
Come on, Raines! he chastised himself. You"re thinking like an ignorant bigot.
He sat down at the table. Moment of truth. He smiled a secret smile.
"Something funny, Mr. Raines?" he was asked.
"Sad more than anything else, I suppose."
"Ever sat down to dinner with blacks?" a woman asked. Her tone was neither friendly nor hostile ... just curious.
h.e.l.l, Ben thought-they are as curious about me as I am about them. "Only in the service," he replied.
"Well, I can promise you we won"t have ham hocks or grits," she said with a grin.
"Tell the truth,"-Ben looked at her-"I like them both."
A few laughed; the rest smiled. An uncomfortable silence followed. The silence was punctuated by shifting of feet, clearing of throats, much looking at the table, the walls. It seemed that no one had anything to say, or, as was probably the case, how to say it.
They talked over dinner, the conversation becoming easier on both sides. Ben began putting names to faces; his attention kept shifting to the woman called Salina. He still wasn"t certain what nationality she was. Just that she was beautiful.
He liked her immediately.
He hated the black called Kasim just as quickly, and felt the vibes of hate blast toward him from Kasim.
Kasim confirmed the mutual dislike when he said, "How come you didn"t stay in the city with your brother and his buddies and help kill all the n.i.g.g.e.rs?" His eyes were dancing with hate.
Salina shook her head in disgust. Cecil"s wife, Lila, sighed and looked at her husband. Cecil summed up the feelings of all present by saying, "Kasim, you"re a jerk!"
"And he"s white!" Kasim spat his hate at Ben.
"Does that automatically make me bad?" Ben asked.
"As far as I"m concerned, yes," Kasim replied. "And I don"t trust you."
"And maybe," Salina said quietly "he is just a man who sat down to have a quiet dinner. He hasn"t bothered a soul-brother." She smiled at her humor.
Kasim didn"t share her humor. "I see," he said, his words tinged with hate. "Zebra got herself a yearning for some white c.o.c.k?"
Salina slapped him hard, hitting him in the mouth with the back of her hand, b.l.o.o.d.ying his lips.
Kasim drew back to hit her and found himself looking down the barrel of a .44 magnum. Cecil jacked back the hammer and calmly said, "I would hate to ruin this fine dinner, Kasim, since raw brains have never been a favorite of mine. But if you hit her, I"ll blow your f.u.c.king head off!"
Kasim could not believe it. "Cecil ... you"d kill me for him?"
Cecil nodded.
"You know what those white b.a.s.t.a.r.ds did to my sister."
"Ben Raines wasn"t one of them."
"He"s still white!"
Ben rose to leave. "I"d better leave."
Cecil surprised him by agreeing. "I"m sorry, Ben. I was looking forward to some intelligent conversation later on."
Ben spoke to Cecil. "Perhaps we"ll meet again?"
Kasim summed it all up. "You put your white a.s.s in New Africa, motherf.u.c.ker, it"ll be buried there."
"I will make every effort to avoid New Africa," Ben said. "Wherever that might be."
"Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana," Kasim said. "A black nation."
Ben smiled. "My home is in Louisiana, Kasim, or whatever your G.o.dd.a.m.ned name is. And I"ll give you a bit of advice. I"m going to my room and get some sleep. I"ll put out just after dawn tomorrow. I will start no trouble in this motel. But if I ever see you again-I"ll kill you."
Kasim sneered at him. "Words. Big words. How about trying it now? Just you and me?"
Ben smiled. "Drag your a.s.s out of that chair, hotshot."
"Cool it, Kasim," Cecil warned. "You"re outcla.s.sed with Ben. Let it lie."
Ben spoke to Mrs. Jefferys. "It was a delicious meal. I thank you."
She smiled and nodded.
Ben"s eyes touched Salina"s. She smiled at him.
He walked out into the rainy night, leaving, he hoped, the hate behind him.
He was loading his gear into the truck at dawn, tying down the tarp when he heard footsteps. He turned, right hand on the b.u.t.t of the .45 belted at his waist.
Salina.
"We all feel very badly about last night, Mr. Raines. All except Willie Washington, that is."
"Who?"
She smiled in the misty dawn. A beautiful woman. "Kasim. We grew up on the same block in Chicago.
He"ll always be Willie to me."
In the dim light he could see her skin was fawn-colored. "Does he really hate whites as much as it seems? All whites?"
"Does the KKK hate blacks?"
"They say they don"t."
"Right. And pigs fly." They shared a quiet laugh in the damp dawn. "Kasim"s sister was ... used pretty badly when he was young. Raped, b.u.g.g.e.red. He was beaten and forced to watch. The men were never caught. You know the story. It happens on both sides of the color line. He"s about half nuts, Ben."
"I gathered that."
"There are a lot of differences between the races, Ben. Cultural differences, emotional differences. The bridge is wide."
"I do not agree with what my brother and his friends are doing, Salina. I want you to know that."
"I knew that last night, Ben. I think ... we need more men like you and Cecil; less of Jeb Fargo and your brother."
"Who in the h.e.l.l is Jeb Fargo?"
"His name is really George, but he likes to be called Jeb. He came up to Chicago about five years ago-from Georgia, I think. Head of the n.a.z.i Party."
"I met him-didn"t like him. I hope his mentality doesn"t take root."
"It will," she predicted flatly. "What are your plans, Ben?"
He told her, standing in the cool mist of the morning. He told her of his plans, his schedule. He told her of his home in Morrison, and how he had literally slept through the horror after being stung by dozen of wasps, knocking him out.
"Probably saved your life," she said. "The venom, the Benadryl."
"What are your plans, Salina?"
"I go with Cecil and Lila."
"Kasim called you a zebra. What does that mean?"
"...You"re not telling me everything, Cec," Ben"s voice brought him back to the present. "Come on, what are you holding back?"
Cecil grinned at him, the grin quickly fading. "Over in Kentucky, day before yesterday. A woman died because the hospital refused to admit her. She didn"t have the money. I"m not going to tolerate that, Ben."
"Nor I, Cec. The plans we talked of, you"re in agreement with them?"
"A percentage of a person"s income going into a health fund. Of course the rich are going to scream because they"ll be paying more."
"They can afford it."
"Luxury tax on jewelry, smokes, booze, expensive items. The HHS runs it. Those are the high points; yes, I"m in agreement-but Congress isn"t."
"They are now."
Cecil lifted an eyebrow.
"Since I told them to be in favor of it. Representative Jean Purcell is the author of the bill. It will pa.s.s."
"The liberals will love you for it."
"For a week. Next week it"ll be the conservatives who love me."
"Yours is going to be a very interesting term of office, Ben."
"So I"ve been told," Ben said dryly.