slim was pretty good at sensing perfectly still animals and humans, even in the deepest darkness, but he was right in front of the coke machine, getting ready to put his nickel in, before he noticed the form in the shadows.
i am getting careless, he thought.
“hello,” the form said in a woman’s voice.
slim put his nickel in the machine. there were three buttons for cokes, one for dr pepper. and one for moxie. cursing himself for being so oblivious to the woman’s presence, he pressed one of the buttons for a coke.
the bottle of coke clanged down to the drawer in the bottom of the machine. slim picked it up. he had to admit it was nice and cold.
“this coke is nice and cold,” slim told the woman.
“i am sure.”
“got to be a pretty good machine, to keep a coke that cold.”
“yes, my husband is very proud of it.”
so this was the wife the clerk had run on about. she was not as young as all that, slim thought. the clerk had made her sound like she was a bobbysoxer. in fact she looked like she had been taken for a spin around the block a few times, down by the old mill stream.
“he should be proud,” slim answered the woman. “very proud. it’s not every day you find a coke this nice and cold, especially out in the middle of nowhere like this.”
“so are you an expert on coke machines? what do you do, drive around the countryside, looking for the perfect coke machine? are you writing a book about them?”
what a lip, slim thought. slim did not like lippy people, especially lippy women. but he just smiled and said, “no, i’m just a guy who appreciates a nice cold drink.”
the woman laughed. “i get it. well, this is all well snd good, my friend, but why don’t we stop with the frick and frack and the old soft shoe?”
“excuse me?” slim said.
“you are here to see the general, aren’t you?”
slim felt his blood run as cold as the coke in his hand. “general? i don’t know any general.”
“really? but i bet you know which way the wind blows, when it blows right right in your face.”
what can she know? slim thought. she can suspect something, but she can’t know for sure. he was sure he had never seen her before. “you are making some kind of mistake,” he told her. “you must have me mixed up with somebody else.”
“have it your way.” and she was gone, into the shadows, as quickly as she had come.
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