[title subtitle=”fiction Cathy Pattermann”]2nd Place Winner[/title]
When Billy Brand moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas, he made sure that everyone saw his scar. He cruised Central Mall, opened an account at First National Bank, bought a pair of sturdy boots at Tip Top Western Wear and attended services every Sunday at First Baptist Church. People stared, slack-jawed or quickly looked away.
Billy favored camouflage or olive drab clothing and his head shaved clean. The offending scar spanned the entire left side of his head and had the texture of a deflated balloon. He towered over most folks and was thin and wiry. His pale green eyes were deep in the sockets and close set. His forehead was a network of hard wrinkles, a history of worry. He never spoke but used gestures to communicate. It had been twenty years since Vietnam and everyone assumed that he had been injured in the war.
The police took him into custody soon after his arrival. Down at the riverfront, naked but for burgundy nylon bikini shorts, he was driving balls up onto the Garrison Avenue bridge with a three-wood. Before the police intervened, four windows and a windshield had been shattered.
After his release, Billy continued to practice his golf game at various locations throughout the city. By the time that six months had passed, nearly everyone in town knew about Billy and agreed that he was mentally impaired.
When Billy started shopping at the Y-Mart, the cashiers began taking lots of bathroom breaks. The first day that they saw him come in, Mrs. Crenshaw was in Aisle 3 stocking up on pork and beans and not minding her four-year-old boy. Henry was racing up and down the aisles when he turned a corner, ran smack into Billy’s legs and toppled over. Billy grabbed Henry under his armpits and set him upright. When Henry got a look at the side of Billy’s head that was missing, he let out a scream that was so high-pitched that everyone covered their ears. Mrs. Crenshaw bolted down the aisles until she found Henry with Billy. She grabbed him by the back of his shirt and propelled him out of the store.
Billy followed and paused at the checkouts. He chose Euphie Carter’s register and put a Macintosh apple on the scale. Euphie was on the down-side to retirement and wanted to live to see it. She wouldn’t look Billy in the eye as she rang up the sale.. Billy gave her a $1.00 food stamp coupon for a $0.12 purchase and Euphie counted out his change. Her hands were shaking and she dropped a dime and a penny so she had to bend down to pick them up. Billy frowned and gave her a hard stare as he was leaving.
The next time that Billy was in Y-Mart, he appeared to be pregnant. He was walking tilted backward, calling attention to the lump in his jacket. Jessie Chance, the youngest cashier, saw him making a spectacle. She went to the office at the back of the store to report him.
“I’m not going to stop him! Are you?” squealed Mrs. Tate, the office manager. Turns out that Mr. Wilson, the store’s owner, didn’t want to stop him either. That was the day that Y-Mart started its generous giveaway program for the impaired.
Billy came in the store every Monday and Wednesday. A few cashiers caught on and asked to be scheduled on alternate days. Just when they thought they were in the clear, Billy changed his visits to Tuesdays and Thursdays. Euphie was always his cashier of choice. Dismayed by his attention, she told everyone that she was contemplating early retirement.
One day, as Jessie was returning from her break, she saw Billy in the produce department peeling a banana, then slowly eating it. He looked around to see if anyone was watching and caught Jessie’s gaze. Somewhere inside her, a wave of anger arose. Jessie looked Billy straight in the eye and said “You’re going to pay for that banana, aren’t you?” Billy just stared, expressionless.
Jessie shook her head as she returned to her register and began to clean off the counter. She heard a sharp intake of breath at the next register and looked up to see Euphie staring at her with her mouth in a big ‘O’. Billy was approaching Jessie’s register with a single banana.
Her heart was pounding as he slid the banana onto the scale. Jessie weighed it and then said, “I’m going to weigh this twice because you ate the other one.” He was silent as he handed her a $1.00 food stamp coupon for an 18-cent purchase and pocketed the change. Jessie couldn’t resist looking at him when she handed him his sack. His mouth was pulled down in a frown, but his eyes, crinkled at the corners, were dancing. Jessie pressed her lips together hard to suppress a smile. Her eyes danced back.
From then on, they were exclusive. Euphie was thrilled at the rejection and took early retirement off her calendar. Billy made his visits twice a week and as far as Jessie knew, he withdrew from the Y-Mart giveaway for the disabled.
The last time that Jessie saw Billy, he had on a brand new pair of white athletic shoes, the expensive ones with a swish. Jessie looked at his feet and said, “Wow, that’s a nice pair of shoes!”
Billy grinned and said excitedly, “Thanks! I got a great deal on them from the guy down on the corner! He sold me two pairs for $59.00 each!. I’m going to Florida for the winter so I needed new shoes.”
“Florida? How are you going to get there?” Jessie asked.
“Hitchhike.”
“Isn’t hitchhiking risky?”
“Nah, you get to meet a lot of interesting people.”
“Well, have fun and see you in the spring!” Jessie laughed, as Billy walked out the door.
Everyone was staring at her, wide-eyed.
“He can talk,” Euphie whispered.
Jessie blinked repeatedly and her heart raced. So many unspoken words has passed between them that she hadn’t realized that Billy was talking out loud.
It was the end of April before Jessie realized that Billy wasn’t coming back. She found herself watching the door every day, anticipating that he might return. She worried that he might be ill or that he had had an accident. In the end, she knew the truth: he could never come back.
They have nice bananas at Winn-Dixie.
